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TextStormwater Regulations Could Significantly Affect Property Rights
We all value our physical environment, and value efforts to clean up our
waterways, including the Chesapeake Bay. We also value our homes, our
private property, and the jobs and benefits that accompany economic
development in the County. Balancing economic development, private
property rights and environmental protection is not easy. Fairfax County
does a pretty good job of it, but recent regulations promulgated by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may disrupt that balance.
In recent months, I have attended meetings, listened to advice from
experts and wrestled with budget demands generated by programs designed
to improve the Chesapeake Bay. Fairfax County has 30 Watersheds with 850
miles of perennial streams that empty into the Bay via the Potomac River.
In 2002, the County undertook a complete physical assessment of all its
streams and, in 2003, initiated a process to develop a comprehensive
management plan for each watershed. The goal of this program is to
improve the hydrology, water quality and habitat of our streams, and to
reduce the stormwater impacts that degrade them. Today, plans for much of
the county have already been adopted by the Board of Supervisors, with
the remaining expected to be passed by Spring, 2011.
The Board has funded this effort by separating out a stormwater tax from
its property tax assessment - not an additional fee, but a piece of the
property tax, explicitly delineated for stormwater infrastructure. This
penny and a half funds efforts to repair or replace some 1,500 miles of
pipes, 20,000 outfalls and retrofitting 1,400 stormwater ponds. It also
goes toward retrofitting dams and dredging lakes. The County’s stormwater
conveyance system is valued at over $1 billion, and most of it is over 35
years old. To prevent system failure, restore our stream valleys and meet
new pollution regulations, we need to continue to improve our stormwater
infrastructure.
Most of our residents abstractly value the Chesapeake Bay, but we more
clearly recognize the degraded stream in our own neighborhood. At a
recent forum on the Accotink Watershed, the 2nd largest in Fairfax
County, we were advised that it has been declared by the State’s
Department of Environmental Quality to be “impaired.” Ninety-one percent
of its stream channels were classified as unstable and experiencing
severe erosion. The Accotink plan alone identifies $48 million in
projects to be completed during the next 10 years, but it must compete
with a similar number of projects in 29 other Watersheds, and with the
infrastructure program. Right now, we have dedicated only $25 million per
year to undertake all this work. We will need to do more.
Compicating matters, however, last week, the EPA released new
regulations regarding the Chesapeake Bay. Unfortunately, these
regulations disrupt the balance in current County policy. For the first
time, the federal government seeks to mandate reductions not only in the
pollutants that enter the Bay, but in the volume of water that flows into
the Bay as well. Despite Fairfax County’s aggressive efforts to protect
the watershed, these new regulations could strangle our economy and
significantly affect property rights. EPA has proposed, for the first
time in a developed urban watershed that is already 87 percent developed,
to regulate FLOW (the volume of water) instead of regulating the
measurement of any particular pollutant.
The draft rules propose to restrict all new construction in the entire
watershed to only five percent per year. EPA may, in fact, force the
County to look at ripping out existing infrastructure to create more
pervious soil. Shopping malls and office buildings could be required to
reconstruct parking lots and roadways to contain stormwater on site,
which would be very expensive. In the worst case scenario, private
homeowners could be required to construct stormwater retention facilities
on their property if they wish to expand a driveway, add a patio or
construct an addition on the house. Fairfax County has brought these
concerns to EPA’s attention. I will, in coming months, keep you apprised
of the changes that may have an impact on your home, your wallet and the
quality of life you expect when you live in Fairfax County.
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