Gary McGill, the engineer who drafted Greeneville’s proposed Phase II of a storm-water law, told the Middle Nolichucky Watershed Alliance on Wednesday that the tougher rules are required by federal and state laws.

The ordinance is pending before the Greeneville Board of Mayor and Aldermen, McGill noted.

Assuming it is adopted, he said, the ordinance probably will have to be “continuously considered” by the city board, and revised as needed, as this city’s government becomes more experienced in enforcing it.

McGill is president of McGill Associates, of Sevierville, and his firm has long made water issues its specialty and area of expertise.

Most of the impetus for the current compliance effort began in 1987, he said, when the federal Water Quality Act was passed.

Earlier, the Clean Water Act of 1977 targeted industrial sources of water pollution, and has achieved remarkable results, he said.

The 1977 law was passed because many of the nation’s streams were then considerably polluted, being in “atrocious” condition, McGill recalled. He said that law targeted major polluters where a single “point source” could be pinpointed.

The 1987 law targeted so-called “non-point sources” such as storm water, erosion and agriculture, McGill said.

He added that about 92 percent of pollution now in the nation’s rivers and streams has been determined to come from “non-point” sources, with sedimentation by far the biggest component.

The fact that it took more than 15 years from passage of this law to the first stages of implementation shows how slowly environmental reforms move, McGill said.

Tennessee’s four largest municipalities — Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville — had to comply with storm-water regulations earlier than Greeneville, under phase I of the federal law, he said.
Greeneville is one of 80 smaller urbanized areas (including 20 fast-growing counties) that must comply under Phase II of the law, McGill said.

That is either because they discharged water into sensitive areas, he said, or had a high growth rate or growth potential, or high tourism impact.

Nolichucky River

The Nolichucky River, into which Greeneville’s storm water is discharged, is considered a relatively clean stream by the Tennessee Valley Authority and other regulatory agencies. The river is home to several rare species of fish, and is considered one of the best streams for smallmouth bass in the Southeast, McGill said, according to outdoors writers.

The Phase II law does not apply outside of Greeneville’s city limits, McGill said, and does not currently apply to the city’s “urban growth area.”

Right now, he said, there are no plans to extend the law to counties that were not included in Phase II.

However, this could change at some point, he said, because streams and rivers and watersheds typically cross municipal boundary lines.

Law’s Requirements

In essence, McGill said, the law requires Greeneville to “maintain and operate a storm-water system” under a discharge permit, and to develop, implement and enforce a storm-water management program over a five-year period.

Greeneville’s permit was issued in 2002, he said, and the city has just completed the first year of the five-year program. The permit itself does not expire until 2008, he said.

This city’s storm-water “system” is considered to be anything that carries rain water, whether it be a street, a ditch, or an elaborate drainage culvert.

Control Measures

Six minimum control measures are required in a management program:

• public education/outreach;

• public participation/involvement;

• illicit discharge detection and elimination;

• construction site runoff control;

• post-construction site runoff control; and

• pollution prevention, including “good housekeeping” by the city government itself.

McGill said that in addressing post-construction runoff, the law is doing something new.

Compliance with this portion of the law will be the responsibility of the property owner, he said.

Currently, subdivision developers must include a drainage plan before they can gain approval from the planning commission in which the development is located.

McGill said Phase II will go a step further than that, requiring a mechanism to maintain retention/detention ponds and other features of the project long after all the lots have been sold. Typically, he said, this issue is addressed by the formation of a property owners’ association, which spreads the responsibility and potential cost among the owners of individual lots and homes.

McGill said the law does not include any mechanism for addressing storm-water runoff problems in subdivisions that already exist.

Candy Adams, director of Keep Greene Beautiful as well as this year’s president of the Middle Nolichucky Watershed Alliance, said Greeneville is initiating a storm-water education program in schools, and already participates in the Household Hazardous Waste disposal program every year.
More educational materials are planned, she said.

McGill said he is convinced that education is a major part of improving water quality, because most improvements from this point on are going to come from the cumulative effect of many small efforts, often by individuals.

Plans call for a telephone line to be dedicated for a storm-water “hot line,” he said, answered either by a person or an answering machine 24 hours per day.

Alderman Sarah Webster said the “hot line” will be at Town Hall, and complaints will be channeled to the appropriate department or person.