STORM WATER MANAGEMENT
STORM WATER HISTORY
Water quality regulations within the U.S. can be traced back more than 50 years to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948. The original regulation was passed primarily to control inadequately treated wastewater. Since its original passage in 1948, the FWPCA has undergone extensive amendments. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service created a page detailing the results of individual amendments.
Amendments in 1972, spurred on by the Cuyahoga River fires of the late 1960's and creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970, combined with further amendments in 1977 have become known as the Clean Water Act.
The 1972 amendments created the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). The amendments passed by Congress authorized the EPA to administer a discharge permit system to reduce pollutants from industrial discharges.
The 1977 amendments included the development of "Best Management Practices" programs and procedures for States to assume the permitting authority.
The 1972 and 1977 amendments to the FWCPA focused on end-of-pipe discharges, or point sources of pollution. These regulations were directed toward industrial facilities discharging into streams, rivers and lakes. The original Clean Water Act permitting program led to significant reductions in water pollution from the sources addressed by this program.
However, surveys of waterways throughout the U.S. conducted in the 1980s revealed that serious problems with our water systems continued to exist. Further examination of the survey results indicated that the majority of pollution was no longer coming from point sources, such as those regulated through the NPDES program. Polluted storm water runoff from urban areas was identified as one of the sources of a significant portion of water pollution.
Amendments to the FWCPA in 1987 authorized the EPA to create a multi-phased permitting system addressing polluted storm water runoff from municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s). An MS4 is the storm drainage system that a municipality, or other agency or organization owns and operates, so long as the pipes are not also connected to the sanitary sewer system.
The EPA launched Phase I of the NPDES program for medium and large cities, those serving populations greater 100,000, in 1990. Permits are issued on a 5-year permit term. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) assumed authority of Phase I permitting for the State of Texas on September 14, 1998.
Phase II of the NPDES program was launched in 1999 and affected small MS4s, those serving populations fewer than 100,000, but located within U.S. Census Bureau delineated Urbanized Areas. These areas pose a risk to water quality because of the density of populations and types of activities typically found in urban communities. The TCEQ assumed permitting authority for the Phase II program in 2003, and released the general permit guidance in 2006.
The City of Mansfield is classified as a Phase II community because a large portion of the City's limits fall within the Dallas/Fort Worth urbanized area. The City is therefore required to submit to TCEQ for a permit to discharge storm water into the local waterways. Included with the application for the permit is the Stormwater Management Program (SWMP).
The SWMP outlines the actions and activities the City will use to reduce the potential for pollutants entering our local waterways from stormwater runoff entering the City's storm drainage system and will be reviewed by the TCEQ. The SWMP must be accepted by the TCEQ before the City will be approved to discharge its stormwater.
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