Dead fish float near an aeration machine in polluted water in South
Chickamauga Creek after a recent sewage spill.The Chattanooga Stormwater Regulations Board that voted 5-3 Wednesday to flush away two years’ work and Chattanooga’s future proactive plan to keep our streets and drinking water clean after storms needs to look again at what they and we will lose if the city adopts a permit plan that only uses state minimum requirements.
Plenty of folks will blame the developers on the board for the ditched opportunities. In fact, that’s already started.
But realities are never quite that simple. The culprits more likely are lack of debate and unintended consequences.
For instance, the local recommendation included incentives for developers who met some of the tougher regulations, and those incentives cost the city nothing. These “coupon” incentives work a bit like wetlands mitigation rules that allow a wetlands fill-in at some crucial building spots if — big if — you create or restore a wetlands in other spots. Even developers who can’t use the incentive coupon on their site could sell or trade it to someone who can use it on another site. It’s a free-market approach to a better environmental solution.
However, the state’s minimum standard includes no incentives for developers who do more than the minimum. By voting Wednesday to follow just the state permit regulations, the board dug a new hole for developers.