Smart, Cheap Stormwater Fixes

By Lisa Stiffler Stormwater — the rainwater that streams off roofs, parking lots, roads, and yards, carrying with it toxic pollutants — poses a costly, intractable problem for governments and businesses. In Washington, efforts to control stormwater have cost its cities hundreds of millions of dollars . The problem with stormwater comes from its massive volume, which floods homes and blasts through streams, flushing salmon eggs, gravel, and everything else out to sea. And it comes from the pollutants that are picked up by the torrents of rain along the way, including copper, oil and grease, and pesticides. Stormwater presents a daunting challenge considering the Northwest’s rapid pace of development, and the fact that residential areas have three-times the rate of runoff compared to forests and fields (see page 12). Polluted stormwater kills salmon returning to urban streams to spawn before they can lay their eggs. It forces the closure of acres of shellfish beds made unsafe for human consumption. The rush of water causes erosion and fills basements with muddy water. The good news is we already know some of the best, cheapest solutions for controlling runoff. The bad news is the solutions aren’t being widely used.