STORM WATER FRONT & CENTER IN '07

Posted SWP3

Consultants to the City of Temple recently provided interested parties with information about Environmental Protection Agency/Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) standards for storm water pollution control.  These standards are imposed under a federal program known as the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and require cities to design local programs to address storm water pollution. 

Builders and developers will be impacted by the program that the City creates to address these standards, and it is important for all interested parties to be involved in the process. 

What is this all about?
The City of Temple invited TABA and our members to become stakeholders that will review Best Management Practices (BMPs) for containing pollutants at the construction, municipal, and industrial levels.  Upon agreeing to the request, TABA was provided with a notebook full of statutory information and best management practices for implementing the (EPA/TCEQ) statutes for cities less than 100,000 in population. 

Up until now, only cities above 100,000 in population were required to implement a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System program.  Now EPA has arrived at Phase 2 of the NPDES process and cities below 100,000 in population are being added to the mix. 

To complete this process, the EPA requires the City to develop and implement a storm water management plan [eventually via ordinance(s)] that will reduce the discharge of pollutants, protect water quality, and satisfy 6 minimum control measures.  These control measures include: public education; public involvement; illicit discharge; construction best management; post construction best management; and pollution prevention.

As far as residential construction goes, the City’s main concerns are with reducing floatable pollutants (Styrofoam, plastics, construction debris, etc) and sediment which can include trash and metals.

Examples of Control Measures:

Control measures that TABA will focus on include the following:

  • Illicit Discharge:  likely BMPs for illicit discharge include a GIS Storm Drain System Map, an Illicit Discharge Ordinance, illegal dumping measures, and the reduction of sanitary sewer overflows.  The minimum control measures concerning illicit discharge require that the City must “develop, implement, and enforce a program to reduce pollutants from construction site activities that disturb 1 acre or more.”
  • Construction Site Runoff Control: potential BMPs for construction site runoff control include check dams, filter berms, mulching, silt fences, sediment traps, etc.  Additionally an Erosion Control Ordinance will be included and procedures for receipt and consideration of public inquiries and concerns regarding local construction activities will be put into place.  This is a requirement.
  • Post Construction Storm Management:  potential BMPs include dry detention, wet ponds, buffer zones, open space, narrower streets, no curb and gutter, etc.  Though there are few requirements for this, everything here will be new.  The Phase 2 Final Rule requires municipalities develop, implement, and enforce a program to reduce pollutants in post-construction runoff from new development and redevelopment projects that disturb areas of 1 acre or greater.

Goal:

The goal of the developer's stakeholder committee will be to provide the City of Temple with public input on the BMPs.  This will be accomplished by reviewing recommended BMPs; suggesting or developing other BMPs; and voting to recommend BMPs to the City Council for adoption.  TABA will seek input from builders, developers, and associations locally and in other areas to find out which BMPs are most preferable.

How will this impact our industry?

In the coming months there will likely be more and more focus on our industry complying with the well known Storm Water Pollution Prevention Program, better known as SWP3.  This means, the continued development of SWP3 plans and filing Notices of Intent on developments of more than five acres and notifying municipalities of developments greater than 1 acre. 

This requirement has been around for years now, and many builders and developers in other (larger) cities have been hit with steep fines for non-compliance.

What will the process be?

A series of stakeholders meetings.  TABA has now been involved in two which were designed to familiarize us with the new rules our community will soon be faced with and to provide us with a series of best management practices for our consideration.

The next meetings will afford all stakeholders an opportunity further review and vote on the BMPs that they believe the City should implement. 

The final meeting will be with the City Council asking them to approve the “plan” that will then be submitted to TCEQ.

After the plan has been submitted and approved, it will be put into practice over the next several years.  During the implementation process we can expect to be involved with multiple “developer’s stakeholders meetings,” and impacted by new ordinances.

After the ordinances are adopted, new requirements resulting from the ordinances will be phased in over time. 

In summary, this process will take a number of years to be fully implemented, but the wheels are turning.  Change is coming on this front.

What is the timeline?

The City of Temple continues to wait on TCEQ to finalize their Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System requirements.  This should be completed early this year.  Once complete, the City will review the finalized requirements with Carter - Burgess and then meet with the stakeholders again to begin reviewing BMPs. 

Once the City reviews the BMPs with stakeholders, selects the BMPs, and determines a program; they will take the program results to the City Council for approval prior to sending it to TCEQ.  The program proposal must be finalized within 180 days of TCEQ's municipal permit (MS4) rules passage; which likely means by the summer of 2007.  Once the plan is finalized and approved by TCEQ, the City will then have approximately five years to fully implement the MS4 general permit program.

Comments from Temple City Engineer Michael Newman:

“The Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) general permit is a federal and state mandatory requirement that has been looming for several years, over cities with less than 100,000 populations. TABA's involvement in the process to help develop the City of Temple's municipal permit is much appreciated.”

 If you would like more information on this process, contact Troy Glasson at the TABA office (254-773-0445) and he will arrange to get you a program notebook.  For more on storm water, please see the Director’s comments in the January Government Affairs section of On the Level.

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