Tuesday 15 April 2014

Halifax Water Stormwater Fee

There has been much attention paid to the recent stormwater fee that is being charged to residents and businesses in serviced and unserviced areas of HRM[1].  Service in this case refers to water and wastewater services.  Residents in unserviced areas of HRM who would not otherwise be receiving a water bill are particularly upset. At first glance, this is understandable, as their drinking water comes from a well and their wastewater is managed onsite with a septic system.

However even properties in unserviced areas of HRM generate stormwater runoff.  Stormwater is the rain or snowmelt that flows off a roof, driveway, parking lot, paved walkway or any other hard surface on a property.  Outside of peninsular Halifax, stormwater runoff ends up in nearby streams, rivers and lakes without prior treatment.  Since stormwater comes into contact with litter, gasoline, oils, brake pad dust from our cars, pesticides, waste from our pets and many other toxins along its journey, stormwater is a significant source of pollution to our water ways.

There is no question that Halifax Water needs to improve the way it manages stormwater in HRM.  We cannot continue to treat our lakes and rivers as a wastewater facility.  Many of our urban lakes such as Lake Banook, Lake Echo and Oathill Lake have reached, or are quickly reaching, their carrying capacity.  Our enjoyment of these water bodies for fishing, swimming, boating and aesthetic value is being compromised. 

Halifax is not unique in charging a stormwater fee.  Other Canadian cities like Victoria, Edmonton, Kitchener, Mississauga and many others have recognized the need to charge a fee for stormwater management.  The principle that HRM and numerous other cities have recognized is simple: if you receive a service you should pay for it.

The Ecology Action Centre conditionally supports the stormwater fee being collected by Halifax Water in order to address inadequacies in our current stormwater management system.  The conditions are:
  • The stormwater fee is used to maintain and improve stormwater infrastructure, especially where it has been neglected or under-maintained.
  •  Halifax Water starts using low impact development (LID) approaches, such as rain gardens, bioswales and constructed wetlands for managing stormwater (others discussed on this blog) .  LID approaches are more cost effective and achieve better environmental outcomes than conventional approaches, and
  • Residential, commercial and institutional customers can receive a fee assessment and rebate if they use stormwater management techniques that infiltrate 100% of runoff on site and do not contribute any additional stormwater to the system.  Financial incentive systems such as the ones implemented in Waterloo and Kitchener, ON are excellent examples.
Rain garden built on Dahousie campus, summer 2013
We need to do better than piping and ditching for stormwater conveyance.  We need to implement innovative stormwater options that act as treatment systems, recharge groundwater and provide habitat for birds, pollinators and other urban wildlife.

Adopting LID approaches would lead to many direct environmental benefits such as improved flood control, increased fish populations, water quality that meets recreational swimming standards, and enhancement of future drinking water supplies through increased groundwater recharge.

The Ecology Action Centre is organizing an educational and hands-on workshop series to help property owners understand the breadth of LID options for managing stormwater on-site.  The first workshop is a walking tour of a rain garden and other stormwater options on Thursday April 24th at 6 PM.  Please click here for more information. 

Tuesday 1 April 2014

New Video Series: Innovations in Stormwater Management

A new new video series entitled Innovations in Stormwater Management, was recently produced by Dr. Hans Schreier and the Master of Land and Water Systems program at the University of British Columbia.

The series is made up of 4 short videos that explore innovative stormwater management at the property, neighborhood and watershed scale.  A fourth video provides an introduction and overview of the key concepts.

“The video series is designed to show what individual house owners can do to manage rainfall, reduce their water footprint and minimize surface runoff from their property. At the neighborhood scale, we feature municipal innovations that deal with roads and parking lot runoff; and at the watershed scale, we address the cumulative effects and the options to reduce all impacts from urban activities," explains Julie Wilson, Academic Coordinator, Master of Land and Water Systems Program at the University of BC. Julie Wilson is the narrator and producer of the video series.

Video Team: Julie Wilson, Duncan McHugh and Hans Schreier, Faculty of Land & Food System, U.B.C.

"It was a pleasure to showcase some of the local champions of low impact designs for urban rainwater and stormwater management in this video series,” states Dr. Hans Schreier, Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia. “Our interactive map shows all of our featured locations, and this is just a drop in the bucket in terms of what is out there!”

“Given the increase in climatic variability and urban land use intensification, it is high time that we promote innovations that deal with increasing flooding events and urban pollution. The video series features what some of the leaders in innovative stormwater management are doing in the Metro Vancouver region.”

“This is our first attempt in trying to translate science into actions in the hope that these innovations will be increasingly mainstream in the future,” concludes Hans Schreier.

Click here to access the video series (http://mlws.landfood.ubc.ca/videos/)