Thursday, April 22, 2010

WP: EPA Proposes Rainwater Trapping Rules For DC

Here's a short article from the Post on a demonstration effort to prevent runoff from polluting DC's rivers.

3 comments:

Rayful Edmond said...

This will never pass without DDOE approval.

Anonymous said...

It would require trapping the first 1.2" of rainwater. For an 800sqft roof, that's almost 600 gallons of water. Much, much larger than the rain barrels that are getting installed.

CR said...

From the permit, retention of the first 1.2 inches of stormwater would be required for all new development and redevelopment greater than 5,000 square feet in the District. I'm not sure if this applies to the lot or the building, but this would exempt most rowhouse-type dwellings on Capitol Hill.

But 1.2 inches does add up to a surprising volume of water, even on small roofs. The big rain barrels that DDOE installs hold 132 gal.