Tuesday, December 4, 2012

West Virginia Issues MS4 Storm Water Guidance


This news release about municipal storm water management guidance comes from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.  At 500 pages, this is going to take some time to study. 

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has a new tool to help communities reduce the impacts of polluted storm water on the state’s streams and rivers.

Produced for the WVDEP by the Center for Watershed Protection, the 500-page West Virginia Stormwater Management and Design Guidance Manual is the first of its kind in the state. Both state and federal funds were used for the $150,000 project, which took two and a half years to complete and is based on up-to-date research in the science of stormwater management.

The manual outlines innovative ways to use plants and soils to reduce runoff volumes and pollutants at development and redevelopment sites. The guide can be used as a design resource by any West Virginia community interested in more effectively dealing with the harmful effects of polluted stormwater to the state’s waterways.

The manual’s chief function, however, is to provide design instruction and guidance on implementing stormwater practices in accordance with West Virginia’s small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) General Permit.  Forty-seven West Virginia communities are regulated under the MS4 permit.

“This is a resource tool for state stormwater officials, engineers and designers who are required to implement the provisions of the MS4 permit,” said the WVDEP’s Sherry Wilkins, project manager for the Guidance Manual. “By meeting these performance standards outlined in the permit, the MS4 communities will effectively improve the water quality of our streams and rivers and that benefits everybody.”

The WVDEP plans to distribute the manual to the state’s MS4 communities first. It will be available on the agency’s Web site by the end of December. Go to: 
ult.aspx.

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