State Issuing New Stormwater Management Guide
WVDEP Press Release
4 December 2012
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has a new
tool to help communities reduce the impacts of polluted stormwater
on the state’s streams and rivers.
Produced for the WVDEP by the Center for Watershed Protection, the
500-page West Virginia Stormwater Management and Design Guidance
Manual is the first of its kind in the state. Both state and
federal funds were used for the $150,000 project, which took two
and a half years to complete and is based on up-to-date research
in the science of stormwater management.
The manual outlines innovative ways to use plants and soils to
reduce runoff volumes and pollutants at development and
redevelopment sites. The guide can be used as a design resource by
any West Virginia community interested in more effectively dealing
with the harmful effects of polluted stormwater to the state’s
waterways.
The manual’s chief function, however, is to provide design
instruction and guidance on implementing stormwater practices in
accordance with West Virginia’s small Municipal Separate Storm
Sewer System (MS4) General Permit. Forty-seven West Virginia
communities are regulated under the MS4 permit.
“This is a resource tool for state stormwater officials, engineers
and designers who are required to implement the provisions of the
MS4 permit,” said the WVDEP’s Sherry Wilkins, project manager for
the Guidance Manual. “By meeting these performance standards
outlined in the permit, the MS4 communities will effectively
improve the water quality of our streams and rivers and that
benefits everybody.”
You can access the manual here:
http://www.dep.wv.gov/WWE/Programs/stormwater/MS4/Pages/StormwaterManagementDesignandGuidanceManual.aspx