September 7, 2012
Lisa P. Jackson
Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Ariel Rios Federal Building
1200 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20460
Nancy H. Sutley
Chair
Council on Environmental Quality
722 Jackson Place, NW
Washington, DC 20503
Dear Administrator Jackson and Chair Sutley:
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this important conference and to provide you with our
thoughts and comments on the use of green infrastructure solutions to manage municipal stormwater
runoff. The members of the American Public Works Association (APWA) are on the front lines of
managing municipal stormwater and are committed to providing efficient and effective infrastructure
solutions in an environmentally and socially responsible way that ensures the best economic choice in
the long term.
APWA members believe that many of the solutions classified as green infrastructure are very
successful in reducing the amount of runoff, as well as certain pollutants from stormwater runoff, such
as total suspended solids, nitrogen, certain metals and even bacteria. We believe that green
infrastructure techniques should be considered as important tools for managing municipal stormwater
management in those areas where site conditions support their use and the techniques provided
demonstrated improvements to water quality at reasonable costs compared to the benefits achieved.
Green infrastructure techniques are one tool in the municipal stormwater management toolbox.
However, these solutions are not a silver bullet to meeting the objectives of the Clean Water Act
(CWA). We want to be clear, however, that we do not oppose the use of green infrastructure
techniques; rather, we believe that the better approach is one that is balanced and focuses on
sustainable infrastructure that is proven, affordable, based on sound science and that relies on the
professional judgment of the engineering professionals working on the project.
1. What do you see as the most significant barriers to the wider use of green infrastructure practices
to manage municipal stormwater?

Because green infrastructure techniques as a means of managing municipal stormwater is a
relatively new concept there remains some uncertainty about it from the community at large and the
public works professionals tasked with ensuring that their community is meeting the goals and legal
requirements of the CWA. Additional research on the benefits that green infrastructure stormwater
techniques provide would help begin to alleviate this uncertainty. Presently, green infrastructure
techniques focus on improving water quality, not quantity, even though the two are intrinsically
connected. To accomplish this improvement, capturing the “volume” of runoff is used, rather than
reducing to a historic peak flows. The ability to capture the required volume of water varies widely
due to geographic area. Until a full analysis, which must include partnering with local governments, is
performed green infrastructure should not be accepted as the silver bullet to managing municipal
stormwater. Rather green infrastructure is merely one of the tools in a municipality’s tool box in terms
of managing stormwater.

Additional information on how to quantify the benefits of using these techniques would help
to alleviate some of the uncertainty around wider adoption of these solutions. Practitioners can
identify the costs of implementing green infrastructure techniques but they need additional assistance
with quantifying the benefits provided by these techniques. Expanded research and development of
metrics that enable municipal stormwater managers to compare green infrastructure techniques
against other water quality infrastructure needs such as solutions addressing combined sewer
overflows would also be beneficial. Additionally, a focus on educating the public and political leaders
about the lifecycle costs and benefits of implementing green infrastructure techniques is needed
especially at a time when there is increasing competition among worthy local projects such as road
and bridge repair or other municipal needs.

Another area that increases the uncertainty around wider adoption of green infrastructure is
the issue surrounding long term operations and maintenance of these facilities. Regardless of whether
these techniques are installed by a private sector entity or a local government, there are long term
costs associated with using these approaches, such as the need to ensure that property owners are
operating and maintaining these systems properly or the need to assume full control over these
facilities in the instance when the property owners have failed to ensure the long term functioning of
the facilities. Additional research and analysis as to the full-life cycle costs – design, construction,
operation, and maintenance costs-- of using these stormwater management techniques would assist in
alleviating some of the uncertainty to incorporate these techniques into the suite of infrastructure
choices local governments employ to meet their municipal stormwater obligations.

Local governments do not have infinite resources and may not have the ability to raise
revenues to cover these additional costs and yet it is the local government that is legally responsible
for ensuring that the goals and objectives of the CWA are being met. If they don’t, then they
potentially face the expense of compliance and enforcement penalties or consent decrees that require
large sums of money and decades to fulfill. With the legal and social responsibility to protect local
water resources and meet the goals and objectives of the Clean Water ultimately falling on local
governments, they need to fully understand what costs are associated with operating and/or
maintaining these facilities over the long term.

Legal obstacles also present barriers to adoption of these techniques. In certain areas of the
United States, there are legal barriers that inhibit the wide scale adoption of these techniques. In some
states, primarily in the western United States, state water laws restrict the ability of property owners
to store and later use water. For instance, the use of large rain barrels to capture, store and then use
the water for some other purpose than returning it to the receiving waters, i.e. irrigation, would be a
violation of state water laws in Colorado.
2. What steps should federal agencies, communities, or others take to promote the use of green
infrastructure practices in municipal stormwater management?
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
Additional or new Federal funding to local stormwater managers for research and
demonstration projects on the different green infrastructure techniques would help these
professionals understand how each of these techniques works in a specific geographic region of the
country. Currently many local governments use their own limited funds to perform research projects
for their area so they can better understand which approaches provide the most water quality benefits
for the cost expended. However, these limited funds are not adequate, and becoming scarcer by the
year, to determine the full range of green infrastructure techniques that would be appropriate for
their area or to better understand what water quality benefits will be generated through the use of
these techniques or what the long term operation and maintenance implications will be after installing
this technology.

Federal agencies should continue to take advantage of the inherent flexibility in the CWA and
encourage innovation by working cooperatively with utilities and local governments rather than
automatically focusing on legal compliance and enforcement options to drive change. A more
cooperative and flexible approach, such as that set out in the new Integrated Planning Framework,
would provide assurance, confidence, and time to figure out how to pay for these approaches by
those professionals responsible for ensuring that they are meeting the water quality goals of the CWA.
The focus on enforcement continues to breed mistrust and reinforces the perceived breakdown of the
long-standing Federal, State and local cooperative partnership that governed the early years of clean
water protection in this country.

Municipalities and communities can assist by providing services such as technical assistance,
contractor trainings, pre-qualification lists and design standards to ensure that such approaches are
properly selected, designed, constructed, operated and maintained by private entities.

Community stakeholders can assist by insisting on projects that are sustainable and provide
multiple benefits – such as water quality improvements and air quality protections or noise abatement
-- to the community. Stakeholders can also assist by asking their local governments to make use of
tools like the EnvisionTM Sustainable Infrastructure Rating System or the Greenroads Rating System, to
ensure
that
local
infrastructure
is
built
in
a
sustainable
manner.
Visit
www.sustainableinfrastructure.org and www.greenroads.org.
3. Are there specific green infrastructure practices, or categories of practices, that you believe are
most effective, provide the greatest benefits, or are most easily implemented?

This varies widely depending on your geographic region. For instance, a porous pavement in a
very wet climate that has well-draining soils works quite well. The same porous pavement installation
in a cold, dryer climate tends to clog very quickly and loses its effectiveness within a couple of years,
even with the appropriate maintenance practices. The best approach would be to avoid a one size fits
all solution and focus instead on the suite of available and proven water quality protection
technologies that work for all of the different geographic regions in the country and allows the
professional experts to determine what the best solution for their community is. In some regions or
communities density requirements or standards minimizing the disturbance to existing natural areas
works very well. In those cases where development is unavoidable a sequential series of different, but
connected, treatment techniques may prove to be the most beneficial solution or a reliance on a more
conventional approach may be the best solution. In the end, the best technique is one that achieves
water quality goals, is affordable over the life of the project and that works for the particular
community where the project is located.

We also believe that the distinction between grey and green infrastructure is misplaced and
breeds uncertainty among the professionals tasked with managing municipal stormwater. A better
approach would be for EPA to focus on promoting and encouraging sustainable infrastructure that is
affordable, based on sound science and that relies on the professional judgment of the engineering
professionals working on the project. For instance, some communities, such as Toronto, Ontario,
Canada, Kansas City, MO and Portland, ME, are integrating capture and treatment technologies into
their efforts to reduce sewers overflows rather than separating storm and sewer systems because this
approach is much more cost effective.
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4. Are there funding strategies for municipal green infrastructure that you have employed and
would recommend?

The most effective and efficient strategy for funding the costs of managing municipal
stormwater is the creation of a stormwater utility fee. These fees can be used to fund maintenance
and operation costs as well as used for technical assistance in plan review and construction inspection
to foster innovation and collaboration between public and private interests to insure success. These
partnerships are essential to minimizing the perceived risk of private entities that are asked or
required to implement technology they are unfamiliar with or averse to. However, this is can be a
politically charged and difficult method to finance these techniques because many citizens view these
fees as a tax. In fact, a utility fee in Colorado Springs, Colorado was rescinded by the citizens for this
very reason and in other states stormwater utility fees have been struck down by some courts as
violations of state laws.
We sincerely appreciate the opportunity to participate in this conference and to collaborate with you
as you work to continue the progress this nation has made in improving and protecting the waters of
the United States. APWA is an organization dedicated to providing public works infrastructure and
services to millions of people in rural and urban communities, both small and large. Working in the
public interest, APWA’s more than 28,000 members design, build, operate and maintain
transportation, water supply and wastewater treatment systems, waste and refuse disposal systems,
public buildings and grounds, and other structures and facilities essential to the economy and the
American way of life. As the actual funding, designing and implementing parties for stormwater
programs we are committed to providing efficient and effective infrastructure solutions in an
environmentally and socially responsible way that ensures the best economic choice in the long term.
If you have any additional questions, please contact Julia Anastasio, janastasio@apwa.net, or
202.218.6750, Director of Sustainability, in our Washington, DC office.
Sincerely,
Peter B. King
Executive Director
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