Page 12 - the NOISE March 2014

“Whiskey’s fer drinkin’, water’s fer fightin’.”
There. Got that out of the way right up front. For a time, it seemed obligatory to sneak this quote that may or may not be Mark Twain’s into any story on Western water wor- ries. Because we do, indeed, have large, loud, public squabbles over water in these parts, a spaghetti-tangle of earliest-user rights, fre- quently involving powerful players. Think Salt River Project’s downstream Verde River rights versus the City of Prescott’s desire to balance its water deficit using an aquifer that supplies the headwaters of that river. Pow! Bam!
But seeds of new approaches, in the air for decades, are floating forward and taking root. Clearly, there won’t be one big solution for our water problem, although a systems approach may chip away at it.
SLOW IT DOWN,
SPREAD IT OUT, SOAK IT IN
Three toilers in the Northern Arizona wa- ter world, tasked with surface water manage- ment in our region’s two major urban areas, have their eye on simple, smaller-scale prac- tices. Green infrastructure (GI) — that’s one label for a new approach to water manage- ment; another is low-impact development (LID). One goal is to sync up human activities with natural processes, seeing watersheds as whole systems.
Ann-Marie Benz is Communications Di- rector for Prescott Creeks, a nonprofit whose two-decennial efforts to improve the creeks of Prescott embrace the whole local watershed. She traces this approach to the 1870s:“The idea goes back to John Wesley Powell — he thought the Western states should be organized around the watersheds of the major rivers.”
Kyle Brown, Project Manager in the City of Flagstaff’s Stormwater Management De- partment, describes new practices deployed as “a paradigm shift — how do you start to manage a watershed when it’s alive? — it’s not just, maybe, a concrete channel, it’s got plants, soils, things going on.”
Amanda Richardson, Environmental Co- ordinator in the stormwater section of City of Prescott’s Public Works Engineering Depart- ment, went into the Peace Corps early in her career. A natural resources volunteer, she quickly realized you can’t ignore the connec- tion between ecosystems you want to pro- tect and restore, and the human communi- ties mutually interacting with these systems.
She’s finding “there are innovative ways to promote conservation and the economic livelihood of communities.”
Make no mistake: though small, Flagstaff and Prescott are cities. The federal govern- ment, says Ms. Benz, designates Prescott, with its almost 40,000 residents, an EPA ur- ban waters area; Flagstaff’s closing in on 68,000. “Urban” has a big impact on natural watershed systems. Pavement and buildings shed water in great volumes, leaving quickly, multiplying trouble downslope. The water washes pollutants into streams; it rips soil, displaces gravel, and damages streambeds along the way. It can even impact the urban setting, bludgeoning sewer systems, rolling into human habitation like a scourge.
The traditional solution has been: rush that water offsite into a detention basin, then try to concrete-pipe or channel it on down the line. Undeveloped terrain, however, doesn’t shed huge blasts of water into streams; rather it absorbs water, then releases slowly. Low-impact development aims to mimic this natural process wherever possible in the urban setting, to deal with stormwater on a smaller scale, as close as possible to the site where it falls, to treat it as a resource rather than a waste product.
These green infrastructure principles have been around for a couple decades. Tucson is a leader, widely cited as an inspiration, a bea- con of grassroots activism, neighborhood efforts, and leadership by the Watershed Management Group and experts like Brad Lancaster, whose workshops have spread the word among water managers and citi- zens in Arizona and beyond.
OFFICIALLY TAKING ON THE PARADIGM When you park at the Flagstaff Mall, look around the lot for shallow ponding basins where landscape islands used to be. They have uncurbed sections where rainwater flows in from the pavement; it’s held in place to irrigate native trees and vegetation planted there. The BASIS Charter School parking lot sheds its stormwater runoff into a rock swale, slowing the water and giving it a chance to infiltrate instead of sheeting off
to create a flood farther down.
A move away from hard pavement on park-
ing lots, with gravel paving or porous pave- ment instead of asphalt, can also help keep water on-site, capturing and infiltrating it. You’ll see a system called gravel pave at the
Grand Canyon Trust office, though you won’t see the series of cylinders filled with a glass mixture installed under the gravel, where the water percolates in, stays a while, and eventu- ally leaves through drains underneath.
A bioretention basin at Thorpe Park’s Adult Recreation Center slows water run- ning downslope and lets it infiltrate the area. The plants that grow there help to filter and purify the water, which then moves more slowly downstream, preventing flooding in the Flagstaff Townsite neighborhood.
Runoff ditches alongside roadways can have simple, one-rock-high check dams ev- ery several feet. In Thorpe Park, in a downhill roadside ditch, such a system slows water, which then drops its sediment there instead of rushing off to dump in lower areas.
“We have massive amounts of sediment movement in floods,” says Mr. Brown. “A well- designed check dam will get vegetation grow- ing on the back side of it.” Eventually plants can expand, enhancing the retention of water.
Perched on the sloping shoulder of a volcanic mountain, Flagstaff unsurprisingly views rapid runoff, accelerated by urban sur- faces, as its major surface water concern.
Flooding is also an issue in Prescott, nes- tled in the bowl of the Upper Granite Creek watershed; in January 2010 snow plus freez- ing rain boosted the creek’s volume to “6,000 cubic feet per second — like the Colorado,” says Ms. Benz. But it was an Arizona De- partment of Environmental Quality list- ing of some of Prescott’s creeks and lakes as
“impaired” — measuring high in quantities of nitrogen, phosphorus and E. coli — that nudged along the search for new techniques.
While the creeks’ contaminants were blamed on “non-point source pollution” — the gunk of dirty pavement chemistry that includes everything from auto fuel to deter- gents to herbicides and animal feces — the city sought possible solutions through a Watershed Improvement Plan (from a co- alition brought together by Prescott Creeks and made up of local businesses, state and local governments, and education organiza- tions), whose aim it was “to identify primary sources of nutrients [pollutants] and E. coli bacteria in the watershed, and to develop a plan to reduce pollutant concentrations en- tering surface waters.”
The WIP includes two pilot/demonstra- tion projects, underway at the Adult Center
on Rosser Street and in a one-acre basin on Whipple Street across from the hospital. Adult Center plans envision a rain garden, harvesting “free” water with bioretention basins and tree-trenches over the now-semi- developed acreage. Trained volunteers will evaluate the water that does run off for re- duction of nitrogen and E. coli.
Similarly, the Whipple Street project will serve as a bioretention basin to capture run- off from the intersection and surrounding hard surfaces while providing an inviting place for citizens and visitors with benches, a meandering walkway, and native trees.
“We should be moving dirt by end of next month,” says Ms. Benz.
REAL GREEN
There’s a third, major goal of GI/LID, along with reducing flooding and pollution: restor- ing the ecosystems of our environment, the natural beauty of a watershed. Creating or maintaining green spaces, bird and crit- ter habitat — literally green infrastructure. Green space, we know, cools a city and puri- fies air as well as water, creates a more livable, enjoyable urban area. Natural beauty is a big part of the draw, for visitors and residents, to Prescott and Flagstaff.
City officials, of course, have to evaluate relative costs and benefits of water manage- ment efforts. “Adding meanders, swales, at- tempting to increase the time water takes to leave a site, doesn’t cost a lot,” Mr. Brown observes. “But LID adds a layer of complexity, so it takes some work to get people to buy in.”
The traditional method “moves water from Point A to Point B,” but doesn’t bring all these other benefits. Mr. Brown’s staff is reaching out to the engineering community to help with these calculations, and to the community at large for volunteer maintenance help. As for effectiveness, time and measurements will tell.
Ms. Richardson explains, “The projects with Prescott Creeks are demonstration projects, so we can learn how effective these methods are at reducing pollution and protecting wa- terways from additional impairment.”
SWEET HARMONY?
So collaboration is happening. In Prescott, the city and community groups support each other, and both are needed. “It works well — the reach and the impact are a lot greater,” reports Ms. Richardson.
These water folk are working out how their communities can manage water, balancing the demands of our urban lives with the nat- ural workings of the watersheds we inhabit. So fistfights aren’t breaking out; however, getting there will take some muscle.
Flagstaff, with community support, phased in an ordinance, codes, and even a guidance manual for developers and engi- neers, to require, encourage, and support these practices. Since the ordinance passed in 2009, the city has seen over 31 public and
15 private LID projects completed. Prescott has further to go in this regard.
And then, these techniques don’t solve the 400-pound problem: our demand for water outstrips our supply, and this dilemma will deepen as population grows.
Both Prescott and Flagstaff are collabo- rating with the Bureau of Reclamation and others seeking solutions to this inevitable, if slow-moving, crisis.
| Candace McNulty fell into the water world of Arizona about a decade ago & has spent her days ever since remembering
what the Dormouse said.
cb_mcnulty@yahoo.com
12 • MARCH 2014 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
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