Property Rights Protected Under Lake Whatcom Stormwater Proposal

On Thursday, January 12, 2012, the Whatcom County Planning Commission will hold a second hearing on the “Lake Whatcom Watershed Overlay District.”  The proposal consolidates existing protections for the Lake into one chapter of the Whatcom County Code, (WWC 20.51) and imposes updated stormwater regulations for new watershed development.

Updated stormwater regulations provide better protection for Lake Whatcom and are a good thing, right?  Not so fast.  The proposal is not being used to protect and restore water quality.  

Although watershed development is the primary cause of water quality degradation, this proposal does not address existing development.  It was drafted to prevent restrictions on new watershed development that could be imposed by the state if the County fails to make progress in meeting water quality standards.  While the proposal will protect the property rights of watershed developers, it will not improve water quality for almost 100,000 people that rely upon Lake Whatcom for drinking water.

The proposal is based on the Washington State Department of Ecology stormwater manual. It will be used in partial compliance with a water quality improvement plan mandated under the Clean Water Act.  However, the DOE stormwater manual was not drafted to protect and restore impaired water bodies, and therefore, is an inadequate tool to use in creating a water quality clean-up plan.   

Examples of problems with the proposal include:

·     It allows de minimus exemptions to stormwater requirements that, over time, will create cumulative impacts. 

·     The native vegetation requirements are not equivalent to the protection offered by actual forest coverage, where a tree canopy layer, a shrub understory layer, and the forest floor work synergistically to reduce stormwater run-off. 

·      Increased impervious surface has been identified as the reason for excessive stormwater run-off. While engineered stormwater solutions are generally not as effective as natural forest cover, the proposal allows greater impervious surfaces for engineered stormwater design.

Moreover, if the County is updating stormwater regulations, it has no rationale for limiting the scope to the Lake Whatcom watershed.  Most of the County’s watersheds are impaired or degraded from stormwater run-off problems.  The County’s current development regulations for stormwater were created in 2002 and need to be updated. These facts suggest that the County is updating Lake Whatcom stormwater regulations unwillingly, and doing only the minimum necessary to ensure that new development will not be restricted.  

The County should update stormwater regulations for the entire county. Stormwater regulations intended to maintain the status quo should be kept separate from any obligation to improve water quality in Lake Whatcom and other impaired watersheds.  The County should focus on the problems created by existing development in the Lake Whatcom watershed, which impacts almost half of all county residents, before accommodating new development.