The Need for Storm and Surface Water Management:
The Water Quality Issue

Contents

• The Need for Stormwater Management
• Runoff and Nonpoint Source Pollution Control
• Storm Water and ESA
• MRSC Related Web Pages
  • Water Quality, Water Pollution, Clean Water
  • Water Resources and Water Issues Information

Need for Stormwater Management

Early water pollution efforts focused on reducing pollutants in industrial wastewater and discharges from municipal sewage treatment plants. Studies have shown, however, that more diffuse sources of water pollution are significant causes of water quality impairment - specifically, storm water runoff that drains large surface areas, such as agricultural and urban land.

• NPDES Stormwater Program - Environmental Protection Agency
• About Stormwater - Washington State Department of Ecology
• Environment Education Guide: Protecting Washington′s Waters from Stormwater Pollution ( 914 KB), Washington State Department of Ecology, Publication #07-10-058, July 2007
• Why is Urban Stormwater A Problem in Washington? ( 40 KB) in Focus on Municipal Stormwater
  Programs  - Washington State Department of Ecology
• Washington Stormwater Management Study, Interim Report to the Washington State Legislature, Report and Recommendations from the Stormwater Policy Advisory Committee, January 2001

Runoff and Nonpoint Source Pollution Control

There is a well-documented relationship between land development and the degradation of water quality. Controlling storm water runoff is needed to mitigate the adverse environmental impacts caused by runoff. The listing of salmon under the Environmental Species Act requires that streams and wetlands be protected. Both the state and federal government have set out strategies related to storm water management to protect streams and wetlands. The state's storm water strategy outlined in Managing Urban Storm Water to Protect Streams ( 47 KB) includes:

• Economic Benefit of Runoff Controls -  United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds
• Guidance Specifying Management Measures for Sources of Nonpoint Pollution in Coastal Waters, EPA-840-B-93-001c January 1993
• NonPoint Source Pointers (Factsheets), Nonpoint Source Solutions -  EPA Office of Water
• Managing Urban Runoff, EPA Pointer No. 7, EPA841-F-96-004G
• Reduce the Harm from Stormwater Runoff ( 1.02 MB),  Priority 3 of  Puget Sound Action Team 2005-2007 Puget Sound Conservation and Recovery Plan 
• Washington's Water Quality Management Plan to Control Nonpoint Source Pollution - Final, Department of Ecology, Publication Number 99-26, Revised April 2004.

Stormwater and the Endangered Species Act

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has included in its 4(d) rule provisions on which it will evaluate whether development ordinances or plans adequately conserve listed fish. The provisions, or limits, are introduced and explained in A Citizen's Guide to the 4(d) Rule for Threatened Salmon and Steelhead on the West Coast. Limit No. 12 ( 68 KB) - Municipal, Residential, Commercial, and Industrial Development and Redevelopment (MRCI) contains the following items related to storm water:

Limit 12 (2). An MRCI development ordinance or plan adequately prevents stormwater discharge impacts on water quality and quantity and stream flow patterns in the watershed--including peak and base flows in perennial streams. Stormwater management programs must require development activities to avoid impairing water quality and quantity. These activities must preserve or enhance stream flow patterns so they are as close as possible to the historic peak flows, base flows, durations, volumes, and velocities. This can be accomplished by reducing impervious surfaces and maintaining forest cover and natural soils. These conditions will, in turn, maintain essential habitat processes such as natural water infiltration rates, transpiration rates, stormwater run-off rates, sediment filtering, and provide hydrographic conditions that maintain and sustain aquatic life.

Limit 12 (9). An MRCI development ordinance or plan contains provisions to prevent erosion and sediment run-off during (and after) construction and thus prevent sediment and pollutant discharge to streams, wetlands and other water bodies that support listed fish. These provisions, at a minimum, should include detaining flows, stabilizing soils, protecting slopes, stabilizing channels and outlets, protecting drain inlets, maintaining best management practices (BMPs), and controlling pollutants. These goals can be accomplished by applying seasonal work limits, phasing land clearing activities, maintaining undisturbed native top soil and vegetation, etc. These stipulations will help maintain natural runoff rates and protect water quality.

The State's 1999 Salmon Recovery Plan, Extinction is Not an Option, contains a plan for managing stormwater.

• Managing Urban Storm Water to Protect Streams, ( 47 KB) Section 3.B.4, Vol. II, Extinction is Not an Option: Statewide Strategy to Recover Salmon