Challenging anthropocentric stormwater management: Advancing legislation for environmental sustainability in the United States

• Published in: Water security Vol. 10; p. 100064
• Main Authors: Darnthamrongkul, Wilasinee, Mozingo, Louise A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01-08-2020
• Subjects: Anthropocentrism; Environmental sustainability; Landscape aesthetics; Low Impact Development (LID); National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES); Sustainable stormwater management; Low Impact Development (LID); Anthropocentrism; Environmental sustainability; Landscape aesthetics; National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES); Sustainable stormwater management
• ISSN: 2468-3124; 2468-3124
• DOI: 10.1016/j.wasec.2020.100064

•Anthropocentrism poses challenges to American sustainable stormwater management.•Regarding runoff as waste causes construction of sewers and then ecological damage.•The pastoral aesthetic preference impedes the appreciation of LID landscapes.•American regulations intend to attenuate anthropocentric stormwater management.
Anthropocentrism poses two major challenges to American stormwater management. First, the conviction that runoff is a threat to human health and property promotes the construction of storm sewers to rapidly remove runoff from cities, with consequent significant deleterious ecosystem effects. Second, the pastoral aesthetic preference prompts the dissatisfaction with low impact development (LID) that aims to effectively and sustainably manage stormwater because of its unkempt appearance. The 1987 National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) initiated a regulatory framework that not only considered human wellbeing but ecological health, thereby instigating a challenge to anthropocentrism. With Phase I (1990) and Phase II (1999), the NPDES stormwater program explicitly include specific measures to regulate stormwater discharges, and promote the implementation and appreciation of LID. The advance of American stormwater regulations, therefore, manifests the intention to attenuate the anthropocentrism impeding the proliferation of sustainable stormwater management, moving the country toward ecocentricism and environmental sustainability.