Consequential Environmental and Economic Life Cycle Assessment of Green and Gray Stormwater Infrastructures for Combined Sewer Systems

A consequential life cycle assessment (LCA) is conducted to evaluate the trade-offs between water quality improvements and the incremental climate, resource, and economic costs of implementing green (bioretention basin, green roof, and permeable pavement) versus gray (municipal separate stormwater sewer systems, MS4) alternatives of stormwater infrastructure expansions against a baseline combined sewer system with combined sewer overflows in a typical Northeast US watershed for typical, dry, and wet years. Results show that bioretention basins can achieve water quality improvement goals (e.g., mitigating freshwater eutrophication) for the least climate and economic costs of 61 kg CO2 eq. and $98 per kg P eq. reduction, respectively. MS4 demonstrates the minimum life cycle fossil energy use of 42 kg oil eq. per kg P eq. reduction. When integrated with the expansion in stormwater infrastructure, implementation of advanced wastewater treatment processes can further reduce the impact of stormwater runoff on aquatic environment at a minimal environmental cost (77 kg CO2 eq. per kg P eq. reduction), which provides support and valuable insights for the further development of integrated management of stormwater and wastewater. The consideration of critical model parameters (i.e., precipitation intensity, land imperviousness, and infrastructure life expectancy) highlighted the importance and implications of varying local conditions and infrastructure characteristics on the costs and benefits of stormwater management. Of particular note is that the impact of MS4 on the local aquatic environment is highly dependent. on local runoff quality indicating that a combined system of green infrastructure prior to MS4 potentially provides a more cost-effective improvement to local water quality.