The San Juan Islands Conservation District actively promotes sustainable land use practices.
Our Natural Resources Planner is trained in LID design techniques and is available for individual site visits to help landowners conserve their natural resources. Call or email to learn about your soil and water resources, 360.378.6621 or info@sanjuanislandscd.org
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Contact us for a site visit to assess your property. A report following the visit will contain information on the soils of your site, an aerial photo, LID fact sheets and site specific information such as vegetation management plan, a raingarden handbook and plant lists.
View Drainage and Low Impact Development Solutions Workshop Presentations!
David McDonald-Soil Scientist and Planner
LID Soil & Landscape Best Practices, for San Juan co slides11-18-2011
Mark Buehrer, PE 2020 Engineering, LID Expert
2020 LID Methods Presentation
This project has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the assistance agreement PO-00J12501 to San Juan County. The Puget Sound Watershed Management Assistance Program ends in 2013.
Key Stormwater Concepts
- Stormwater drains are not connected to the sanitary sewer systems
- Individual human activity, not industrial dumping, is the primary cause of pollution in rivers, wetlands, and lakes and in Puget Sound.
- Biodegradable soap is not a safe addition to stormwater drains and should be kept from running into the stormwater drainage system.
- Wash your car in an area where the soapy runoff will be absorbed by the ground or take your car to a commercial car wash. Soapy water should not be allowed to flow into the street or into a drainage ditch.
- Pervious bricks or pavers help to reduce the volume of stormwater runoff and therefore, help to reduce stormwater pollution in the environment.
- Sediment is pollution and should be prevented from entering the stormwater drainage system.
- Grass clippings and leaves in stormwater are regarded as pollution and should be kept out of the stormwater drainage system.
Solutions
Low Impact Development is a stormwater management and land development strategy applied at a small scale that emphasizes conservation and use of on-site natural features integrated with engineered hydrologic controls that mimic existing on-site hydrologic functions. In Western Washington the guide to implementing LID is the Low Impact Development Technical Guidance Manual for Puget Sound (2005), published by the Puget Sound Action Team. The second edition will be released in Spring of 2012.
LID Manual 2005 (PDF 5 MB)
Rain Garden Handbook (for Western Washington Homeowners) (PDF 20 MB)
ws-raingardens
For additional information on LID check the Puget Sound Partnership website: www.psp.wa.gov for more documents.
San Juan County Low Impact Development
Puget Sound Partnership's Local Regulation Assistance Project 2008
San Juan County received technical assistance to help better integrate low impact development into their regulations and development standards.
The overall goal of the project was to ensure that all local regulatory barriers to the LID stormwater management approach are removed and LID is encouraged within the jurisdiction.
For a final product, AHBL provided each participating local government with a large binder and a CD-ROM version containing:
* Summaries of assistance provided to all the participating local governments.
* All regulations and standards that were reviewed. * Recommendations for specific language changes. * New ordinances. * Engineering drawings. * Maintenance considerations. * Other relevant information on LID (i.e., cost comparisons, research)
13_16_San Juan County_Project Summary Memo_Final
National/Regional Programs
Check out Built Green and LEED for Homes (LEED-H) and Sustainable Sites for helpful guidelines on land development and retrofits.
We also published articles in 'Project Home' a monthly supplement to the Journal, Islands Sounder and Islands Weekly. Download past articles as PDF documents from here.