Town of Edmonston breaks ground on Maryland’s first

The tiny town of Edmonston in Prince George's County, Maryland is soon to join the ranks of North America's environmentally elite – cities like Seattle, Portland and Vancouver, Canada in the Pacific Northwest – with the reconstruction of its Decatur Street into a new green street. This is the first of its kind in Maryland.

In December 2009, construction began on Edmonston's long-awaited Green Street Project, which will revamp Decatur Street with a slew of environmentally-friendly features. Edmonston is a community of 1400, and receives about 40 inches of rainfall each year. 

The new street will include rain gardens and bioretention ponds to capture rainwater runoff. Half of the road surface will be replaced with permeable pavement that will allow rainwater to soak into the ground. Low-energy street lamps will replace current ones. The project will cost more than $1 million.

Edmonston had been plagued with flooding for years due to poor a storm water management system. “Contrary to popular to conventional wisdom, we didn't flood from the Anacostia River; we flooded from parking lots, shopping centers, highways, roofs,” stated Mayor Adam Ortiz.

The low-lying town recently installed a pumping station, but the Green Street Project is projected to capture up to 90 percent of the rainwater runoff.  “All streets have an expiration date, and the date for Decatur Street is coming soon. So we decided to do it right,” Ortiz said.

Posted December 2009