By Robert Field
LNP’s editorial “Becoming good stewards of the Chesapeake Bay” at long last lifts up the lid a bit more to allow its readers to take a peak at what is brewing as a result of the Rick Gray administrations blatant ignoring and concealing the largest financial challenge that the City has ever faced.
According to the LNP editors:
“The Environmental Protection Agency is cracking down on Lancaster County for its role in polluting the Chesapeake Bay. Those in agriculture, real estate development and sewage treatment have been pressured to meet federal regulations. The focus has now turned to stormwater management…
“For years the city has implemented its “green infrastructure” project, part of a 25-year, $140 million plan, to create additional pervious surfaces — rain gardens, vegetative “green” roofs, porous pavement and so on — throughout the city. It’s an admirable approach to solving Lancaster’s stormwater problem. But if that doesn’t suffice, Mayor Rick Gray said that the city may have to issue bonds, raise property taxes, and increase water, sewer and stormwater fees…
“Taxpayers will have no choice but to comply. That’s ironic because had the state complied with stormwater guidelines in the first place, taxpayers wouldn’t suddenly be faced with this burden.
“Nevertheless, we’re glad this issue is being dealt with, however late it may be. We encourage county officials to face this challenge with our wallets and our families in mind.”
What is asinine is the placing of blame on the State EPA when it is has been Gray and Randy Patterson who have steadfast stood in the way of coming up with a multi-year program to remedy the combination storm water / sanitary sewer lines problem but instead have fostered cosmetic and fruitless smoke screens to put off the days of reckoning.
Instead of a decade ago launching a constructive multi-year plan for building segments of separate storm sewer, picking the ‘low hanging fruit’ at the outset, that would have been welcomed by EPA, been the most economical approach, and would have spread out over more years the tax burden on the citizenry, they chose cosmetic approaches, most of which have been wastes of taxpayers money.
From the moment a decade ago I offered to use my experience and engineers to take a look at the sewer plans to possibly come up with low cost solutions, I was ostracized from city government despite my long term friendly and supportive relationship with the mayor. With Gray’s encouragement, Patterson wouldn’t even meet with me. So much for trying to be helpful!
Below is the NewsLanc article from February, 2015, one of a several such articles at NewsLanc over the past decade. It shows who has actually been at fault and what needed to be done.
Is the City flushing $140 million down the drain?
An article Lancaster Intelligencer / Journal New Era titled “City property owners to pay storm water fees beginning this spring” reports:
“The city plans to make $140 million in improvements over 25 years…
“The fees are expected to generate $2.6 million in revenue this year. That money will be used to plant trees, add drainage islands to parking lots, porous pavement to alleyways and park basketball courts, and vegetative “green” roofs on buildings.
“Doing so is expected to allow 1 billion gallons of rainwater to soak into the ground that now runs into the city’s curbside storm inlets. During heaving rains, that water overwhelms the city’s wastewater treatment plant and overflows into the river carrying raw sewage along with it.”
As a builder of communities with a half century of experience, we question how long “porous pavement to alleyways and park basketball courts” will last over the course of a few years as oils and soil from normal use clogs their porous surfaces. The approach is considered dubious at best.
As for “vegetative ‘green’ roofs on buildings”, this may indeed be ‘pie in the sky’. Who is going to tend the gardens? How long will it be before they fall into disuse and simply become hard baked dirt? And here is a salient question: What will take place when there is a need to re-roof every fifteen to twenty years?
The primary way storm water is normally handled is either through detention or retention basins. Detention basins collect water during rainfalls and slowly discharge it over a day or two as surface runoff.
Retention basins do not discharge the water and can only work properly where the soil contains good natural porosity and residue is scraped from the bottom every few years.
Just take a look around any recent suburban construction. Usually 10% to 15% of the land is utilized for these purposes.
The other alternative is to capture storm water in a newly constructed storm sewer system. Separated storm water only requires minimal treatment before it goes into a tributary. The current problem is storm water and sanitary sewer share the same sewer lines and thus must flow through the far more complex and expensive to build and operate sewer treatment plants.
Locating potential retention or detention areas in the City or nearby and / or constructing storm sewer in a limited number of appropriate locations is what NewsLanc’s publisher Robert Field sought to explore when he was rebuffed by city planner Randy Patterson and Mayor Rick Gray. That would meet State requirements and perhaps be the most economical approach for the long run.
Do it right and it is right for fifty to a hundred years. Play around with roof top gardens and special paving and we put on a big show, temporarilly placate the Department of Environmental Protection, but the problems remain to be re-addressed in a few years. Once again, we push our responsibilities onto our children.
When Mayor Rick Gray invited NewsLanc’s publisher to a private meeting to be briefed about roof gardens and porous paving, Field raised concerns and offered to review plans and come up with suggestions. In typical fashion, Gray turned a deaf ear. Gray thinks he knows everything. Just ask him.
Let’s put storm water down the drain; not taxpayer money.
They can hand out the cash for that loser Marriot / Convention center but tell the Feds they have no money for environmental protection. I bet if ol’ Dale could make a buck off it he’d be all over stormwater management……
It needs to be updated. Bite the bullet and get it done. Future generations will thank you if done correctly.
That convention center was the best thing to happen to the city.