The Missouri Department of Natural Resources inspected Fulton mid-June to monitor Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4) permit compliance and determined the city was non-compliant according to the stormwater management plan.
"Stormwater is hitting us harder and faster," Fulton Interim City Engineer Kyle Bruemmer said at the Sept. 8 city council work session. "The next time (MDNR) visit, if we say we don't have the funds for it, they're gonna say, "Find the funds for it.'"
Bruemmer discussed how the proposed stormwater and parks and recreation sales tax could be utilized to comply with MDNR stormwater regulations and to renew the city's state stormwater permit.
He presented the council with stormwater goals for the city that will help the city reach MS4 compliance. His goals focus on protecting homes, streets, creeks and aquatic life while keeping water clean and adding curb appeal and property value.
Bruemmer emphasized the vital role of community assistance in monitoring any pollutants entering the city's stormwater system and flowing into creeks. He told the council that the department of natural resource's primary concern is not the infrastructure of city tunnels and curbs, but with preventing pollution runoff into city creeks and streams, mainly Smith Branch and Stinson Creek.
"If you keep your streets water-tight, the longer lasting and better street we've got, so stormwater affects the infrastructure we have - people's homes, city streets, everything," Bruemmer said, conveying the importance of proper drainage and pollutant prevention.
He also addressed the importance of improving and maintaining the city's drainage infrastructure.
"Since I've been here, we've done a bunch on our water infrastructure, we're in the process right now on sewer," Bruemmer said. "When's the last time we've progressively done anything on our stormwater infrastructure? Some of you guys have been up here for awhile. I took a poll of some of the older employees and other than developments or a crisis or emergency, there really hasn't been to a lot of people's knowledge."
Bruemmer discussed the importance of adding and maintaining curb appeal downtown and on residential streets. "If you drive through town, there's a lot of streets without curb," Bruemmer said. "There's streets with curb that aren't very well maintained - cracked seals, cracked ceiling. There's a lot of weeds growing up through them; it's unsightly."
Bruemmer added that clean streets with curbs and sealed cracks are visibly appealing and add value to the town.
He discussed the six minimum control measures required for the stormwater management plan permit - public education and outreach, public involvement and participation, illicit discharge detection and elimination, construction site runoff control, post-construction runoff control for new developments and re-developments, and pollution prevention and housekeeping for municipal operations. Bruemmer combined the first two elements during his presentation.
Some ideas Bruemmer offered to achieve these measures are advertising more public information materials, such as utility bill inserts, making stormwater information more prominent on the city's website and involving the community in interactive education activities through schools like storm drain stenciling, for example.
He also suggested adding more street cleanup projects and adding some streams to the cleanup agenda during the city's annual Clean "n Green Week.
Bruemmer said testing city creeks to detect pollution levels to compare to MDNR's pollution measurements and investigating the source of the pollution is imperative for city compliance.
He mentioned one option he considered to cut costs would be seeking out help from community resources. Bruemmer talked with Westminster College about being a potential partner with the school's biology program that could help with Stinson Creek as a real-life study. However, sampling devices would need to be purchased.
Bruemmer said the details about the potential partnership with Westminster's biology program have not yet been discussed.
"It takes a person, not the city, to go around and visit the sites, look at all the documentation that the contractors have or what they're supposed to be doing - are they administering their stormwater management plan as outlined in the potential preconstruction meeting phase, (and) how those things change over time."
Exceptional site management is key to preventing construction site pollution, as Bruemmer emphasized the importance of documenting all inspections and stormwater work.
"If you do not document it - I don't care if you did it or not - DNR is gonna come to town and say you've done nothing," Bruemmer told the council.
Bruemmer said this measure was more difficult to define with new construction and new buildings.
Redevelopment projects need to develop a cleaner method of dispersing stormwater from the development site to the creek instead of quickly disposing of pollutants, which end up flushing into creeks and degrading water quality.
"The faster it gets there, the more potential pollutants are in the water," he said.
Pollution prevention and "housekeepings' for municipal operations
Frequently inspecting city facilities and manufacturing places and holding them to the same standards should mitigate the amount and type of pollutant runoff from municipal buildings into the storm sewer system, according to Bruemmer.
He said MDNR would like to see the water treated more on site before it drains the creek but Bruemmer said implementing a more innovative and cost-effective solution is difficult.
"A lot of that (stormwater) stuff is going to develop over time but you've gotta build it, kinda build up a campaign," Bruemmer said. "You have to start with power to the public."
Following Bruemmer's presentation, Mayor LeRoy Benton asked him for a list of projects that will help the city comply with the natural resources department.
The interim city engineer told the mayor he could provide him with information to get a head start on addressing MDNR's minimum control measures. Ward 4 Councilman Steve Moore asked Bruemmer how much time he'd need to compile a list of projects to reach MDNR compliance.
Bruemmer said it would probably take him a month to make that list. Johnson told Bruemmer that guaranteeing compliance is not plausible, but to instead guarantee improvement.
Bruemmer said he will outline how to address the minimum control measures that will give the city the best chance of reaching compliance, based on his professional opinion.
"I do believe that we can show our best effort and I think that best effort would go along way, especially showing that we're not only working with DNR, but also reaching out to the college and trying to seek other professional opinion," Bruemmer said.
Fulton Director of Administration Bill Johnson recalled that the last time the city tried to pass a stormwater and parks and recreation sales tax was 2007, adding that environmental views have become more widespread.
"The community is much more aware of the environment," Johnson said. "The community is much more aware of the environment, so I think it would be an asset to try to pass a sales tax for stormwater improvements. People want to do what's right for the environment ... and I think there's more people concerned with the health of the community."
Johnson continued to say that the health concern would have a favorable impact on garnering support for the parks and recreation part of the proposed sales tax.
"From 2007 to now, I think the opportunity is much stronger to get an improvement as it was eight years ago," Johnson said.
Benton said he's received numerous complaints from citizens about stormwater problems on their street and suggested city crews work on identifying and prioritizing problematic areas as a first step.
"When it comes to stormwater, we're not going to have the option of choosing to do it," Johnson said. "Some of the stormwater improvements will be made. Our choice is going to be how do we pay for it."