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05/03/2017 08:00 AMImplementation of a more rigorous system to ensure that stormwater runoff doesn’t pollute local groundwater and, eventually, rivers and the Sound means a more rigorous and potentially expensive permitting and monitoring process for towns like Old Saybrook.
During rainstorms, stormwater does not flood streets because roads are designed to direct water away from the roads’ center towards the edges and into catchbasins or into swales of a natural design. Curious folks might then ask, then where does the water go? The answer, in a town without a sewer system, is that it gets gradually absorbed from these and similar structures into the surrounding soils.
What few people know is that towns need permission from the State of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) to manage road run-off in this way, and getting and keeping this clearance from DEEP just got harder and more expensive for all towns.
Towns get stormwater management permission by demonstrating to DEEP they have and will meet the requirements of this new DEEP MS4 general permit. The permit’s official title is the CT DEEP General Permit for the Discharge of Stormwater from Municipal Small Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4 is the acronym used to describe to town stormwater systems subject to this permit).
Towns must obtain the new MS4 permit—and continually meet its requirements—just to be allowed to direct and manage stormwater run-off from existing Town roads and other areas. In towns without a system of pipes—a sewer system—to collect stornwater, DEEP’s stormwater management regulations are designed to manage and monitor subsurface water distribution and outfalls to protect water quality in the State.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has delegated the authority to regulate and enforce federal water quality protection measures including stormwater management to Connecticut. The federal law and implementing regulations focus on managing stormwater discharges into municipal storm and sanitary sewer systems that end up at a sewage treatment plant. But most smaller Connecticut towns and cities do not have centralized sewers or collection and treatment systems. Instead stormwater is managed catchbasin by catchbasin or with other subsurface systems through which stormwater is absorbed into subsurface soils and not directed to a sewage treatment plant.
DEEP has chosen to impose stricter regulations than federal law and EPA regulations require for municipalities that dispose of stormwater using subsurface systems (for more information, visit www.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater). The new rules, imposed through a requirement that towns get new updated MS4 stormwater discharge permits, go into effect on July 1, 2017. The costs to meet the new rules are not reimbursed by the state, making DEEP’s new municipal stormwater rules an unfunded mandate.
“In implementing this law, DEEP is choosing to be stricter than federal regulation,” said First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr. “Old Saybrook is considered a Tier 1 Town under the new rules, which means more intensive [stormwater management] requirements than Tier 2 towns. It’s a good example of the highly regulatory environment we live with in this state and how the regulations cost real dollars to implement.”
The Tier 1 category into which Old Saybrook falls includes much larger cities like New Haven that, unlike Old Saybrook, have centralized sewer collection and treatment systems.
Fortuna said that the town’s consulting town engineer estimated the annual incremental cost to the town to implement DEEP’s new stormwater permit requirements is between $15,500 and $18,750.
DEEP’s New Permit Rules
The standards towns must meet now to get and maintain an MS4 stormwater discharge permit are the six Minimum Control Measures. Many are unchanged from the prior general permit’s rules, but other tasks have been expanded, adding costs on towns to comply with the new rules.
Minimum Control Measure 1: Public Education and Outreach. By June 30, 2018, the town must implement a public education program. The program developed must address bacteria as a pollutant of concern due to fecal coliform in the lower Connecticut River and Long Island Sound. The Town is investigating using River COG and Internet resources to assist with this education requirement. The added cost for this measure is minimal and estimated at $500 for 2017-18.
Minimum Control Measure 2: Public Participation and Involvement. By April 1, 2017, and by Feb. 15 of each year thereafter, the town will need to comply with the public notice requirements for the Stormwater Management Plan and annual reports. Like the public outreach, this element is a minimal cost to the town of about $125 per year.
Minimum Control Measure 3: Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination (IDDE.) The Town of Old Saybrook adopted an IDDE ordinance in June 2012. By June 30, 2018, the town must develop a written IDDE management program identifying how it will detect and eliminate such discharges and start a citizen illicit discharge reporting program and recordkeeping system; this requires the mapping of all of the town’s stormwater infrastructure. There are approximately 1090 town-owned catch basins and 218 MS 4 stormwater outfalls. According to drawing reviews, there are about 80 to 90 stormwater outfalls in town that discharge to the Connecticut River or Long Island Sound. Under the rules, only municipally owned outfalls need to mapped. The cost to implement these tasks is about $1,500 to $2,500.
Minimum Control Measure 4: Construction Site Run-off: This is an extra requirement to assure interdepartmental coordination of site development plan reviews. The town also must upgrade town ordinances to add legal and enforcement authority for land use development. Some costs will be incurred for new town regulations, legal counsel review, and town meeting enactment.
Minimum Control Measure 5: Post Construction Site Runoff Control. By June 30, 2018, the town must implement a long-term maintenance plan for municipal stormwater facilities including detention basins, retention basins, stormwater quality basins, sedimentation tanks, hydrodynamic separators, infiltration facilities, and other similar stormwater facilities that require maintenance. Such a plan would address inspections, mowing in stormwater basins, cutting of trees in basins if needed, removal of trash and sediment. The cost would be between $2,500 and $4,000 over two years to compile a list of the facilities; by June 2010, all impervious area for each stormwater outfall must be determined. To finish by this date, an annual of budget of between $4,750 and %5,500 is recommended for this measure.
Minimum Control Measure 6: Pollution Prevention and Good Housekeeping. Starting on July 1, 2017, the town must track projects that have disconnected from the Direct Connected Impervious Area since 2012, continue Department of Public Works crew training programs, and implement various stormwater facilities inspection, maintenance and cleaning programs. The added costs of the new requirements are estimated at $3,000 to $4,000.
Stormwater Monitoring Program Requirements: To monitor the fecal coliform (and enterococci) content of discharges from the 80-90 MS4 stormwater outfalls that discharge into the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound Estuary, the town must as of June 30, 2019, add a new more intensive discharge sampling and testing program. The cost of this measure is around $3,500.