On September 15, 2009 from 9 to 11:30 a.m., the Pacific Northwest Water Program, partnering with WSU Extension’s award winning video department, will bring a glimpse of what private citizens, city/county governments, and agencies are doing to prevent polluted runoff from rushing to water resources. The video team traveled to two high desert communities and a Puget Sound island to film strategies used in those diverse climates to manage rain and snow melt runoff. Interviews held with local government officials, city engineers, developers, and homeowners tell the story of stewardship and social responsibility that progress through the populace of the Northwest. We found that local governments, even when no statutory language exists in ordinances, are proceeding toward that end by advocating to the construction industry that all runoff should be managed on-site. Off-street catchment area -- Oak Harbor, WA. The mayor of Coupeville, Washington told us that she, along with the planning and zoning staff are giving ‘whole-hearted support’ to development plans that incorporate rain gardens, vegetated or green roofs, and swales to allow for slowing and cleansing runoff before infiltration into the water table. Even though Whidbey Island is in Puget Sound where rain is prevalent, these are strategies that encourage a zero-runoff goal. Sharing the Island’s central location with several farms, the Coupeville mayor envisions a time when the city and agriculture producers can partner on a bio-retention project that combines city street bio-filtered stormwater with irrigation supplies to water crops in the rainless summers. Farmers have offered fields close to the city to facilitate the future project. During the filmed case study, we will tour the Island to see homes with rain gardens and swales catching rainwater. A non-profit community center has worked for several years to include green strategies in their properties as a show-case for ideas that may be adopted by other businesses and homeowners. Public buildings and parks are equipped with permeable surfaces, swales, and other on-site strategies. Ketchum, Idaho and Bend, Oregon are in high elevation, arid climates that might seem to not need so much invested in runoff prevention. Speaking with builders, architects, and homeowners belies this theory. Ketchum may only receive 8 or so inches of rainfall per year; however, this small amount of precipitation comes in the form of storm cells producing gully-washers that rush runoff to blue-ribbon trout fishing in the Big Wood River. Snow melt is the main source of runoff. Up to twelve feet of snow can fall on Ketchum in the winter. At spring break-up the melt water carries a winter’s worth of street debris contaminating fish habitat and causing stream banks to erode into the river. The city engineer works with planners to assure that new construction follows the principle of mitigating runoff from properties. Several homeowners and builders we spoke with, keep this in mind when designing their site-plans. Bend, Oregon’s elevation is much less than that of Ketchum. The city began a stormwater utility with fees based on impervious surface areas of a site. As a state, Oregon has adopted language that regulates runoff from properties into waterbodies. Bend follows suit to protect property and human welfare as well as wildlife habitat areas from flooding. Northwest Crossing, a five-year old planned community is the crowning jewel of the city’s stance on zero-runoff. The community design code includes permeable paving for drives and walkways, rain gardens or swales at low-points of property, and use of drip lines and dry-wells to conduct and collect non-filtered stormwater. In Bend, we found home-owner/designers who have used available knowledge to prevent rain water and snow melt from becoming stormwater.

Pacific Northwest Regional Water Quality Coordination Project Partners Land Grant Universities Alaska Cooperative Extension Service Contact Fred Sorensen: 907-786-6311 http://www.uaf.edu/ces/water/ University Publications: http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/ces/publications/ Idaho University of Idaho Cooperative Extension System Contact Bob Mahler: 208-885-7025 http://www.uidaho.edu/wq/wqhome.html University Publications: http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/Catalog/catalog.html Oregon Oregon State University Extension Service Contact Mike Gamroth: 541-737-3316 http://extension.oregonstate.edu/ University Publications: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/ Washington Washington State University WSU Extension Contact Bob Simmons: 360-427-9670 ext. 690 http://wawater.wsu.edu/ University Publications: http://pubs.wsu.edu/ Northwest Indian College Contact Charlotte Clausing: 360-392-4319 cclausing@nwic.edu or http://www.nwic.edu/ Water Resource Research Institutes Water and Environmental Research Center (Alaska) http://www.uaf.edu/water/ Idaho Water Resources Research Institute http://www.boise.uidaho.edu/ Institute for Water and Watersheds (Oregon) http://water.oregonstate.edu/ State of Washington Water Research Center http://www.swwrc.wsu.edu/ Environmental Protection Agency EPA, Region 10 The Pacific Northwest http://www.epa.gov/r10earth/ Office of Research and Development, Corvallis Laboratory http://www.epa.gov/wed/ For more information contact Jan Seago at 206-553-0038 or seago.jan@epa.gov
	The Project Land Grant Universities, Water Research Institutes and EPA Region 10 have formed a partnership to provide research and education to communities about protecting or restoring the quality of water resources. This partnership is being supported in part by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Our Goal and Approach The goal of this Project is to provide leadership for water resources research, education and outreach to help people, industry and governments to prevent and solve current and emerging water quality and quantity problems. The approach to achieving this goal is for the Partners to develop a coordinated regional water quality effort based on, and strengthening, individual state programs. Our Strengths The Project promotes regional collaboration by acknowledging existing programs and successful efforts; assessing program gaps; identifying potential issues for cross-agency and private sector collaboration, and developing a clearinghouse of expertise and programs. In addition, the Project establishes or enhances partnerships with federal, state and local environmental and water resource management agencies, such as by placing a University Liaison within the offices of EPA Region 10.
	Many of the homes we filmed are certified LEED homes. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design™ is a designation by the US Green Building Council that assures that buildings are energy efficient and environmentally friendly. While much of the certification deals with solar, both passive and VOC, there are guidelines to assure a building is planned so that stormwater is dealt with on-site. The stormwater mitigation guidelines were the basis for our questions to homeowners, developers, and architects. Join this Northwest tour at 9 a.m. on September 15th either on your computer at http://eces.wsu.edu/video/stream.html or call your local Cooperative Extension Service to ask if they will host you and a community or government group for this exciting look at how the Pacific Northwest is stemming stormwater, one back yard at a time. For information and assistance, please email Jan Seago at seago.jan@epa.gov or call 360-951-5536 to organize a group showing in your town. Permeable pavers and green space. Northwest Crossing rain garden.
	National Water Quality Program Areas The four land grant universities in the Pacific Northwest have aligned our water resource extension and research efforts with eight themes of the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Animal Waste Management Drinking Water and Human Health Environmental Restoration Nutrient and Pesticide Management Pollution Assessment and Prevention Watershed Management Water Conservation and Agricultural Water Management Water Policy and Economics
	This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U. S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No 2008-51130-4734.

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HOME | About | Calendar | Contacts | Links | PNW Water Updates | Sitemap NIFA National Water Quality Program This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No. 2008-51130-04734. all external sites will open in a new browser window page last modified on January 31, 2009