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Runoff Rescue

Paving driveways and patios with permeable materials, installing dry wells or cisterns to store and slowly release rainwater, and varying street widths according to traffic usage are among the stormwater protection strategies suggested in Start at the Source: Residential Site Planning and Design Guidance Manual for Stormwater Quality Protection, a user-friendly tool for municipal planners and private developers from the Bay Area Stormwater Management Agencies Association.

"We wanted to illustrate site design principles and techniques that protect stormwater," say BASMAA's Geoff Brousseau, noting that these principles are already used extensively in other parts of the country. "We don't use them in the Bay Area because we're not used to it, but we hope the manual will spur planners and designers to more creativity," he says.

Based on the premise that the best opportunities to reduce nonpoint source pollution and erosion occur in the planning and design phase of a project, the guide offers a menu of stormwater protection techniques from which planners and developers can choose those appropriate to a particular site and project. The guide places its recommendations in context by providing simple explanations of the hydrologic cycle, Clean Water Act requirements and the emergence of impervious land coverage as an environmental indicator. It also includes case studies reflecting the range of geographical, hydrological and market conditions found in the Bay Area, and makes effective use of diagrams and drawings to illustrate points made in the text.

Drainage systems are a particular focus of the guide, which notes that conventional systems are designed only for flood control during large, infrequent storms. Since most damage to streams and water quality is caused by small, frequent storms, the guide emphasizes ways of integrating traditional flood control systems with strategies for everyday stormwater quality control. Throughout, the guide emphasizes that the best stormwater management system will rely on a few simple techniques, applied repeatedly over an entire project or site.

In a foreword, Tom Mumley of the S.F. Regional Board says his agency will use the manual to gauge the efforts of municipal stormwater programs to implement their NPDES stormwater permits and to review developers efforts to reduce the impact of proposed projects.

The manuals will be distributed at a series of workshops to be held this spring around the Bay Area (see calendar).

Contact: Geoff Brousseau (510) 286-0615

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