Adopt no-runoff development

I enjoyed The Gazette's May 20 editorial “Managing our urban runoff.” It provided an overview of the way people have altered the landscape to route water quickly into streams and rivers, rather than to let it gently sink into the soil as nature intended.

The editorial did not include an important element. There is an ethical side to stormwater management.

Runoff adds to flooding. Developers who resist installing runoff-reducing techniques enjoy lower cost at the expense of business, farms and homes downstream. Downstream residents are forced to bear the costs of flood damage caused by the creation of impervious surfaces that benefit those upstream through lower construction cost. It hardly seems fair.

Our society should move toward “no runoff” development. We should not have storm sewers. Instead we should use proven techniques that allow rain to enter the soil instead of streams.

We have converted the Indian Creek Nature Center's campus to “no runoff” design that includes two types of permeable paving, a bioswale parking lot, rain gardens, rain barrels and a wetland septic system. If these techniques were comprehensively used, stream damage and flooding would be reduced.

Ironically, the Nature Center is located at the bottom of the Indian Creek watershed. Although it has been a leader in demonstrating no-runoff design, it sustains damage caused by impervious surfaces upstream. This should not be.

Rich Patterson,

Director

Indian Creek Nature Center

Cedar Rapids