skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Are Stormwater Rules Down the Drain in Clark County?

play audio
Play

Tuesday, February 2, 2010   

VANCOUVER, Wash. - Developers are supposed to deal with stormwater runoff in their construction plans, but a lawsuit filed on Monday alleges that Clark County allows local builders to put off these plans for up to three years after a project is built. Attorney Jan Hasselman of Earthjustice says last month, the Washington Department of Ecology agreed that the county could keep its weaker stormwater standards for new construction, as long as it promised to fund and implement runoff control as needed. He says taxpayers thus are fixing the stormwater problems caused by builders.

"Those folks have pushed for relaxed development standards, relaxed fees for permits, effectively transferring those kinds of burdens from private development onto the public at large."

Hasselman says counties are supposed to meet the federal Clean Water Act standards, and the suit charges that Clark County does not do so. He says that sets a precedent for other towns and counties to delay their own stormwater mitigation projects.

"The way that the Department of Ecology implements the Clean Water Act program, any smaller jurisdiction can model its program on an approach that has been approved for use in one of the larger jurisdictions."

Earthjustice is representing the Rosemere Neighborhood Association, Columbia Riverkeeper, and the Northwest Environmental Defense Center in the case. The groups are asking that Clark County play by the same stormwater runoff rules as the rest of the state.

Runoff is a costly pollution problem for communities, full of pesticides and heavy metals that end up in waterways and are toxic to fish. Clark County has said new development is not nearly as big a problem as existing buildings, and that its current agreement with the state gives it the flexibility to fix stormwater problems wherever they occur.



get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021