Online or by mail: Patrick Thomas White Committee • 81 Hawthorne St. • Lenox, MA 01240

Unpaved Roads

I recognize the crucial role that support of addiction recovery initiatives can play in the Berkshires. We must implement evidence-based policies, secure funding, and foster community engagement. Here are several initiatives I would champion.

1. Advocate for Evidence-Based Policies

I've been working with Courteny Morehouse at Berkshire Regional Planning to improve the proposed new regulations around unpaved roads that the MassDEP recently put forth to update 310 CMR 10.00 and the associated Stormwater Handbook. If you aren't up to speed, Boston proposes redefining unpaved roads to increase the costs to towns to maintain them significantly.

A letter from the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, BRPC, and Franklin Regional Council of Governments addresses the concerns and challenges of maintaining and improving dirt roads in Western Massachusetts. In referencing the letter's content, I've suggested the possible implications to district towns to explain why I am tracking its response.

Overarching Concerns Expressed in the Letter:

Impacts of Climate Change: Due to their topography and unpaved surfaces, the rural dirt roads in Western Massachusetts are highly vulnerable to adverse climate effects such as erosion and washouts. Increased climate exposure could worsen these conditions.

Financial and Social Costs: Maintaining these roads is costly, especially given the small municipal budgets typical of many district towns. These conditions also strain public health, safety, and essential services like school bus routes.

Environmental Concerns: The proximity of many dirt roads to sensitive cold-water fisheries exacerbates the risk of ecological damage due to road material migration into water bodies during storms.

Challenges Proposed to Definitions:

Regulatory Definitions: MassDEP's proposed definitions, such as "compacted gravel" and "impervious surface," may categorize dirt roads in a way that subjects them to stricter stormwater management standards that are impractical and expensive to meet due to the area's rural and topographical context. Below are examples.

Compacted Gravel

Definition: The proposed definition lacks clarity since several definitions exist for gravel and various conditions and usages for specific materials that affect permeability. Compacted gravel includes dirt, roads, and parking lots as impervious surfaces. This classification means these surfaces could be expected to comply with stringent stormwater management standards typically applied to impervious surfaces like asphalt (paved roads).

Disadvantage: Classifying compacted gravel as impervious subjects these surfaces to stringent stormwater management standards, including requirements for runoff control, sediment reduction, and water quality improvements. These standards are often designed with urban, entirely impervious surfaces in mind, making them challenging and costly to apply in rural or less developed contexts.

Implementing stormwater management systems that meet the requirements for impervious surfaces can involve significant redesign and construction costs. This might include installing drainage systems, culverts, retention basins, or other control measures that were not previously necessary for gravel roads.

Many municipalities, notably smaller or rural ones, operate with limited budgets. The additional costs for upgrading and maintaining roads to meet these new standards can divert funds from other essential services or require increases in local taxes or fees to cover these new expenses.

Ironically, the effort to control pollution through such regulations might lead to increased environmental disruption. The construction and maintenance work required to comply could disturb local ecosystems more than the existing gravel roads.

Setbacks:

Definition: The definition proposes a setback of 100 feet from critical areas like cold-water fisheries, which is a part of the stormwater management requirements. These setbacks are typically part of stormwater management standards that aim to minimize runoff's environmental impact from impervious surfaces.

Disadvantage: These setback requirements could severely limit municipalities' ability to perform necessary maintenance and improvements on dirt roads, many of which crisscross sensitive environmental areas. The strict setback rules might make road maintenance practically impossible, thus degrading road quality and potentially increasing the environmental impact of poorly maintained roadways.

Municipalities might need to redesign extensive roads or create new stormwater management infrastructures, such as culverts, ditches, or retention basins, further away from the water bodies. These changes are costly and require additional land, which might not be readily available or economically impractical to acquire.

Given the rural setting and the existing configuration of many roads, achieving compliance with these setback requirements might be practically impossible without significant re-routing or transformation of roads into impervious surfaces, which contradicts the goal of maintaining rural and permeable road characteristics.

Ironically, while the intent behind the setbacks is to protect the environment, the inability to maintain roads adequately due to these restrictions could lead to worse environmental degradation. Poorly maintained roads may increase erosion and sedimentation, increasing the pollutant load entering waterways.

Additionally, road conditions can pose safety risks to motorists and hinder access to essential services, particularly in emergencies.

The strict application of these setback requirements in rural areas can thus paradoxically undermine environmental protection and public safety objectives. A more nuanced, site-specific approach to applying these setbacks could provide the necessary flexibility to protect the environment and ensure the upkeep of critical infrastructure.

Impervious Surface

Definition: Impervious surfaces include any surface that significantly impedes water infiltration into the soil. Under this definition, even surfaces traditionally considered semi-permeable, like compacted gravel, might be impervious.

By broadening the scope to include dirt and gravel roads as impervious surfaces, these regulations extend the range of areas needing comprehensive stormwater management systems, previously designed primarily for urban settings with extensive impervious surfaces.

Disadvantage: This broad definition could expand the range of surfaces requiring stormwater management infrastructure, disproportionately affecting rural areas with dirt and gravel roads. Such classifications' financial and logistical implications could strain municipal resources, as the infrastructure required to manage stormwater runoff from these roads is costly and complex. The topography, soil type, and existing infrastructure may not support such interventions without significant alterations.

Smaller municipalities, especially those in rural areas with extensive networks of unpaved roads, may be financially strained by upgrading or maintaining roads to meet new impervious surface regulations.

While the intent is to protect water quality by controlling runoff from impervious surfaces, applying these standards to rural dirt roads might ironically lead to increased environmental degradation. Over-engineering small roads can lead to greater disturbance and more impervious cover, exacerbating runoff and pollution rather than mitigating it.

The effectiveness of applying urban stormwater standards to rural settings is debatable. Rural roads often naturally absorb much of the runoff due to their permeable nature and the surrounding vegetation, questioning the practicality of stringent impervious surface regulations in such contexts.

Maintenance and Improvement Definitions

Concerns: The proposed regulations define maintenance activities as those that do not increase impervious areas. Such activities include grinding, resurfacing, replacing existing drainage pipes, or resetting curbs. However, this definition may not fully encompass the routine needs of unpaved roads, such as grading or adding materials to maintain the road's integrity and safety.

Improvements are activities that increase the total impervious area by less than a single lane width, including widening roadways, adding shoulders, or making structural changes to drainage systems. This definition is more relevant to paved roads. It does not adequately address the specific techniques and needs associated with unpaved road maintenance, which often involves manipulating the existing roadbed rather than expanding it.

Disadvantage

The narrow definition could limit municipalities' ability to conduct essential maintenance that might be necessary due to erosion or other natural wear, which is typical for dirt roads. By not allowing these to count as maintenance, municipalities might face challenges in performing upkeep without stepping into the more heavily regulated realm of "improvements."

The definition might restrict the ability of local governments to implement necessary improvements aimed at enhancing road functionality or safety, especially in response to environmental changes or increased usage demands. Additionally, the requirement to comply with stringent stormwater regulations for what may be minor improvements could disproportionately affect rural areas where such regulations are harder to meet due to geographical and financial limitations.

Impact of Definitions on Municipal Operations: Summary

The combined effect of these regulatory definitions could lead to significant operational difficulties for municipalities in the district. By imposing standards and definitions suited to urban and fully developed areas, rural municipalities may face:

• Increased costs associated with compliance.
• Legal challenges in implementing necessary roadwork.
• Potential environmental damage due to the inability to properly maintain roadways within the confines of stringent regulations.

The Letter's Proposed Recommendations:

1. Amendment for Municipal Dirt/Gravel Roads: Advocate for an amendment that acknowledges the unique challenges that municipal dirt/gravel roads face, proposing that such roads only need to meet Stormwater Management Standards to the Maximum Extent Practicable.
2. Limited Project Provision: Suggest the inclusion of a new provision allowing municipal DPWs to maintain, retrofit, and improve existing dirt and gravel public roadways with a focus on enhancing inadequate drainage structures.
3. Rural Dirt Road Specific Exemption: Propose an exemption specifically for rural dirt/gravel roads, exempting them from some of the stringent requirements if they are redefined in a way that does not label them impervious.
4. Flexible Setback Guidance: Recommend treating setback requirements in the Stormwater Handbook as general guidance and adjusting them based on site-specific conditions. I also suggest evaluating these on a case-by-case basis with local conservation authorities.

The unpaved road on my corner, circa 2015!