"PrecisionMachinisT" wrote in message
...

In fact, many municipalitys are now requiring a "grassy swale area" in
order
that any oily runoff from parking lots, subdivisions, and other such
largely
paved-over areas be allowed time in order to bio-process before the water
leaches back into the soil in recharging the local aquifer.


Well, no. Mostly that's to allow the runoff from storms to get into the
ground rather than the sewers. You get fined for excessive flow of
untreated sewage from your plant, and a storm overloads the system fast.

Not sure how it passed, but "environmentals" being the noisy folks they are,
there was an ordinance up in the city that newly-constructed lots had to
have "plantings" and grassy areas rather than just flat asphalt.

Now consider an average snowfall of ~200" and cars dripping with great salt
stalactites. Not a lot grows around the lot, and it's tougher'n hell to get
a plowing pattern to clear snow around the aesthetically pleasing curbs....