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Storm Water
Management
A Phase II Storm Water Management Program (SWMP) has been prepared by
the Village of Malverne for its facilities. The aim of this program is
to control storm water runoff discharges from a number of facilities to
the waters of the United States in accordance with the requirements of
the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Phase II storm
water regulations promulgated under the federal Clean Water Act. This
Phase II program coverage is for storm water discharges applicable to
the Village. The aim of the Clean Water Act, the federal Phase II storm
water regulations and the program proposed in the MTA Bridges and Tunnels’ SWMP
is to reduce to the “maximum extent practicable” pollutants
in storm water discharges. The concern for controlling storm water discharges
can be traced to the 1972 Clean Water Act Section 208 provisions for evaluating
the impacts of and recommending controls for point and nonpoint source
discharges in conjunction with the development of area-wide water quality
management plans known as “208 plans.” These plans were completed
in the late 1970s/early 1980s and for the most part, identified the need
to study further the specific impacts of urban runoff and alternative
control measures to alleviate or prevent those impacts.
As a result of the findings of many of the 208 plans, particularly
those in the northeast and in and around urban areas of the nation, a
nationwide pilot program known as Nationwide Urban Runoff Program (NURP)
studied 26 urban localities in detail. In 1983, through the NURP, the
USEPA concluded that urban runoff was indeed causing significant water
quality impacts and that a wide range of controls were possible to address
those impacts.
In 1985, two additional studies confirmed the NURP findings. This included
a nonpoint source assessment conducted by representatives of state agencies
and an urban storm water database study of 22 metropolitan areas that
was conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey. These various studies resulted
in Congress amending the Clean Water Act in 1987 to require the permitting
and control of urban storm water discharges.
The above studies, as well as a number of other similar
studies, identified a variety of pollutants in storm water discharges.
These pollutants include suspended solids, sediment, bacteria, nutrients,
pesticides, herbicides, toxics, floatables, oil, grease, heavy metals,
synthetic organics, petroleum hydrocarbons and oxygen demanding substances.
The adverse impact of these pollutants in storm water discharges include
closed beaches, closed shellfish areas, toxic contamination causing fish
consumption bans, beach and shoreline litter, and floatables, siltation
of marina and shipping channels, habitat/wetland degradation, and stream
bank erosion.
The sources of pollutants in storm water runoff include urban streets,
lawns, driveways, parking lots, gas stations, bus depots, golf courses,
construction sites, marinas, trash, sand/salt commercial and industrial
areas, highway yards, atmospheric fallout, direct rainfall (i.e., acid
rain) and a variety of other activities such as landfills, recycling facilities,
transportation, and manufacturing and industrial facilities. The EPA’s
1996 National Water Quality Inventory reported that urban runoff was a
leading cause of water quality problems in the country, causing impairment
in 469 of the nations estuaries; 21 percent of the lakes, ponds and reservoirs;
and 13 percent of the rivers and streams.
Under the USEPA’s December 1999 Phase II storm water regulations,
thousands of communities across the country with populations under 100,000
were required to control urban storm water discharges. The Phase II regulations
were issued nearly 10 years after the agency issued its Phase I regulations.
The Phase I regulations required the control of storm water discharges
from larger communities with populations greater than 100,000, and from
11 categories of industrial activity, including construction sites disturbing
more than 5 acres.
Under USEPA’s Phase II program, the thousands of communities (including
the Village of Malverne) across the nation are required to develop and
implement a six-part program that reduces pollutants in storm water runoff
to the “maximum extent practicable.” This program must include
a public education program, a public involvement program, detection and
elimination of illicit/illegal connections, controls for construction
sites disturbing more than 1 acre, controls for new developments and redevelopment,
and pollution prevention/good housekeeping practices as part of the operation
and maintenance of the communities’ storm sewer systems.
In New York State, discharges from hundreds of municipal separate storm
systems (MS4s) that serve under 100,000 people, and are covered by USEPA’s
Phase II program, can receive permit coverage through a SPDES General
Permit, provided that a NOI is filed by the municipality to be
covered by the General SPDES Permit and an SWMP is developed and implemented
to satisfy the USEPA requirements. The Village has filed its NOI and completed
a six-part SWMP for discharges from its storm sewer systems at its facilities
and roads to the waters of the United States.
The State’s General SPDES Permit for MS4s that provides this
coverage is Permit No. GP 02-02 issued pursuant to Article 17, Titles
7, 8 and Article 70 of the State’s Environmental Conservation Law.
This Permit’s effective date is January 8, 2003, and its expiration
date is January 8, 2008. A related permit that addresses construction
runoff from sites having disturbances from more than one acre is the State’s
General SPDES Permit for Construction Activity: Permit No. GP-02-01. The
effective date of this permit is also January 8, 2003, and the expiration
date is January 8, 2008. The Village’s SPDEC Permit is number NYR20A450.
Examples of control measures (also referred to as best management practices)
contained in the Village’s SWMP include hazardous waste and materials
management, roadway cleanups, construction site runoff controls, recycling,
and catch basin and storm drain system cleaning, just to name a few.
For more information on the effects of storm water run off on our waterways,
please see the following links:
New York State DEC:
www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dow/mainpage.html
Long Island South Shore Estuary Reserve Council:
www.estuary.cog.ny.us
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