Stormwater Regulation Campaigns

Northeast Branch flooded after a heavy rain event

   
Before                                                             After

The biggest single problem facing the Anacostia River today is unchecked stormwater runoff.  Over the years, AWS has advocated for increased government regulation of stormwater management, and several of those campaigns have recently ended.  Maryland passed a new Stormwater Management Act in 2007, and though the 2010 General Assembly weakened the bill as a result of developer lobbying, it sets an important new direction by mandating use of LID (low impact development), called ESD (environmental site design) in the law, to manage stormwater runoff.  Each jurisdiction with stormwater authority had to pass a local ordinance implementing the new state law.

Montgomery County

In July 2010, after a long period of advocacy by AWS and its partners, Montgomery County enacted one of the strongest local stormwater ordinances in the nation.  The bill requires that both new development and redevelopment projects manage the full Channel Protection Volume (2.6 inches of rain water) to guard against stream bank erosion and maintain water quality.  ESD is the preferred technique is both contexts, though redevelopment projects have a number of points of flexibility to account for constrained sites.

District of Columbia

In 2008 the DC Council unanimously passed strong stormwater standards for the Anacostia Waterfront Development Zone (AWDZ).  Unfortunately, the effective date of the AWDZ standards was made dependent on the Mayor issuing rules for their implementation.  Though required by law to be done by September 2008, the rules still have not been issue and so this piece of good legislation remains in limbo.  AWS and its allies continue to advocate for the issuance of these standards.  The DC MS4 permit contains a stormwater management standard partly because these rules have not been issued.  That standard will require management of 1.2 inches of stormwater on all development projects.

Prince George's County

The long fight for better stormwater rules in Prince George’s County finally ended in July 2011, more than a year after state law required the county to have new rules in place.  While we did not achieve nearly as much as we had hoped. In the end, the Prince George’s stormwater ordinance is the second strongest in the state, second after Montgomery County.  However, the 50% of the Anacostia River’s land area is in Prince George’s County so it is extremely unfortunate that the county has the lowest redevelopment stormwater standard.  Prince George’s will require only the state minimum of 0.5 inches of stormwater for the next 5 years, going up to 0.75 inches in 2016 and then up to 1 inch in 2019.  AWS and its allies had asked for 1 inch now as the minimum needed to protect water quality, but still insufficient to address the severe erosion experienced in the county.  It is sad that the county is making us wait 8 years for what is needed right now – meaning environmental destruction will degrade quality of life in the county for 8 more years.