• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Initiative to Aid Environmental Runoff, Permit Issues

Posted on: Saturday, 8 October 2005, 00:00 CDT

By Pete Bach, The Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wis.

Oct. 5--APPLETON -- The next phase of environmental regulation has arrived in the Fox Cities.

State Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Hassett signed one of the first Green Tier charter agreements Monday with leaders of EccoDev, an organization formed by the Madison-based Wisconsin Builders Association Development Council.

The signing took place at a ceremony at the Valley Home Builders Association.

The main goal of the agreement is to reduce sediment runoff from construction sites, Hassett said. Other goals of the public-private partnership include increasing the recycling of building materials, greater use of native plants at the sites and increased use of energy efficient materials.

"(This is) the first step in the new generation of environmental law," Hassett said.

For businesses that sign the charter, the DNR will consider allowing a blanket permit process to top performers.

Hassett said the charter initiative could eliminate extra red tape for the state and businesses, particularly those with multiple production lines subject to strict air pollution standards.

"Now we might permit 30 or 40 different lines within a facility and every time they want to change something they have to go through the permit process on an individual line. Under Green Tier, we can put an emissions cap over the entire facility. And say, 'You stay under that, and you won't have any problems with us.' (It's) one big permit instead of 15 or 20 individual ones," he said.

Leon Church, an Appleton builder with Casaloma Properties and chairman of the state builders council, said the Green Tier initiative could lead to the development of projects designed to reabsorb runoff water on the existing landscape and eliminate the need for detention ponds.

He said such methods would save on taxes and utility fees used to maintain the ponds while curtailing any possible polluted runoff into nearby rivers.

By containing runoff on site, the need for a pond and even storm sewer could be eliminated following Green Tier principles, thus eliminating the need for infrastructure costly to both residents of a subdivision and the developer to both install and maintain.

Up to now, Church said there have been few incentives for developers to go beyond minimum environmental requirements at construction sites.

"The payback to a developer who does it in an environmentally responsible way is the natural areas that are created should produce higher prices, because people like to live in a natural area," he said. "If we eliminate storm sewers and get infiltration back into the ground, it should reduce some developers' costs."

To help get the plan in motion, the Wisconsin Builders Association will provide high-level training to its members, one of which is the Valley Home Builders Association.

Dan Schneider, head of the Wisconsin association and owner of Scheider & Schneider Construction, Kiel, said the pact is a sign builders want to be serious stewards of their environment.

"I think a lot of times people have the impression of builders we're just taking from Mother Nature," he said.

-----

To see more of The Post-Crescent, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.postcrescent.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, The Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wis.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Post-Crescent

More News in this Category