b'GREEN ROOF POLICYmoreconcentrated,andthoseone-in-50-year rain events once thought of as rare will become commonplace. Among the looming changes that concern policy makers is the issue of what to do with all that water.Thequestionispertinent,even urgent, for the City of Vancouver. Sewer infrastructure in many parts of the city is old, designed to service a historically smaller city with a substantially smaller built environment footprint. But rede-velopment of the sewer network hasnt keptpacewiththedecades-longflow of residential and commercial property development and redevelopment. As a consequence, rainwater captured by an expanded hardscape and diverted into the stormwater sewer system often is more than the underground infrastruc-ture can handle, especially on heavy storm days. Because many parts of that systemwww.precisionmetals.caare not isolated from sanitary sewer lines, a supercharged system on stormy daysYour Metal Specialistsmeans stormwater can be contaminated byhumanwaste.Andwhencontami-nated stormwater discharges into publicT ested and certified by waterways through stormwater outfalls,Proudly made in Canadawhich it does, everyone suffers. You can8081, 132nd St. Surrey B.C. 604.594.6001see examples of this in False Creek and near Kits Beach in English Bay. Producing premier Standard and Custom products for the construction industry since 1975Digging up existing storm sewers and replacing them with larger-diameter pipe is expensive for the city and costly for everyone else whose lives are disrupted by the work. Its also expensive to construct sub-grade storage grids, tanks or other structures designed to hold and slowly release stormwater. And no one wants to giveupvaluableundergroundparking space for cistern storage. So what is the City to do to delay the inevitable?AmongthestrategiesVancouveris consideringtointegratewithitsRain CityStrategyisgreenroofing.Roofs RoongCladdingare often underutilized surfaces. In the Roong SystemsFabricationpast,roofsservedthesinglepurpose Structural SteelMachining & Millwrighting ofshieldingthebuildingfromthe Process PipingPlumbing weather. Thats necessary, but roofs can Sheet Metal & HVACGas Fitting beandarebecomingsomuchmore: recreationspace,aplatformforsolar energygeneration,orfresh-airretreats for residents and workers, for example.245 Third St, Kitimat, BCV8C 2N8 Phone: 1-877-632-6859Greenroofing(alsocalledvegetated4419 Legion Ave, Terrace, BCV8G 1N7 Email: 101rst@101industries.comor living roofing) can easily be wovenwww.101industries.cominto any of these strategies for rooftop www.rcabc.org l23'