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EPA: Some water runoff controls can be cost-effective help boost property value |
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Saturday, 23 August 2008 |
By KELLY DANIELS
Starkville Daily News
When it comes to tighter restrictions on storm water runoff, local developers fear construction costs.
But research released by the Environmental Protection Agency shows that certain methods of runoff prevention are cost effective and an asset to property values.
The report, entitled, “Reducing Stormwater Costs through Low Impact Development (LID) Strategies and Practices,” also listed improved habitat, aesthetic amenities and improved quality of life as additional benefits.
Extensive development, according to the report, is not an old reality.
Land development has occurred at twice the rate of population growth in the last 20 years.
This ratio could also be applied to the amount of storm water disturbance that this rate creates, versus how much it would create if development were at the same rate as population growth.
Conversation designs can reduce impervious surface, which would reduce road and driveway lengths, and, therefore, costs.
The report also found that by infiltrating or evaporating runoff, the size and, therefore, cost of flood-control structures can be reduced.
The positive effect on property values is usually due to desirability of lots and proximity to open space.
City Engineer Edward Kemp said that while developers may seem to spend some additional money for certain runoff prevention measures, money is saved in other areas.
Protecting and restoring water quality has been a widespread effort on the federal level and in the practices of green architectures, builders and developers, he said.
Part of protecting and restoring the quality of water, a recourse growing in its reputation as valuable, is reducing its runoff Kemp added.
For a solid understanding of how runoff affects water quality, landscape architect Jason Walker explains how development plays a role in this relationship.
“When it rains, water is going to run off undeveloped land but at a much slower rate,” said Walker, who also teaches at Mississippi State University.
This slow rate is due to trees, grasses and earth, all of which absorb water.
“When you take those out and put up a building or parking lot, water can’t penetrate through,” he said.
The conventional way to deal with fast runoff is to pipe it away as fast as possible, treating water as a waste product.
“While that may deal with water on site on the short term, it creates potential problems downstream,” Walker said.
The problems include potential flooding, erosion and a corroding of quality due to contaminating agents such as parking lots and oil leaks from cars.
These problems then lead to more problems in the natural environment, especially in natural bodies of water.
Slowing down quantity and removing pollutants are ways to make sure running water has some treatment before it enters other bodies of water.
Walker says that revisions in the storm water ordinance is a necessary change.
“It will require us to deal with water as a recourse,” said Walker.
To learn more about LID and “green infrastructure,” visit the website, www.epa.gov/greeninfrastructure and www.epa.gov/nps/lid.
To view the draft of the storm water ordinance revision —which the Starkville Board of Aldermen has yet to approve — visit the city website at http://www.cityofstarkville.org.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 24 August 2008 )
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