SEATTLE – Rain that flows off roads, rooftops and construction sites is a major source of pollution in Western Washington waters, but new state rules would do far too little to fix the problem, environmental groups said Wednesday as they filed a challenge to the regulations.
The environmental law firm Earthjustice filed the appeal with the Pollution Control Hearings Board in Olympia on behalf of People for Puget Sound and the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance. The state Department of Ecology finished the rules, called the “municipal stormwater permit,” last month.
“Ecology is required to do everything it can to reduce this pollution,” Earthjustice lawyer Jan Hasselman said. “But this permit maintains a failed status quo that has brought Puget Sound to the edge of disaster.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires the state to create regulations governing stormwater discharge, and in turn, the state requires city and county governments to write those restrictions into local codes as stormwater management plans.
Among other things, the Ecology Department’s new rules call for local governments to conduct public education campaigns, such as by urging people not to change their car oil in their driveways; to map their storm drain systems; to identify and eliminate non-storm-water discharges, such as sewer pipes that may be improperly connected; and to ensure that wherever new development occurs, stormwater runoff is treated.
But any construction sites smaller than an acre are exempt under the new rules, unless they are part of a larger development, such as a subdivision, of at least 5 acres. That’s one reason environmentalists are opposing the new regulations.
They also say the Ecology Department should be requiring “green” building methods, as some jurisdictions in California have. Such methods include building narrower streets with permeable concrete that allows the storm water to trickle through, leaving more vegetation on developed sites, and including rain gardens that keep the water on site.
But their primary point is one that Ecology officials concede: Even if the regulations were followed exactly, they would not be enough to keep the health of Puget Sound from declining. Researchers have determined that Puget Sound chinook salmon, harbor seals and killer whales have much higher levels of harmful chemicals, such as flame-retardant chemicals known as PBDEs, than those species do in other regions.
“These permits themselves are a necessary first step. They are not themselves the answer,” said Bill Moore, an Ecology stormwater policy analyst who lead the effort to write the new rules. “Some folks feel that we’re going too far; the environmental folks say we haven’t gone nearly far enough. But this is our best shot at trying to balance the multiple competing interests out there.”
Hasselman acknowledged that it would be impractical to require some “green” building methods across the board. It doesn’t make sense to use permeable concrete in areas where the underlying soil is so solid that water doesn’t penetrate it.
“We’re not saying let’s tear up everything we know,” he said. “But we could be doing a lot more to go in that direction.”
Building groups have criticized the regulations as too strict. The Building Industry Association of Washington is considering whether to challenge the rules. In the January issue of the group’s newsletter, the BIAW’s storm water field representative, Mark Musser, called the regulations “an ecological noose which has been slipped over the state of Washington, designed to slowly strangle the homebuilding industry.”
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