Stormwater: Inspection and maintenance are big issues with stormwater management. What are some things that the city of Portland is doing to address these challenges?

Jason Schmidt: We have a maintenance inspection program, which conducts routine stormwater facility maintenance inspections on privately maintained stormwater facilities. City code requires any development over 500 square feet or significant redevelopment over 500 square feet to install a stormwater management facility. Once they’re installed on to private property, they’re there for the duration of the lifespan of that property—it’s attached to the deed, so on a sale, the responsible party would then transfer to that new owner. We work with the responsible parties and with the ownership to make sure that their stormwater system is not only installed correctly but also being maintained appropriately. The big reason for that is that having private property manage stormwater onsite reduces our overall burden on the public system and we don’t have to build bigger pipes.

SW: What kinds of stormwater infrastructure are we talking about here?

JS: It includes things like eco-roofs, planter boxes, and vegetated systems, but it’s also inclusive of things that are under the ground—vaults, treatment systems. It runs the gamut of a suite of opportunities for stormwater management.

SW: What are some of the maintenance problems or issues that come up?

JS: Currently we’re seeing a lot of issues with landscape maintenance itself. We’re finding that landscape companies are sometimes coming in and just chopping everything down to the ground. That makes it very difficult for some of these plants to rebound and bounce back. We are trying to provide education to the responsible parties that they should direct their landscapers not to over-prune. We find that is a pretty common issue.

Aside from that, we have problems with erosion and slopes through inlets, basic accumulation of sediment within basins and also within structural systems. We have a list of thresholds of when maintenance is required and those are all outlined under the operation and maintenance plan.

SW: How do you get people to participate and comply with the program?JS: We have an enforcement program as well. If needed, we can issue fines and penalties—however, that’s not our main objective. Our main objective is to provide education and technical assistance to the property owner or to the responsible party and more often than not, people are excited to learn about their system. They might be completely unaware of what they have—“Oh wow, I have a stormwater management system?” I would say, for the most part, people are willing to work with us to get it up to speed.