We are collecting answers from you on what you know about stormwater and the management of in our area. Please take ten minutes to go through this short quiz so we can get a better sense of what you know, or don’t know, so we can dial in how we can better educate the public on this critical issue. Thanks!
A 2009 nationwide Gallup Poll revealed that Americans top environmental concern was pollution of drinking water. Of those polled, 84% said that they were worried a great deal or a fair amount about pollution of drinking water. Similarly, 83% of respondents were worried about “pollution in rivers, lakes, or reservoirs.”
National surveys reveal that the public believes the biggest source of water pollution is industry. Here in the Spokane River Watershed, that just isn’t true.
When it rains, it pours. When it rains on the urban landscape it pours toxic mixture of Valvoline, Weed-be-Gone, Miracle-Gro, tire dust, Lucky Strikes, dog poop and other crud into stormdrains then into our Spokane River and its tributaries. From street to stream, the urban storm sewer system carries this nasty cocktail.
So what are we to do? Well, taking personal responsibility does help. You can pick up after your dog, quit fertilizing your lawn, and get those oil leaks fixed on your car. And by all means, don’t dump paint, motor oil, or anything else down the storm drain and quit washing your car in the street. But personal responsibility, at least this type, has its limits.
The limit is this: If everyone behaved responsibly, accidents still happens. Fluids from car crashes run into storm drains. Tires and brakes wear down. Squirrels get squished. The problem is the pipes and the landscape. Streets, roofs, and parking lots are piped directly to streams. Yes, we should behave more responsibly, but we also must break the street-to-stream connection.
Even if the water running through storm drains was boiled, distilled, filtered, and sanitized for your protection, we would still have a problem with urban stormwater. Our highly paved neighborhoods cause rainwater to rush off the land rather than to soak into the ground. Ordinary storms cause flash floods that flush our neighborhood streams, eroding stream banks, stirring up sediments that deplete dissolved oxygen. And because water does not soak into the ground, the groundwater system is running on empty. The cooling springs that feed our neighborhood streams in summer run dry.
Storm-shedding streets, dysfunctional drains and polluting pipes are a bigger problem than individual responsibility can address. This is where collective responsibility must come into play. This is a job for….GOVERNMENT! (And government responds to you!)
Design and explanation of Spokane's Lincoln LID SURGE project
In 2011 the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) will be collecting public comments about Municipal Stormwater General Permits that it will incorporate in to draft permits in the fall of 2011 and in to final permits in the summer of 2012. Though the public comment period ends in just a few weeks, the Spokane Riverkeeper is invested long term in understanding what our region understands about stormwater. That said, we still urge you to take some personal responsibility and to send your comments on pollutant purveying pipes to Ecology. Urge them to issue permits that require state water quality standards to be met by urban stormwater agencies. Urge them to make these permits enforceable. Urge them to require Low Impact Development (great PDF on LID HERE) approaches for new construction and redevelopment that reduce runoff. Urge them to fix the pipes and retrofit our streets with rain gardens, stormwater planters and pervious pavement. Urge them to send rainwater into the ground and not let it rush off our streets to the nearest stream.
And please, pick up after your dog.
Thank you for your time and your input.
