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Home My WebLink About05/16/2000, 3 - NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM-NPDES PHASE 2 council j apenaa aEpont CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO FROM: Mike McCluskey,Director of Pub ' Wor Prepared By: Wayne Peterson, City Engineer SUBJECT: National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System-NPDES Phase 2 CAO RECOMMENDATION Receive report. DISCUSSION Nationally, the condition of our drainage system has been recognized for a long time as needing improvement. Beginning shortly after the Second World War in 1948, Congress adopted the Water Pollution Control Act. This legislation was intended to clean up the nations waterways by limiting outfalls to the same quality of the water flowing in the waterway. In 1972 the Clean Water Act (CWA) was approved. It went further. Effluent from point sources,like wastewater treatment plants, was limited to levels based on the quality that the waterway should have. Defining "Should" was the responsibility of the Federal Government. The Clean Water Act was amended in 1987 with the Water Quality Act that introduced the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System(NPDES). This part of the program looked at sources of pollution, such as run off from property and streets. The first phase of the NPDES program began 10 years ago and applied only to cities and urbanized areas with over 100,000 population. The Federal Government issued regulations in December 1999 describing the second phase of the program. It affects cities and urbanized areas with a population over 50,000 or areas of population density over 1000 persons per square mile. The City of San Luis Obispo is included in the Phase 2 program since it is in an urbanized area exceeding a population of 50,000 as of the 1990 census and because it operates a"small municipal separate storm sewer system"also known as an MS4. The City is required by March 10,2003 to obtain a permit for its storm water runoff and a permit for any industrial facility it operates. These facilities may include treatment plants, parking areas, and vehicle maintenance and storage areas. Each construction project that disturbs over 1 acre of land will also require a separate permit. The stated goal of the NPDES program is "to designate additional sources that need to be regulated to protect water quality and to establish a comprehensive storm water program to regulate these sources." Tnit�the program only requires documentation,public information and application of "best management practices". Is this program necessary in San Luis Obispo? We see ourselves living in a very pristine and beautiful part of California. The reality is the Regional Water Quality Control Board has listed San 3-1 Luis Obispo Creek from Marsh Street at Iiiguera to Avila as having materials that are not desirable and therefore polluted. The pollutants listed in the National Register are: Nutrients• from municipal point sources, agriculture, agriculture storm runoff and irrigated crop production. pathogens- from urban runoff, storm sewers. Priority Org nice- Industrial point sources. Thus, despite our"creek clean-up days", our efforts to remove trash and homeless, and our efforts to eliminate non-native invasive plant material, our creek is not clean. The Phase 2 regulations are meant to assure that eventually every creek will be clean. What will the initial permit require the City to do? The initial program is very basic. It requires the permittee to do six things. 1. Perform a public information program telling its citizens about what stormwater may carry and its impacts on nature. 2. Perform illicit discharge detection and removal. 3. Perform construction site stormwater runoff control. 4. Administer post-construction stormwater management in new development. 5. Prevent pollution by performing good housekeeping programs. 6. Involve the public in the establishment and performance of the program. The permit will require the city to establish goals for performance of the six points and to report how they are being met. The initial program has no.standards. It just requires the agency to use common cense and`Best Management Practices." The city will not have to measure water quality or treat water discharge. It is expected that performance of basic management practices will result in less polluted water. Does the program impact anyone besides cities in urbanized areas? Yes. The same regulations apply to State and Federal agencies that operate facilities. The State highway system must comply. It also impacts industry and land development. Any grading of 1 acre or more must obtain a permit before performing the work and must comply with certain best management conditions. The County will likely have to implement its own program in the area around the City and in other parts of the county that are identified by the RWQCB. When is this program expected to go in the future? Based on the experience we have with earlier programs involving wastewater treatment regulation,this program is likely to be expanded until the desired improvements are made to the nations' waterways. If we look at how the CWA grew from a small program to one that required a complete reinvention of the process of wastewater management we can expect this to be the beginning of an even bigger program. Currently the City is spending a few hundred thousand dollars a year on storm water programs. The estimated initial cost of the required program is $250,000. If treatment facilities are eventually required on each stormwater receptor or outfall the sheer number of treatment units will make the program very expensive. What is the City doing to get ready for the program? Staff monitored the NPDES legislation as 3-2 it progressed. As such a number of items are underway which will help achieve compliance with the six criteria. They are: 1. Public Works has started mapping the existing storm drain system. 2. Water Utility has a program that educates people about the problems of washing off commercial property and directing it into the creek. 3. Streets are being swept. 4. Development permits require grading projects to minimize silt in runoff by constructing settlement basins and silt barriers. 5. City and private projects in or adjacent to creeks include sediment control systems. 6. Public Works staff has been meeting with representatives of the Chamber, Association of Manufacturers and Distributors, and ECOSLO to discuss how to go about involving the public and looking for ideas of how to handle the costs. 7. City department heads met to learn about the program. 8. The Zone 9 Waterway Management Plan currently being prepared includes a work task that will compare all City programs to NPDES program requirements. This will help focus our efforts to create a compliance permit application that will be approved for implementation. 9. The City sponsored a meeting jointly with the American Public Works Association to bring a videoconference to San Luis Obispo designed to inform public agencies in California about the program. Where do we go from here? As described above, many items are already underway and will certainly help achieve our goal. However,until the work element of the Waterway Management Plan is complete,we won't have a good idea of program elements we need to start on. In addition, the issue of how to pay for this early program and its eventual larger costs has yet to be resolved. The City Council budgeted funds in the Public Works Flood Protection budget(Significant Operating Program Change) for a program to study the feasibility of a watershed management enterprise to pay for flood control and creek protection. Staff has been unable to begin this study due to other priority projects. We anticipate that, via the public awareness program envisioned, public support for some kind of funding mechanism,which will assure a clean creek, will receive support. The enterprise feasibility study, assuming no new workload assignments, should be able to get started by September 2000. FISCAL BIPACT It is estimated, based on other agencies experience, that the basic NPDES program will cost the City $250,000 or more per year. It is likely that the program costs will go up. The initial program will include program management costs, equipment and staff to perform catch basin cleaning, additional street sweeping, and additional inspection to insure that silt control devices are installed and working on City and private projects. Unless the City is able to find a new funding source these costs will come from the General Fund. ALTERNATIVES There are no alternatives to complying with the EPA requirements. g:\_cww pmjecsldrainage\npdes progamkouncil intro to phase 2.doc 3-3