The series of oil spills in the U.S. this year—the BP spill, other Gulf of Mexico spills, the million-gallon pipeline rupture in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River- should energize efforts in city after city to revamp transportation and breathe new life into alternatives to the automobile.

Our metropolitan area news over the past year and a half has regularly pointed to the decline in performance of Metrorail, along with a serious lack of investment in capital improvements. Just replacing the old escalators (short-flight ones) is taking months. Riders now have to face fare hikes while drivers never pay the full cost of their automobile usage on the city.

Bus routes are also suffering. The Washington Post reported on August 16 that a popular bus line in Northern Virginia will close in September for lack of funding.

The road strategy continues to fail in the US and around the world. (Moscow story) The Intercounty Connector should be a major embarrassment to a county like Montgomery that prides itself on environmental awareness.

Our nation’s capital should take some bold steps to reduce congestion and to upgrade our public transportation. We can look to cities worldwide that have had success with congestion charges for entering the city. Yes, I know that Congress will likely veto such measures, but let’s bring on the fight and push for new sources of revenue.

In London a $10/vehicle peak-hour congestion fee was put in place for cars entering the center city. The fee was upped to $16 in 2005 and this toll resulted in a 36% drop in peak-hour traffic and a 50% increase in the number of bicycles.

Is there any sign of hope for public transportation on the horizon? On July 25th the Chicago Tribune reported that for the first time, both suburban and urban citizens in the Chicago metro area think that more money ought to be spent on transit than on highways. This poll is one piece of evidence that a crack may be opening in the highway lobby’s stranglehold on transportation choices.

Another promising sign is the growth in U.S. transit ridership. Since 1996 transit ridership has increased by an average of 2.6% annually, and the year 2009 witnessed a 3.3% increase.

Recent economic analyses highlight the costliness of oil and automobile usage, and evidence from these analyses should drive big shifts in policy. For instance, the Department of Transport in the U.K. has found that for each British pound spent to reduce car usage, there are £10 of benefits in the economy from fuel savings, reduced congestion costs, and lower pollution levels.

Why is it that DC, Maryland, and Virginia are not funding Metro to the maximum to reap benefits of attracting more people to leave their cars in the garage? Why is it that every year transit supporters have to scramble to get adequate budgets?

Now is the time to rescue America from the Dark Ages of highway building. A comparison of transportation systems between European cities and US cities is illuminating. A quick look at Atlanta versus Amsterdam demonstrates the gap. In Atlanta 95% of residents commute to work by car. In Amsterdam 40% commute by car, 35% bike or walk, and 25% go by transit.

Here in the Washington metro area, we can feel somewhat relieved that we are better than Atlanta in transportation choices but the statistics from Amsterdam should serve as a reality check on how far behind we still are.

As the fall primaries and general election approach, it is time to demand a commitment from all those running for public office to reverse the disproportionate spending on roads instead of public transportation.

Katherine Bryant is an intern with the D.C. Farm to School Network, and a seasoned community food security advocate.  This blog describes her recent farm to school “field-trip” to Delaware and the Eastern Shore.

I had the honor of joining a small group of DC school food service providers, Network Coordinator Andrea Northup, and a D.C. City Council staffer on a trip to Delaware – a fitting ‘initiation’ into the role of DC Farm to School Network intern, The goal of the trip was to get a feel Delaware’s local food supply, and explore how that supply can connect with the demand for local foods in the D.C. school system. Our knowledgeable and well-connected host, fourth-generation watermelon farmer and Delaware Fruit and Vegetable Association president David Marvel, led our energetic and passionate group on a wonderful journey of learning, networking, and of course – eating!

Just a short distance from DC, Delmarva (a catchy name for the Eastern Shore region of Delaware Maryland, and Virginia) makes its mark as the epicenter of watermelon production, with a notable portion of the country’s corn and lima bean yield as well. Our first stop was the S.E.W. Friel sweet corn farm. We were able to snag a few minutes with the farmers amidst the busyness of a season full in swing – which means around the clock harvesting, packing, distributing and marketing of products. We stood in awe of the over 13-feet tall machines capable of harvesting 60,000 lbs of corn per hour.  We chatted with some of the many folks who work in concert to bring that sweet corn all the way from seed to harvester to tractor-trailer truck to storage facility to point-of-sale (e.g. supermarket) to a family’s refrigerator.

Would you have guessed that both schoolchildren and Delmarva watermelons use the same form of transportation? In our exploration of the watermelon’s journey from farm to table, we learned that retired school buses are rendered windowless and accompany teams of migrant workers as they walk through fields tossing watermelons on board.  The roads of Delaware are flooded with melon-filled busses on their way to washing facilities, auctions or markets. We saw Lakeside Farms. It was here that we met Sean Cloughtery, Managing Editor of American Farm. He shared our adventures with the farming community.

We watched in fascination at the Laurel Produce Auction, as truckloads of locally-grown produce were paraded and sold to the highest bidder by what appeared to be inconspicuous nods. From mid-July until mid-September, the Auction sells an average of 2,300,000 watermelons!

We paid a visit to the Kenny Brothers cucumber sorting and grading facility, for a glance into how a cucumber becomes a pickle. The facility washes, sorts and ships 15-20 truckloads per day to local pickle manufacturers – each truckload containing five-acres worth of cucumbers!

Over lunch, we had the opportunity to meet and share ideas and best practices with the inspired folks behind the Delaware Farm to School Network – a coalition of Delaware Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, and private/non-profit sector partners led by Nemours Health & Prevention Services.  We also stopped at Fifer’s Orchard and Market tasting some of the best peaches in Delaware.  And of course, no day would have been complete without a stop at the Delaware State Fair complete with animal auctions, 4-H and FFA displays, kettle corn, and John Deere farm equipment.

The trip offered a valuable perspective on the scale of production needed to feed the children of Washington, DC; the kindness and generosity of those local food producers and their willingness to meet that demand; and the tremendous process involved in getting food from farm to cafeteria tray.  In the end, we piled into our van, District-bound and laden with some of the best fruits and vegetables available in Delaware, with big dreams for schools and growers and how to narrow the gap between them.

This is it! We now have a date and time for our upcoming DC Mayor Candidate’s Forum on the Environment! We already have the commitment of candidate and DC Council Chair Vincent Gray. We are hoping Mayor Fenty and others will also be able to participate.

We will be holding this important educational discussion at Harriet’s Family Restaurant, 436 11th Street NW (near Metro Center & Archives Metro Stations) at 5:30 – 7:00 pm. You are all invited to come eat, drink, or just listen as our Mayoral candidates answer questions from some the District’s most active environmental campaigns.

You ARE the DC environmental community and this is YOUR opportunity to show the Mayoral candidates you want them to prioritize our pressing issues, both in their campaigns and should they be elected to office. In order to achieve this goal I need your help:

1. We need as many environmental organizations and activists to participate in this forum. Register yourself for this event NOW! CLICK HERE!
2. We need your organization to sponsor this Mayoral Forum and show the candidates how united we are in our efforts to restore the District’s fragile urban environment. Become a sponsor by emailing me at cweiss@dcen.net . It is as simple as that!
3. This is a educational forum so any 501 (C3) organization can sponsor this event. There will be NO endorsement connected to this event.
4. We need you to invite your friends and organizational members to this event. Again, this is going to be the only opportunity for the environmental community to show their unity during this election cycle.
5. Please direct your members to our Registration Page at: https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6642/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=23988
6. We will be holding a Environmental Mayoral Forum Conference Call next Tuesday the 17th @ Noon. The call in number is (775) 269-3893. When prompted enter 399602. RSVP to this meeting at cweiss@dcen.net . It will be very quick. (45 minutes to an hour, tops!) We will discuss format of event, questions and outreach efforts.

This should be a fairly simple and straight forward event. We had hundreds participate in the Mayoral Forum in 2006. I think we should, with a little work, match that level of participation.

REGISTER FOR THE FORUM NOW! CLICK HERE!

On July 29th the DC Environmental Network held a brown-bag luncheon on “How Green is the District’s Development Future.”  Speakers made presentations on the state of development in the District and focused on specific proposals, past and present, that demonstrate potential problems for the health of our neighborhoods.

Our speakers included:

• Jim Dougherty, Conservation Chair, Sierra Club ( DC Chapter) – Jim spoke about 70 years of unjust land use along the Anacostia River.
• Dottie Yunger, Anacostia Riverkeeper – Dottie discussed plans to develop a shopping center in Ft. Lincoln that could destroy many acres of wetland and forest.
• Tony Norman, McMillan Park Committee – Tony discussed the latest efforts by the membership of the McMillan Park Committee to protect the historic McMillan Reservoir property from unsustainable development.

We had a good turnout of about 37 including 7 on the phone.  Organizations represented included the Environmental Health Group, Global Green USA, Defenders of Potomac River Parkland, Urban Solar Solutions, Surfrider Foundation, Anacostia Watershed Society, Just Economics LLC, DC Statehood Green Party, Friends of the Earth, University of Maryland, Casey Trees, Sierra Club, McMillan Park Committee, Anacostia Riverkeeper, League of Women Voters, Restore Mass Avenue and Ecolocity.

To learn more and watch the presentations CLICK HERE!

I was thinking of that hilarious, bizarre quote from Admiral Stockdale — Ross Perot’s 1992 running mate — as I sat down to write this. Why is the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, a budget watchdog that focuses largely on issues like affordable housing and human services, showing up on the DC Environmental Network blog?  Was this some kind of mistake?

Actually, there are lots of reasons to be here, and I appreciate the opportunity.

People like you who are passionate about improving DC’s environmental health should get to know more about the DC budget — and we at DCFPI are happy to help.  And there are many times reasons that environmental advocates may want to lock arms with advocates for the poor.  Here are a few.

Open and Transparent Government: This year, advocates led the cause to get the DC Council’s crucial final budget deliberations open to the public.  They were televised, which was a step forward though not perfect.  The streetcar fiasco could have been avoided if the Council had released its proposed final budget a few days before the vote — instead of a few hours.  I look forward to working with DCEN members to make DC’s budget documents and budget process more open and transparent.

Business Tax Subsidy Accountability: Before you say “huh?,” consider this: The Mayor and DC Council award millions in tax breaks each year to a wide array of development projects.  I am thinking of the $25 million offered to Northrop Grumman and a pending proposal to exempt the retail activities in Union Station from property taxes forever.  Every dollar of wasteful tax breaks is a dollar that is not available to meet real DC needs.

Friends of the Earth was one of the leading groups to challenge DC’s $700 million baseball stadium boondoggle, and together we almost succeeded in forcing the stadium to be built with a serious private contribution rather than being entirely financed with public funds. It was fun, too.

Revenue Increases: The Great Recession has devastated DC’s finances and forced cuts across the board.  The budget crisis is likely to continue for some time.  Environmentalists and advocates for the poor can work together to promote a balanced approach to the recession — one that includes revenue increase to help keep important services and programs from being cut.

Environmental Justice: Low-income communities often suffer the most from environmental negligence, and thus have a lot to gain from better environmental stewardship.

So, thanks for having me.  I look forward to getting to know you!

DC Environmental Network:

I would like to welcome you to our new DC Environmental Network website. Over the next six months i am hoping to evolve this site to be a tool for Metro Washington region environmentalists to share information about their campaigns and reach out to the broader environmental community. I have nested a blog on the main page to help bring fresh content on many issues. Our current line up of contributors include:

• Cori Lombard, Natural Resources Defense Council – Cori will be writing about Anacostia River restoration issues.
• Councilmember Mary Cheh, DC Council- Mary will be writing about the Council’s exciting work to green the District.
• Brent Blackwelder, President emeritus, Friends of the Earth – Brent will be sharing his vast experience and passion on many environmental issues of concern to the region and planet.
• Jennifer Chavez, Attorney, Earthjustice – Jennifer will be sharing why litigation is an important tool for advocacy on behalf of area watersheds including the Chesapeake Bay, Anacostia River, Potomac River and Rock Creek.
• Mark Buscaino, Executive Director, Casey Trees – Mark will be sharing how important trees are to restoring rivers, cleaning up our air and fighting global warming.
• Ed Lazere, Executive Director, DC Fiscal Policy Institute – Ed will be talking about how important it is to expand our coalitions beyond the traditional environmental community in order to effect change. He will also use his extensive budget expertise to help us define the funding issues of our time.
• Maria Fyodorova, Environmental Communications Consultant - Maria will challenge the environmental community to look inward and come up with ways to increase our legitimacy and credibility.

Our website will try and show the face of the local environmental community. I am hoping you will help in developing our site more with your creative suggestions and engagement.

SPECIAL INVITATION: I want to invite you to an upcoming DC Environmental Network Luncheon on “How Green is the District’s Development Future” this Thursday the 29th at noon at Friends of the Earth, 1100 15th Street NW, 11th floor.  The face of our neighborhoods could change for the worse unless the environmental community gets involved in shaping how new development projects are planned. Badly planned developments can pollute our rivers and air, destroy marshlands and trees and contribute to global warming. Well planned developments can grow our city, protect our environment and improve our quality of life.  I believe this is an issue of critical importance to all metro based environmentalists.

Hope to see you on Thursday.

Most of us think of rain as cleansing – it washes away all the dirt and grime and leaves everything fresh and clean.  But have you ever considered where all that dirt and grime go?  When rain falls or snow melts on roads and buildings and parking lots, its natural path into the ground is blocked.  Instead of being absorbed like it would be in nature, the stormwater runs off those impervious surfaces, picking up pollution along the way.  From there, the pollution/stormwater mix runs into storm drains and gets dumped, untreated, into the Anacostia, Rock Creek and Potomac.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has long understood how damaging stormwater pollution is to water quality.  Under its Clean Water Act authority, EPA issues permits that require cities to take steps to reduce stormwater runoff.  EPA recently issued a draft of the DC stormwater permit, which is called a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System or MS4 permit.

The best way to deal with stormwater is to mimic what happens in nature, by putting that water back into the ground where it falls, rather than funneling it into drains and pipes.   This is achieved through “green infrastructure” measures like rain gardens, green roofs, tree cover, permeable pavement, rain barrels, or anything else that keeps rainwater from running off into our sewers.  Not only is this a very effective way to deal with stormwater pollution, but increasing vegetation and green space improves air quality, reduces energy costs, and increases property values.  The draft DC MS4 permit contains specific targets for implementation of green infrastructure controls in the District and this is good news.

EPA’s draft permit requires all construction, whether it’s new or rebuilt from existing development, to retain the first 1.2 inches of stormwater on-site during any storm.  Retaining stormwater on-site prevents runoff from washing pollutants into the waterways and denigrating water quality.  Studies have shown that a 1.2 inch retention standard in the District is feasible and cost effective.  In fact, federal buildings in the District have to meet a much higher standard, retaining the first 1.7 inches inches of stormwater on site.

However, Mayor Fenty’s District Department of the Environment (DDOE), one of the agencies responsible for implementing the permit, wants a lower standard with more readily available waivers for developers.  Actually, DDOE doesn’t want EPA to issue a retention standard at all, they want to do it themselves.  There’s just one problem – by law, DDOE should have already implemented a stormwater retention standard, but they never did.  DC City Council passed a law in 2008 requiring DDOE to implement a one inch retention standard for the Anacostia Redevelopment Zone.  The deadline for implementation was fall 2009.  It’s now summer 2010 and DDOE has issued no standards.  In light of its past performance, DDOE’s promise to promptly issue stormwater standards for the entire District lacks credibility.  DDOE should support the fair and reasonable retention standard EPA adopted in the draft MS4 permit.

The ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has painfully highlighted the consequences of our reliance on fossil fuels. Over the years, the District has worked hard to implement a progressive energy policy, including my Clean and Affordable Energy Act of 2008. That Act established a Sustainable Energy Utility, an innovative approach modeled after states such as Vermont and Delaware. When the SEU ramps up in 2011, it will offer programs for the promotion of renewable energy, energy efficiency, green jobs, and a responsible energy policy for the District.

When the proposed Fiscal Year 2011 budget was sent to the Council, I was concerned that this reform would be stopped in its tracks. The proposal cut sustainable energy spending by half: from $23 million to $10 million. It also essentially eliminated the SEU, which was supposed to be funded at $7.5 million, not the meager $1 million in the budget.

After consulting with members of the SEU Advisory Board, who opined that this cut would have a destructive chilling effect on competition for the first 5-year term of the SEU, I made it a priority to restore needed funding.

Fortunately, with the help of DCEN and my colleagues, I’m happy to report that we were able to restore the entire SEU budget. But it serves as a lesson that we must be ever vigilant to ensure long-term sustainability in the District.

Have you ever sat on a porch to relax or read a book and been driven indoors by sonic booming lawn mowers that make you feel part of the runway at National Airport?  If this is not enough, how about adding a few leaf blowers into the mix as you stroll through your neighborhood and you might as well be operating a jack-hammer.

Did you ever wonder about the ecological cost of modern lawns beyond the noise and pollution from mowing.  I’m talking about the pesticides, fertilizers, and water needed for maintenance and the subsequent runoff into rivers and streams, bays and estuaries.

When looking at greenhouse gas emissions, off-road machinery and vehicles annually produce 220 million tons of carbon dioxide.  Of this total from off-road vehicles, over half comes from mining, construction, and farm machines.  Surprisingly, lawn and garden equipment like mowers and leaf blowers produce about 12% or 26 million tons of the total.  Air quality in urban areas can suffer greatly in hot weather as a result.

Fortunately, a number of organizations such as Beyond Pesticides have been promoting alternatives to lawns and safer lawns and have a superb website with numerous fact sheets covering some of the points I am making.  One organization SafeLawns.org has featured the slogan: “Time to Get Your Grass Off Gas”—most fitting as the BP spill is the latest in the ongoing oil spills, leaks, and other fiascoes attributable from our dependence on oil.

By growing a smaller lawn and/or switching to organic lawn care you can reduce or even eliminate many of these gas guzzling components.

Switching to efficient Energy Star electric mowers or battery-powered cordless mowers can get rid of oil spills, save on trips for fuel, and reduce noise.

In addition to the reduction of gasoline usage, there are great health benefits for your family such as less asthma and other diseases, reduction in leukemia rates in your pets, and  fewer contaminants entering the Chesapeake Bay. Studies find that pesticides such as the weedkiller 2,4-D pass from mother to child through umbilical cord blood and breast milk. A study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute finds that household and garden pesticide use can increase the risk of childhood leukemia as much as sevenfold.

Getting rid of noisy and unnecessary machines would make for a salubrious city.  Over 100 cities have ordinances restricting leaf blowers.

Botany Professor Douglas Tallamy at the University of Delaware has pointed out the great opportunity to reverse declining biological diversity in the United States by converting numerous urban lawns into attractive native shrubs, bushes, and small trees.  With native bushes and shrubs which are pest resistant, you don’t have lots of maintenance that consumes energy,  water, pesticides.  And you can get a lot more butterflies in your yard.

Have you ever gone out to enjoy a paddle or a walk along the shores of one of our local streams, particularly in the days after a storm, and found yourself discouraged at the state of the water?  Perhaps as your hands dipped into the water along with your paddle, you wondered whether the oils, chemicals, and other urban runoff were endangering your health.  Perhaps you spotted one our area’s rare eagles and wondered whether  it too is being exposed to all this urban gunk.

For years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claimed that these pollution incidents are okay, as long as the waters were, on average over the course of the year, meeting water quality requirements.  Members of the Anacostia Riverkeeper, Potomac Riverkeeper, and Friends of the Earth thought this was wrong, and took the issue to court.  Represented by Earthjustice, they filed a lawsuit under a provision of the Clean Water Act that requires EPA to adopt pollution limits called “total maximum daily loads” for waters that are impaired – like the Potomac River, Rock Creek, and Anacostia River are – by pollution from urban runoff and combined sewer overflows.

Earlier this year, a court ruled that EPA must not only adopt these legally required “daily” pollution limits, but must do so within a set schedule.  As a result, the District’s waters will soon be covered by daily pollution limits for bacteria, metals, and harmful organic compounds.  This was a simple but important win for all of us who treasure our local water resources and want to see them restored within our lifetime.

The Urban Forest Preservation Act, passed in 2002 with a wide coalition of government, non-profit and individual supporters, set the groundwork for preserving the District’s tree canopy.  For those wishing to remove trees over 18” in diameter (56” in circumference), they must first either pay a fee (or fine) into the Tree Fund,  or replant a specified number of replacement trees, to make up for the canopy lost.

The Tree Fund was intended to be a “safe” place to deposit any fees/fines which were then to be drawn upon for planting replacement trees.  The Act states that moneys in the Fund shall not revert to the General Fund of the District of Columbia for any purpose.

Despite these safeguards, DC’s FY 2011 budget emptied the $539,000 in the Tree Fund and deposited it into the General Fund.  That means 2000 trees will not be planted, and those who contributed to the Fund under the assumption that their moneys would be used to plant trees have been mislead.

This is a lesson that we should not forget.  Trees and the legal structures created to preserve them are only as effective as the residents who care about them.  To that end, I ask that you read our “Call to Action” on page 4 of Casey Trees’ July/August Newsletter.  Contact your elected representative and let them know that trees are important to your neighborhood, and that the Tree Fund moneys should be restored.  DC is known as the City of Trees – let’s keep it that way.

How development projects at Poplar Point, Ft. Lincoln, McMillan Park and other sites around the District will shape our communities.

Featuring:

• Jim Dougherty, Conservation Chair, Sierra Club
• Tony Norman, Chairman, McMillan Park Committee (invited)
• Dottie Yunger, Anacostia Riverkeeper
• Chris Weiss, Director, DC Environmental Network

Even as the national economy continues to suffer developers and government agencies are positioning the District of Columbia and surrounding region to move as quickly as possible on numerous development ventures both new and old including projects at Poplar Point, Ft. Lincoln and McMillan Park in the District. Depending on how carefully Mayor Fenty and the DC Council shepherd plans for these new developments the District could either see well designed livable communities and businesses or projects that negatively impact the health and economic viability of our city.

Many in the Districts environmental community are particularly concerned about urban green spaces. Urban green spaces play a key role in improving the livability of our towns and cities. The quality of life and viability of cities depend largely on the design of urban green as well as open, public spaces in order to fulfill their role as an important component of our city. Urban green spaces are seen by many as an important contribution to the sustainable development of cities.

However, based on preliminary plans and visioning some of us have seen so far for Poplar Point, Ft. Lincoln and McMillan Park, the potential benefits of green spaces are not being adequately prioritized.

Join us as our panelists discuss strategies for strong, economically viable communities and protection and expansion of urban green spaces in a way that grows the District.
Each panelist will speak for 5-10 minutes. We will then convene a discussion open to all participants.

DATE & TIME: Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 12:00 NOON to 1:30 PM
PLACE: Global Green USA,1100 15th Street NW, 11th Floor.
REGISTER HERE!
CALL-IN NUMBER: 775-269-3893 when prompted enter 399602

Please remember to bring a picture ID to get in the building.

Ask Mayor Adrian Fenty to Follow EPA’s Lead on Stormwater Retention Standards to Protect Our Rivers and Creeks!

Most of us think of rain as cleansing – it washes away all the dirt and grime and leaves everything fresh and clean.  But have you ever considered where all that dirt and grime go?  When rain falls or snow melts on roads and buildings and parking lots, its natural path into the ground is blocked.  Instead of being absorbed like it would be in nature, the stormwater runs off those impervious surfaces, picking up pollution along the way.  From there, the pollution/stormwater mix runs into storm drains and gets dumped, untreated, into the Anacostia, Rock Creek and Potomac.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has long understood how damaging stormwater pollution is to water quality.  Under its Clean Water Act authority, EPA issues permits that require cities to take steps to reduce stormwater runoff.  EPA recently issued a draft of the DC stormwater permit, which is called a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System or MS4 permit.

The best way to deal with stormwater is to mimic what happens in nature, by putting that water back into the ground where it falls, rather than funneling it into drains and pipes.   This is achieved through “green infrastructure” measures like rain gardens, green roofs, tree cover, permeable pavement, rain barrels, or anything else that keeps rainwater from running off into our sewers.  Not only is this a very effective way to deal with stormwater pollution, but increasing vegetation and green space improves air quality, reduces energy costs, and increases property values.  The draft DC MS4 permit contains specific targets for implementation of green infrastructure controls in the District and this is good news.

Potomac River - Washington, DC

EPA’s draft permit requires all construction, whether it’s new or rebuilt from existing development, to retain the first 1.2 inches of stormwater on-site during any storm.  Retaining stormwater on-site prevents runoff from washing pollutants into the waterways and denigrating water quality.  Studies have shown that a 1.2 inch retention standard in the District is feasible and cost effective.  In fact, federal buildings in the District have to meet a much higher standard, retaining the first 1.7 inches inches of stormwater on site.

However, Mayor Fenty’s District Department of the Environment (DDOE), one of the agencies responsible for implementing the permit, wants a lower standard with more readily available waivers for developers.  Actually, DDOE doesn’t want EPA to issue a retention standard at all, they want to do it themselves.  There’s just one problem – by law, DDOE should have already implemented a stormwater retention standard, but they never did.  DC City Council passed a law in 2008 requiring DDOE to implement a one inch retention standard for the Anacostia Redevelopment Zone.  The deadline for implementation was fall 2009.  It’s now summer 2010 and DDOE has issued no standards.  In light of its past performance, DDOE’s promise to promptly issue stormwater standards for the entire District lacks credibility.  DDOE should support the fair and reasonable retention standard EPA adopted in the draft MS4 permit.

Take Action: Ask Mayor Fenty to Follow EPA’s Lead AND Protect Our Rivers and Creeks!