Stormwater: I’ts killing our waters

A lot of rain falls on the Comox Valley and the Pacific Northwest generally. And every time it rains after a dry period, it’s as if a giant toilet flushes animal feces, fertilizers, pesticides, oils, road salts, heavy metals and other contaminants into our municipal stormwater systems, which in turn send torrents of polluted water directly into our watersheds, killing fish, eroding property and making our waters unsafe for shellfish harvesting. But there is a slow — some say too slow — trend toward green infrastructure and low-impact development methods to manage rain where it falls. This ongoing series of stories examines the negative impacts of stormwater runoff and the shift toward more natural solutions.