Articles Tagged: MS4 Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System

Street sweeping rarely gets much attention. It is slow, repetitive work, often done in the early morning hours, and the equipment itself can be temperamental and expensive to maintain. Sweepers are subject to constant wear, from abrasive debris, dust, and the mechanical strain of brushes, conveyors,…

Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System, or MS4, compliance is built on documentation. Whether you are demonstrating outfall inspections, tracking illicit discharge investigations, or verifying maintenance activities, a well-organized photo-log can be one of the most effective and defensible tools in …

Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System programs, commonly referred to as MS4 programs, are often viewed as regulatory obligations, while stormwater asset management is treated as an operational necessity. In reality, these two efforts are deeply interconnected. When properly aligned, a strong asset m…

A well managed stormwater program depends on accurate and complete information about every outfall in a community. Outfalls are the final discharge points where stormwater leaves the municipal system and enters a stream, lake, wetland, or other receiving water. Because these locations represent the …

A complete and accurate stormwater map is one of the most important responsibilities for any community that operates as a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System, or MS4. These maps are not created merely to satisfy a regulatory checkbox. They protect waterways, support field crews, reduce liability, …

Several free or very low cost tools can help communities with limited budgets begin mapping or inventorying their stormwater infrastructure. These tools are not full replacements for a dedicated asset management system, but they can give small towns a head start and help them organize information be…

Field inspections of catch basins, manholes, culverts, and outfalls form the foundation of responsible stormwater management. These routine checks give municipalities an ongoing view of the condition of their drainage network and allow crews to identify issues long before they become flooding hazard…

For almost five years the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program served as FEMA’s flagship source of hazard-mitigation funding. It directed a steady slice of federal disaster-relief dollars toward projects that would lower future losses, and many small Municipal…

Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permits rest on a simple idea: you cannot manage what you have not first documented. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines an MS4 as any publicly owned system of drains, pipes, ditches, or similar conveyances that carries runoff to waters of th…

Hydric soils, those that form under prolonged saturation and develop anaerobic conditions, are ecological powerhouses. They store carbon, filter pollutants, support wetlands, and buffer floods. Because they are already close to saturation, even modest increases in runoff volume or velocity can trigg…

What is a stormwater outfall? A stormwater outfall is the point where a storm-drain system, whether pipes, ditches, or channels, discharges runoff to a receiving water such as a stream, wetland, lake, or the ocean. Regulatory guidance clarifies that simple cross-road culverts, which only pass flow b…

(In the photo above, the silt fence has been improperly installed, as you can see it was placed in loose, already excavated, soil.) Why Construction Runoff Matters A single acre of bare earth can release 10 - 20 times more sediment than the same acre in cropland, and up to 2,000 times more than a fo…