Stormwater Management

The Stormwater Basics.

Over time, people have changed the landscape. Hard coverings such as paved roads and parking lots, roofs and other impervious surfaces have replaced what were once open fields and forests.

Before extensive development, the landscape absorbed much of the rainfall. This natural process filters out pollutants, recharges groundwater, and reduces the likelihood of erosion and flooding. In urban and suburban settings, rainfall washes over impervious surfaces creating runoff.

Parking areas, streets and rooftops are impervious surfaces (loosely defined as areas where water cannot penetrate the ground). Even a lush lawn growing on compacted soil can be considered an impervious surface.

Traditional drainage systems concentrate runoff from these surfaces and remove it as quickly as possible by a system of gutters, curbs, pipes, sewers, and channels. The result is large amounts of fast-moving and sometimes highly polluted water discharging into local rivers, causing erosion, flooding, and unstable stream channels. Pollutants can include litter, pet waste, vehicle fluids, and fertilizers and pesticides applied to lawns.

So what’s the big deal?

Studies show that significant impairment of waterways often occurs when just 10% of the land in the watershed is covered with parking lots and rooftops. However, if these areas exceed 25% of the land, severe ecosystem and water quality impairment occurs.

How does this affect our water quality?

Water quality is affected by the accumulation of trash, oil and rubber from cars, fertilizers and pesticides applied to lawns, sediment from bare or poorly vegetated ground and other pollutants entering streams & rivers. Inflow of sediment can cloud water, blocking sunlight from submerged plants. Sediment also settles to the bottom of streams, clogging the gravel beds used by fish for laying their eggs. Nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, from fertilizers enter the water and promote unusually rapid algae growth. As this algae dies, its decomposition reduces or eliminates oxygen needed by fish, shellfish, and other aquatic life for survival.

These are all examples of nonpoint source pollution, one of the major contributors to the degradation of quality in waterways. Stormwater management practices help control nonpoint source pollution through the use of nonstructural and/or structural techniques to intercept surface runoff from developed areas, filter and treat this runoff, and then discharge it at a controlled rate. The overriding condition that governs the quantity of stormwater runoff is the amount of impervious surfaces located on your property (driveways, roofs, carports, sidewalks, etc.) Stormwater quality, however, is governed by the accumulation of pollutants on the entire surface area, regardless of whether it is grassed or paved. As the use of chemicals around the home such as fertilizers, pesticides, engine oils, deicing materials, and similar products increases, the more degraded the stormwater runoff from your property will be. Although the effect of one property on the quality and quantity of stormwater runoff may seem insignificant, the cumulative impact from hundreds of thousands of yards across the State continues to be destructive to our water quality.

What Can I do to help?

Below is a collection of information for residents, businesses and contractors. These informative and instructive documents have been collected from many resources to help provide guidance and in some case direct instructions.

Information for Brookhaven Residents & Home Owners

There are many things a home owner can do to help safeguard the environment and also to improve the safety and quality of life for your family as well.  Also, by managing their property with stormwater in mind, a home owner can take advantage of a lot of the information in this section to not only save money but to beautify their property as well.

Information for Brookhaven Businesses

There are far more residential homes in Brookhaven than there are businesses. However, a business or a contractor working for a business can often make dramatic changes in the in the landscape far beyond what a home owner can do themselves. There are also many laws that govern how and where construction can take place which relate directly to stormwater management.

Information for Contractors, Builders, and Developers

Contractors have not only a professional responsibility but  legal duty to adhere to Stormwater regulations and laws. In this section are documents which will help to guide your efforts while working in Brookhaven.

What else can I do?

New stormwater regulations from Pennsylvania’s DEP require that your municipality investigate more thoroughly potential illicit discharges (pollutants) into our streams.  You can help by promptly reporting the following events to the authorities listed in the hotline box below.  Here are some of the conditions that you should report and to whom they should be reported.

* Sediment leaving a construction site during rain events and other violations (your county conservation district- send a photo if possible)

* Observed pollution event or pollutants in stream (DEP)

* Clogged or leaking sewer lines (your sewer authority)

* Inadequately treated sewer effluent from treatment plant (your sewer authority and DEP)

* Spills, hazardous materials (DEP Spills or PEMA hotlines)

* Illegal dumping into water courses or storm sewers (your municipality, DEP)

* Dry weather flows from outfall pipes into streams (your municipality)

* Fish Kills (Fish Commission, DEP)

* Water main breaks (Aqua PA or Chester Water Authority).

DEP Water Quality Complaint Hotline- Daytime

484-250-5991 Weekdays

8:00am to 4:30pm

Leave message after-hours

DEP 24 Hour Spill/Pollution

Incident Hotline

484-250-5900 24 Hr Emergency Number

Off site discharge of sediment,erosion, & other improper controls during construction

Delaware Co. Conservation District

810-892-9484

Send photo, full address, and directions

Brookhaven Borough

(610) 874-2557

Weekdays 8:30am-4:00pm

The Legal Side of Stormwater Management

National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)

The Clean Water Act of 1972 has greatly improved the quality of the Nation’s waterways. The NPDES program originally regulated point discharges such as those from STPs and factories. It has since been expanded to address nonpoint source pollution resulting from stormwater. Phase I of the NPDES stormwater program sets permit requirements on medium to large municipal separate storm sewer systems that serve 100,000 people or more, as well as construction sites greater than five acres, and 10 separate categories of industrial sources.

The Phase II program requires all owners and operators of small municipal separate storm sewer systems in urbanized areas as defined by the Census Bureau and owners and operators of small construction sites the disturb 1 to 5 acres of land to obtain an NPDES permit. Every municipality in Delaware County meets these criteria and is therefore required to have a permit.

Permits are issued by DEP to each municipality based on a 5-year time frame. Requirements of the permit are to implement programs to address the following 6 Minimum Control Measures:

1. Public Education and Outreach

2. Public Involvement and Participation

3. Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination

4. Construction Site Stormwater Runoff Control

5. Post Construction Stormwater Management in New Development and Redevelopment

6. Pollution Prevention and Good Housekeeping for Municipal Operations and Maintenance.

Many of these elements can be addressed through municipal stormwater ordinances such as those developed as part of an Act 167 Stormwater Management Plans.

The County, in an effort to assist the municipalities in meeting part 1 and 2 of these requirements, has run educational advertisements in the Daily Times as well as distributed stormwater bookmarks to all of the libraries in the County libraries. The County further assists municipalities with the development of Act 167 plans and information distribution concerning regulation requirements.

Stormwater Management Plans

Recognizing the need to deal with the problems associated with stormwater runoff, the Pennsylvania General Assembly enacted Act 167 in 1978 the Pennsylvania Stormwater Management Act. This act, which is the “sister” legislation to Act 166, FP Management Act recognizes the interrelationship between land development, accelerated runoff, and floodplain management. While Act 166 requires municipalities to regulate development in the floodplain, Act 167 requires municipalities to implement a stormwater management ordinance limiting stormwater runoff from new development.

The Act requires Pennsylvania counties to prepare and adopt stormwater management plans for each watershed located in the county, as designated by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Most importantly, these plans are to be prepared in consultation with municipalities located in the watershed, working through a Watershed Plan Advisory Committee (WPAC). The plans are to provide for uniform technical standards and criteria throughout a watershed, for the management of stormwater runoff and from new land development and redevelopment sites.

The types and degree of controls that are prescribed in the watershed plan need to be based on the expected development pattern and hydrologic characteristics of each individual watershed. The management plan, specifically the standards and criteria, are developed from the technical evaluations performed in the planning process in order to respond to the “cause and effect” nature of existing and potential storm runoff impacts in the watershed. The final product of the Act 167 watershed planning process is a comprehensive and practical implementation plan and stormwater ordinance developed with a firm sensitivity to the overall needs (e.g. financial, legal, political, technical, etc.) of the municipalities in the watershed. Every municipality within the watershed must adopt the ordinance.

• Act 167 Plans Status in Delaware County include:
• Ridley Creek (1988)

• Chester Creek (2003)
• Darby-Cobbs Creeks (2005)
• Crum Creek (In Progress)
• Brandywine Creek (only small land area in Delaware County, plan to be prepared by Chester County)

Additional Resources:

“An Introduction to Stormwater Management”

Stormwater Discharges from Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s)

Delaware County Conservation District

http://www.raingardennetwork.com

http://www.crcwatersheds.org

http://www.rainscaping.org