The Rochester Museum and Science Center cut the ribbon today on an indoor/outdoor sustainability demonstration project.
Among other things, it features a new porous pavement parking lot that reduces the amount of storm water runoff by soaking it back into the ground, protecting the local watershed.
Joe Graves is vice president of operations at RMSC.
"For every one inch of rainfall, we saved 28 thousand gallons of water from going down the sewer," he said.
Chief Science Officer Dan Menelly says the project features technology designed to protect the Great Lakes Watershed.
"The chemicals that run off your cars and from roofs and buildings, we're able to now capture them in this new porous asphalt and return them to the soil, instead of overwhelming the city's sewer systems," he said.
The state provided $1.2 million dollars for the project.
Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul says this investment in the project from New York's Environmental Facilities Corporation is a statement of the state's priorities.
"What we're putting our dollars behind is a statement that we truly believe that we can do more to protect our environment," she said.
The Regional Green Infrastructure Showcase also includes a education pavilion with a green roof, and an indoor exhibit showing how porous pavement works.
Officials demonstrated the new porous pavement parking lot: