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Oakland EcoBlock Integrated Water Recycling & Stormwater System

Solution Overview

The Oakland EcoBlock project integrates advanced water treatment and recycling technologies across a residential neighborhood block in East Oakland to address water scarcity and stormwater management challenges.[5] This system-level redesign encompasses greywater reuse, rainwater harvesting, blackwater treatment, and stormwater bioretention infrastructure, with estimates suggesting it will cut demand for potable water by up to 70 percent.[3] The California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE) at the University of California, Berkeley, working with the City of Oakland and other partners, received $5M funding through the California Energy Commission to create this initiative.[6]

Technical Components

The implementation incorporates multiple integrated water management technologies designed by 2EI, the Veolia Group's consultant design agency, which provided expertise in rainwater collection and filtration, and blackwater recycling.[2] Laundry-to-landscape greywater reuse systems were integrated on individual household lots, recycling water from washing machines to irrigate outdoor plants.[1] The project collects rainwater and delivers it to toilets and washers while installing efficient fixtures and taps.[3] Water efficiency retrofits include laundry-to-landscape greywater systems, drought tolerant planting, water-efficient dishwasher and clothes washer replacement, and water-efficient fixture replacement covering toilets, lavatories, and faucets.[6] The approach treats and reuses wastewater from toilets as well as greywater sent down drains and released by washing machines, with the recycled fluid going toward gardening and irrigation.[3] An end-of-block bioretention facility was constructed between September and November 2024 to treat, detain, and retain stormwater before it enters the adjacent creek, consisting of a planting area, a new curb, gutter, and driveway, sidewalk replacement, and a painted curb.[4][1] Sherwood designed the bioretention facility with ports where sensors can be placed to measure pre- and post-water flow and quality.[1] The team purchased and installed a stormwater quality monitoring sensor to determine urban pollutant concentrations in the bioretention facility, with the sensor measuring pH, total dissolved solids, salinity, and other metrics at two sampling port locations to identify differences between pre- and post-treatment flows.[7] The stormwater management facility is designed to treat, detain and retain the entire block's stormwater within the existing city right of way.[1]

Implementation Details

The project is currently focused on one neighborhood block in East Oakland, intending to promote collective climate resilience and demonstrate the benefits of small-group retrofitting by transitioning existing residential and commercial properties to shared energy- and water-efficient technologies.[5] In November 2021, the EcoBlock team worked with Greywater Action to organize a laundry-to-landscape installation workshop on the block, where over the course of four hours, eleven homeowners, renters, and team members installed the system at one of the participating properties.[7] Between July and August 2021, participants unanimously chose the stormwater bioretention facility design through a vote-by-mutual-consent decision-making process that was developed by the team.[4][8] Sherwood led the process of identifying and applying for a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant that covered the costs of constructing the stormwater bioretention facility, which was completed in 2024.[1] The project received the EPA grant in December 2022 to support stormwater mitigation and street landscaping work.[4] Between September 2024 and March 2025, mulch was added to the stormwater bioretention facility and sidewalk planting strips.[4] The Veolia Foundation was one of the backers of this innovative trial from the very start.[2] So far, the EcoBlock team has established a first-of-its-kind urban community microgrid, formed a nonprofit association to co-own shared electrical equipment and installed a greywater system to recycle laundry water for irrigation, among other accomplishments.[5]

Benefits and Impacts

The system-level redesign is estimated to cut demand for potable water by up to 70 percent.[3] The EPA grant funds a monitoring program which measures the amount of water flowing into the creek and its quality, supporting stormwater flow monitoring and street planting efforts on the block.[1][8] Treated solid wastes will be incorporated into compost.[3] The bioretention facility optimizes water efficiency in the streetscape by treating, detaining and retaining the entire block's stormwater within the existing city right of way before it enters the adjacent creek.[1]

Climate Adaptation Relevance

This approach addresses climate-related water challenges through multiple pathways: reducing dependence on municipal potable water supplies during drought conditions, managing increased stormwater volumes from extreme precipitation events, and preventing urban pollutants from entering local waterways. The integrated system provides resilience against both water scarcity and flooding hazards by capturing, treating, and reusing water resources at the neighborhood scale.

Business Analysis

The project received $5M funding through the California Energy Commission, with additional support from the Veolia Foundation and a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant that covered the costs of constructing the stormwater bioretention facility.[6][2][1] The EPA grant, received in December 2022, specifically supports stormwater mitigation and street landscaping work, as well as funding a monitoring program to measure water flow and quality.[4][1] The implementation demonstrates a collaborative financing model involving state energy agencies, federal environmental programs, and private foundation support. The vote-by-mutual-consent decision-making process developed by the team enabled unanimous community approval of infrastructure designs, suggesting a replicable governance model for neighborhood-scale water resilience projects.[8] The project's focus on retrofitting existing residential and commercial properties to shared technologies provides a demonstration case for small-group collective investment in water efficiency and climate adaptation infrastructure.[5]

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