Vic and Kiernan Moran - Letter to the editor Leduc Representative - February 3, 2017

From: http://www.leducrep.com/2017/02/03/more-details-needed-for-saunders-lake-storm-water-management

Dear editor,

On Feb. 7, Leduc County council will consider giving second reading to revisions to the Leduc Intermunicipal Development Plan (IDP).
In the revised bylaw, covering the expectations of Leduc and Leduc County regarding development around the city, the city and county have replaced two occurrences of the word "should" with "shall" and one "discouraged" with a "prohibited."
This is to be congratulated. Developers need to know what is expected of them and citizens need to know that their concerns are addressed and protected. Regrettably, they stopped short by not replacing the word "should" in "natural assets and features should be protected and enhanced," with the word "shall."
It is also regrettable the county and city can only "jointly examine solutions" and cannot openly commit to "protecting and maintaining natural habitat connectivity between Saunders and Telford Lakes," especially as all we have only ever heard is strong support for this initiative at the public hearings. We applaud the designation of a contiguous riparian area between the two lakes to preserve the existing wild life corridor as indicated in the updated drawings.
It is worthy of recognition that the document identifies "noise, light, air and water pollution" as human-produced impacts that are required to be minimized adjacent to natural areas.
If passed, stormwater management plans will be required to "demonstrate how the use of stormwater best management practices will reduce post-development run-off rates to pre-development levels." So what does this mean?
You can reduce the run-off rates in two ways – by reducing the volume of stormwater collected or by slowing the discharge from settling ponds.
By slowing the discharge you are still diverting all of the contaminated stormwater into a body of water. The Province of Alberta Stormwater Management Plan is referenced; however, this can hardly be seen as a model for best management practices as it does not address source reduction strategies to reduce stormwater volumes.
Cities such as Calgary have gone beyond what the Province prescribes and have documented best management practices for source reduction through infiltration, evaporation and re-use on site. Leduc should pursue the methods described in the City of Calgary Stormwater Source Control Practices Handbook 2007 as these practices could see a reduction in stormwater in the Saunders Lake development so that it could be managed in roadside ditches and discharged directly into Blackmud Creek, avoiding the fragile ecosystem on Saunders Lake altogether.
We have to assume that stormwater best management practices will focus on source control and reduction, as this is the best environmental practice. We expect to see detailed requirements in future planning requirements.


Vic and Kiernan Moran
Leduc County