| Rain,
Rain, Go Away; but Return Clean Another Day!
It rains a lot in Longview. Rain washes over hard surfaces and lawns picking up sediment, metals, grease, bacteria, and other pollutants. Longview’s storm sewer collects the run-off and conveys it into Longview’s ditches. The ditches discharge into the Cowlitz and Columbia Rivers. Like most cities, Longview’s stormwater is untreated. |
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| Stormwater run-off is the leading source of urban water quality impairment. Recognizing that human and environmental health depends on clean water, the Stormwater Division employs an array of best management practices (BMPs) to minimize pollution. Examples of these include street cleaning, system inspection, cleaning and repair, development oversight, line locates, public education, illicit discharge control, and municipal pollution prevention. | ||
| In natural systems, 0-30% of rainfall becomes surface or near-surface run-off. In developed areas, this percentage jumps to 20-60%. So it is important that development promotes stormwater infiltration and evapo-transpiration (an approach known today as Low Impact Development, LID) and/or captures and conveys away the run-off. This is exactly what the storm sewer system does. Longview was built on river lowlands and is surrounded by dikes, making flood control imperative. The City and the Consolidated Diking Improvement District #1 (CDID #1) work together to minimize area flooding. |
 Image provided by www.usgcrp.gov |
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