Unfunded mandate was the recurring theme during the town board’s 2008 storm-water update presented by Bethlehem’s engineering division.
Paul Penman, P.E., the town’s senior civil engineer, explained to the board what is being done about storm-water management and what is being mandated by the county and state during the Wednesday, May 28, meeting.
`Effective Jan. 1, we adopted a storm-water law, and part of that law prohibits people dumping things in the storm waters,` Penman told the board. `It’s not a new requirement, DEC usually has to regulate it, but we now have the enforcement authority to go after people who dump things into the storm sewer that they’re not supposed to.`
The town has recently completed mapping all storm drains that end up in streams and tributaries, Penman said, and the town is also required to map completed baseline water quality data to look for elevated levels of phosphorous, ammonia and other `things that shouldn’t be there.`
The town has initiated a program to monitor illicit discharges coming from developments and residences throughout the town.
`We’ve got it up and running, we’re beginning to do inspections we’re focusing on the larger subdivisions that are going in the town. We’ve completed a 100 percent review of all the projects that are in front of the planning board. We’ve done a review of their proposed storm-water measures that are included as part of the project.`
Construction site runoff control and post-construction storm-water management has been adopted as part of the town’s storm-water law, according to Penman.
He said the town now has `the ability to go out and enforce storm-water measures, erosion and sediment-control measures, on active construction sites.`
Supervisor Jack Cunningham said the town is doing its best to fund and keep up with the storm-water mandates handed down by Albany County, including the enforcement of `storm-water management ponds,` which are used to contain runoff water on site during construction projects.
`As you develop, you need to maintain storm water on your property,` Cunningham said, adding that for new construction sites `the water runoff cannot be greater than what runs off of the property currently.`
The water runoff on the new sites is diverted into small ponds, which fill up when there’s runoff and dry out when there’s not, Cunningham said.
The supervisor expressed concerns about possible mosquito problems as a result of the stagnate water and said the town would be discussing the issue with the county.
In the meantime, the town is in charge of monitoring and enforcing the use of the retention ponds on all construction sites.
`It’s hard but we try to manage them as best we can,` Cunningham said.
Penman explained to the board about the town’s `pollution prevention and good housekeeping operations,` which include over 350 hours of training for town staff, which Penman said was `a pretty significant number.`
The town is also continuing 500 miles of street sweeping, has collected 50,000 cubic yards of leaves and yard waste, he said, and is looking into a more environmentally friendly way of de-icing the roads.
Penman also updated the board on the MS4 group, a grant-funded group of 12 municipalities in Albany County that focuses on the issues of storm-water management. Penman said currently the group is operating under a grant that expires in 2009, but that they were working toward the creation of a permanent storm-water coalition.
Municipalities with more than 1,000 residents per-square-mile are a part of MS4.
Public education and outreach has become a priority for storm-water management, Penman said, and the town has set up a page on its Web site to receive complaints on illicit discharge. He added that the storm-water department in Bethlehem and other neighboring communities are attempting to `regionally brand` storm-water issues through the use of standardize signs and insignias.
The branding will `let people know that dumping things in the water will end up in the Hudson,` he said.
Councilwoman Joann Dawson said the branding was a good idea.
`It’s things like that that will help make people more aware and hopefully a little more conscious of things they are dumping and may be thinking about dumping,` said Dawson.
Robert Jasinski, a Bethlehem resident and a member of the town’s noise ordinance task force, asked about the authority to test water on private property.
`What about private citizens that have no storm-water system along the road, or anything? What is going to be your criteria on them?` Jasinski asked. `Are you going to come knocking on my door and tell me you don’t like how the rain is coming off my property?`
Penman responded that testing and enforcement measures would occur only if illicit substances are discovered coming off the property. Cunningham said that new development and construction sites would be the primary targets, but that the town now has the responsibility to test for illicit discharges into the waterways.
The town has updated its Web site, www.townofbethlehem.org, to include septic information and a list of things not to be dumped in water and sewage drains.“