“When the Reference Panel reported back to the Waste Management Committee in July 2008, we identified the ISMP process as a sleeper issue because continuation of the old-business-as-usual would potentially result in an aggregate unfunded liability that could easily equal the $1.4 billion cost of sewage treatment,” stated Kim Stephens.
“A decade of on-the-ground experience has enabled the City of Surrey to move beyond pilot projects to a broader watershed objectives approach to on-site rainfall capture. As we move forward, the new Drainage By-Law endorsed by Council in 2008 is the tool that will enable the City to establish watershed-specific performance targets for rainwater runoff volume and rate reduction,” states Remi Dubé,
“Our community wash-off models have for 40 years been structured based on land use: residential, commercial, and industrial. The deep weakness of such models is that the structure is not directly related to the BMP programs. Let’s consider structuring our models based on scape: roadscape, parkingscape, roofscape, and landscape,” writes Gary Minton.
“The goal of the Learning Lunch Seminar Series is to inform and educate local government practitioners,” stated Kim Stephens. “The series is the first step in building a regional team approach…..so that there will be a common understanding and consistent messaging regarding on-the-ground expectations for rainwater management and green infrastructure.”
The Puget Sound Partnership has adopted an Action Agenda to clean up Puget Sound. For the first time, the Action Agenda provides critical data and a strategy for tackling these threats to the waters in and around Puget Sound. Its four cornerstones are driven by the latest available science and are results-oriented.
The truth about stormwater regulation in Puget Sound is that it is not working, writes Sue Joerger. She states that the Washington State Department of Ecology has failed to develop an effective regulatory and enforcement strategy to protect water quality and salmon when it rains.
“Once we went back to basics and developed the concept of a Rainfall Spectrum, this then led into the concept of Performance Targets for rainwater runoff capture. The reason runoff percentage is the performance target is that municipalities exert control over runoff volume through their land development and infrastructure policies, practices and actions,” explained Kim Stephens.
“In general, we believe that the plans that are being produced reflect a cookie-cutter approach. The ISMP process has for the most part resulted in drainage planning that applies traditional design criteria and then adds in environmental requirements. This Old Business As Usual approach has the result of increasing unfunded budget items/liabilities without resulting in a benefit,” reported Kim Stephens.
“The litmus test for an acceptable Watershed Target is that the resulting RAINwater management solutions make sense, are affordable and result in net environmental benefits at a watershed scale. For a performance target to be implemented and effective, it must have feedback loops,” states Ted van der Gulik.
Stormwater specialist Bill Derry has been working on Pacific Northwest stormwater issues for 25 years, and he says some serious changes need to be made, and made quickly, in the way we live. Derry came up with a list of 10 ways to fix the region’s stormwater problems. He said he hopes his list require major lifestyle changes. He said the problem is “all of us, in everything we do… There isn’t an easy answer. We can’t just designate some facility to take care of this for us.”
