The Board of Clark County Councilors has approved the county’s stormwater and code manual update.
The update is required every five years under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, issued by the Washington State Department of Ecology.
According to the county, the major update to the manual is a mandate for developers to use low-impact development techniques, which helps reestablish natural conditions where water soaks into the ground onsite as opposed to runoff, which carries pollutants into waterways.
“Ensuring developers use low impact development will help safeguard our streams, rivers and lakes from chemical and bacterial runoff,” said Don Benton, Environmental Services director.
The three-year update project entailed rewriting a portion of the county’s stormwater code, creating a new stormwater manual and revising development regulation to remove barriers to low-impact development practices.
More than 80 public meetings were held to review update processes.
For a copy of the new stormwater manual, visit www.clark.wa.gov.
