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HOW STORMWATER BECAME A FOCUS OF THE CLEAN WATER ACT
The Federal Clean Water Act marked its 40th anniversary this October. When it was first enacted, the Clean Water Act was aimed at "point source pollution" such as dumping of toxic pollutants from industrial sites. In more recent de cades, however, stormwater pollution known as "non-point source pollution" has been shown to carry more contaminants to U. S. waterways than point source pollutants. Around 40 percent of U.S. waters (streams, lakes, rivers, etc...) are not clean enough for fishing or swimming primarily because of non-point source pollution.
When rain water washes over impervious surfaces such as roads, driveways and roof tops, it picks up pollutants. In the absence of stormwater management facilities, this runoff drains untreated to the nearest waterway - not a water treatment facility. The burst in urban development in recent decades has led to a drastic increase in impervious area. The total amount of impervious area in the United States would cover an area about the size of Ohio.
Fifteen years after adopting the Clean Water Act in 1972, Congress amended the statute to include regulation of stormwater. This action by congress, known as the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) regulations, has led to requirements for local governments to:
- Educate the public about the problem and involve the public.
- Set up programs to catch people dumping contaminants down the stormwater system (ie people routing their sewage pipes into the system or dumping oil or other pollutants into the system).
- Develop a program to control stormwater flowing off construction sites.
- Require property owners to control stormwater usually through a system of "best management practices" (BMPs) that anyone who submits a plan for development and those buying the property are legally required to follow. These measures, however, are often difficult to enforce over the long run.
- Assure that government agencies are minimizing their contribution to the non-point source pollutant problem.
NPDES regulations were put in place in large cities and counties in the early 1990s and extended to smaller local governments more recently. The EPA acknowledges that the current requirements are still not getting the job done. Requirements to better control stormwater, possibly through some kind of mandatory low-impact development, are in the works. The agency is scheduled to lay out its new plans in June 2013.
One obstacle to the overall success of the stormwater pollutant management program is that prior to about 1990, the goal in designing stormwater management practices (if there were any stormwater management practices included in new development at all) was to protect from flooding. Consequently, large areas developed in the 1980s and before are almost entirely lacking in stormwater controls. The NPDES program is slowly addressing pockets of deficiency, but it comes at a high cost. A study in Washington State found that it would cost approximately $200 million a square mile to fully retrofit their urban areas with facilities aimed at removing non-point source pollutants.
One stormwater regulator in Washington State pointed out that development of land over the last 100 years has gotten us into the current situation with stormwater runoff, and it may take that same length of time to undo the problem. It's likely that more changes to local stormwater management programs driven by the Clean Water Act are on the horizon. We'll keep you posted.
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