Stormwater Program Management
Managing municipal stormwater is required by amendments to the Clean Water Act and can be an asset to your community’s sustainability efforts. Managing the quantity and quality of stormwater is important for:
- safe recreation
- affordable drinking water
- fiscal responsibility of public funds by reducing gray infrastructure costs
- protection of health and property from possible flooding from increasingly intense storm events
The goal of municipal stormwater programs is to reduce the impact on surface water from storm sewer systems. Franklin Soil and Water provides free or low-cost resources to local government partners to meet this goal, including:
- brochures, articles, educational materials and display materials that can be borrowed, copied or adapted for your use
- the Central Ohio Stormwater Round-table, a quarterly gathering of stormwater professionals from townships and municipalities where successful strategies are shared
- The Urban Review newsletter
Franklin Soil and Water also has working agreements with many Franklin County communities to provide direct services to meet their stormwater needs. Soil and water conservation districts continue to receive state matching funds for local government partnerships, bringing partners more value for their money. As political subdivisions of the state, soil and water districts are enabled to provide a variety of natural resource services to communities including:
- runoff pollution educational programs for pre-K through 12 audiences that are aligned with state academic content standards
- outreach and education to the adult audience including landowners and businesses
- workshops and cost-share program management for residential rain garden installation
- workshops, online educational programming and cost-share program management for residential rain barrel distribution
- outreach to small businesses through the Water Quality Partner Program
- conservation easement purchase, planning and management
- conservation plan development
- grant writing and management
- watershed planning and implementation
- NPDES permit stormwater program writing and annual reporting
- site evaluation and inspections
- illicit discharge detection through dry-weather screening
- GIS mapping, monitoring and research
We encourage all communities to look for opportunities in their stormwater programs that can benefit other community sustainability activities. If you need feedback, ideas or assistance we are here to help.