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KEEPING POLLUTION OUT OF RIVERS, BAY
Low-impact development techniques making inroads here
Date published: 3/11/2007
By RUSTY DENNEN As land in the Fredericksburg area is draped with asphalt and rooftops, less water is seeping into the ground. When it rains, ever-increasing amounts of pollution-laden water and soil wind up in storm drains, running into the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers. What if more of that water went back into the ground? What if engineers could reinvent the natural process by which a forest sucks up vast amounts of water while filtering out contaminants that harm the rivers and the Chesapeake Bay? That's the aim of a growing movement called low-impact development that is changing the face of some of the largest commercial building projects in the Fredericksburg area. "The whole idea is to distribute stormwater across a site at its source," says John Tippett, executive director of Friends of the Rappahannock. The Fredericksburg-based group has been instrumental in getting developers and localities to use LID methods. Ponds and pipes used to be the way stormwater was handled on most commercial development sites. That's a problem for the Rappahannock and the Potomac, because the water is laden with petroleum byproducts toxic to marine life, and nutrients such as phosphorus and potassium, considered the most serious threats to the bay. The new approach leaves or creates green areas and adds bioretention cells--layers of mulch, soil and gravel--beneath them so that water soaks in rather than running off. "You can remove up to 95 percent of the [fuel byproducts] coming off parking lots, and they are far better than conventional [holding] ponds at removing pollution," Tippett said, because the water filters into--not across--the landscape. The improvements also address sediment piling up in the Rappahannock. "These biofilters get at that problem because they function as giant sponges. With less erosion you have clearer water, and you help restore underwater grasses. " ISLANDS OF GREENThe concept was first tested here in Central Park, the Silver Cos.' megadevelopment off State Route 3 on the western edge of Fredericksburg, in the late 1990s. Chuck E. Cheese's, for example, has a bioretention cell lined with trees to catch runoff from the parking lot. Tippett knows it's working.
Date published: 3/11/2007
Bioretention Cells
(posted by
dchidlow
, Sep. 25, 2007 2:41 pm)
Interesting to see your article and to have experienced the neglect of LID evidenced at the WCB on Friday as reported by Knepper. In Orange and Lancaster county third world disposal approaches are acceptable and endorsed by DEQ and WCB. Shame on us for complacency. Shame on WCB for poor oversight. Responsible development is not what is happening in too many instances. Cheap is best seems to work in many instances.
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