SEATTLE — The city of Puyallup has installed dozens of neighborhood rain gardens to prevent rain from washing pollutants into nearby waterways. Mount Vernon used a type of asphalt that allows rainwater to seep into the ground when it built a new walkway. And Seattle has used roofs planted with vege
tation to reduce runoff.
Washington cities and counties have occasionally turned to eco-friendly strategies to keep rain from carrying grease, metals and other toxic pollutants into rivers, lakes and Puget Sound. But low-impact methods, such as using vegetation and cisterns to slow runoff, may soon be a requirement every time someone builds a new development or redevelops property in Western Washington.
State environmental regulators released draft rules Wednesday that spell out exactly how governments should incorporate the strategies to control polluted runoff that can harm fish and water quality.
The draft rules attempt to strike a balance between tackling stormwater pollution while recognizing that local governments are strapped for resources, Ecology Director Ted Sturdevant said Wednesday.
The state was ordered to consider greener strategies by the state Pollution Control Hearings Board after environmentalists sued. The board mandated low-impact methods for the most populous areas in Western Washington. The board also said the state needed to do more to ensure low-impact methods were used in smaller cities in the region.
Environmentalists worried Wednesday the rules aren’t tough enough to protect water quality. They raised concerns about the amount of loopholes that would allow developers to avoid using greener alternatives and over lack of provisions that would prevent a developer from paving over existing green space.
“This permit is our biggest chance to make real progress in the restoration of Puget Sound,” said Chris Wilke, executive director of Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, one of the groups that sued for tougher stormwater pollution controls. “Unfortunately, it fails to deliver on proven solutions to reduce toxic runoff.”
For the past few years, Ecology officials, environmentalists, developers and government officials have been meeting to figure out what the new rules would actually mean.
Cities and building developers have told state regulators that while natural strategies work in some cases, they should not be required in all cases. Many asked for flexibility.
“It’s a good tool and our city is trying to implement that where it’s practical and feasible for us to do within budgetary constraints,” Blaine Chesterfield, an engineering manager with the city of Mount Vernon, said last week. “Is it something that should go in everywhere? The concern is if they make you put it everywhere it might not work everywhere.”
Stormwater pollution is one of the biggest problems facing Puget Sound and other water bodies. Increased water volume and pollutants from stormwater have harmed water quality and habitats in virtually every urban stream system, according to the National Research Council.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been encouraging low-impact development, or LID, and the Puget Sound Partnership sees it as a key way to manage pollution that threatens Puget Sound. Washington is unique because it’s the first state where low-impact development, sometimes called green infrastructure, is being required.
Traditional methods typically remove water from a site as fast as possible. By contrast, low-impact development, such as reducing hard surfaces and increasing areas that can soak up rain, slows runoff and prevents large discharges that lead to erosion.
City officials say these strategies are effective at reducing runoff and can save them money. But they note it can be a challenging to implement in all situations, such as steep slopes, areas with poor drainage or areas with high groundwater, and shouldn’t be mandated.
For years, the city of Olympia has promoted low-impact development, including narrower streets and rain gardens soak polluted rainwater runoff into the ground.
“There are challenges to LID techniques in higher density urban settings. Our application is not universal, it’s site-specific,” said Andy Haub, a planning and engineering manager with the city of Olympia.
Nobody wants to see a rain garden or other strategies where it’s not possible, but there are ways to deal with challenging sites, Wilke said.
“We know that when they’re well-designed, LID strategies work,” said Joel Sisolak, outreach and advocacy director for the Cascadia Green Building Council.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
