ENS: Congress Looks to Green Technologies for Stormwater Control

From ENS: 

Green technologies for controlling urban stormwater runoff took center stage Thursday at the nation's Capitol, as the House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee heard testimony on how to reduce barriers to adopting these methods of reducing runoff.  "Instead of engineering the stormwater system to deal with increasingly large amounts of stormwater, these low impact development approaches utilize technologies that aim to reduce the amount of stormwater that even enters the system," said Subcommittee Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas in her opening statement.  

"This is achieved through processes that encourage enhanced infiltration and evaporation processes. Simple approaches such as green roofs, increased tree cover, disconnecting downspouts, and adding more green space can go a long way to reducing the amount of stormwater that enters sewers. And in some circumstances, these technologies can realize significant cost savings for municipalities and building owners," she said.  

The subcommittee set out to learn what barriers exist with regards to the increased adoption of green infrastructure technologies and approaches and what the federal government – both EPA and Congress – do to reduce those barriers.