As a consultant, I’ve occasionally found myself in some hand-wringing scenarios to manage stormwater. When it comes to designing stormwater management for a long road that will lead to a new set half-acre home lots, there’s almost always a location for a BMP. But a condo redevelopment project that plans to house 3 times as many people in a highly urbanized area can’t find the space or resizing capacity to treat the additional runoff it will create. But ask yourself, which of these projects is the real detriment to the environment here?
Regulators are beginning to come up with new paradigms to recognize that urban development and redevelopment provides additional value to an ecosystem that may not be traditionally captured in our metrics. Virginia’s recent runoff reduction method, for example, allows redevelopment activites to meet a 10 or 20% reduction of Phosphorous loads (size dependent) as opposed to traditional quantity reductions.
Similarly, the EPA announced this week that new national stormwater regulations will seek to encourage urban redevelopment.
The new rules would be employed to reduce the volume of stormwater runoff that transports pollutants into nearby groundwater. Retaining some rainfall on these sites through performance standards, either via green infrastructure or natural features, would “basically eliminate the discharge of any pollutants for that particular volume,” said Christopher Kloss, green infrastructure and stormwater coordinator in the EPA Office of Water, during a webinar on stormwater regulations.
More stringent standards for stormwater at newly developed sites versus less taxing standards at redeveloped sites may create an incentive for businesses to invest in urban redevelopment projects, he explained.
It is a promising move with its heart in the right place, though the details are going to make all the difference. Look for more news from the Office of Water as new stormwater rules move towards public comment.
The Water Main 