Washington State Officials Eye Storm Water Dream Team

In the state of Washinton’s greater Yakima area, including Moxee, officials want to make another run at developing a plan to manage storm water runoff.

This one, according to local officials attending a kickoff meeting Wednesday, has a better chance to win over a public that has long questioned how far they are being asked to go and what the trip will cost.

According to a report in the Yakima Herald-Republic, Representatives of Yakima, Selah, Union Gap, Moxee and the county agreed to form what amounts to a storm water dream team to help them chart the future for meeting looming federal requirements on controlling storm water.

The local governments favor hiring a team of experts to review the requirements and recommend what steps should be taken to meet what local officials describe as the minimum essential steps.

Team members will include an engineer, a storm water expert and a representative of the state Ecology Department. The team will be asked to use an approach known as value engineering, applying common sense to eliminate unnecessary costs.

Yakima city and county officials first proposed the new approach earlier this year after a series of public hearings and a county task force didn't result in a regional approach to meeting the requirements of the federal Clean Water Act.

The urban area is now mandated to manage storm water running off roofs, parking lots and streets to avoid polluting lakes, streams and rivers.

>{?Only the city of Yakima has adopted a storm-water ordinance that imposes fees on city property owners to conduct public education, seek out illegal discharges, control runoff at construction sites, and limit pollution from its own sources.

The ordinance — along with the fees — are being delayed to give the experts time to recommend what should be done, City Manager Dick Zais told representatives of the cities and the county.

Just how many of the cities plan to join will be known once each City Council has had a chance to discuss the issue. Selah, which has been developing its own plan, is being asked to join the regional group.

Such a group could receive as much as $225,000 in state grants to pay for the review.

Officials now expect the regional plan would be in place and local ordinances adopted by August of next year.

Under the plan, property owners would start paying fees with their property tax bills in early 2007.

Source: Yakima Herald-Republic