This is how you curb stormwater pollution

During the downpour in Spokane yesterday - that picked up more inches of rain than the last 86 days combined - you could see the runoff on in the street, entering drains on the way to the river. It was a sad sight. Here’s a solution, one you can spend a lot of time reading. It’s Sightline’s special report on cleaning up the northwest’s toxic runoff, much of it relevant to Spokane. ( See our list of where Spokane River pollution comes from .) Check their series HERE .

Stormwater doesn’t match the traditional image of pollution. There are no factory smokestacks belching waste. Yet polluted stormwater packs a punch. Runoff from streets and highways is the number one source for petroleum and other toxic chemicals that wash into the Northwest’s rivers, lakes, and bays. Sightline’s report, Curbing Stormwater Pollution , looks at the challenges we face and the opportunities we have to clean up our waterways.

Included in Curbing Stormwater Pollution :

• What we’re up against: Ten bathtubs full of water pour off one average-size house during a storm. Cities like Seattle and Portland have hundreds of miles of storm-drain pipes and thousands of storm drains and catch basins. Sometimes the stormwater system simply backs up, flooding streets and basements.

• Stormwater’s costly and toxic cocktail: In all, a typical year in Portland or Seattle, approximately 26,600 gallons of stormwater rush into gutters and streams from a single home—bringing a host of chemicals and pollutants with it. The toxic cocktail is a threat to our drinking water and marine wildlife alike.
• Smart, local solutions for polluted runoff: Cities throughout the Northwest are taking on the stormwater pollution problem by creating natural drainage systems—part of a movement called “low-impact development,” or LID. By replicating nature’s way of managing rainfall, cleaning up stormwater is both less expensive and more efficient than conventional sewer systems.