Description:

Parking lots generate many different types of automotive pollutants, namely gasoline, oil, antifreeze, heavy metals, nutrients, etc. RIT’s parking lots are paved using traditional impermeable asphalt, which allows rainwater or melted snow to run off and dump pollutants directly into the creek. This pollution can have damaging effects on the water quality and ecology of the creek and surrounding environment. The Genesee River is largely polluted by urban Rochester and decades of industrial pollution, but we want to minimize the direct impact that our campus has on our community’s local ecosystem. The project addresses the problem of pollution runoff into Red Creek from K Lot. Our proposed solution is to implement a retrofitted permeable alternative to impermeable asphalt and install an ecoswale along the strip of grass adjacent to the creek.