In a landmark decision in August 2008, the Washington Pollution Control Hearings Board issued a ruling requiring that cities and counties around Puget Sound take significantly more aggressive steps to reduce rainwater/ stormwater runoff. The Board concluded that greater use of 'low impact development' techniques is required.
At the second in the Cowichan Valley Learning Lunch Seminars in June 2008, Green Infrastructure Guide author Susan Rutherford provided local government participants with a primer on the legal and policy strategies that municipalities can use to encourage or require more sustainable infrastructure designs.
“Local governments already have access to a variety of options that can make their communities more environmentally sustainable, and this legislation supports this further by ensuring local governments have the tools and guidelines necessary to create more compact neighbourhoods, with a stronger focus on energy conservation, greenhouse gas reduction, and affordability,” stated Ida Chong.
In June 2008, the Province of British Columbia enacted legislation (Bill 27) that will help municipalities and regional districts create more compact, sustainable and greener communities.
At the Beyond the Guidebook Seminar in November 2007, a key message from Fisheries & Oceans Canada was that RAINwater management is about protecting stream health, not just how much runoff volume can be infiltrated.
Local governments in British Columbia have extensive and very specific tools available to them to implement rainwater management solutions. They also have the discretion to use them or not.
The “Green Infrastructure Guide: Issues, Implementation Strategies and Success Stories” provides guidance on how local governments may, using legal and policy strategies, encourage or require more sustainable infrastructure designs.
At a GVRD Sustainability Community Breakfast, Susan Rutherford provided an overview of a guide that West Coast Environmental Law is developing. “The guide focus is on case studies / examples that demonstrate how local governments have addressed liability/risk concerns, and are moving forward with monitoring and adaptive management consistent with the approach/methodology laid out in Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia”, stated Susan Rutherford.
