Long road to Cedar Rapids soil rule will pay off

A while back, the Cedar Rapids City Council passed a new stormwater fee structure with substantially higher charges, coupled with a series of incentives slicing those charges if property owners took steps to reduce runoff. It took a long time to craft, and convince opponents it's the right thing to do.

Now, City Council member Scott Olson tells me numerous businesses are embarking on efforts to install water-soaking bioswales and other runoff reduction measures. The city is helping pay the freight with some matching dollars. Those firms also will see lower rates.

New development projects are starting to include water control efforts well beyond traditional big detention ponds, Olson said.

So it's working. All the time and effort are paying off. And I suspect the same thing will happen with new topsoil replacement rules approved for the first time by the council Tuesday evening.

It took more than a year of drafting, revising and seeking compromises with builders and developers who insisted it's too expensive to restore rain-soaking soil on finished building sites. The rules, approved on two 8-0 votes, require builders to file a soil management plan outlining how they'll handle dirt on site.

They can choose from several options outlined in the Iowa Stormwater Management Manual for leaving sites with eight inches of non-compacted soil, compost or mixtures. Or, as part of a compromise offered by the city, they also can pick restoring four inches of topsoil. That's basically the old state rule scrapped in a drive by builders in 2015.

Independent testing will monitor compliance. The goal is to create yards and green space with the ability to soak up runoff before it rushes into the storm sewer system, taxing its capacity, spawning flash flooding and carrying pollution. As a nice side benefit, homeowners have yards where they can grow stuff.

That's not happening now. Independent testing commissioned by the city of numerous developments across Cedar Rapids found heavily compacted yards composed mostly of clay. Topsoil was stripped away during the construction process, but was not restored. These yards soak up rainfall only nominally better than concrete. Also, good luck planting a tree or a garden.

Builders decried the cost of returning soil. That argument prevailed in a sham process at the state level that led to a new, toothless topsoil rule. But the city, convinced the cost of a compacted clay status quo is far higher, stuck to its guns. No builders or developers showed up to object Tuesday.

Maybe that's because it's a decent compromise. This is how the state process might have turned out if the Branstad administration hadn't stacked the deck at every turn.

A local victory is the best we can hope for now. A Republican Legislature isn't going to spend a minute worrying about topsoil. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if homebuilding interests lobby for state action to wipe out local soil ordinances. I've heard of no such push, but it bears watching.

From its upstream watershed efforts to its HESCO barriers to its stormwater strategies and topsoil rules, 2016 is the year Cedar Rapids put on a master class in how to handle water. Its staff and leaders deserve a lot of credit. Soak it up.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com