Recommendation: Stormwater Management

Improving Stark County water quality

B. Long term outcome statement

Stark County political jurisdictions will minimize pollution and flooding caused by storm water runoff.

Recommendation

City, county, and township government implement effective and coordinated storm water management plans.

C. Rationale

Storm water runoff can significantly impact both the quality and quantity of water in local streams, lakes, and aquifers. Impervious areas such as streets, rooftops, and parking lots increase the volume of water runoff, while reducing the time it takes for storm water to reach local waterways. Water quality is degraded when storm water runoff collects pollutants as it flows over impervious areas, lawns, and agriculture fields. Increased runoff volume coupled with water quality degradation causes various problems like increased flooding, increased erosion, decreased aquatic biology, and habitat loss for wildlife. Also, the more impervious area in a watershed generally results in less recharging of local aquifers because less water infiltrates into the ground.

Management and treatment of rainwater and melting snow became a priority for the Ohio and United States Environmental Protection Agencies with the 1999 passage of the Phase II Storm Water Program (Clean Water Act). The Act requires urbanized areas to implement six minimum control measures to reduce storm water pollution by 2008. Phase II requires cities, township, and county governments in urbanized areas (U.S. Census) to adopt best management practices to ensure that local water quality is not further degraded by storm water runoff.

The Phase II Storm Water Program is a significant step in addressing problems associated with runoff; however, its implementation alone does not guarantee water quality improvements. The Phase II Rules only apply to urbanized areas in Stark County that includes roughly 90% of the county’s population. Phase II does not address increased runoff volume and decreased storm water infiltration from new impervious areas. The new rules do not alleviate storm water runoff problems created before passage of the Phase II Program. However, despite these limitations, the Phase II Program in combination with updated subdivision regulations and pending updates in soil and water regulations should improve the water quality in Stark County.

For a storm water management plan to effectively improve local water resources, it must take into account both the quality and volume of runoff from a watershed. Coordination among all Stark County jurisdictions is vital for effective storm water management. Rarely do runoff issues begin or end within a single political jurisdiction. What an upstream community does with its storm water has a direct impact on downstream communities. Coordination among all watershed communities to manage storm water runoff has been shown to be effective and typically less costly than each individual community implementing their own program.