Cities Worry about Polluted Snow, But Routinely Let Dirty Rain Flow into Beaches

The AP just ran a story about Eastern cities that have so much snow piling up they are thinking about dumping it into nearby rivers and harbors. Several city officials are concerned, however, about what the pollution in the snow would do to the water. Having been scraped off city streets, the snow now has oil, chemicals, and trash buried within it, and most cities see dumping it into the water as a measure of last resort.  

This caught my eye because while I live in California today, I grew up outside Philadelphia and keenly remember how quickly the fresh snow turned brown or black along the street in front of my house.

So while I appreciate their caution in the face of polluted snow, I can’t help but marvel at the irony. While some cities exercise admirable caution in attempting not to dump frozen storm water into the ocean, many other cities across the nation let flowing storm water runoff course largely unchecked into their waterways all year-round.

When it is frozen, cities in the colder parts of the country think twice about it.  That is no doubt because some of these Eastern cities have what are called combined sewer systems, which allow them to treat pollutants in storm water when it is not frozen.

But large parts of the country have separate storm sewers that flow to receiving waters without any treatment.  So, when precipitation comes down as rain in places like Los Angeles and wipes toxic chemicals from the streets into our rivers and beaches, why that is just business as usual.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not encouraging cities to treat snow the way some treat dirty storm water. Quite the opposite: I wish the caution prompted by looking at a towering pile of polluted urban slush would extend to management of the often toxic wet stuff everywhere, all the time.

Big events—anything from this winter’s snowstorms to the BP oil spill disaster—get our attention and make us think about the pollution going into our water. But just because storm water pollution in many communities happens in slow motion doesn’t mean it isn’t having an enormous impact.

For example, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment estimates that every year 6 million gallons of oil get dumped into California’s coastal waters after stormwater carries it off paved roads and parking lots and drops it into the ocean.  Los Angeles County generates 1.8 million gallons alone.

Oil is only one ingredient in storm water. Most urban and suburban runoff also includes herbicide, pesticides, bacteria, heavy metals like cadmium and zinc, and every other pollutant you might find seeping from industrial and residential sites.

This witch’s brew of chemicals has serious consequences, from fouling drinking water to closing beaches and poisoning shellfish beds. That is why the Environmental Protection Agency has identified urban runoff as one of the greatest threats to our nation’s waters.

The scope of this pollution could be demoralizing except for the fact that there are readily available, cost-effective solutions. Something called green infrastructure--things like pocket parks, grassy swales, and permeable pavement—has been proven to keep water on site and dramatically reduce the dirty storm water polluting our beaches.

Granted, green infrastructure may not help clear the streets of record-breaking snowfalls, but it will reduce the amount of pollution ending up in our rivers and beaches the rest of the year. If cities have to resort to dumping polluted snow occasionally, at least our waterways will be less overburdened and more resilient.