As everyone involved in just about any capacity with stormwater is well aware, March 10 is the permit coverage deadline for small MS4s covered under Phase II of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. The date itself, now that it's so close, means surprisingly little to many of you who've been preparing over the last several years; the foundations of your programs are by now pretty much in place, and some of your permitting authorities set even earlier deadlines that you've already met. Some other communities - especially those who realized only recently that you're covered under Phase II - will have sketchy plans in place at best. A few won't make the deadline at all.

Nevertheless, the date is significant because it marks a milestone in the development of a still rapidly evolving discipline. Phase II, and the specter of that ultimate March 2003 deadline, has spurred along many of the recent developments in the field: research and technology, public/private relationships, and better public understanding of what it takes to protect water quality. Touching so many separate entities, Phase II has a momentum that the more monolithic Phase I permitting process lacked. Phase I affected a few hundred larger cities, counties, and other local and state agencies; Phase II covers approximately 4,000 local governments and jurisdictions, not including the more than 100,000 smaller construction sites EPA has estimated Phase II will affect each year. More than 60% of the US population will now live in areas subject to stormwater controls.

As so many cities, counties, and other jurisdictions strive to meet Phase II requirements, there will be a balance between uniformity ("What can we borrow or copy from others so we don't have to reinvent it?") and customizing for local conditions - hydrological, financial, and political. Phase II calls for stormwater management programs to become fully developed and implemented during the first permit term, and permittees will be refining programs for years to come: learning more about BMP performance, sharing more information about effective public education programs, swapping strategies for workable ways to fund their efforts. In this issue, Andy Reese examines how we've gotten to this point and looks at some of the thornier issues still facing Phase II communities, and an article on Dallas's stormwater utility illustrates how newer programs can benefit from Phase I cities - experience. As programs around the country stand up and become fully realized, Stormwater will continue to be a forum for exchanging ideas - perhaps some pioneering ones from your program in the months ahead.

Send Janice an email

SW - March/April 2003