More on Stormwater... I can't let it go...

I can't seem to let the stormwater thing go. I know it is time to move on, but I'm still incredibly irked that the stormwater story in Annapolis this spring ended the way it did.


A few days ago I explained why I was so passionate about a topic that seems pretty boring and unrelated to gardening and wildlife. I was sent an email that was pretty interesting last week regarding the same topic. That email, which I partly reprint below with permission, explains why some other people are so passionate about it, too.

For you to see, I forward this from the AWCAC:

"Testimony on Emergency Stormwater Regulations

Position: Against


The Anacostia Watershed Citizens Advisory Committee exists to provide citizen input into the multi-jurisdictional effort to restore the Anacostia River. This effort is known as the Anacostia Watershed Restoration Partnership (http://www.anacostia.net/) and is coordinated by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

On April 19th, the Partnership is scheduled to release an Anacostia Restoration Plan which includes numerous policy recommendations which are necessary to be followed for the Anacostia River to be restored. The Plan directly states, “The Maryland Stormwater Act of 2007 focus on using smaller ESD practices, which in many cases are practicable as a means of retrofitting to tight spaces, is very significant for the Anacostia.”

Uncontrolled stormwater from Maryland has done massive damage to Anacostia Watershed streams, resulting in spiralling costs to the State. Unless the Maryland begins strict control of stormwater volume as soon as possible, the damage and costs to the State will continue to increase. These emergency regulations will delay efforts to restore the Anacostia. "

A Real Loss for the Bay: Stormwater Emergency Regs Become a Reality

So the "emergency" stormwater regs went through. Ugh. So much for fighting the Holmes Bill.

Here's the news wrap up:

WYPR in Baltimore gave this summary

Senate Panel Approves Controversial Storm Water Regulations

The Baltimore Sun

House-Senate panel OKs easing pollution curbs
Developers of projects under way get more leeway on limiting runoff

A few friends who follow my blog via Facebook have asked why someone that gardens cares so passionately about stormwater.

I'd answer this way: for years and years people like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the state of Maryland and the EPA have been asking us to please garden responsibly. I fully embraced the notion of conservation gardening from the start. We should all try to go organic, plant trees, remove invasives exotics, plant native plants and reduce our yard's run-off.

But why, I wonder, are we constantly holding homeowners to this high standard but letting developers get away with continued pollution?

There is nothing more frustrating than spending your own, cold, hard, cash AND TIME to implement things like raingardens and rainbarrels in your own yard only to walk down the street and see that some major new building is do far more harm in run-off than your little garden could possibly counterbalance.

It is like pushing a rock up hill. Repeatedly.

And it is unfair, I think, to ask homeowners and farmers to bear the brunt of these burdens while developers get away with doing far, far less. Especially since development in the state of Maryland has sprawled out across our watershed exponentially for decades.

I watch the creeks near my urban home get blasted after each storm and see how that can set off a chain of pollution events and ruin the potential recovery of that the Bay. I can't help that collectively we are doing too little, too late for the Chesapeake.

That's why.

Advocates Trying to Fight the Holmes Bill (HB 1125)

Teams of people are visiting Annapolis this week, to push back against the Holmes Bill (HB 1125).

Advocates are asking anyone who cares about the Chesapeake to call their state senator and tell them you don’t support the proposed legislation.

I think that Diane Cameron of the Audubon Naturalist Society said it best last week:

“We all pay the costs of damaged infrastructure resulting from weak stormwater standards. If we allow projects to be built this year without adequate stormwater controls, and allow developers to avoid paying their share of the cost of stormwater prevention, we will all pay more next year for the many costs of dirty water: dead zones in the Bay and blown‐out streams in every County in the State.” (To read her full click here .)

This year was to be the year that all of Maryland began to see the changes the Stormwater Act would have made. But if the Holmes bill passes in the Senate then many of those protections will be severely loosened to the point of being almost non-existent.

Here’s the background:

On Friday, March 26, 127 Maryland State delegates voted to pass the Holmes bill, despite the fact that some of the people who have worked hardest and longest for the Bay’s restoration efforts have vocally opposed it.

The Baltimore Sun’s B’More Green Blog did the kind of reporting on the bill that all of the papers should have done. If you can only read one story about the entire thing, this is the one to read.

The Baltimore Sun’s regular coverage can be found here.

The Washington Post also ran a story from a different angle:

WTOP radio also covered it.

The Capital (in Annapolis) also covered the controversy.

The Anacostia Watershed Society has called the votes for the Holmes Bill “bad for the Anacostia and bad for the Bay.” As the bill begins its way through the Senate, AWS and many other organizations all over the state are frantically calling upon their members and supporters to contact state senators NOW to show opposition towards this piece of legislation.

To read the AWS action alert includes a list of key Senators that should be contacted.

Audubon Naturalist Society’s Diane Cameron, stated in her testimony against the bill that “weak stormwater standards Are costing us billions.” You can read her full testimony on the ANS website or visit:

http://www.audubonnaturalist.org/Images2/campaigns/24march2010camerondirtywaterbilltestimony.pdf

Fight the Holmes Dirty Water Bill, Keep Stormwater Regs Strong

The internet is on fire tonight with info about the Holmes Bill going down in Annapolis.

I'm cutting and pasting what has been sent to me from the Anacostia Watershed Society. I also got pretty much the same email from the Potomac Conservancy, and any number of other organizations out there. I'm cheering them all on.

Stormwater ain't glamorous. But the tightness of the Stormwater Act of 2007 holds great promise for bringing this problem under control, at least a little bit.

As the AWS email says, we've asked others in the Chesapeake to play their part in the clean up. Now it is time for the developers to join the effort and do their part, too.

From AWS:

"Wednesday, March 24 at 11AM there will be a press conference in the Maryland State House room H-124 featuring a trio of environmental elder statesmen: former US Congressman Wayne Gilchrest, former US Senator Joseph Tydings, and former Maryland Governor Harry Hughes.

These three will be speaking out against the developer's efforts in the General Assembly to weaken the 2007 Stormwater Management Act. Despite having three years to get ready for the Act's May 4, 2010 effective date, the developers are crying that the sky is falling and are asking that their industry be allowed to continue its special exception to pollute our rivers and Chesapeake Bay. We have asked farmers, wastewater treatment, and industry to do their parts for clean water - it is time for the developers to do their fair share....

Write one of our Anacostia Senators, Paul Pinsky (22nd) (paul.pinsky@senate.state.md.us) and tell him that you will stand with him to oppose the "emergency regulations" sent to his AELR committee that would roll back significant provisions of the 2007 Stormwater Act.Write members of the House Environmental Matters Committee (http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/06hse/html/com/04env.html) and tell them to oppose HB1125, Delegate Holmes' dirty water bill.

In particular, contact these members of the Anacostia delegation:Delegate Al Carr (18th) - alfred.carr@house.state.md.usDelegate Tom Hucker (20th) - thomas.hucker@house.state.md.usDelegate Barbara Frush (21st) - barbara_frush@house.state.md.usDelegate Anne Healey (22nd) - anne_healey@house.state.md.usDelegate Doyle Niemann (47th) - doyle.niemann@house.state.md.usAsk all of your elected officials to stand up for clean water and vote no on dirty water bills and proposals that would weaken the Stormwater Management Act of 2007! (www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/07leg/html/ga.html)

Background: Maryland needs clean water. We need to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay and other waters, even as the state continues to grow and develop. Three years ago, the Maryland General Assembly enacted the Stormwater Management Act of 2007 - a strong clean water law that requires developers to design sites to retain and reuse rainwater. The Stormwater Management Act requires use of green techniques like street trees; green roofs; and permeable pavements to slow down, spread out, and soak in stormwater rather than funneling it into our streams. Now, developers and their allies want to weaken this clean water law, with dirty water amendments that would allow projects to be built using obsolete techniques that will continue to kill our streams.

Developers want to weaken the Stormwater Management Act, so they can continue business as usual - to keep funneling polluted stormwater runoff into our streams and to let the public pick up the tab in the form of erosion, continued dead zones in the Bay; damage to public infrastructure; and future "stormwater retrofit projects."Existing damage from stormwater to Maryland's streams - erosion damage that is yet unaddressed - has been estimated to cost the public $12 billion in unmet restoration costs. This price tag will continue to mount if the dirty water legislation is allowed to weaken the Stormwater Management Act. Let's not let that happen."

Stormwater Workshop and Panel Discussion

I don't really know much about Bethesda Green, although I have the usual cross county reaction whenever I hear about it... why not Silver Spring GREEN? (It even rhymes!)

But regardless I like the idea of a group working towards greening an entire section of the county, no matter which section it focuses its work upon.

I got this email from them a few days ago. This workshop looks good. I really really liked Dan Kulpinski's article in the ANS magazine, as mentioned below. I'm especially looking forward to hearing what he will say.


Storm Water Solutions Panel
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 7:00 -- 9:00 PM
Bethesda Green, 4825 Cordell Avenue, Second Floor

Learn about storm water management issues and what you can do to improve
conditions in our local watershed.

Panelists include:

-- Dan Kulpinski, author of "To Revive Urban Streams, Think Small,"
cover story in the Winter 2010 issue of Audubon Naturalist News. Dan is
an active volunteer with Bethesda Green and publisher of GreenListDC.org.

-- Steve Dryden, co-chair of Stormwaterpartners.org, is a self-described
"guerrilla gardener" who spearheaded building a rain garden to divert
harmful runoff from Cabin John Creek.

-- Ann English, with Montgomery County's RainScapes Program, which
provides incentives to property owners to build and maintain source
control stormwater management on their properties.

-- Donna Evans, a Landscape Designer with American Plant and LEED Green
Associate who designs rain gardens as part of her transition from
"garden therapist" to environmentalist.

-- Peter Ensign, LEED AP, Executive Director with DC Greenworks and a
former Bethesda Green Board member, will moderate the panel discussion.

"That Ain't Chocolate, Wonka Fans"

Each second I type, I am convinced I will lose power once again as yet another storm rages on outside the windows. It is complete white-out out there right now. We've lost power once, for about 25 hours, and I'm sure we're set to lose it again.

In the meantime, I'm catching up on emails and work-related reading, and I came across this really dramatic photo, posted on the Bay Daily blog by Tom Pelton. Pelton's articles are always worth reading, and this entry is no exception. On February 2 he posted a dramatic picture of the pollution which has entered the bay recently.

As we struggle over six foot high snow drifts to reach the grocery store in the storm emergency here in DC this week, its easy to to forget that the excess of rain and snow we get each winter causes excessive run-off to the creeks. Life has become one long string of days where we decide which section of the sidewalk to shovel next, and complain about the lack of plowing on Montgomery County's streets. All our conversations with neighbors seem to focus on things like battery supplies, shoveling techniques, and wood piles. With Metro down, no one is headed to work.

(I think about stormwater pollution a lot, though, as I see what strange stuff people are putting out to keep the sidewalks passable. More about that a bit later in another posting, here, provided the power stays on.)

Meanwhile, as Pelton says, that aint chocolate, Wonka fans. "This is mud, fertilizers, and chemicals flushed by last week's heavy rains off of farm fields, construction sites, parking lots, and roads."

What a picture. Ugh.

Pelton makes reference to some important stormwater legislation which is currently under attack right now in Maryland. If my power holds, I'll try to post something about that, too!