Before Dr. Paul Mankiewicz had visited us in class, I had never thought I’d be introduced to an organization dedicated to bringing better harmony between human communities and the natural environment. Dr. Mankiewicz is the executive director of such an organization known as the Gaia Institute. As we all already know, most of our city’s soils have been continuously tired out and contaminated proving unfit for growing. This is usually man-made destruction on our environment. However, we have been discussing a lot about how storm water can become an issue. As a New York City resident, I am no stranger to seeing our sidewalks flooded so a storm water problem is evident. Even on Brooklyn College Campus, it is a dread to walk on rainy days when the ground is covered with yard long puddles that rather seem like small swimming pools. I have realized the Gaia Institute has a very important mission.

In pursuit of this new interest, I looked up more about he projects the Gaia Institute has been working on. One of the recent projects, beginning in 2002, involved the development of a storm water capture park called El Jardín del Paraíso in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. They restored a local community garden which had high lead contamination and enhanced it by allowing it to capture stormwater. They would accomplish this with a special layering of the soil which has two very important components: lead-binding chemicals and porous soil. The chemicals include phosphorous, iron, and manganese which also help increase root growth and encourage burrowing worms and insects. This in turn allows for a porous soil layer which holds the storm water from nearby rooftops and gray water from nearby buildings which would be collected in a manner which transfers them to the soil. As a result of this design, the Gaia Institute is able to promote ecological diversity and health in the urban city of Manhattan.

Source: http://www.thegaiainstitute.org/Gaia/El%20Jardin%20del%20Paraiso.html