What a rush!

Controlling runoff vital to region’s future

“Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong — these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.”

— Winston Churchill

Last week, Frenchman Thomas Pesquet made a call to his nation’s president, Emmanuel Macron, and other world leaders meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, to discuss climate change and what to do about it.

Pesquet offered a perspective unmatched by many people on Earth. He’s an astronaut, circling the planet every 90 minutes on the International Space Station some 248 miles above the surface. Strangely, his appreciation for the destructive effects of human activities around the globe deepens from a distance.

“The fragility of Earth is a shock,” he said of his view from space. “It’s a sensory experience to see just how isolated we are as an oasis, with limited resources.”

His first trip to space was in 2016. Now, he can see the greater intensity of damage around the globe from extreme weather and pollution of rivers and air.

It’s amazing, really, how many of us often can’t see the damage we’re causing, or at least the extent of it, because we’re too close to it. It’s the proverbial inability to see the forest because all those darned trees are in the way. At least the ones that are left.

It happens on a smaller scale, too. Here in the ever-growing Northwest Arkansas, projects are constantly going before local planning commissions for a review of their potential impact. Discussions, as often as not, arise from nearby neighbors who worry about noise or the effects an increase in automobile traffic might have on the safety of adjacent streets.

It’s rare, although not unheard of, to hear anyone raise concerns about a project’s possible impact on someone who lives 10 miles away, or even in the next state over. It doesn’t take a ride in the International Space Station to be aware that when it comes to water and air, what happens in Northwest Arkansas doesn’t necessarily stay in Northwest Arkansas.

Such concerns are real. Indeed, they’ve been a source of conflict between Arkansas and Oklahoma for decades, particularly when it comes to the Illinois River. Its headwaters start in Hogeye and the river grows as it flows west through a watershed that covers more than 1 million acres. The river is designated a scenic river in Oklahoma.

Failure to consider the larger and longer-term effects of development threatens the region’s ability to keep growing, according to officials with the Illinois River Watershed Partnership.

Maybe we don’t have a view from the heavens, but the data draw a pretty clear picture of how development can dramatically impact the environment. Convert a one acre property into part of a medium-density residential neighborhood and a 1-inch rain will send 5,431 more gallons of water rushing downstream than on a piece of land with natural ground cover, according to Morgan Keeling, community relations manager for the nonprofit Illinois River partnership. Keeling said a 66-acre neighborhood in Rogers is contributing 358,446 more gallons of water with every inch of rain. Across the Illinois River watershed, that means 1 inch of rain sends 263 million more gallons into the Illinois River and its tributaries.

Such volumes can lead to erosion, and erosion leads to pollution. All of that leads to damage to important ecosystems that support a wide range of animal and plant life.

“Land is so expensive here, and we’re literally sending it down the river,” Keeling said in a story featured in last Monday’s newspaper.

Nobody’s arguing to shut off the tap of growth in Northwest Arkansas, but the Illinois River Watershed Partnership is devoting considerable effort to educating local officials and the public about stormwater issues and how to mitigate them through better planning.

In other words, if we like what we have in the region, we can’t just pave over our version of paradise with a parking lot.

What’s that mean to people around Northwest Arkansas? We’ll all have to change our perspectives a bit on issues like increased density — i.e., residential living that puts more people on less acreage. That’ll mean getting comfortable with the idea of sometimes building up instead of out. Developers will need to expand their efforts to create rain gardens and landscaped detention ponds that help filter water before it makes its way downstream.

The high-altitude viewpoint isn’t satisfied by the usual “not-in-my-backyard” resistance to new development. When development happens, steps will be needed to ensure it doesn’t create problems in anyone’s yard, either next door or in the next state.

None of this should be anti-development. But the region’s growth demands attention to the details and an awareness of the big-picture, cumulative effects of individual projects. The kinds of mitigation advanced by the Illinois River Watershed Partnership and some city policies can, and should, limit some of the growth-related ecological impacts.