Maynard-Hynes e-mail exchange re FCPS Failure to Meet Environmental Quality Standards in Proposed South Lakes High School Addition

The following is an exchange of e-mails between Terry Maynard and School Board Chairman Pat Hynes regarding FCPS' plans to use old standards for stormwater management in connection with the proposed South Lakes High School addition.  If additional e-mails are exchanged, this post will be updated.  The e-mails are presented in reverse chronological order.

UPDATE:  Chairman Hynes followed up with the following e-mail after the below was posted:

From:  Hynes, Patricia (School Board Member)

 

10/18/15 at 7:02 PM

To  Terry Maynard

Message body

Mr. Maynard,

I hope I didn't offend you by replying on Reston Now. I noticed that Karen Goff mentioned your email to me, so I thought it made sense to let her readers know I had responded and how. I think Reston Now can be a good forum for conversations like that. I won't publish this email - I don't think it will add much to what's already been said.

I am sorry the school system can't do more. I wish we could exceed minimal requirements on all measures of environmental stewardship. Our new construction now meets very high energy conservation and sustainability standards, but we can't afford to retro-fit older buildings. FCPS was recently recognized for having more "Energy Star" certified buildings than any other school district in the country, but we have no plans currently to replace fossil fuel sources with alternatives because of high up-front costs. We use permeable parking surfaces where it helps to meet requirements, but we can't justify putting them everywhere, even though they're clearly preferable for the environment.

Our hands are tied in these and many other ways by the inadequate capital funding the schools receive. Where we can, we work with the county. One area of collaboration is  stormwater management, for which there are designated county funds because we all pay an extra fee in our water bills.

I don't know if this interests you, but I would love to show you what we CAN do. We have exciting environmental stewardship education programs in all of our schools. Terraset ES is a great example of what we can do when the educators in the building are encouraged to incorporate outdoor learning into new construction. Please let me know if you'd like a tour of Terraset, or any of the many other projects in Reston where our students are learning about stewardship by doing it.

Pat

Pat Hynes
Fairfax County School Board
Chair and Hunter Mill District Representative

FCPS Failure to Meet Environmental Quality Standards in Proposed South Lakes High School Addition

 
From:  Terry Maynard   Today at 12:25 PM

To:       

• Hynes, Patricia (School Board Member

CC

• Cathy Hudgins
• plancom@fairfaxcounty.gov
• Board of Supervisors
• Ilene.Muhlberg@fcps.edu
• bodgraves@reston.org
• and 3 more...

Dear Chairman Hynes,

Thank you for your public reply to my letter.  I will follow-up in the same manner so more Restonians can understand will happen as a result of the FCPS decision not to follow the current stormwater management law.

As in most situations, I believe it is important to start with the facts.  Here are some pertinent ones:

•  Fact #1:  NO residential developments in the South Lakes area, including Whisperwood--the cluster east of South Lakes HS and Langston Hughes IS and adjoining the stormwater collection basin on SLHS property--are planning any additions or other stormwater-inducing development from their property.
• Fact #2:  FCPS is planning a much-needed 40,000SF addition to SLHS that includes the addition of about 100 parking spaces on its east side of the building.
• Fact #3:  Stormwater from the east side of SLHS and LHIS drains into the basin on the eastern edge of the SLHS property.
• Fact #4:  The addition of 100 parking spaces will add more stormwater flow to the SLHS basin.
• Fact #5:  FCPS’ decision to use an old, lesser standard for stormwater management means that a substantially greater volume of that stormwater will flow into the basis than if FCPS chose to adhere to the current County stormwater management ordinance.
• Fact #6:  The water that flows into the SLHS basin drains through a tunnel under South Lakes Drive to RA and private properties below on its way to Lake Audubon.
• Fact #7:  The stormwater flows from SLHS property have caused serious erosion of the stream below, silting of Lake Audubon, and broken a County sewer line, releasing raw sewage into the stream and lake, all over a period of decades.
• Fact #8:  FCPS’ decision to use an old, lesser standard for stormwater management will add to the downstream damage that is already being done to County, RA, and private property.

Like the cost of proper stormwater management, failure to properly manage stormwater flows also has its dollar cost as well as its environmental consequences.  In this case, the County and its taxpayers (but not FCPS) has had to put riprap in the downstream channel three times on an emergency basis, in one case filling a 12’ deep trench that exposed a County sewer where the stream drains into the lake.  This summer, it had to make emergency repairs to a broken 8” sewer line hanging across the eroded stream bed after it ruptured in a storm.  It is now assessing whether a full remediation of the downstream channel is required, an effort that could cost the County and its taxpayers (but not FCPS) millions of dollars.   All that is just dealing with current stormwater flows, not the additions that will come with the proposed added parking and minimal stormwater management efforts proposed by FCPS.

And the cost is not only the County’s.  Property owners along the stream have spent thousands of dollars double-wrapping their exposed sewer laterals to reduce the risk of additional sewer breaks adding more raw sewage to the stream and maybe the lake (and I have the bill to prove it).  Now RA is planning the removal of scores of trees along the edge of the stream on its property as well as homeowners’ properties (at property owner expense) at a total cost in the tens of thousands of dollars. 

Of course, none of this may be adequate to prevent further damage to the stream, the lake, and property if FCPS does not take adequate steps to prevent further increases in (or maybe even reduce) stormwater flow from its property.  So I am left wondering whether the maximum extra 0.1% cost of FCPS FY2016 budget ($2.6 Billion) is a greater cost than the costs experienced by the County, RA, and homeowners downstream, not to mention the added silt and sewage in Lake Audubon.  With bond payments on this capital investment spread over decades, the sum is lost in rounding.  How would you compare that cost with what homeowners, some living on fixed incomes, have paid and may look forward to paying as the stream continues to erode?

Finally, I find it highly disconcerting, if not hypocritical, that FCPS does not practice what it preaches about community and the environment.  FCPS states that Student Achievement Goal #3 is “Demonstrate Responsibility to the Community and the World.”  There are four objectives under that goal.  Here are two of them:

• Objective 3.2 states, “Be respectful and contributing participants in their school, community, country, and world.”  Does FCPS believe that that it is being a “respectful and contributing participant” in our community by dumping large volumes of stormwater on its neighbors’ property and adding silt and raw sewage to a lake that drains into the Chesapeake Bay?
• Objective 3.4 states, “Exercise good stewardship of the environment.”  Does FCPS believe that is exercising “good stewardship of the environment” by taking the cheapest, easiest, and least effective means to prevent additional stormwater runoff and its damage downstream?

It is inexplicable to me how FCPS can articulate these good citizenship and stewardship goals for its students when it is quite willing to cause further damage to its neighbors’ property and the environment because it’s cheaper. 

I would recommend that FCPS live up to the expectations you hold for your students.  As I stated in my previous e-mail, the least FCPS can do is meet the current legal standards in the County ordinance for stormwater management.  What would be really great would be for FCPS to own the problem and provide leadership in its resolution consistent with the goals it sets for its students. 

I hope that you will take these thoughts into consideration immediately and make the needed changes in your proposal for the addition to South Lakes High School now headed to the Board of Supervisors.

Sincerely,

Terry Maynard

---

From: "Hynes, Patricia (School Board Member)"
To: Terry Maynard
Cc: Cathy Hudgins
Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2015 4:43 AM
Subject: Re: FCPS Failure to Meet Environmental Quality Standards in Proposed South Lakes High School Addition

Dear Terry,

Thank you for reaching out. Being good neighbors and good stewards of the environment is important to the school system, and to me. I asked staff for an update on the issue of the runoff.

As you may know, FCPS did meet with Supervisor Hudgins, representatives from the County’s Stormwater Division as well as Larry Butler from ROA about this issue on September 23rd. During the meeting it was established that the erosion in question was not being caused by runoff from FCPS property but instead the result of multiple developments throughout the drainage watershed area. As a result, the County stormwater staff determined that they would provide a resolution.

As I understand it, the proposed addition at South Lakes HS will not affect this particular watershed, as its stormwater is directed to a separate storm water system. Let me know if I am missing something there.

Due to our limited capital budget, FCPS has to be very careful to focus capital dollars as much as possible on classrooms. We have more than 950 classrooms in trailers and multiple schools in need of renovation and repair with an average age of 45 years. The Board of Supervisors understands that the capital funding is barely adequate to meet the needs of the school system, and refrains from transferring costs not related to a particular project or school.

I do understand and sympathize with your position, and I wish we had the capital funding to be more proactive. But I worry that it would not be a responsible use of school bond funds to shift the burden to the school system in a case like this where the county has determined that the school property is not causing the problem, and the county has accepted responsibility.

I know this is not what you wanted to hear. I will stay in the loop with staff on this project and I hope you will keep in touch.


Pat Hynes
Fairfax County School Board
Chair and Hunter Mill District Representative

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Oct 15, 2015, at 12:00 PM, "Terry Maynard" <terrmayn@yahoo.comterrmayn@yahoo.com

>>

Dear Chairman (and Hunter Mill School Board Representative) Pat Hynes,

I have just read the staff report for the proposed 40,000SF addition to South Lakes High School across the street from our home and found that it explicitly states that FCPS does not intend to meet Virginia's environmental quality standards for stormwater remediation during the construction of the proposed addition. 

Specifically, here is what the staff report says (p.14):

Staff notes the applicant has received approval of a general permit through the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), which allows for the applicant’s proposal to be grandfathered under the old stormwater management requirements prior to the Board’s adoption of the new stormwater ordinance in 2014.

So, in a Reston community that focuses on sustainability and environmental excellence, FCPS is proposing to meet old, much less stringent stormwater management requirements than is the current standard, presumably so it can save a few dollars.

The proposed addition of some open joint parking surfaces (one of which is on the wrong side of the high school) and filterra structures is grossly inadequate to meet the additional flow caused by the addition, much less the current unacceptable stormwater management conditions.

In and of itself, this position by FCPS is not worthy of a school system that claims to focus on excellence, but it is especially heinous when the School Board's disregard for stormwater management standards has been causing serious environmental consequences for two neighborhoods south of South Lakes Drive--Wakerobin and Cedar Cove--where SLHS has been dumping heavy stormwater flows for nearly four decades.  Moreover, those consequences have never figured into the school's building or several additions beyond the minimum required by law (or even lower standards in previous laws).  In fact, each new school addition has made the situation worse for these neighborhoods because of the inadequacy of the stormwater remediation effort and the  disregard of the impact of school construction on the surrounding area.  Even the FCPS/County effort to remediate flooding in the basin above South Lakes Drive this summer added to the stormwater problem by accelerating the pace of drainage from school property into the stream below.

Most of the stormwater from both SLHS and Langston Hughes Intermediate School collects in a basin to the east of the high school and then flows through a stormwater tunnel under South Lakes Drive.  The resulting stream then plunges about 30' in its 1,000' flow to Lake Audubon.  During storms, the creek experiences massive erosion and the generation of huge quantities of silt that is spewed into Lake Audubon as the force of the flow cuts the stream wider and deeper.  The decades-long problem has exposed both the County sewer in several places as well as several residents' lateral connections.  In fact, this summer the force of the flow actually broke a County sewer line requiring emergency repairs and dumping raw sewage into Lake Audubon.  (Please see the two attached videos.  One shows the County sewer line that broke this summer during a major storm runoff caused by the failure of school stormwater remediation efforts.  The other shows the velocity of the flow coming out of the South Lakes Drive tunnel from FCPS property during the same timeframe.)

Once its own sewer line broke, the County saw the problem caused by these stormwater flows.  Nonetheless, this problem was first brought to Supervisor Hudgins' attention in a creekside discussion with some Wakerobin residents in 2004--eleven years ago.  RA, Cedar Cove, and Wakerobin residents have all tried repeatedly to pursue County action in remediating the problem over the last decade to no avail--until the County sewer line broke.

As a result, Supervisor Hudgins sponsored a meeting on the problem this passed Tuesday although no FCPS personnel attended.  As presented to the two neighborhoods by DPWES staff, it will take at least three years, probably more, for County action beginning now to actually result in a well-controlled stream runoff--if the project even gets approval by the Board of Supervisors.

Both neighborhoods want faster action because of the potential for further envionmental damage from erosion, silting, or even another sewer leak into the lake.  Both neighborhoods believe (on a firm foundation) that the problem originates on FCPS property and efforts to remediate the creek problem will not succeed unless FCPS takes further action above.

I believe now is the time for the School Board to step up and be an environmentally aware good neighbor and (a) fulfill its obligation to meet contemporary stormwater management standards at the minimum and (b) contribute (if not lead) the effort to remediate the serious stormwater problem the two neighborhoods are facing on both sides of South Lakes Drive because of FCPS' failure to take needed action.

As our representative to the School Board and advocate for the addition to South Lakes High School,  I specifically look to you to lead that effort to become a better school and a better neighbor.

Thank you for your favorable consideration of this serious environmental situation.

Sincerely,
Terry Maynard
2217 Wakerobin Ln
Reston, VA 20191
703-476-5376

BCC:  Wakerobin and Cedar Cove neighbors