Regulation: Rain Gauging

Figures from the Chesapeake Bay Program, a regional partnership of federal and state government agencies, show that population in the Bay watershed increased 8 percent from 1990 to 2000. During the same period, the construction of impervious surfaces increased 41 percent.

Those impervious surfaces (streets, parking lots, roofs, and so on) don't soak up rainwater. It washes off -- flushing pollution along with it into drains, creeks, streams, and other tributaries. That degrades water quality and environmental health. In economic terms, the stormwater runoff is a negative externality: a cost not fully borne by the person or company that produces it.

Virginia has proposed new rules to reduce the effects of stormwater runoff. The more stringent standards will add to the cost of development, both residential and commercial. They will raise costs tangibly -- Richmond residents soon will begin paying a stormwater management fee, for instance -- and intangibly, as developers expend additional time and effort to clear the higher regulatory hurdles.

Are the new rules too stringent and too costly? That's exceedingly hard to gauge. The answer depends on how much they will improve water quality, and how much improved water quality is worth to state residents. The answer to the second question will vary greatly.

The issue also pits worthy interests against one another. Advocates of affordable housing, for instance, might blanche when they learn that the rules could raise the cost of a new home by several thousand dollars or more. Is it worth pricing some people out of the housing market so weekend fishermen can catch more brook trout? That's one loaded way to put it. By way of retort, environmentalists might ask if it's worth killing off the state's fisheries in order to preserve the profit margins of politically powerful homebuilders.

State officials are receiving public comment on the proposed rules until Aug. 21. If you have strong feelings about the questions above, you might want to drop them a line.