DATE: March 14, 2016
TO: Council Sustainability Committee
FROM: Director of Utilities & Environmental Services
SUBJECT
Title
Municipal Regional Stormwater Permit
End
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
That the Committee reviews and comments on this report.
Body
SUMMARY
This report provides an overview of the newly adopted Municipal Regional Permit (MRP 2.0), which provides the City’s stormwater regulatory requirements from the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board.
BACKGROUND
Background of the Municipal Regional Permit - The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program was established in 1972 by the federal Clean Water Act (CWA). In 1986, the NPDES program was amended in 1986 to regulate stormwater runoff and established a permitting structure for municipal discharge to the waters of the state. From 1990 to 2009, each municipality was regulated under countywide stormwater permits with individual requirements specific to each county. On October 14, 2009, the first regional stormwater permit, the Municipal Regional Permit (MRP), was adopted by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. The MRP regulated municipalities within Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Mateo counties as well as the cities of Fairfield, Suisun, and Vallejo and the Vallejo Sanitation and Flood Control District. Municipalities and local agencies included in the MRP are referred to as ‘Permittees’. The MRP was adopted as a five-year permit. The MRP requires stormwater pollution prevention control measures for both public and private properties and activities including municipal operations, development, inspections, response to illicit discharges, education and outreach, water quality monitoring, and specific controls for pollutants of concern identified by the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Re-Issuance of the MRP
The MRP expired December 1, 2014 but was administratively extended to July 1, 2015 and then again through December of 2015 as the adoption schedule of the new permit was unknown at the time. San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Staff and the Bay Area Stormwater Management Agencies Association (BASMAA), a consortium of all Bay Area Stormwater programs, have conducted meetings since August 2013 to discuss the next permit (commonly called MRP 2.0) and the implications of any proposed changes. After two years of meetings and work between BASMAA and Water Board staff, the MRP 2.0 was adopted on November 19, 2015.
DISCUSSION
MRP 2.0
The MRP 2.0, as with the first MRP, consists of provisions prescribing best management practices (BMPs) that each municipality must implement to comply with stormwater pollution prevention requirements. The MRP 2.0 provisions are listed below:
C.2. Municipal Operations
C.3. New Development and Redevelopment
C.4. Industrial and Commercial Site Controls
C.5. Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination
C.6 Construction Site Control
C.7. Public Information and Outreach
C.8. Water Quality Monitoring
C.9. Pesticides Toxicity Control
C.10. Trash Load Reduction
C.11. Mercury Controls
C.12. Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) Controls
C.13. Copper Controls
C.14. Bacteria Controls (applicable to the City of Pacifica and San Mateo County only)
C.15. Exempted and Conditionally Exempted Discharges
The MRP also requires annual reporting on all stormwater management and control measures and all Permittees are subject to audits at any time by the Water Board during which all current implementation programs and efforts can be assessed to determine a Permittee’s compliance status.
The newly adopted MRP 2.0 includes significant changes in stormwater program implementation compared to the first MRP (see link under Attachment I). Some of the changes included are program deletions such as control measures for Polybrominated Diphenyl Eithers (PBDEs), which are chemical flame retardants used in the manufacturing of many products such as couches, computers, and clothing; Legacy Pesticides; and Selenium as well as potable water discharge requirements (now regulated through a State program). However, the majority of the changes are enhancements of currently implemented programs as well as the creation of new programs. Each significant change is highlighted in the sections below.
Green Infrastructure
Within the C.3 New Development and Redevelopment provision is a new requirement to develop a green infrastructure plan. This plan is intended as a framework, developed by municipalities, to guide development and redevelopment to include the treatment of stormwater (capture for reduction, filtration and absorption or recharging of groundwater). The purpose of this plan is to, over time, reduce the adverse water quality impacts of urbanization and urban runoff on receiving waters as well as to meet wasteload allocations specifically identified in the MRP 2.0 for PCBs and mercury. The requirements for the plan include a description of how the Permittee will shift their impervious surfaces and stormwater drain infrastructure from gray, or traditional storm drain infrastructure where runoff flows directly into the storm drain and then the receiving water, to a green, more sustainable system that slows runoff by dispersing it to vegetated areas, harvests and uses runoff, promotes infiltration and evapotranspiration, and uses bioretention and other green infrastructure practices to clean stormwater runoff. The Water Board will require a workplan that details the process and schedule to develop the green infrastructure plan. This workplan is to be developed and approved by the Permittee’s governing body, mayor, city manager, or county manager by June 30, 2017. The plan as well as its proposed implementation schedule is due in September of 2019.
Stormwater Inspection Program
The current industrial/commercial and construction inspection programs will now include not only actual but also potential discharges to the storm drain within the City’s current routine practice of reviewing each business or construction site for pollution controls. Potential discharges include any and all sources of pollution that are exposed to stormwater (outside areas). The City’s current enforcement response plan and inspection plans need to be modified by July 1, 2016 to include potential discharges and the number of enforcement actions and follow up inspections to ensure compliance with stormwater BMPs will be increased.
Trash Reduction in Storm Drains
The trash reduction goals from the first MRP included reducing trash by 70% by the year 2017 and 100% by the year 2022 remain with a new interim mandate to reduce trash by 80% by the year 2019. In addition, Permittees are expected to achieve trash reduction by 60% by the year 2016 or explain why this deadline was not achieved as this is not a mandated goal. Permittees are allowed a chance to revise their trash generation maps (a visually graded system to note where the low, medium, high, and very high areas of trash are found) by September 2016 if improved information is found by conducting trash assessments in the storm drain system (sidewalks, curbs, and gutters). Permittees are encouraged to revise their maps to ensure that trash generation rates are representative of their jurisdiction and trash control measures are conducted appropriately to address a jurisdiction’s specific sources of trash. The methodology for trash assessments is written in the MRP 2.0 as well as the frequency that is allowed to demonstrate that trash control measures are working. Permittees have a new requirement to develop receiving water monitoring to sample and test for trash, due by July 1, 2020. Reporting the process to comply with trash reduction requirements is mandatory and an updated map of the areas where trash has been controlled is required annually.
PCB and Mercury Controls
All Permittees under the regulation of the MRP 2.0 have a new wasteload allocation of forty-eight grams per year of mercury to the San Francisco Bay by the year 2020 with each City given its share based on population. Permittees are expected to implement green infrastructure projects during the term of the permit to achieve the mercury load reductions. In addition, Permittees are required to develop a mercury control measure implementation plan to identify the means and schedule to ensure the mercury reduction will be achieved. The mercury implementation plan is due in September 2020 with the annual stormwater report.
Similarly, all Permittees have a new PCB wasteload allocation of 1.6 kilograms per year. Permittees are required to implement PCBs source and treatment control measures and pollution prevention strategies to achieve the PCBs load reductions. By April 1, 2016, all Permittees shall report progress toward developing a list of the watersheds and management areas where PCBs control measures are currently being implemented and those in which control measures will be implemented. Permittees have to develop, document, and implement an assessment methodology and data collection program to quantify PCBs load reduced through their selected control measures by September 2016. Permittees are required to collect samples of caulk and other sealants used in storm drains, concrete curbs, and street pavement (at least 20 composite samples) to test for PCBs. The results are due in the 2018 annual report (September 2018). Permittees are required to develop and implement a protocol for managing materials with PCBs (fifty parts per million or greater) during demolition of buildings so the polluted material does not enter the storm drain system. This protocol is due June 30, 2019. Green infrastructure is a requirement to reduce PCBs. The MRP defines green infrastructure as “Infrastructure that uses vegetation, soils, and natural processes to manage water and create healthier urban environments.” At the scale of a city or county, green infrastructure refers to the patchwork of natural areas that provides habitat, flood protection, cleaner air, and cleaner water. At the scale of a neighborhood or site, green infrastructure refers to stormwater management systems that mimic nature by soaking up and storing water.
Collectively, Alameda County has to reduce PCBs by 37grams per year by June 30, 2020 with green infrastructure. Permittees are required to develop a plan and schedule for PCBs control measure implementation and reasonable assurance analysis demonstrating that sufficient control measures will be implemented to attain the PCBs wasteload allocations by 2030 (1.6 kilograms per year). The plan and schedule are due in the 2020 annual report (September 2020). Within this protocol is the requirement to record and track each demolition and the control measures that were taken to control PCBs for every applicable building (those built pre-1980). Permittees are also required to develop an assessment methodology and data collection program to quantify PCBs load reduced through implementation of the protocol for controlling PCBs during building demolition.
In addition to the above mentioned requirements for PCBs reduction is the requirement to study the fate and transport of PCBs in urban runoff (the bioaccumulation of PCBs) as well as implement a risk reduction program to conduct ongoing public health outreach on the impacts of consuming PCBs in fish. In the fourth year of the permit Permittees are required to assess the effectiveness of the risk reduction program. Permittees are to report their findings in the 2020 annual report (September 2020).
Petitioning of the MRP 2.0
Since its adoption in November last year, the MRP 2.0 has been highly scrutinized by both the Permittees and the interested NGOs for various reasons. Most notably, Water Board staff inserted a supplemental document into the MRP 2.0 the day the permit was adopted. The document, which lists additional trash reduction requirements, was not available for public review and comment before the MRP 2.0 was adopted. Also, the numeric allocation wasteload reductions for PCBs and mercury were not addressed during the hearings for the MRP 2.0 and Permittees believe the characterization of the reductions were created without proper scientific review. In December, Hayward and the majority of the Permittees, representing 74 municipalities, submitted petitions to the California State Water Quality Control Board requesting that MRP 2.0 be held in abeyance In February, the same Permittees activated their petitions requesting that the State Water Resources Control Board take up review of MRP 2.0.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
The enhanced stormwater inspection enforcement will result in costs to some Hayward businesses. These enhanced enforcement actions will include implementation of routine stormwater inspection requirements with a strong emphasis on trash, PCB, and mercury controls. The development community will also be impacted with additional cost to include green infrastructure as deemed fit by the City’s yet-to-be developed green infrastructure plan. The development community will also share in the cost of implementing green infrastructure and other control measures to ensure PCBs and mercury do not enter the storm drain system.
FISCAL IMPACT
The future impacts of implementing the MRP 2.0 are unknown including the staff resources to implement the new requirements described above. As the impact of the new regulations is understood, work plans and cost for implementation of C.3, C.10, C.11 and C.12 will be developed. The funding for MRP-related activities is currently provided from the stormwater enterprise fund. The City’s local stormwater program is funded by property tax revenue; however, expenditures have been and are expected to increase every year. Water Pollution Source Control (the division within Environmental Services) is challenged with finding the innovative tools and other resources to complete the above mentioned tasks. Funding is also a challenge to implement the current aggressive trash reduction activities to reach 100% trash reduction by the year 2022 as well as the new numeric requirements for PCBs and mercury. To comply with the MRP 2.0 requirements, WPSC staff has pursued grant funding opportunities both locally and regionally to offset some of these costs. Staff will continue to pursue funding opportunities to meet the MRP requirements. Staff will continue to work collaboratively as a member of the Alameda Countywide Clean Water Program to comply with the MRP 2.0 as regional projects can satisfy some of the MRP requirements.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public hearings were conducted for the adoption of the MRP 2.0 on November 18, 2015 and November 19, 2015. City staff attended the hearings as along with other permittee municipal staff and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and provided testimony.
NEXT STEPS
Staff will continue to enhance the current stormwater program to comply with the MRP 2.0 requirements as detailed in each permit provision, and will continue to proactively pursue funding opportunities to assist with implementing the MRP 2.0 requirements. Water Pollution Source Control will continue to engage with other departments, namely Planning, Building, Streets and Maintenance, Engineering and Transportation, and Economic Development to develop the above mentioned required plans and to develop protocols for implementing control measures specifically for trash, PCBs, and mercury contamination. The City will continue to participate in countywide and regional collaborations to support stormwater regulation. Staff will also support the collective effort of all Permittees to petition the State to review the MRP 2.0 and provide documentation and resources to continue this process.
Following is a summary of the key requirements and deadlines included in the MRP 2.0:
|
Modify enforcement response plan and inspection plans |
July 1, 2016 |
|
Prepare a Green Infrastructure Plan (requires Council adoption) |
September 2019 |
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Develop stormwater monitoring to sample for trash |
July 1, 2020 |
|
Develop a mercury control measure implementation plan |
September 2020 |
|
PCBs: |
|
|
Report on current and proposed PCBs control measures |
April 1, 2016 |
|
Develop data collection program to quantify reduction in PCB load |
September 2016 |
|
Collect samples of caulk and sealants to test for PCBs |
September 2018 |
|
Implement a protocol for managing demolition materials with PCBs |
June 30, 2019 |
|
Reduce PCBs by 37grams per year with green infrastructure |
June 30, 2020 |
|
Develop a plan to attain the PCBs wasteload allocation of 1.6 kilograms per year by 2030 |
September 2020 |
|
Assess and report findings on effectiveness of a public outreach campaign about the impacts of consuming fish with PCBs |
September 2020 |
Prepared by: Elisa Wilfong, Water Pollution Control Administrator
Staff contact
Recommended by: Alex Ameri, Director Utilities & Environmental Services
end
Approved by:
Fran David, City Manager
Attachment: