Stormwater Stories

Wilma's Story

2012-02-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

Last summer, I asked our members to tell us their stories about things they saw that impacted their neighborhood creeks and the Tualatin River. I got this e-mail from Wilma, one of our long-time members:

Storm drains in streets carry polluted runoff directly to the nearest stream.

Hi TRK:

The two stories that come to mind from my house is first, seeing friends and neighbors putting dog waste down the storm drains since the are " sewers". I don't know how prevalent this mistaken idea is but there should be some education going on in schools, etc. even signage along each storm drain. Some drains now have a logo and that helps.

Second, all around town I still see rug cleaners and cement trucks cleaning their tanks into the storm drains when they think no one is watching.

- Wilma

Wilma witnessed what regulators call an illicit discharge. Storm drains were designed to drain water from the urban landscape, but they carry so much more: toxins, bacteria, trash, oil, heavy metals directly from the street to the nearest stream. Whatever goes in the street ends up in the stream. What Wilma witnessed was bad behavior, but it was enabled by a problematic storm sewer system.

CWS Green Street in Beaverton facility keeps polluted runoff out of storm drains and creeks.

Tualatin Riverkeepers believes that we as a community can do a much better job of protecting our river and streams by changing from a drain & pipe storm sewer system to systems that intercept rain and eliminate runoff: rain gardens, green streets, ecoroofs, porous pavement, rain gardens and cisterns that collect rain for later use.

Now that Low Impact Development Approaches are tested, readily available and often less expensive than the stream-damaging "drain & pipe" storm sewers design standards and building codes should require elimination of runoff.

Protecting Streams and Trout from Heat and Runoff

2011-12-15T14:41:00.000-08:00

Water quality standards for the Tualatin River and its tributaries were first established by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in 1988. Every 5 years or so, DEQ reviews these standards for revision. These standards, called Total Maximum Daily Loads or TMDLs.

This fall DEQ released proposed revisions to the Tualatin TMDLs that were designed to accommodate the growing population of Washington County by allowing treated sewage effluent to be discharged from wastewater treatment plants in Hillsboro and Forest Grove.

Fanno Creek in Tigard Oregon

Tualatin Riverkeepers expressed some concerns to DEQ about these proposed revisions, particularly about the increase in temperature in a stretch of the river where small salmon grow up. TRK also raised significant issues about how the TMDLs are not protecting urban streams.

DEQ lists 12 urban streams in the Tualatin basin as being impaired for "biological criteria". Based on surveys of fish and macroinvertebrates (aka bugs), these streams have significantly less biodiversity than they once did.

Numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies document the impact of urbanization on the biodiversity of streams. These studies are the basis of the Healthy Streams Plan published by Clean Water Services in 2005. Urbanization is characterized by impervious cover (streets, sidewalks, parking lots, rooftops) and storm drains connected directly to the nearest stream. This puts a lot of pollution, both chemical and physical in our local waters that impacts bugs and fish.

Tualatin Riverkeepers asked DEQ to address the biologically impaired streams with limits on Effective Impervious Area. We also asked DEQ to regulate runoff from large impervious areas, such as commercial parking lots, with permits under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

Believe it or not, people used to catch trout in our urban streams. One of the reason this seldom happens any more is that our streams are too warm. Tualatin Riverkeepers documented the increase in temperature casued by one small dam on Summer Creek and cited other research that shows these small top-flow dams consistently raise temperatures in streams and impact fish populations. We asked DEQ to address the temperatue impacts of these small dams in the TMDL revisions.

We also asked DEQ to hold forestry and agriculture more accountable for their impacts on streams and the river. To read all of our comments on revising the Tualatin TMDLs click here.

Advancing Smarter Solutions for Clean Water

2011-09-12T07:48:00.000-07:00

Polluted stormwater runoff is one of the largest pollution sources of our country’s streams, rivers, and lakes as well as a major cause of flooding and sewer overflows. Unfortunately, the most commonly used treatment and management approaches have failed to significantly reduce these impacts. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working to modernize national stormwater regulations, presenting one of the best chances in years to make major progress towards clean water in urban and suburban areas nationwide. EPA is on track to propose new safeguards in Fall, 2011 and finalize them by November 2012.

Tualatin Riverkeepers is part of a broad coalition, Clean Water for Healthy Communities, promoting a set of core principles for new EPA regulations:

Control onsite generation of stormwater using an objective performance-based standard for clean water and promote the use of Low Impact Development (LID) and Green Infrastructure approaches.
Require significant existing stormwater sources to reduce their impact by decreasing impervious areas that create runoff. Meaningful reductions can be achieved through phased planning and implementation that meets feasible performance.
EPA must require all dischargers to do their fair share to control pollution and protect watersheds. New regulations should target areas of new or expected development, critical or sensitive watersheds and impervious areas that cause or contribute to water quality problems.

Coincidentally, while EPA is working on national guidance, DEQ is working on a new municipal stormwater permit for the urban areas of the Tualatin Basin. If this permit looks anything like the permits issued to Portland, Salem and other large urban areas in Oregon last year, there will be a greater emphasis on Low Impact Development Approaches that reduce runoff.

Transforming our urban landscape to reduce runoff will take some time. In the past few years we have seen some demonstration projects that are beginning to reduce the impervious areas that cause runoff. Tigard’s Burnham Street project is one good example, using roadside raingardens to soak up runoff and pollution.

But while we engage in the slow steady process of reducing impervious area in older urban areas, we must take extra care to prevent damage to streams in newly developing areas like North Bethany.

Runoff from developed areas of Bull Mountain blew
out this tributary to the Tualatin River.

Metro has proposed bringing more land into the Urban Growth Boundary. It will be very challenging to do this without increasing stormwater runoff. Tualatin basin soils drain slowly, requiring special design considerations for Low Impact Development. Of particular concern is the possibility of urbanizing areas of Cooper Mountain and Bull Mountain. Shallow slow draining soils on slopes make it especially difficult to stop runoff. Clearing of trees for development will only increase runoff.

What can you do to help our urban streams recover?

· Talk to your city councilors and county commissioners about Low Impact Development.

· Urge your Metro councilors to avoid expansion of the urban growth area on areas of slopes and shallow slow-draining soils.

· Ask Metro and your city council to require forest protection, reforestation, and 100% onsite stormwater retention when new areas are brought into the Urban Growth Boundary.

· Call Senator Merkley and Senator Wyden and ask them to support a strict EPA post-construction stormwater rule that prevent runoff from new development.

For more information, check out www.tualatinriverkeepers.org/advocacy

Protect Our Rivers and Streams From Logging Road Runoff

2011-08-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

Runoff from logging roads damages salmon habitat.
Photo by Pacific Watershed Associates

Recently our friends at Northwest Environmental Defense Center (NEDC) and CRAG Law Center won a landmark decision protecting streams from runoff from logging roads. Now, forest road stormwater discharges are subject to the Clean Water Act's industrial pollution provisions.

Unlike urban streets and highways and industrial operations, logging roads have not been required to have pollution permits from DEQ. In cities, these pollution permits require best management practices like street sweeping, catch basins, and other measures to reduce pollution. Until this decision. logging roads have been unregulated.

Runoff from industrial forests have serious impacts on downstream public resources. It is estimated that 14 to 20 acre-feet of capacity of our drinking reservoir at Hagg Lake is lost each year to sedimentation. If this sediment were removed from the lake it would take 80,000 dump truck loads to remove the sediment that has accumulated since the Scoggins Dam was built in 1974. It would take 3,000 dump truck loads each year to keep up with the amount of sediment accumulated each year.

Muddy logging roads with heavy log truck traffic regularly dump millions of tons of dirty water pollution into our drinking water and pristine salmon habitat, harming people and
fish. To make matters worse, Oregon's forest road guidelines are voluntary... and often not followed.

We cheered loudly when NEDC and CRAG won this landmark decision, but misguided leaders in Congress, including Senator Ron Wyden and Congressman Schrader, are working to undermine this protection for clean water. In response to political pressure by timber companies and Wall Street-run timber investment firms, Senator Wyden and Rep. Schrader have introduced legislation to roll back part of the Clean Water Act.

Please email or call Sen. Wyden and Rep. Schrader. Ask them to withdraw their Dirty Forest Water amendment! Tell them to stop attacking our clean water laws!

Sen. Ron Wyden:
http://wyden.senate.gov/contact/
202-224-5244

Rep. Kurt Schrader
http://schrader.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=81Â§iontree=481
202-225-5711

Sen. Wyden and Rep. Schrader - Stop your attack on America's Clean Water Act!

Street to Stream: Personal and Collective Responsibility

2011-02-11T11:55:00.000-08:00

National surveys reveal that the public believes the biggest source of water pollution is industry. Here in the Tualatin Basin, that just isn’t true.

When it rains, it pours. When it rains on the urban landscape it pours toxic mixture of Valvoline, Weed-be-Gone, Miracle-Gro, tire dust, Lucky Strikes, dog poo, freedom fries, and other crud into our neighborhood streams. From street to stream, the urban storm sewer system carries this nasty stuff.

So what are we to do? Well, taking personal responsibility does help. You can pick up after your dog, quit fertilizing your lawn, and get those oil leaks fixed on your car. And by all means, don’t dump paint, motor oil, or anything else down the storm drain and quit washing your car in the street. But personal responsibility, at least this type, has its limits.

The limit is this: If everyone behaved responsibly, accidents still happens. Fluids from car crashes run into storm drains. Tires and brakes wear down. Squirrels get squished. The problem is the pipes and the landscape. Streets, roofs, and parking lots are piped directly to streams. Yes, we should behave more responsibly, but we also must break the street-to-stream connection.

Even if the water running through storm drains was boiled, distilled, filtered, and sanitized for your protection, we would still have a problem with urban stormwater. Our highly paved neighborhoods cause rainwater to rush off the land rather than to soak into the ground. Ordinary storms cause flash floods that flush our neighborhood streams, eroding stream banks, stirring up sediments that deplete dissolved oxygen. And because water does not soak into the ground, the groundwater system is running on empty. The cooling springs that feed our neighborhood streams in summer run dry.

Storm-shedding streets, dysfunctional drains and polluting pipes are a bigger problem than individual responsibility can address. This is where collective responsibility must come into play. This is a job for….GOVERNMENT! (And government responds to you!)

Roadside Rain Garden on 10th St in Lake Oswego

And government now has the tools to address the problem of street-to-stream pollution. Last year Clean Water Services published a handbook on Low Impact Development Approaches that let rain soak in to the ground, evaporate back into the air or collect rain for another use like irrigation or flushing toilets. These techniques eliminate the need for street-to-stream drains and pipes, and have been demonstrated at more than 330 sites in the tri-county metropolitan area according to Metro's Connect the Drops database.

In 2012 Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), a government agency, will be collecting public comments about Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Permits that it will issue to Oregon Department of Transportation and Clean Water Services of Washington County. I urge you to take some personal responsibility and to send your comments on pollutant purveying pipes to DEQ. Urge them to issue permits that require state water quality standards to be met by urban stormwater agencies. Urge them to make these permits enforceable. Urge them to require Low Impact Development Approaches for new construction and redevelopment that reduce runoff. Urge them to fix the pipes and retrofit our streets with rain gardens, stormwater planters and pervious pavement. Urge them to send rainwater into the ground and not let it rush off our streets to the nearest stream.

And please, pick up after your dog.

What is the Biggest Source of Water Pollution in the Tualatin Basin?

2010-12-16T00:31:00.000-08:00

What is the biggest source of water pollution in the Tualatin basin? That is not a simple question. Different pollutants have different sources that may vary by the season, the weather, location in the watershed, or other factors. Here we take a look at different pollutants and their sources as identified by Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) TMDL report and other reports by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Nitrogen - DEQ has identified the wastewater treatment plants as the biggest source of ammonia, but these sources are well controlled and not the problem they were historically. Other sources of ammonia are considered to be relatively insignificant. The wastewater plants are the largest source of nitrate in the river. Nitrate is a far less damaging form of nitrogen and levels discharged are below drinking water standards.

Phosphorus – Soils and groundwater in the Tualatin basin are naturally high in phosphorus. Stormwater runoff from cities, agriculture, and forestry are sources of additional phosphorus in the river and streams. Phosphorus is well controlled at the wastewater treatment plants and effluent from the plants dilute the concentration of phosphorus in the river.

Total Suspended Solids (TSS) – This category of pollutant includes all of the dirt that washes in to the river. Because of impervious cover in urban areas urban stormwater is a significant source of TSS. Rapid rise of urban streams during a storm also causes erosion that adds to the dirt in the streams. Forestry and agriculture are also sources of TSS that can be controlled by best management practices.

Bacteria – Urban runoff is the largest source of bacteria in the Tualatin River and urban streams. Agricultural manure can be a source when not controlled. Confined Animal Feeding Operations are not allowed to discharge bacteria into streams. Wastewater treatment plants kill bacteria before water is discharged and are not a source of bacteria in the Tualatin River except for rare accidental spills. When sewer pipes leading to the wastewater plants become clogged with grease or debris, the sewers will overflow into the nearest stream. For this reason, and to prevent your own plumbing problems, don’t put fats, oils, or grease down your drain.

Temperature – Industrial sources of warm water are very small and regulated by permits. Wastewater treatment plants discharge warm water to the Tualatin River, but DEQ has found that “anthropogenic non-point sources” of temperature have seven times the impact of point sources. Restoring natural flows and planting trees along streams are ways we can correct these human caused thermal impacts on streams.

Toxics – Water managers and scientists are still trying to get a handle on what the sources of toxic pollution in the Tualatin River are. Recent advances in technology make it possible to detect minute levels of toxics that may or may not be a problem for human health, fish and wildlife. Endocrine disruptors are one category of toxic that are of particular concern. NOAA Fisheries research indicate that while concentrations of individual toxic chemicals may be low, the combination of pollutants have synergistic impacts on aquatic life.

Preliminary studies by U.S. Geological Survey and Clean Water Services indicate that wastewater treatment plants remove some of these toxics very well, but others get through the system. New rules prompted by litigation are being developed that prohibit agricultural pesticides from being sprayed near streams.

Urban stormwater runoff is a source of toxics. Practices such as street sweeping, stormwater filters, and bioswales are reducing the amount of toxic metals and other pollutants in runoff. Runoff contains metals including copper from brake linings are harmful to salmon and aquatic life. USGS has identified legacy pollutants in the sediments of Fanno Creek and the Tualatin River that re-suspended when urban stormwater rushes into the creek and river.

Summary

So if you were looking for a simple answer to the question of “What is the greatest source of water pollution in the Tualatin basin?” we nominate urban stormwater runoff. Generally point sources like factories, wastewater treatment plants, and confined animal feeding operations are better regulated than stormwater runoff. One notable exception was the discharge in the summer of 2008 by the Wapato Improvement District that led to the toxic blue-green algae bloom in the river.

You may be surprised to learn that industrial discharges are a relatively small source of pollution in the Tualatin watershed. Industrial discharges are strictly regulated by permits issued by DEQ under the federal Clean Water Act. Clean Water Services’ wastewater treatment plants are a tremendous success story for removing bacteria and nutrients that historically caused large algae blooms in the river. Agricultural and forestry contribute pollutants, but impervious area in urban areas cause pollutants to move much more efficiently to streams and the river than runoff from bare land.

In 2012, DEQ will renew stormwater permits for Oregon Department of Transportation and Clean Water Services which works with the cities of Washington County to control stormwater runoff. In the past, these permits have not included strict numeric limits on pollutants like the permits for industry and the wastewater treatment plants. Recent guidance from EPA urges states to include strict numeric limits that support state water quality standards and beneficial uses of our rivers and streams in the next renewal of the municipal stormwater permits.

We need your help to assure that these new urban stormwater permits are enforceable and truly protective of the Tualatin River and our neighborhood streams, just like the permits for industry and sewage plants. Here is how you can help.

Contribute to our Campaign for Clean Water so we can hire expert witnesses to review permits and stormwater management plans.
Write down your “stormwater story” and share it with us. Tell us about pollution that you have witnessed or something you have done to reduce runoff and pollution.
Testify at a public hearing or send in written comments asking DEQ to include enforceable standards in the renewal of the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Permits for ODOT and Clean Water Services.

If you want to learn about other opportunities to get involved with advocating for clean water, check out our citizen action web page and sign up for our action alerts or send an e-mail to brian@tualatinriverkeeprs.org.

Storm water runoff erodes efforts to save streams

2010-12-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

by Jeffry Gottfried

It is truly inspirational to see the proliferation of watershed conservation groups and agencies teaming up to "restore" creekside habitat in the Portland area. These projects involve removal of invasive vegetation, replanting of native vegetation, resculpting of stream banks, strategic placement of woody debris, removal of culverts and dams, and a host of other techniques designed to make metro-area waters more fish friendly.

Any and all of the above methods have multiple positive environmental effects. For example, invasive species like ivy and blackberry crowd out native species that do a much better job of protecting soil from erosion and providing food for native birds and other wildlife. But will these methods make it possible for fish to flourish in streams?

I argue that the answer is no, because water management agencies allow tremendous quantities of toxic and environmentally damaging storm water to drain directly into creeks through pipes. This storm water turns creeks, streams and rivers into nothing more than drainage ditches for street and parking lot runoff, while destroying their ability to harbor fish and other aquatic life.

Agencies and nonprofit groups have put the cart before the horse and 'have allowed and encouraged a tremendous effort in stream restoration that has limited success, at best. until storm water is diverted from flowing directly into creeks.

In a natural situation, rain falls throughout a watershed, land that drains to a common stream. Some of this water seeps into the ground and becomes groundwater; some evaporates or is soaked up by plants and is transpired into the atmosphere. What is left runs across land or through groundwater into creeks.

In urban and suburban Portland, watersheds are largely paved over and unavailable for recharging groundwater, or for transpiration back to the atmosphere by plants. Instead, street drains and roof drains rapidly deliver storm water directly back to the nearest creek through big pipes.

Flashy Urban Stream: Fanno Creek at Main Street in Tigard

The creeks and streams "flash;" they rise precipitously, and their channels fill with filthy water from streets and lawns, containing whatever chemicals and biological materials the water picks up. While the toxic water kills whatever is in its path, the high volume of water fills the creek channel to the brim, wetting the sides of the channel. Within hours after the rain stops, the water level drops just as precipitously as it rose, and the creeksides cave in as they dry, causing increased erosion.

When homeowners see their back yards getting washed downstream because of erosion, they are prone to armor their banks with rocks for protection. This in tum causes the creek to bounce off of their hard stream bank and erode their neighbor's bank across the creek, passing the problem downstream.

What is the answer to all this? If the Portland area is ever going to have fish-bearing streams, we must stop dumping storm water directly into streams. Recently there have been many advances in ways to capture storm water on or near the site where it fell and slowly release it into the nearest creek at a rate that would approximate the functioning of a natural watershed.
There is even permeable pavement available that allows water to seep through road surfaces.

The problem is that we started this process of capturing storm water on-site much too late. To have creeks and streams that are biological communities and not simply drainage ditches, we need to locate existing storm drains and intercept them, creating artificial wetlands and swales throughout the Portland area. In addition, every time a property or street is rebuilt or updated, land must be set aside to deal with storm water runoff from that site.

Hundreds of thousands of hours of volunteer labor and millions of public dollars continue to be spent on watershed improvements. It would be wonderful if these improvements could also result in the restoration of biological communities of living things other than coliform bacteria in Portland-area creeks and streams. Stopping the practice of direct storm water discharge into creeks and streams is an essential first step.

Jeffry Gottfried, a science and environmental educator with Educational Recreational Adventures, lives in Southwest Portland.

This article originally appeared in the Oregonian January 27, 2005.

The Teacher and the Parking Lot

2010-11-20T22:18:00.000-08:00

Sue Manning

Back in the summer of 2004, science teacher Sue Manning noticed a problem. The parking lot at the school where she worked was being torn up for a complete repaving. The storm drains in that parking lot were piped directly to Summer Creek, where Sue’s students had been testing water quality, planting native trees to shade the water, and releasing steelhead smolts that they hatched in an aquarium hoping for their eventual return. During the reconstruction of this parking lot, nothing was being done to fix the storm drains that carried polluted stormwater runoff directly to the stream her students worked in.

Parking lots are notorious sources of stormwater pollution. They accumulate oil, grease, and gasoline by-products that drip off of cars. Dust from tires and brake linings contain zinc and copper particles that are toxic to our native fish. Any pollutant that lands in that parking lot was being washed into Summer Creek each time it rained. What Sue recognized in her school’s parking lot was a lost opportunity to restore health to Summer Creek, Fanno Creek, and the Tualatin River.

Sue didn’t let this lost opportunity slide. First she wrote an op-ed in the local newspapers to raise public awareness about the plight of urban streams and the impacts of polluted runoff coming from streets and parking lots through our storm sewer system. And Sue testified at a a DEQ public hearing about lost opportunities to fix stormwater problems. Then she worked with Tualatin Riverkeepers to figure out how we could fix this problem and turn it into a rich educational students for her students.

After discussions with the Riverkeepers, Clean Water Services, and the school district, Sue and her students decided to turn two unpaved islands in their parking lot into rain gardens that would filter pollutants out of the stormwater runoff and allow some of the water to soak into the ground or evaporate.

Clean Water Services was eager to help with the project, donating heavy equipment for excavation, native plants, compost and technical expertise to assure the job was done right. Sue engaged the Riverkeepers to teach her students about stormwater pollution. A math teacher at her school taught her students how to measure the area of an irregular surface and calculate the volume of stormwater that would run into their gardens. Her students did experiments to test the percolation rate of the soil in their gardens so they could design them to prevent standing water that mosquitoes could breed in.
An art class made a video of the project and “rain bumps” that directed rain into the garden were painted by students with pictures of salmon.
Now the stretch of creek that this parking lot drained into is being acquired by the city of Tigard as a nature park, thanks to a campaign that Sue worked on.

There are over 5000 acres of parking lots in the Tualatin Basin and stormwater runoff from them is a very significant problem. Techniques such as rain gardens, tree wells and porous pavements are being used to keep polluted runoff out of our neighborhood streams. Tualatin Riverkeepers is working with Portland Community College and Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District to use these low impact development techniques retrofit some parking lots. But there is a huge potential to transform 5000 acres of parking lots in the Tualatin basin that are still polluting our neighborhood streams.

We need your help to transform 5000 acres of parking lots into stormwater solutions. DEQ is now revising the municipal storm sewer permits that allow polluted runoff to run into our neighborhood streams. We need some significant changes in these permits to prevent pollution from streets and parking lots to the maximum extent practicable. These changes are

Permits must require low impact development techniques to reduce runoff in all new construction and reconstruction. This requirement has recently been adopted by the state of Washington.
Permits need to require cities and stormwater agencies should provide incentives to retrofit parking lots like the city of Portland does for green roof retrofits or planting street trees.
Permits need to hold parking lot owners accountable for preventing pollution through sweeping and maintenance.

Sue Manning has shown us that a motivated individual can initiate significant changes to benefit our streams. You can be a motivated individual to and take action. You can contact DEQ and ask them to right new stormwater permits that require low impact development and encourage retrofits. You can contribute to Tualatin Riverkeepers to help us prepare expert technical and legal testimony to influence these new storm sewer permits. And you can help us tell your stormwater story like Sue’s. Please do what you can to help our neighborhood streams and the Tualatin River.

Send your stormwater stories to brian@tualatinriverkeepers.org.

Send your comments about municipal storm sewer permits to

Benjamin Benninghoff
benninghoff.benjamin@deq.state.or.us
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
811 SW 6th Avenue
Portland, OR 97204.

Soap on the Water

2010-11-15T10:54:00.000-08:00

Recently I got this e-mail from Ken, a long-time Tualatin Riverkeepers member:

Just after the rainstorm on Sept 7th, 2010, I saw this pollution plume coming from the Tigard walk way path into the river, North bank. The location was between 99 bridge and Cook Park, on the dirt path from the paved walk way to the river. This path is a cleared area that many people use to launch kayaks & canoes, put dogs into the river, and get to the water. The plume looked very much like detergent--amazing how much & how fast. We were just leaving for the day so didn't see how big it eventually got, but it covered a pretty large area rapidly--with more coming. Thanks for your attention!

What Ken witnessed was the discharge from a storm drain where someone was washing their car in the street. Most of the storm drains in the Tualatin basin are connected directly from the street to the nearest stream. Whatever goes in the street ends up in the stream. The EPA notes that washwater generated from outdoor car washing may contain many types of contaminants, including large amounts of petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and nutrients. These pollutants are toxic to fish and can be lethal at times when stream flow is low. Read more.
Despite this, residential car washing is specifically exempt from regulation in the Municipal Stormwater Permits that DEQ issues to the cities and storm water agencies in Oregon. Until we break the street-to-stream connection or get effective and enforceable regulation prohibiting this practice, we must rely on educational campaigns and the good will of our neighbors to prevent car washing from polluting our river and streams.
Tualatin Riverkeepers believes that we as a community can do a much better job of protecting our river and streams. This starts with effective enforceable stormwater regulation that prohibits damaging practices like residential car washing and encourages retrofit of storm drains that dump pollution directly from street to stream.
One example of such a retrofit in happening on Burnham Street in Tigard just around the corner from our office. Here the city of Tigard is replacing storm drains that connect directly from street to stream with stormwater planters that slow down the flow of runoff and remove pollutants that are taken up by plants. What we can do on Burnham Street, we can do throughout the Tualatin Valley.
Tualatin Riverkeepers is launching a program using trees and engineered soils to reduce runoff and pollution from parking lots. Our first demonstration project will be at the Sunset Swim Center, a cooperative project with THPRD, DEQ, Clean Water Services and Green Girl Land Development.
There are several ways that you can help protect our river and streams from polluted stormwater runoff. First you can learn more about stormwater pollution from our urban runoff web page.
Next month DEQ will be soliciting comments on the renewal of the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Permits for the 6 largest stormwater systems in Oregon. You can write to DEQ and ask them to prohibit polluting practices like residential car washing and require cities to break the street-to-stream connection with retrofit projects like the Burnham Street Project.
You can sign up for our e-mail action alerts to let you know about our Friends Forums and the public meetings about the municipal storm sewer permits.
You can make a financial contribution to TRK support our staff in reviewing the stormwater permits and to hire expert witnesses to testify on the behalf of our neighborhood streams. Network for Good is a safe, convenient way of contributing to Tualatin Riverkeepers online. Like many other nonprofit organizations, businesses and government agencies, the economic climate has been challenging for TRK. Right now your contributions are more important than ever.
Please get involved and do what you can to protect our river and streams from polluted stormwater runoff.