Runoff Rundown
Spring 2006

Feature Article

Center conducts study to find out what happens with post-construction stormwater management nationwide

As you may recall in last fall’s issue, we asked those of you working in stormwater management to complete our questionnaire on the status of your post-construction stormwater programs. With this information, the Center has been working on a project to produce post-construction stormwater guidance, targeted to communities across the country that must comply with NPDES requirements. The project is supported by the EPA Office of Wastewater Management. The Center is working with Tetra Tech, Inc. to produce the guidance.

The first step was distilling the results of last fall’s research tool. We received responses from 94 stormwater professionals representing local programs in 30 states. The majority of responses came from Phase II communities. It is evident from the responses that many communities are making strides towards assembling a post-construction stormwater program, but that many challenges remain.

Localities have established stormwater programs for a variety of reasons, with the most common drivers being the regulatory requirements (Phase I and II), local flooding problems, and erosion. However, other programs have been established to support tourism, economic development, and protection of locally-important resources, such as fisheries. Most of the responses also indicated that development pressure is another major factor.

A few other interesting results include:

• Half of the local programs have adopted a post-construction stormwater ordinance, and most have some type of design criteria or standards. However, very few have standards that encourage or allow Better Site Design or low-impact development through credits or other incentives.
• Maintenance programs are generally lagging behind other program elements, such as ordinance development and plan review. Most programs do not use legally-binding maintenance agreements for stormwater facilities and do not inspect privately-maintained facilities on a regular basis.
• Most local stormwater programs are trying to develop complex programs with very little staff and no dedicated or defined funding source. The mean number of full-time employees assigned to stormwater programs is 1.5, and many have no dedicated staff. Many local programs operate with an annual budget of $50,000 or less. On the other hand, about 30% do have a stormwater utility in place.
• Common problems identified by respondents included standing water and West Nile Virus, urban wildlife, maintenance issues (especially lack of maintenance by property owners and homeowners’ associations), and, most notably, convincing elected officials and the general public about the importance of stormwater management.

Earlier this year, the Center developed a technical memorandum that summarizes results from the research tool. These results will help develop the guidance document and tools to assist local programs with the development of effective and innovative post-construction programs. Look for this document to be released toward the end of year. For more information on the research tool or post-construction guidance, contact David Hirschman at (434)245-0011 or djh@cwp.org.