http://sammamishreview.com/2009/01/26/4246 The Sammamish Review Fri, 25 May 2012 16:08:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://sammamishreview.com/2009/01/26/4246/comment-page-1#comment-2812 Mud Baby Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:54:05 +0000 http://sammamishreview.com/?p=4246#comment-2812 There is a disconnect between the picture of the duck swimming in algae-infested pea soup (admittedly, there is some duckweed in there too) and Sammamish staff's assertion that "total suspended solids going into the lake from the parkway would be reduced by about 95 percent, total phosphorus by 75 percent, total copper by about 66 percent, and total zinc by 78 percent." For one thing, the degree of precision in these estimates is dubious. Predictions regarding the project's performance would be more credible if they were stated as probabilities or ranges of potential effectiveness rather than exact percentages. Secondly, secondly, the project will only work well if it's built exactly in accordance with designs and specs and impeccably maintained. There is a wealth of literature that shows that stormwater non-point pollution control facilities are not all they're cracked up to be because of disparities between the design and as-built conditions and/or maintenance shortcomings. There is a disconnect between the picture of the duck swimming in algae-infested pea soup (admittedly, there is some duckweed in there too) and Sammamish staff’s assertion that “total suspended solids going into the lake from the parkway would be reduced by about 95 percent, total phosphorus by 75 percent, total copper by about 66 percent, and total zinc by 78 percent.” For one thing, the degree of precision in these estimates is dubious. Predictions regarding the project’s performance would be more credible if they were stated as probabilities or ranges of potential effectiveness rather than exact percentages. Secondly, secondly, the project will only work well if it’s built exactly in accordance with designs and specs and impeccably maintained. There is a wealth of literature that shows that stormwater non-point pollution control facilities are not all they’re cracked up to be because of disparities between the design and as-built conditions and/or maintenance shortcomings.

]]>