There are many lessons to be learned from the recent servere flooding that devastated parts of Tennessee; lessons that residents of Idaho's Treasure Valley would be wise to learn. The following is from on-the-ground-expert Margo Farnsworth of the Cumberland River Compact.
When something bad happens, people want a silver bullet to solve the problem. Period.
When you're dealing with a 5,000 to 8,000 year flood event, there is no silver bullet. Period.
When a raindrop hits the earth it flows downhill and eventually runs to a river. Smaller creeks flow together to form larger ones eventually flowing to a medium-sized river like the Stones, Harpeth or Red. From there, in Middle Tennessee it finally flows to the Cumberland.
Water has been working this way for hundreds of thousands of years. Then, people come along and start tinkering. We build a few cities, a few dams, a few highways. We prosper and build more of these things and tend to ignore how the rivers run or where they run.
If their location is inconvenient, we stick them in a pipe or better yet, stick them in a pipe and move them to where we think they should go. Or we straighten them. Or we build things to hold them back or move them faster out of our way. And we pave over or erect buildings wherever we like.
We've done this for hundreds of years. As a place-holder, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were alive when some of our Middle Tennessee cities first started putting pipes in the ground. But, we didn't know any better.
Today, we do know better - or we should. The Cumberland River Compact along with many of the watershed organizations we helped build, sister watershed groups, the Environmental Protection Agency, and many others realize and teach us ways to work with nature instead of against it.
• Set aside ample riverside buffer zones and keep them vegetated with long-rooted plants including trees, native shrubs and grasses. This includes public areas, yes; but also includes landscaping in backyards as well. No one is saying we shouldn't mow a path to the creek with a little sitting area; but mowing entire banks reduce filtration and infiltration benefits which help clean and absorb rainfall.
• Don't build in floodways and make sure your local officials know you don't want them to grant variances for others to build in floodways.
• Use green infrastructure; and support local officials who promote and enforce it. Practices like porous paving, using grassy swales as water conveyances; larger, concave parking islands in lots, rain gardens in yards, business landscapes and public areas absorb water - slowing and reducing the impacts of storms.
No one could have predicted that a storm of this magnitude would stop and make itself at home right over our state. No one could have prevented damage from a storm that size. But the overall response to the crisis that erupted has been stellar from the officials to the stars to the everyday citizens who dropped everything to help each other through it.
Moving forward we have a choice. We can put the same old practices back in place to try to "master nature"; or we can work in concert with how water moves naturally across the landscape to reduce the impacts of large storms. There will be more to come; maybe not as large as that one, but certainly large enough to cause loss of life and property.
Please join the Cumberland River Compact; and personally take a green infrastructure class, or build a rain garden with us. Urge your local officials to receive instruction through our Local Officials Community Water Curriculum. If you're a developer, take a Building Outside the Box seminar and learn how you can make money and make a positive difference in the stormwater landscape. Join our sub-watershed organizations and help spread the word. Working together with our waterways, we can reduce flooding and impacts from floods while still having a vibrant economy.
Margo Farnsworth, Senior Research Consultant
Cumberland River Compact
Adjunct Faculty, Lipscomb University Institute for Sustainable Practice
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