As discussed in the article "

Regulating Rainfall" in the August issue of WaterWorld, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has progressed with its plan for new municipal stormwater regulations that aim to improve how rainfall discharge is managed in newly developed and redeveloped sites across the United States. The Agency, under a 2010 consent decree with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, anticipated the guidelines to be finalized in 2013, but they currently still remain in the planning stages.

Regulating stormwater can be a sizable challenge for many cities, considering the significant threats to local water quality and public health posed by pollution and flooding from runoff. As such, these new standards are intended to better control these emissions currently affecting a number of surface waters and other regional waterbodies. The ruling is also expected to improve water quality, advance green infrastructure, preserve and expand municipal separate sewer systems (MS4s), and cultivate natural resources vital to the preservation of local environments.

"It's to prevent what we call the 'tragedy of the commons' where individual communities acting in their own best interests and with good intentions discharge stormwater from their cities directly into their receiving stream or receiving lake," said Ken MacKenzie, Stormwater Management Committee co-chair of the National Association of Flood & Stormwater Management Agencies (NAFSMA). "Without having some sort of national standard for water quality, I really believe a lot of cities would never have considered the fact that the runoff leaving their communities is polluted and requires some level of treatment."

To help readers understand the guidance in the 2012 SWMMWW, Ecology has created several additional handouts:

• Flow chart for determining Low Impact Development Requirements per Minimum Requirement #5 - The flow chart provides a step-by-step process for determining requirements related to Minimum Requirement #5. List #1 and List #2 under Minimum Requirement #5 are now included on the back of this handout.

• Western Washington LID Operations & Maintenance (O&M) Guidance Document  - This document provides guidance on procedures, equipment and materials, skills, and staffing for LID facility maintenance as well as administrative tools and guidance for implementing LID O&M programs.
  Note: In the 2012 SWMMWW, Volume V, Section 4.6, Ecology refers to grant funding to develop detailed maintenance standards for Bioretention Facilities and Permeable Pavement. This guidance document was created as a result of that grant funding. Ecology recommends that Western Washington Municipal Stormwater Permittees use this LID O&M Guidance Document when adopting maintenance standards for their LID BMPs/facilities.