The Whatcom Excavator
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Who's Planning Our Lives?
    • Diminishing Property Rights
    • NGO's & Public-Private Partners
    • Agenda 21
    • Buzzwords
    • Deep Thought
    • Best Available Science
    • Best Available Humor >
      • Humor Archive
  • The DREDGE
    • Gotta See This
    • How To Dredge
  • Bulldozed
    • Eco-Activism and County Policy
    • CELDF - "Democracy"
    • ALERT: Community Energy Challenge
  • Pig Trough
    • ReSources
    • Sustainable Connections
    • BALLE
    • ICLEI
    • Whatcom County Community Network
    • Big Wheels Award
  • Contact Us

Benefit and Cost of Phosphorus-Reducing Activities in the Lake Whatcom Watershed

12/28/2011

0 Comments

 
Would you want your government to spend $7.5 million per pound each year to help remove phosphorus from the Lake Whatcom watershed? Here’s hoping they don’t pick that option, but the City of Bellingham has contracted CH2M Hill to perform a cost-benefit study of Lake Whatcom, published November 3, 2011. The report summarizes,

As part of the City of Bellingham Project EW-180 related to mitigating impacts of filter-clogging algae in Lake Whatcom, the project team evaluated lake and watershed management. As part of addressing lake and watershed management, the project team estimated the phosphorus reduction and associated costs of specific in-watershed activities identified by City staff from the Lake Whatcom Reservoir Management Program 2010-2014 Work Plan.

The summary specifically mentions filter-clogging algae. WE have a gut feeling that addressing problems with clogged filters could be managed much more directly and inexpensively, without the need for eliminating phosphorous from the watershed, even if it were practical.

The complete report is available here, but for those of you who do not have time to take in the entire thing, we will summarize the highlights. For those of you who are really pressed for time, this is it, in one line: Environmental mitigation does not come cheap, in monetary or libertarian terms. The authors do not analyze whether the work is necessary and proper (and the city did not ask them to – that’s the city’s job).

Here is the list of activities that a working group consisting of staff from the City of Bellingham and Whatcom County, based upon the Lake Whatcom Reservoir Management Program 2010-2014 produced, and CH2MHILL, the City, and the County collaboratively refined:

  1. Reducing development potential / developable land
  2. Restoration of natural functions on acquisition properties
  3. Bio-filtration: vegetated swales
  4. Bioretention: rain gardens
  5. Bio-filtration: street trees
  6. Lawn replacement & landscaping: retrofit to provide bioretention
  7. Infiltration: dry wells
  8. Infiltration: trenches
  9. Infiltration: pervious pavement
  10. Infiltration: basin
  11. Rainwater reuse
  12. Onsite dispersion
  13. Media filters
  14. Sizing culverts to eliminate erosion
  15. Street sweeping
  16. Controlling erosion through streambank stabilization or restoring stream buffer vegetation
  17. Regulations: Phosphorus fertilizer ban
  18. Education: Watershed signs
  19. Education: Mass mailings
  20. Education: Online information
  21. Education: Newspaper ads
  22. Education: Video presentations
  23. Education: Community events (public meetings)
  24. Education: Onsite training/workshops
  25. Education: Resident contact
  26. Education: Project consultation
  27. Incentives
  28. Transition from Ecology Water Quality Assurances of Forest Practices to pre-development conditions
  29. Design standards for new and retrofitted roads
  30. Reconfigure roadside ditches
  31. Reconfigure streets
  32. Vehicle trips - reduce and redirect
  33. Recreational facility design and use (Improving existing facilities)
  34. Watershed-wide enforcement
  35. Animal waste: wildlife (goose)
  36. Septic system transition to sewer connection

Exhibit 4 – Education, Incentives and Enforcement Matrix, is especially interesting. Here is how this project would be implemented:

Since We the People probably do not understand the problem, we need education:
  • Watershed interpretive signs
  • Mass mailings
  • Online information (website)
  • Newspaper ads
  • Video presentations (or TV ads)
  • Community events (public meetings)
  • Resident contact (home visit)
  • Onsite training/workshops
  • Technical assistance
Lucrative non-profits and NGOs acting as agents of the state will provide helpful site visits (to your home) and produce materials using government grants, provided by you, the taxpayer.

Realizing that you might not be anxious to do this (all else being equal) they will sweeten the deal with incentives:
  • Convenient disposal
  • Store coupons
  • Yard waste pickup
  • Rain barrel
  • Food waste pickup
  • Compost bin
Finally, enforcement: if you weigh the knowledge and the incentives and you decide the costs outweigh the benefit for your individual situation, lawsuits and duress kicks in.

So, what does it all cost? The report breaks it down by dollars per pound of phosphorus removed from the Lake Whatcom watershed per year. Some of the mitigation involves cost per acre as well. Please refer to the report for details. The report does not say how many pounds require removal, but at $6.00 per pound, we can develop (the developable land) in accordance with city ordinance. Then there’s “Transition from Ecology Water Quality Assurances of Forest Practices to predevelopment conditions” (re-wilding). That goes for $81.00 per pound per acre. You can keep developable land undeveloped for $561.00 per pound. Residential lot consolidation is $14,420.00 per pound. It starts going up fast, now: Building new roads from “pervious” materials (that water can seep through) costs $1,111,000.00 per pound. Retrofitting existing roads will cost $2,000,000.00. Skipping ahead, we find retrofitting lawns and landscaping will cost $5,000,000.00 and vegetated swales and re-configuring roadside ditches will both cost $6,000,000.00. Capping it all off, bioretention rain gardens would cost $7,500,000.00 per pound of phosphorus removed from the watershed per year. We can hope the city planners would heed this cost-benefit analysis, and use only the remedies that have the biggest bang for the buck. They did reject the idea of controlling the goose droppings in the area. Humans are probably easier for the government to control than geese.

Did anybody consult you, taxpayer or landowner, at any time during the development of this project? Will they allow you to vote or have a voice in how much of this you want to participate in, or pay for, or how much it will affect your property value or its usability? As a citizen, where do you prioritize environmental issues with all of the other human needs and wants? An environmental extremist would put the environment at the very top of the list. A conservationist might consider a reasonable balance between a pristine environment and other human needs and wants, including our civil liberties. How much government would you purchase if you had the freedom to choose?

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    WE Dredge!
    Picture
    Posting Rules:
    This forum is moderated.  Please make an effort to substantiate claims that support opinion.  Gratuitous profanity and ad-hominem attacks will not be accepted.  You can create a "nickname" if you'd like, and you don't have to reveal your e-mail address.   Feel free to share information and your honest thoughts.

    Categories

    All
    Agenda 21
    Best Available Science
    Big Government
    Eco Activism
    Ethics
    Freedom
    Planning
    Property Rights
    Science
    Small Business
    Social Engineering
    Taxes
    Welcome

    Archives

    January 2022
    September 2020
    August 2020
    April 2020
    November 2019
    August 2019
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011


    Automatic Updates

    Do you want to be notified when new content is added to this newsfeed? Most browsers allow you to subscribe to our Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed. Click on the RSS link below, and follow the instructions.

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.