Simply reducing street widths by three feet, from 36 to 33 feet, saved six percent of the annual runoff volume. But if we are to substantially improve the quality of the lakes, argues Potter, we must grapple with stormwater in existing neighborhoods. City engineer Larry Nelson says the options available for improving stormwater management are slender. The scariest thing that I ve got to deal with in setting this thing up is that we seem to have a number of people who are interested in spending more money than we do today, for a variety of projects, and at the same time have us develop credits so they don t have to pay anything. Therein is the rub.
Potter is guilty as charged.
The stormwater utility is nothing more than reallocating costs, he says. It s not going to accomplish much if that s all it does. What s needed, he says, is an activist board willing to spend money, creating incentives for habitat restoration and neighborhood stormwater retrofit projects. A lot of the improvement is going to come from neighborhood groups. You ve got to get people energized.