Storm water management: It’s about quality as well as quantity

Earlier this week I wrote about how the Halloween Floods of 2015 reinforces the need for the City of Kyle to place more emphasis on storm water management. In that essay I failed to emphasize this additional oversight is not only because we need proper drainage during times of heavy rains; we also need to carefully examine precisely what is flowing through those drains and is eventually being dumped into Plum Creek and other waterways.

I have a Golden Retriever and she and I take at least four walks a day. And one of the things I have noticed is that it appears to me a significant number of pet owners refuse to pick up after their animals. Walking off the paved walking areas in my neighborhood is like negotiating a minefield of dog poop. That’s why, when we walk after dark, I never get off a sidewalk.

There’s an outside stormwater drain that flows alongside where I live and I really noticed when that drain was like a raging river last weekend and again during today’s rains that the water in that drain is the color of milk chocolate. That’s not a good sign.

I mentioned in that last story that the need for increased attention being paid to storm water is going to grow more important as our city continues to grow. That’s because more areas are going to be paved over and that means more cars are going to be depositing more oil and grease on these paved surfaces. And when it rains, all that chemical crap is washed into our storm water drains and then into our creeks and rivers that we, I hope, want to keep clean and habitable for the fish and other wildlife that depend on the cleanliness and the purity of that water.

Have you ever wondered why communities on northern sides of cities (i.e, Round Rock, Georgetown) seem to flourish faster and are economically stronger and more diverse than those on the southern side (Buda, Kyle)? It’s simply because water naturally flows south and those waters are going to be cleaner on the northern side of large cities than they are on the south side. That’s why the EPA has stepped up its enforcement of clean water standards on city’s storm water facilities.

Last week’s floods were referred to as "a 100-year event," so the question of whether we need to go to a great expense to protect us against something that may only happen every 100 years is a valid one. But the dog poop, automobile oil and other junk on our city streets, grass clippings and so many other pollutants are being swept into our storm drains every single day. Think about that the next time you go fishing or swimming in one of the waterways downstream from us.