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DALTON – At their monthly meeting on July 16, the Dalton Borough council was briefed on the need to submit a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Annual Report to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Caroline Seamans appeared on behalf of her husband John Seamans, the borough engineer. Seamans informed the council that the borough needs to submit the report because of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit (NPDESP). Certain municipalities are selected to report based on population, concentration of population and where borough storm water runs off.
According to Seamans, the borough received a Notice of Violation from the DEP on August 5, 2008 for not submitting the report from 2004 to 2008. This notice was the first information the borough engineer had received of the requirements according to Seamans.
Seamans assured the council that the violation would not result in any fines, but said it was critical that the borough move forward on the plans.
“This annual report asks questions like: What are you going to do? What are your goals? And then have those goals been met? And that’s where we’re kind of falling behind,” Seamans said. She said that the goals have been set, but little has been done to achieve them.
Seamans explained that the DEP’s goal is to clean up the environment in the realm of storm water. The objective is addressed by implementing best practices and providing education. Plans are outlined in the DEP protocol in six sections.
The first is “Public Education and Outreach” as it pertains to storm water impact.
The next section is “Public Participation and Involvement” through public meetings and other forums. Caroline Seamans’ presentation at the meeting and a similar address at the planning commission meeting on Monday July 20 as well as John Seamans’ explanation to the Department of Public Works on Friday July 24 helped achieve this section’s requirements.
The third section is titled, “Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination.” According to Seamans, this requires the borough to notate all outfalls, or areas that discharge storm water, and determine which are dumping illegally. On the day of the meeting John mapped the boroughs outfalls. In the future, the plan will put this step in the hands of the road master and crew. During their biannual checks of the municipality’s roads they will also inspect the outfalls.
The next two sections concern construction and post-construction. This requires all projects to produce equal or less runoff as the current layout. These sections will be managed by John during planning commission sessions.
The final section, “Pollution Prevention and Good Housekeeping for Municipal Operations and Maintenance,” requires the borough to follow the new guidelines in their office and garages.
During her presentation Seamans requested that the council assign a contact person to help implement the plan. Councilman Mark Sujkowski took the position.
The June deadline for the 2008 report has passed, so Seamans reiterated the need put the plan into motion before summer’s end.
“In the next several weeks we need to accomplish as many items as we can that are in the program,” Seamans said.
Some of those items include ordering detergent, ordering kitty litter and saw dust to soak up spills, using drip pans to catch oil, placing a brochure rack in the office and checking with DEP for brochures.
Seamans also addressed the need for public education.
“Basically, we need to make the public aware of what storm water management is and kind of get them going on a campaign is what DEP wants us to do,” Seamans said, adding they borough could split the cost of advertisements with other municipalities who need to implement this program.