Rainwater Management

“Every generation is handed a world that has been shaped by their predecessors – and then seemingly forgets that fact. This blind spot is the reason why a baseline creeps imperceptibly over generations. We transform the world, but we don’t remember it. We adjust our baseline to the new level, and we don’t recall what was there. At the end you want to sustain miserable leftovers,” stated Daniel Pauly.

The Metro Vancouver region’s Draft Interim Liquid Waste Management Plan is the springboard to a re-set and course correction in 2025. “When we built cities, greenspace was paved and pipes handled all that drainage. Our reliance on pipes and streams is proving to be inadequate in view of new, heavy patterns of rainfall that we are beginning to see,” stated Peter Navratil.

“The timeline provides a perspective on the Partnership’s commitment to support local government champions who strive to achieve a Watershed Health Legacy. This means apply science-based understanding to develop tools and establish precedents. Learn from experience to successfully implement, through collaboration, an environmentally adaptive approach to community design,” stated Kim Stephens.

Susan Haid has played a leadership role in trailblazing an ecosystem-based approach to community planning in British Columbia. “It sounds simple, but it is heartening because this has NOT really been a key theme in the public dialogue for some time. The pandemic has reminded us of the importance of green space and access to nature,” stated Susan Haid. “It is even more important now because in the 1990s we did not have the kind of weather extremes such as atmospheric rivers and heat domes we are now regularly experiencing. There is a resurgence of ideas that is influencing policy making!”

“The Water Balance Methodology and Model were created for scenario comparison purposes. These were transformational in helping decision makers visualize HOW their municipalities could meet watershed targets and mitigate population growth and climate change, one property at a time. This built support for changes in development practices and galvanized action in the 2000s. Unfortunately, memories are short and knowledge is either forgotten, lost or ignored as the players change. And so, momentum is dissipated and backsliding sets in,” stated Kim Stephens.

“The Province has come out with their transit-oriented development legislation. What that means is redevelopment. And redevelopment means a demand on utilities. Sometimes these demands have already been anticipated and planned for. And sometimes these are new and somehow have to be accommodated. Sewage and drainage are a little trickier than other utilities. That is where we have this crunch of priorities and a concern. Yes, we need affordable housing. But affordable housing must be serviced with infrastructure that is also affordable,” stated Robert Hicks.

Younes Alila is in the news. He is courageous in challenging conventional wisdom about what he believes to be the misguided practice of forest hydrology in BC. His message boils down to RISK and LIABILITY. “Engineering solutions to flood risk mitigation deal only with symptoms. And they fail to account for cumulative effects. The outcome is unintended consequences,” he says. “Flood mitigation work in the low land must be in sync with our land use and forest cover policies in the uplands. This is our only hope of increasing our chance of managing flood risk.” His findings are relevant to urban drainage practice.

“In the 2000s, we were challenged with what the word integrated in ISMP meant. We already had modelling tools. But the difference was integrating them with policies, land use, the landscape, and a public engagement process. And so, we were all pioneers. But we lost momentum in the decade after 2010,” stated Ray Fung. “If you are talking about learnings, so what is the organizational learning? When we were trying to do stuff, we did not build in robust enough processes that would survive changes in personnel. Can we not learn to build on what people in the past have done?”

“Municipalities have limited access to science and they do not have time to do the science. So, why not use the students? Not only is it a benefit to community leaders, the students benefit because they are doing something that makes a difference. And so, connecting with Richard Boase in the 1990s was really fundamental because he is on the inside. Richard identified projects where the students could benefit directly and make a difference. To me, that was the opportunity,” stated Hans Schreier.

“Delta’s rain garden program started with a phone call from Deb Jones, a volunteer with the Cougar Creek Streamkeepers. In 2004, she approached me with a request that the municipality undertake a stormwater pilot infiltration pilot project in North Delta. We identified the opportunity to build the first rain garden at an elementary school. The project was a success and so was the ensuing program. Within the first decade, for example, Delta had constructed a total of 50-plus rain gardens. 10 of these were located at elementary schools,” stated Hugh Fraser.