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District of Columbia's Nonpoint Source Program
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Vision: The Bureau of Environmental Quality's Watershed Protection Division has a vision. The Nonpoint Source Management Program envisions Washington, DC, as an innovator in the prevention and control of nonpoint source pollution in an urban setting. The Program sees itself as a leader in protecting the city's neighborhoods and watersheds from nonpoint source pollution, safeguarding the water and soil resources of the city, as well as the health, welfare, and safety of those using those resources. It also sees itself as a partner with other government agencies, citizens, and private industry by increasing stakeholder awareness and involvement in the clean-up efforts in the Anacostia River, Chesapeake Bay, and other local waterways and equipping city residents with the knowledge and tools on how to prevent nonpoint source pollution to their neighborhood streams.
The District of Columbia Department of Health, Environmental Health Administration's Nonpoint Source Management Plan describes the District of Columbia's strategy for managing nonpoint source pollution throughout the city. It provides a strategy on restoring and protecting the District's waters and watersheds. The plan covers the categories of urban runoff, construction, hydrologic/habitat modification, and solid waste disposal.
The plan was developed with the Environmental Health Administration's goal of preventing and controlling environmentally related disease and protecting and preserving the ecology of the city. With the assistance and cooperation of the citizens; their public and private stakeholders; and their local, regional and federal government partners the vision of fishable and swimmable waterways can be a reality.
Goals: The Nonpoint Source Management Plan is based on the following long-term goals (10 to 25 years). These goals provide the framework for the District to continue to build upon a successful Nonpoint Source (NPS) Management Program.
- Support activities that reduce pollutant loads from urban runoff, construction activity, combined sewer overflows, and trash disposal, for the purpose of attaining present designated uses by 2015 and future designated uses by 2025.
- Support programs and activities that strive to restore and maintain healthy habitat, species diversity, and water flows to all of the tributaries of the Anacostia River by 2015, and to all surface waters of the District of Columbia by 2025, by restoring degraded systems and preserving healthy and threatened ones.
- Coordinate NPS Management Program efforts with other District, federal and private sector programs, and adjoining jurisdictions to provide the best delivery of services to prevent and control nonpoint source pollution in the District of Columbia with the resources available.
- Support programs that aim to prevent nonpoint source pollution from individuals actions, by carrying out effective information and education campaigns that reach at least 10,000 individuals each year to targeted audiences who live, work, teach, or visit in the District of Columbia and its watersheds.
- The District of Columbia uses a multi-pronged, watershed approach to tackle its nonpoint source pollution problems. It calls upon both regulatory and nonregulatory programs to treat polluted runoff and to minimize the amount of pollution generated. The District addresses nonpoint source control from an almost totally urban perspective because of the District's high percentage of imperviousness interspersed with tracks of federal and city parkland and densely packed residential lots. It targets the NPS categories of urban runoff, construction, and hydrologic/habitat modification as identified in the original USEPA NPS Management Plan Guidance. It also incorporates the Nine Key Elements developed by USEPA and ASWIPCA. The USEPA recognizes these elements as critical to a successful NPS management program.
Additional information about the District of Columbia's NPS Management Program:
- Urban Runoff
- Construction
- Hydrologic/Habitat Modification
- Storm Water Management
- Soil Erosion and Sediment Control
- Floodplain Management
- Compliance and Enforcement
Urban Runoff
The 1998 D.C. 305(b) Report identified urban runoff as one of the major sources of impairment to District of Columbia waters. The report also indicates that practically all of the District’s waterbodies are impacted by urban runoff. Efforts to address this category of Nonpoint Source pollution have been on-going since 1989. With 63% of the District’s landscape being covered by impervious surfaces, the potential for loadings of a mixed bag of pollutants from this source is high.
Construction
In a city with very little room for new development, construction usually involves the redevelopment of abandoned lots, the replacement of old buildings with new buildings, or the rebuilding of roads. These activities can have a degrading effect on the waters of the District if they are not properly planned and inspected.
Hydrologic/Habitat Modification
Storm water can have a scouring effect on the small streams located throughout the city. In addition the pollutants carried by storm water can degrade the water quality of the streams. By changing the flow path, and increasing filtration of pollutants and nutrients, modifications to streams can have beneficial effect on the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers.
Storm Water Management
The discharge of untreated storm water constitutes a source of pollution to the waters of the District of Columbia as well as the Chesapeake Bay and is therefore, subject to local and federal regulations. Inadequate management of accelerated storm water runoff resulting from development throughout a watershed increases flood flows and velocities, contributes to erosion and sedimentation, overloads the transport capacity of streams and storm sewers, and transports in some instances significant quantities of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) into the receiving water bodies. The runoff impairs water quality, damages woodlands and aquatic ecology in some cases, and threatens public health and safety. Recreational opportunities may also be reduced. The main focus of the District’s Storm Water Management Program, which was developed in response to the 1983 Chesapeake Bay and 1984 Anacostia Agreements, is to ensure through a regulatory mechanism that developers use either structural or nonstructural best management practices (BMPs) to control both the quantity and quality of storm water runoff from new development or retrofit projects. In order to accomplish the goal of the program, a Storm Water Management Guidebook was developed to provide design engineers, architects, developers and urban planners all the information needed to meet the requirements of the regulations.
Soil Erosion and Sediment Control
The District of Columbia’s Soil Erosion and Sediment Control Program implements and enforces D.C. Law 2-23 (D.C. Erosion and Sedimentation Control Act of 1977), which regulates all land-disturbing activities to prevent accelerated erosion and transport of sediment to its receiving waters. The program reviews and approves all construction and grading plans submitted to the District of Columbia Government for compliance with the regulations. Plans may call for the use of measures such as straw bale dikes, silt fences, brush barriers, mulches, sediment tanks or temporary sedimentation ponds, seeding or sodding, earth dikes, brickbats, stabilized construction entrances, vehicle wash racks, or a combination of measures to reduce the amount of soil washing away from construction sites during rainstorms. Inspections are conducted at construction sites to ensure that control devices are constructed in accordance with approved plans. In addition, the program is also responsible for investigating erosion, drainage and related complaints and providing recommendations towards their resolution. The sediment control program complements the water management program, therefore in an effort to meet the goals and objectives of the USEPA Chesapeake Bay Program, the District strengthened its sediment control law by enacting D.C. Law 10-166 (D.C. Erosion and Sedimentation Control Amendment Act of 1994) to specifically remove the exemption provision for sediment control compliance associated with construction activities by federal agencies. In addition to the regulations, the program developed a handbook that is distributed to engineers, architects and building contractors. The purpose of the handbook is to provide guidelines for the implementation of erosion and sediment control measures in accordance with the regulations. A second document containing standards and specifications is also disseminated to designers and provides a variety of measures to control sediment from construction activities.
Floodplain Management
Floodplain management is implemented through D.C. Law 1-64 (D.C. Applications Insurance Implementation Act of 1976). All development, including the storage of potential contaminants in the floodplain must comply with flood hazard regulations promulgated under the law. As part of the implementation process, construction plans for all new development or substantial improvements to existing structures in a floodplain are reviewed to ensure that the development is consistent with the need to minimize or eliminate flood damage. In addition, the program responds to citizens’ requests for floodplain information, and provides technical assistance to developers on floodplain management-related issues. Because federal and District laws and regulations require flood management projects to consider not only quantity control but also the impacts on the water quality of receiving waters, the District’s program coordinates most of its activities with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the District’s Office of Emergency Preparedness (DCOEP).
Compliance & Enforcement
The D.C. Storm Water Management Regulations, § 509 through 518 of D.C. Law 5-188, of the D.C. Water Pollution Control Act of 1984, authorizes the District to ensure that best management practices (BMPs) are used to control water runoff from new development and redevelopment projects. Additionally, all land disturbing activities are regulated under D.C. Law 2-23, the D.C. Erosion and Sedimentation Control Act of 1977 and D.C. Law 10-166, the D.C. Erosion and Sedimentation Control Amendment Act of 1994. The primarily function of the District’s Compliance and Enforcement Program is to enforce these laws and associated regulations.
