Let this be a warning

South Snohomish County lucked out this time.

A recent storm that dumped more than 10 inches of rain in some western Washington communities skipped over the south cities in Snohomish County. But record floods to the north and south of the region should serve as a warning to everyone, Adopt-A-Stream Foundation founder and director Tom Murdoch said.

“As long as county and city leaders allow development to continue without considering the affects on our watersheds, we will continue to see these massive flood events,” he added. “It’s time to require low impact building practices that will reduce runoff in our rivers and urban streams.”

The technology has been around for years — impervious pavement, rainwater collection systems, rooftop gardens and other strategies.

Murdoch said the investment upfront in these sometimes costly building practices will save money over time reducing damage to property and habitat due to floods.

Washington communities have experienced major flooding events in 2006, 2007 and now in 2009.

“These 100-year floods we talk about seem to be happening almost every year,” Adopt-A-Stream ecologist Loren Brokaw said. “It seems clear that increased development — all the concrete and similar surfaces that can’t be penetrated by water — is having major impacts on our watersheds.”

People can see the damage to buildings and roadways, but it’s the damage they don’t see to water quality that concerns Brokaw and Murdoch.

“Our local streams — Swamp Creek and North Creek — are not suitable for recreational use,” Murdoch said. “It means if you come in contact with that water, you have to wash your hands. If you drink that water, you’re very likely to get sick.”

Adopt-A-Stream is working to improve water quality and restore damaged watersheds.

With money from grants and private donations, the organization has reached out property owners along local waterways to make streams like Swamp Creek and North Creek suitable again for fish and other native wildlife. Along Swamp Creek in Lynnwood, Brokaw and folks from the Washington State Department of Ecology and Snohomish County have been at work since August in one woman’s backyard restoring some 50 feet of eroded creek bank. Once a hazardous slope of mud and rocks, the bank is now terraced and flanked at the bottom by a crib of logs and tree roots. Native shrubs will soon be planted over each terrace, creating a root system that will stabilize the slope and guard against erosion.

But these projects on their own won’t be enough, Murdoch said.

“Runoff from development upstream will continue to degrade the natural system,” he said. “Local governments have to act. We’re subsidizing poor development practices at the public’s expense.”