URBANIZATION, WATER QUALITY, AND THE REGULATED LANDSCAPE

DAVID OWEN

Watershed scientists frequently describe urbanization as a primary cause of water quality degradation, and recent stud­ies conclude that even in lightly-developed watersheds, urbanization often precludes attainment of water quality standards.  This Article considers legal responses to this pervasive problem.  It explains why traditional legal mea­sures have been ineffective, and it evaluates several recent innovations piloted in the northeastern United States.  These innovations are potentially applicable across the nation.  Specifically, the innovations involve using impervious cover total maximum daily loads, residual designation authority, and collective permitting to expand, intensify, and modify regulatory control of urban stormwater.  More generally, the innovations involve transferring regulatory focus from end-of-the-pipe to landscape-based controls.  The Article concludes that these innovations, while raising some new problems, represent a promising shift.  It then discusses additional reforms and research needed to better reconcile legal water quality standards and traditional land development patterns.  It also evaluates the federalism implications of this shift, and closes by considering some of the difficult prioritization questions raised by urban watershed restoration efforts.