Item 9: Ordinance Concerning Stormwater Development Standards

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Page 2 of2 advocating public interest environmental issues. Three years ago this summer we had completed the construction of our retirement home in Eugene, a home that featured numerous environmentally innovative features, including one of the early rainwater harvesting systems. This system involves collecting rainwater from a portion of our concrete tile roof, remediating it directly onto our rear yard during the fall and winter months than switching to storing that collected portion in large on-site cisterns, starting in the late spring, for the purpose of gravity flow based irrigation of the fruit and nut orchard we have planted on the rear of our yard. Upon completion, our 2500 square foot home, located at 4350 Spring Blvd., was the subject of an in depth article on page El of the Saturday, July 19, 2003 edition of The Register-Guard. I have read the Draft Rainwater Harvesting public handout prepared by the City of Eugene (City) staff, the February 2006 City Alternative Material and Methods Decision (AM&M) on Rainwater Harvesting and the City Stormwater Code amendments proposed for adoption by the City Council this coming week. As I will be out of town from this Sunday, May 21, through May 29, and thus not available to attend the deliberation by the Council this coming week, I ask that you append to the record of that proceeding, and make available for Council consideration, this email, including the following specific comments and one Stormwater Code language suggestion: 1. In General: I favor everything that the City can do to educate residents about, and support, the on-site harvesting and use by city residents of the rainwater that falls on their property. Such use decreases demand on the existing City stormwater and drinking water systems, will reduces the magnitude of further additions to those systems; and, to the extent that the rainwater harvested is remediated back onto the land, helps recharge groundwater acquifers while providing non-City furnished, non-City treated water for irrigation purposes. 2. Specific Stormwater Code Language Addition: I realize from my own Code review, and your confirmation on the phone today, that the intent of the City Stormwater Code is not to regulate in any manner rainwater harvesting in the City by homeowners of single family residences, However, I am not aware of any statement in the current City Stormwater Code, or the amendments thereto proposed for adoption by the Council this coming week, that makes this exclusion clear. As a practicing attorney for many years, who regularly dealt with extensive code and ordinance interpretation issues, I believe that complex regulatory systepls'should also clearly state what they do not intend to regulate when, as in this case, the subject (on-site rainwater harvesting and use) could easily be construed as a subject of the intended regulatory scheme. Accordingly I propose that, at an appropriate point in Eugene Code Section 9, there be added the following specific language: "The stormwater provisions of the Eugene Code do not apply to or regulate rainwater harvesting for on-site use in the case of single family residences." I leave it to the very capable hands of the City Attorney's Office to suggest the most appropriate new section, or addition to an existing section, within the stormwater provisions of Code section 9 to add this clarification, if the Council adopts my recommendation. Thank you, Bruce H. Anderson cc. Glenn Klein, City Attorney Best regards, Bruce 5/2212006