密歇根新闻广播 在五大湖地区建设更多绿色基础设施

Green infrastructure¹ is the focus of a conference at Detroit’s Cobo Center this week.

The people behind it say it’s time to start thinking differently about how we handle storm water throughout the Great Lakes; but make sure we do it right.

You can think about green infrastructure as a different kind of plumbing² for storm water.

Jon Allan directs the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes.

“It’s not just pipes-and-pumps-plumbing,” he says. “It’s using natural flow, it’s using storage, it’s getting infiltration³, getting water into ground, and into the groundwater system.”

Allan says that for generations, we’ve built that infrastructure around one basic idea: capturing storm water in big pipes, and shooting it out of the sewage system as fast as we can.

But that can cause big problems, such as sewage overflows⁴ that pollute rivers and lakes, among other things.

There are already a number of green infrastructure projects throughout the Great Lakes.

But this week’s conference is about the bigger picture. In the organizers’ own words, it’s about “integrated storm water management from Duluth to Quebec.”

But Andy Reese sounds a note of caution⁵ on that. Reese is Vice⁶ President of AMEC Environment and Infrastructure, a consulting firm.

“Success is not every property in ‘x-y-z’ city building green infrastructure by next week. Success is we’re turning the Queen Mary, and she’s not going to crash into the dock," he says.

Reese says that means starting with demonstration⁷ projects that work. It means getting state and local governments to make the right rules for green infrastructure. And it especially means getting some big business partners on board.

“And we’ll find that the environment that we create with green infrastructure will be loved by everyone, and they’ll never want to go back,” he says.

Office of the Great Lakes Director Jon Allan says this conference is a way to start sharing ideas, and talking about what works.

He says one of biggest barriers is that we just tend to stick with what we know, even if what we know is more expensive and less efficient than it could be.

“We’ve known how to manage storm water in traditional ways for a long time. Green infrastructure will have sort of come into its own when it’s just another tool in the toolbox," says Allan.

In other words, Allan says we’ll know green infrastructure has truly made it when we don’t need to have conferences about it anymore.

1 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

2 plumbing   

n.水管装置；水暖工的工作；管道工程v.用铅锤测量（plumb的现在分词）；探究

参考例句：

• She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche. 她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。
• They're going to have to put in new plumbing. 他们将需要安装新的水管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 infiltration   

n.渗透；下渗；渗滤；入渗

参考例句：

• The police tried to prevent infiltration by drug traffickers. 警方尽力阻止毒品走私分子的潜入。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A loss in volume will occur if infiltration takes place. 如果发生了渗润作用，水量就会减少。 来自辞典例句

4 overflows   

v.溢出，淹没( overflow的第三人称单数 )；充满；挤满了人；扩展出界，过度延伸

参考例句：

• He always fills his glass till it overflows. 他总是把杯子斟得很满。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A distributary overflows its banks. 分流水溢出河岸。 来自辞典例句

5 caution   

n.小心，谨慎，警告；vt.告诫，警告

参考例句：

• You should exercise extreme caution when driving in fog.在雾中开车要极为小心。
• There is no need for such caution.不必如此小心谨慎。

6 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

7 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。