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“I read a recent article entitled Stormwater Flooding An Expensive Problem, Hot Issue. Well, it has been an ‘expensive’ and ‘hot’ issue for about a hundred years – and our leaders have mostly chosen to ignore that, ” wrote Rick Baumann in a guest newspaper column. “We are playing catchup. The result of this brilliant mindset: we end up paying far more to fix a problem further down the road when the absolute need to address it leaves no other option.”

“This study explores the genuine desire to protect and enhance urban waterways through whole of water cycle measures having wide ranging benefits to community health and climate change resilience,” wrote Rod Wiese in a conference paper titled Why Best Practice is Destroying Our Waterways. “Clearly, we need to manage volume and restore water balance pathways as Kim Stephens explained in his keynote at Stormwater 2016 about the primacy of hydrology.”

“It is great to see that the Province of British Columbia is proactively encouraging the drainage community to start using the all-encompassing Rainwater Management as an alternative to single-objective Stormwater Management,” stated Tom Liptan. “The language-shift that you have initiated in British Columbia is what we would like to see happen in Portland.”

“The genesis of this approach lies at the point where rainfall strikes an urban environment surface, where it can be captured via rooftop gardens and water tanks under a notion of retaining water as opposed to having it wash away,” says John Argue. “Water which is not captured by these practices can potentially be infiltrated into the soil or be channelled through vegetated bio retention systems or rainwater gardens.”

“The 21st-century green city is possible. Instead of relying heavily on pipes and concrete, this new approach relies upon soil, trees and open space to naturally absorb, store, evaporate and filter rainwater,” says Calvin Sandborn.

“The keynote presentation by Kim Stephens was a highlight of the day,” reports Melissa Dick, Coordinator for the Coquitlam River Watershed Roundtable. “The messages he shared about what happens on the land matters, and the steps needed to succeed at convening for action, resounded well with the Roundtable participants. His support for the Community Meeting and his contributions throughout the day were very much appreciated.”

“Think about when cathedrals were built a thousand years ago. They took 100 years, and sometimes up to 200 years, to build,” stated Kim Stephens. “So, what it meant was – when people started on those projects, they knew that they would not see the end. But they still committed to doing it. We can learn from them. In the era of the 8-second attention span, it is the opposite end of the spectrum to say that we have to think inter-generationally and be serious about it.”

Inspired by a ground-breaking campaign to install 12,000 rain gardens in the Seattle/Puget Sound region of Washington State, a multi-partner initiative is now underway in British Columbia to build support for a similar rain garden vision in the Metro Vancouver region. “On the North Shore, we can learn from the experience in the Puget Sound region and from the green infrastructure initiatives that are taking place at the municipal level,” states Dr. Joanna Ashworth.

“Basement flooding is one of the most substantial drivers of natural disaster losses in Canada,” states Dan Sandink. “Our report explores legal tools that could be used to require private property owners in existing developments to better manage excessive rainwater and protect against flood risk. We examine the legal implications of applying these tools in the Canadian municipal context.”

“When much of California is facing drought and limited water supplies, capturing and reusing every drop of water will not only be clever, but crucial. By moving water away from the people and places that need it, stormwater cannot percolate into the ground and replenish water we keep drilling deeper and deeper to reach. Californians can counteract the negative impacts of stormwater runoff by promoting water infiltration,” wrote Paula Luu.