The Need for Storm and Surface Water Management: The Water Quality Issue
Contents
- The Need for Stormwater Management
- Runoff and Nonpoint Source Pollution Control
- Stormwater and the Endangered Species Act
- Related MRSC Pages
The 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 in stormwater runoff that drains large surface areas, such as agricultural and urban land.
- Stormwater Program, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), Environmental Protection Agency
- Stormwater, Washington State Department of Ecology
- Environment Education Guide: Protecting Washington′s Waters from Stormwater Pollution (
), Washington State Department of Ecology, Publication #07-10-058, 07/2007
- Why is Urban Stormwater A Problem in Washington? (), Focus on Municipal Stormwater Programs, Washington State Department of Ecology
- Washington Stormwater Management Study, Report to the Washington State Legislature, Report and Recommendations from the Stormwater Policy Advisory Committee, 2001
Runoff and Nonpoint Source Pollution Control
There is a well-documented relationship between land development and the degradation of water quality. Controlling stormwater runoff is needed to mitigate the adverse environmental impacts caused by runoff.
- Learn About Stormwater, Washington State Department of Ecology
- Economic Benefit of Runoff Controls, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds
- Guidance Specifying Management Measures for Sources of Nonpoint Pollution in Coastal Waters, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA 840-B-92-002, 01/1993
- NonPoint Source Pointers (Factsheets), Nonpoint Source Solutions, U.S. EPA Office of Water
- Managing Urban Runoff, EPA Pointer No. 7, EPA841-F-96-004G
- Washington's Water Quality Management Plan to Control Nonpoint Source Pollution - Final, Washington State Department of Ecology, Publication No. 05-10-027, 06/2005
Stormwater and the Endangered Species Act
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 stormwater management to protect streams and wetlands.
- A Citizen's Guide to the 4(d) Rule for Threatened Salmon and Steelhead on the West Coast, Limit No.12 () - The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) included in its 4(d) rule provisions an evaluation of whether development ordinances or plans adequately conserve listed fish. The provisions, or limits, are introduced and explained in Limit 12. Limit 12(2) and Limit 12 (9) (Municipal, Residential, Commercial, and Industrial Development and Redevelopment) contain items related to stormwater.
- Managing Urban Stormwater to Protect Streams (), Section 3.B.4, Vol. II, Extinction is Not an Option: Statewide Strategy to Recover Salmon - Washington State's stormwater strategy was outlined in the 1999 Salmon Recovery Plan, Extinction is Not an Option.