Cities faced with stormwater pollution problems like Chattanooga are trying to slow rain runoff before the stormwater and the money spent to treat it goes down the drain.
During a Clean Water conference in Chattanooga, officials from Philadelphia and Milwaukee touted the ways they have already slowed runoff by shifting some responsibility from local government to landowners.
The plans from the cities, some borrowed from Chattanooga, call for scaling back parking lots, narrowing public streets and ditching curbs and gutters in favor of rain gardens, green roofs and street planters.
Direct development by the city, combined with new rules that require landowners to build stormwater management systems or pay high sewage bills, make up part of the program.
Opponents of these plans say the price tags are too high and drive up the cost of doing business in Chattanooga. But backers say that it’s simply the best way to deal with a wave of unavoidable and still more costly EPA regulations on stormwater.