Applications for the State Water Resources Control Board’s Storm Water Grants are due Tuesday at 5 pm, and it seems like everybody and their brother is hustling to get their projects in line for funding. Me included.
Lost Opportunity
Here’s a pair of maps. The first one shows a 27-acre area tributary to a ravine. The second roughs out the location where a bioretention facility might go. The facility would intercept runoff—infiltrating some of it, evaporating a bit more, and treating the remainder before letting it seep toward the creek downstream.
The project was envisioned by a small group of public works planners and engineers. To me, this is government at its best—both objectively and subjectively.
Objectively, because the project is a way to get a lot of environmental benefit for a relatively modest public investment. Subjectively, because planning and executing projects that improve the urban environment is really cool and fun. It’s the sort of thing government ought to be doing, to my way of thinking, and I appreciate the privilege to get paid to do it.
Not this time.
80% of project costs would be grant-funded, and some of the 20% match could be attributed to another project that’s already in the budget. Some of the remainder would be spread around among a number of municipalities. But there’s no money for matching funds. Ultimately, the project died because one of the potential participating agencies couldn’t pledge $540.
Why? A couple of reasons:
First, cities and counties are in a budget crisis, and every budget crisis, once the pressure builds long enough, produces irrational, penny-wise decisions.
Second, our municipal stormwater permit mandates so many actions, and with such specificity, that municipal staff would rather be damned than add yet another activity, and another expense, regardless of how cost-effective that activity and expense might be.
That’s sad for those of us who got into the environmental business, and the public works business, because we had an expansive and optimistic view of how government could protect the environment.
All these years in, we’re still doing the minimum.
Do the Minimum
It was 1991, maybe early 1992. I left my office at the sewage treatment plant and drove down to City Hall.
In the City Manager’s office, I had 10 minutes of his time to explain the new stormwater regulations. Yes, under the Clean Water Act, permits would now cover rainwater runoff from roofs, streets, and parking lots. Yes, the City had to comply. Specifically, we had to have a program to stop illicit connections and dumping, to educate the public, and to inspect activities at local businesses and construction sites.
Yes, there were fines and possible third-party lawsuits if we didn’t comply.
And no, this wasn’t going to go away.
The City Manager looked at me through heavy-lidded eyes.
“Do the minimum,” he said. My 10 minutes were up.
20 years later, the stormwater business has matured. Sort of.
On the one hand, we’ve got a whole community of people who, like me, have built their careers around stormwater pollution prevention.
On the other hand, yesterday some of the best and most experienced members of that community gave me a taste “do the minimum” all over again.
More later.
Whimsy
One the best things about my new purchase is going to be figuring out why I bought it.
It’s a very impractical machine. To begin with, it has only one gear (flip-flop fixie/freewheel, for those in the know). The parts are not particularly high-quality. This is a “large” frame from Republic Bicycles, but it feels undersized. And now that I’ve made the Craigslist deal, in cash, and after riding away on the bike, I see it’s got a bad scuff on one side of the bright-blue seat (from being dropped, no doubt), and there’s something klunky going on with bottom bracket.
On the bright side, I enjoyed riding it the 8 blocks to work. And I’ve already received a half-dozen compliments on it.
Style = fun. I guess that’s why.
What I’m Working On
- Writing and updating the Contra Costa Clean Water Program Stormwater C.3 Guidebook, 6th Edition. The 6th Edition includes implementation of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board’s Municipal Regional Permit requirements to infiltrate, evapotranspirate or harvest/reuse runoff from new development sites.
- Stormwater Control Plan Template to go with the Guidebook
- Participation with the San Francisco Estuary Project, San Francisco Estuary Institute, and others in an application for a Proposition 84 Low Impact Development Planning and Monitoring Grant.
- Preparing an additional Proposition 84 Planning and Monitoring Grant application for the Contra Costa Clean Water Program.
- Exploring a possible Proposition 84 Implementation Grant application for Low Impact Development projects on publicly owned facilities in Contra Costa County.
- Planning for workshops for municipal construction inspectors.
Google Bomb
My blog is back just in time to congratulate Mr. Santorum on his near-victory in Iowa.
Home for Lunch
My new lunchtime habit is to hop on my bike and ride the 8 blocks or so home. There, I can do a little yoga, wash up the breakfast dishes, and still make it back to the office in an hour or so. Or maybe a little more. And OK, I’ve done it twice, but I’d like it to become a habit.
Rosy Outlook for 2012
Returning from New Years Day on the beach at the mouth of the Gualala R.
2011 was a hella good year, when I stop to think about it. I did a lot of things right and a few things wrong, and by that accounting I’m happy to be in the black.
Most of the wrong things had to do with not taking care of myself physically. I didn’t do enough yoga, and I’m noticably stiffer than I was a year ago. I also struggled with my cycling fitness—I forced myself to train while being too short on sleep and often with a nagging cold. In December I fell off a ladder at home, bruising my ribs and aggravating a rotator cuff already overstretched from carrying around the toddler.
Most of the right things had to do with connecting, and reconnecting, with people. Many of my favorite memories of the year are of when I squeezed in time to spend with close friends—a couple hours for a beer, or a whole day for cycling or skiing, or a few days for backpacking. Throughout the year I corresponded or got together with people I hadn’t seen in 10 or 25 or even 40 years, and I feel much the richer for each encounter.
At home, it’s been damned difficult at times. Right now it’s good. Zoe, now two-and-a-half, is growing and thriving and becoming more Zoe-like each day, which is what counts most.
At work, I continue to be blessed with work that inspires me. As the year turns, I’ve got projects at various stages of development—some to wrap up, some to nurture into full flower, others just trying to get off the ground.
A lot of joy, and enough difficulty to keep it interesting. Who could ask for more?
New Beginnings
America, the land of second chances.
About four years ago, the web service Blogger (owned by Google) stopped supporting blogs hosted anywhere except on their own site.
Around the same time, I got divorced and —for some time during and after —lost my blogging voice. I’d start to write, and the words on the screen in front of me would just glare back accusingly.
I made a couple of attempts to revamp the site, but I was intimidated by the work required to find, install, and configure new blogging software. Besides, there’s a lot of new features and functionality that have been developed since I taught myself basic HTML.
Now, with some help, I’m back up and running. And looking forward to having some things to say in 2012.