Prince George's County Passes Stormwater Bill!

The Short Version

On Tuesday, July 19, 2011, Prince George's County Council took an important step forward by unanimously passing a new stormwater ordinance (CB-15-2011).

Our biggest champions were Transportation, Housing and Environment (THE) committee chair Eric Olson (District 3) and THE member Mary Lehman (District 1); both worked hard to improve the bill after the original draft of CB-15 handed down by County Executive Rushern Baker was a disappointment to environmental and community organizations.

Streambank erosion in Paint Branch (College Park) caused by severe stormwater flows

The Long Version

Over a series of THE committee hearings in June, we were able to effect several improvements to the bill.  When Karen Toles (District 7) attempted weakening amendments, Council Chair Ingrid Turner (District 4) and THE member Obie Patterson (District 8) were strong supporters of holding onto the improvements.  Important changes made include:

• The county will move to a 1" redevelopment stormwater standard in 2019.  Scientific studies demonstrate that we need 1" now, but AWS appreciates that the council saw the need to get there eventually and added this provision into the bill.  Andrea Harrison (District 5) was a strong advocate of getting to 1".
• Incentives for developers will only kick in if projects exceed the stormwater standard in effect at the time.  In the original version of CB-15, incentives were available for merely complying with the law.
• Notice provision for stormwater concept plans - Municipalities and any property owner within one mile will be notified when a developer files a stormwater concept plan for a project.  Municipalities identified this as a major issue, and the notice provision will allow cities and citizens to plug into the development process much more effectively to raise stormwater management concerns.

Developers were not happy with even these modest improvements, and came out Tuesday and testified against CB-15 on the same old tired points.  The short version of their testimony would be, "Prince George's County can't afford these environmental protections."  That is all they think of Prince George's County and yet they still wield a lot of political power.  Why did many of these developers agree to much stronger provisions in Montgomery County?

On Tuesday the developers got one change they most wanted when provisions were modified dealing with the expiration of permits grandfathered under the old, lesser stormwater management rules.  Sadly one of the five votes needed to pass this developer friendly amendment was none other than Leslie Johnson.

In environmental work progress is sometimes incremental.  AWS is not at all satisfied with this bill, but it is an important step forward.  Prince George's County now has the second strongest stormwater bill in the state of Maryland, after Montgomery County's truly progressive bill passed a year ago.  DC will be at a 1.2" redevelopment stormwater standard when their Clean Water Act permit is finalized, so the DC and Montgomery half of the watershed is well protected while the Prince George's half is on its way.  That is not nearly enough for the Anacostia, but it is a good start.

Gazette article on stormwater bill