NAHB: Top 12 Accomplishments, Number 9: Combating Water Pollution Myths

Builder Review Daily is highlighting the top 12 actions taken on behalf of Home Builders in 2012.

Accomplishment number 9: Combating Myths About Building’s Role in Water Pollution
A new NAHB resource helps HBAs and developers overcome the myth that home building is a major source of water pollutants due to storm water runoff from construction sites.

This resource, titled Water Quality and the Construction Industry, employs recent government data to explain how agriculture, dam making and other activities overwhelmingly affect water quality, while sediment released from residential construction accounted for significantly less than 1% of the total sediment in surface waters as of 2009. In fact, as the presentation notes, EPA’s own data shows that pollutant discharges from construction sites have decreased over time -- primarily due to the steps that builders and developers take to control the storm water that runs off of their sites. This fact, along with EPA’s admission that "construction sites are already being adequately addressed through existing programs,” indicates that there is little need for states or municipalities to take additional steps to control construction site runoff. Rather, in most instances, doing so would only result in higher construction costs and higher home prices, with little or no added environmental benefit. The slide presentation is available for NAHB members to download as part of our “Land Use 101” package of detailed information and background materials on infrastructure, green development and other topics.