Comprehensive Stormwater Management Policy
TU Valley Forge Chapter Release

The policy is an important step forward in protecting water quality and quantity in our state.  It will, for the first time, regulate stormwater discharges from post-construction activities related to land development.  It will impose standards for infiltration of stormwater, that will, for example, require that infiltration in an EV or HQ watershed after construction must equal or exceed  infiltration before construction.  The policy will encourage and sometimes require the use of BMPs that will treat stormwater as a resource to be managed on site, rather than transported off-site and discharged into the nearest stream.  This can help recharge groundwater and reduce flooding while also sparing streams from scouring, erosion and sudden increases in pollutant loads.

The draft policy also outlines the state's plans to address the upcoming federal requirements regarding stormwater controls for municipal separate stormwater systems (MS4s), in part through financial incentives from the state to municipalities under Act 167, and for construction activities between one and five acres of earth disturbance.

There are, however, some deficiencies and problems with the draft policy:

DEP needs to provide more detail on the strategy and its implementation since many areas of the strategy are sketchy and unclear, such as what stormwater quality and site conditions limit the application of infiltration BMPs, and who is responsible for holding permits for post-construction stormwater discharges in situations such as subdivision developments.

The policy does not reference or discuss requirements of the Commonwealth's anti-degradation regulations that are applicable to proposed construction and post-construction activities such as the non-discharge alternative analysis requirement, the requirement to use the best available combination of technologies if a non-discharge alternative is not feasible, the requirement to maintain and protect existing quality for discharges in HQ and EV waters, and the requirement to protect the existing uses of all waters.

The policy fails to explain how DEP will implement the nonpoint source control provisions of the antidegradation regulations that require that cost-effective and reasonable BMPs be achieved in HQ and EV waters, in order to minimize stormwater impacts on receiving waters.

The policy needs to provide more detail and a description of legal authority on how municipalities that have developed and implemented an Act 167 plan would meet NPDES discharge permit requirements for MS4s.

The infiltration requirement that post-construction infiltration equals or exceeds pre-construction infiltration only refers to Special Protection Waters (EV or HQ streams).  These requirements should apply to all streams.

The policy does not require an assessment of the cumulative impact of stormwater discharges in a watershed nor does it specifically regulate the rate and volume of the discharges.

In the policy, the post-construction requirements would be implemented through a Part II general permit.  individual NPDES permit for stormwater discharge associated with construction activity, for post-construction requirements, and how the state would ensure that BMP s continue to be operational in the future.

The policy narrows the scope, public participation, and federal oversight opportunities for NPDES permitting of earth disturbances between 1 and 5 acres by applying only to point sources ; this is inconsistent with the way the Department processes NPDES permits for earth disturbances of 5 acres or more.

A small committee composed of representatives from Clean Water Action, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Mid Atlantic Environmental Law Center will be developing the comments which we will be inviting groups to sign onto or to use in the development of their own comment letters.

If you have any questions about the draft policy, feel free to call Bob Wendelgass at Clean Water Action at 215-640-8800 or Bill Gerlach or Lynn Dancy at Chesapeake Bay Foundation at 717-234-5550.  Thanks for your efforts, and we look forward to working with you in generating comments on this important proposed policy.