Eligibility for case 1 option 2

July 30, 2014

tomaz kipnis

LEEDuser Basic Member

3 thumbs up

July 30, 2014

Hi,

The requirements for Option 2 (case 1) of this credit refer to the protection of receiving stream channels. If my project receiving body is not a stream channel, but a bay area (ocean), is it eligible for this approach?

Thank you!

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Michael DeVuono

Regional Stormwater Leader
Arcadis North America

LEEDuser Expert

187 thumbs up

July 31, 2014 - 11:59 am

Great question! This is definitely one I would take to the GBCI for a definitive answer, but here is my gut feeling:

You are most likely located in some kind of "direct discharge" watershed district if you are this close to an ocean, correct? If this is the case you are likely providing no (or very little) in the way of stormwater management, correct? You are just letting the post-development rip off, thus this would make you ineligible for Option #1.

Option #2 requires you to show that a receiving "channel" can handle your increase in rate and volume without causing a downstream impact. You definitely will not be creating a downstream impact since you are discharging directly into the ocean.

My gut feeling (and again, this is not official guidance), is you need to pass the straight face test. Can you really say that you are meeting the intents of this credit?

There was a discussion (on here I believe) about direct discharge districts, and the consensus was that under direct discharge, due to the location of your site, this credit just may not be attainable.

If you take this to GBCI, I'd be curious to hear their response.

tomaz kipnis

LEEDuser Basic Member

3 thumbs up

August 4, 2014 - 3:29 pm

Hi Michael,

Actually, the project has a massive sequence of BMPs for storm water management. However, due to the site conditions, infiltration is not very effective, due to the geological conditions. Therefore, permanent retention can only be more significant as the building uses the harvested rain water. For now, the post development case is almost reaching the pre-development discharge scenario.

Therefore, even though the project site is near the bay area, the project team had the concern of minimizing the impacts. For certain, the downstream impacts are going to minimum, regarding quantity and quality of the discharged flows.

I will direct this question to the GBCI, and let you know about their answer.

Thank you,