Stormwater RunoffNYPIRG Report:
Phase II Stormwater Funding
|
What is stormwater runoff?
Where does stormwater come from?
What are the some stormwater pollutants and sources?
What are the impacts of stormwater runoff?
Does stormwater impact our New York City drinking water?
What are impervious surfaces?
What are the stormwater regulations?
What are SPDES permits?
What is an MS4?
What’s Phase I?
What’s Phase II?
What is required under Phase II?
What is a Best Management Practice (BMP)?
Why Stormwater Matters
What are impervious surfaces?
Impervious surfaces, such as roads, driveways, parking lots, and buildings increase and facilitate stormwater runoff. As lands went from natural and agricultural areas to urban developments there came about new infrastructure, such as roads, curbs and gutters, and storm sewer systems that resulted in an increased volume of stormwater reaching receiving streams faster (or 3more quickly2) and with greater velocity.
Increasing growth pressures in the New York City Watershed, especially East of Hudson, are threatening water quality by increasing the amount of impervious cover. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Putnam County is the third fastest growing county in the U.S. with a population increase of 14.1% in the last ten years; Westchester and Dutchess Counties grew 5.6% and 8.0% respectively.
What are the stormwater regulations?
The intent of most stormwater management legislation is to control the peak flow of storm events, prevent flooding and protect the physical and biological integrity of receiving streams. To address stormwater pollution, the Clean Water Act requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate stormwater discharges. As a result, EPA adopted rules to for a permit program, implemented in phases, with the goal of reducing pollutants in stormwater runoff. In New York State, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issues permits as are part of the State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) program.
Click here to visit NYSDEC website
What are SPDES permits?
The SPDES permits serves as authorization to discharge to a waterbody in New York State. The SPDES permit for stormwater limits the quality and quantity of discharges and often requires the permitee to monitor the compliance. SPDES permits can be a site-specific permit or a permit issued to a category of similar activities--a general permit.
What is an MS4?
An MS4 includes any method of conveying surface water, including streets, gutters, ditches, swales, or any other manmade structure that alters and/or directs wet-weather flows.
The MS4 operator is required to design its program so that it: (1) Reduces the discharge of pollutants to the maximum extent practicable (MEP;) (2) Protects water quality, and (3) Satisfies the appropriate water quality requirements of the Clean Water Act.
What’s Phase I?
Phase I was established in 1990 and addressed stormwater runoff from: (1) "medium" and "large" Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s) generally serving populations of 100,000 or greater. (2) construction activities disturbing 5 acres of land or greater, and (3) ten categories of industrial activity.
What’s Phase II?
Phase II requires permits for stormwater discharges from: (1) Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s) who are located within an "urbanized area" that has a total population of 50,000 or more and a density of 1,000 persons per square mile. Along with the automatically designated MS4s, the Phase II rule also requires the NPDES Permitting Authority to establish criteria for including at a minimum those MS4s located in population areas of at least 10,000 if it determines that wet-weather flow discharges could cause an adverse impact on the quality of receiving waters. Permitting authorities may also include municipalities as designated MS4s with populations as low as 1,000. (2)construction activities that disturb 1 or more acres of land.
Phase II of the NPDES Stormwater program was signed into law in December 1999 and went into effect on March 10, 2003.
What is required under Phase II?
Those communities permitted under Phase II are required to develop and implement a comprehensive stormwater management program that will reduce pollutants in storm water to the maximum extent practicable (MEP) to protect water quality. The regulations specify that compliance with the MEP requirement can be attained by developing a
stormwater management plan that addresses the six minimum control measures: public education and outreach, public participation/involvement, illicit discharge detection and elimination, construction site runoff control, post-construction runoff control, and pollution prevention/good housekeeping.
Construction activities that will disturb one or more acre are required to identify and control pollution sources from their operations. There must be a description of stabilization and structural practices to be used at the site to minimize erosion and the movement of sediments on and from the site.
What is a Best Management Practice (BMP)?
Phase II is a narrative rule that only requires the implementation of Best Management Practices (BMPs) to achieve compliance. A BMP is either a structuralÐengineered and constructedÐor non-structuralÐeducation or pollution prevention practiceÐcontrol that is used to manage the quantity and improve the quality of stormwater runoff in the most cost-effective manner. Selection of the proper mix of BMPs appropriate to the municipality is critical. The Phase II rule requires that EPA and permitting authorities issue BMP menus for each minimum measure to assist MS4s in developing the stormwater management program BMP "toolbox."
Planning and coordinating programs will enable municipalities to substantially reduce the costs of implementation and compliance with the Phase II Stormwater Program while protecting local water resources.
Why Stormwater Matters
Stormwater is the primary reason why 40% of the Nation’s waterways cannot support such uses as fishing and swimming.
Some of the contaminants found commonly in stormwater discharges include heavy metals, such as copper, zinc, and lead, which have been shown to cause health and reproductive problems in pregnant women and children, as well as oxygen-robbing nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, which can choke the life out of streams, rivers, ponds, and lakes.
An average construction site can send into streams 100 to 200 tons of sediment per acre in a year - 10 to 20 times greater than pre-construction levels. Excessive erosion, transport and deposition of sediment in surface waters are a significant pollution source. Sediment can impair fish food sources and aquatic habitats as well as cause taste and odor problems in drinking water. Damage due to sediment pollution is estimated to be $16 billion a year in North America (Osterkamp et al., 1998).
A single gram of dog feces can contain 23 million fecal coliform bacteria. EPA estimates that 2 or 3 days worth of waste from about 100 dogs contributes enough bacteria and nutrients to temporarily close a bay to swimming and fishing.
According to the Center for Watershed Protection over 180 million gallons of used oil is disposed of improperly each year; just one quart of motor oil can pollute 250,000 gallons of drinking water.
The National Academy of Sciences estimates that annually between 8 and 11 million tons of de-icing salt is used in the Northeast. According to the Department of Interior and the USGS (1996), road salt is a problem for both surface and ground water requiring states and local governments to spend an estimated $10 million each year to remedy salt contamination. Additionally, salt is corrosive and may cause damage to roadways, bridges and vehicles.
