Berkeley Street Sweeping
Clean Water Program

return SECTION 3 - CLEAN WATER PROGRAM - PAGE 3

BACKGROUND

The Alameda County Urban Runoff Clean Water Program (ACURCWP or Clean Water Program) is a consortium of 17 county and city agencies formulated in 1989 to 1) comply with the San Francisco Bay Basin (Basin Plan) adopted in 1986; and 2) comply with the federal Clean Water Act revised in 1987. The formation of the ACURCWP is a proactive approach to meet the requirements of the federal regulations for municipal storm water discharges. One National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit is obtained for the entire county to ensure consistent implementation throughout the county for the initial 5-year permit period.

OBJECTIVES

Compliance with the Bay Basin Plan The Basin Plan was developed by the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) is a policy document outlining actions to preserve and enhance water quality in the Bay and its tributaries. One required action of the Basin Plan is the implementation of a program to evaluate the sources of pollutants in urban runoff, to estimate the pollutant loads, to identify control measures which will reduce urban runoff pollutants, and to implement a program of pollutant controls. This action item of the Basin Plan also
meets the provisions of the federal Clean Water Act which prohibits non-storm water discharges into storm drains and mandates pollution discharge reduction to the maximum extent practicable.

Compliance with the Clean Water Act

The 1972 Clean Water Act (CWA) prohibits the discharge of any pollutant to navigable waters from a point source unless the discharge is authorized with a NPDES permit. Efforts to improve water quality under the 1972 CWA focused on industrial process wastewater and municipal sewage. Since then, it has become evident that there are other sources of pollution occurring over a large area and originating from different sources. These "nonpoint" sources typically enter the navigable waters from municipal storm drain systems which from a legal standpoint are considered point sources.

The 1987 revision to the federal Clean Water Act identified urban runoff pollUtion as a major cause of water pollution in densely populated areas. The new federal regulations were promulgated in November 1990 and established NPDES permit application requirements. The federal regulations identified three types of NPDES permit requirements. These are for: 1) municipal storm drain systems serving populations over
100,000 people; 2) specific types of industrial facilities; and 3) construction activities disturbing 5 acres or more. The NPDES permit of concern in this report is for the municipal storm drain system.

PERMITIING

A Storm Water Management Plan (SWMP) was prepared by all 17 participants of the ACURCWP as part of the NPDES permit application requirements. The SWMP outlines management practices and control techniques to be implemented over the 5-year permit period for seven program components. Specific tasks within the first five components are outlined in the SWMP and these tasks are to be implemented locally by all permittees.
These components are:

    • 1) Public information and participation
    • 2) Municipal government activities
    • 3) New development and construction site controls
    • 4) Illicit discharge identification and elimination
    • 5) Industrial dischargers identification and runoff control
    • 6) Monitoring
    • 7) Storm water treatment.

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

The successful implementation of the SWMP includes both the cooperative effort of all coapplicants and the individual efforts of each agency. Active participation in the Management Committee by all co-applicants and contributed efforts toward county-wide activities are a few of the cooperative efforts. Improving municipal government activities and existing educational programs are examples of the activities performed at a local leveI. Each of the Program components have a recommendation of whether the task shall be performed cooperatively, individually, or by affected individual agencies.

The activities outlined in the SWMP are evaluated annually by the ACURCWP participants and reported to the RWQCB. The RWQCB recently prepared a detalled evaluation of the progress and permit compliance of the FY92-93 annual activities. This evaluation
addressed both the ACURCWP collectively and the Individual agencies. The comment for Berkeley's municipal government activities is given below.

"Berkeley performs well on this aspect of the program. The city sweeps a large number of curb miles, and collects a large volume of street waste. During January and February of 1993 street sweeping miles dropped significantly without explanation. Storm inlet cleaning also produces a large waste volume. The city maintenance yard recently made improvements to eliminate waste discharge to the storm drain."

The ACURCWP was awarded as the second place winner of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) 1994 National Storm Water Control Program Excellence Award. Municipal storm water pollution control programs nationwide were evaluated by USEPA for their demonstrated commitment to protect and improve the quality of the nation's waters. The ACURCWP was selected for its innovative and cost effective achievements in improving storm water quality.

The ACURCWP was awarded as the second place winner of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) 1994 National Storm Water Control Program Excellence Award. Municipal storm water pollution control programs nationwide were evaluated by USEPA for their demonstrated commitment to protect and improve the quality of the nation's waters. The ACURCWP was selected for its innovative and cost effective achievements in improving storm water quality. As to date, the response from the RWQCB and USEPA is that the ACURCWP is performing very well. Survey results based on the media campaign conducted within Alameda County from February 1994 through June 1994 showed 70% of the respondents are familiar with urban storm water pollution. This is an increase of 24% from a poll conducted in February 1992 prior to the latest campaign.

STREET SWEEPING AS A MANAGEMENT PRACTICE

Street sweeping which is the subject addressed in this report is identified as a municipal government activity, component #2 of this program. Street surfaces serve as pathways for the transport of many urban runoff pollutants that originate from the street, wash off from adjacent lands, or are deposited from the atmosphere to the storm drain system. The objective in this component is to improve current municipal activities and adopt new activities/procedures to reduce the amount of pollutants entering the storm drain system.

The most cost-effective control strategy is to build on existing programs and activities. Street sweeping is an existing activity. The following excerpt is from the SWMP.

"The proposed major tasks related to this municipal government activity build on the existing street sweeping activities of all of the coapplicants. It is proposed that all co-applicants improve their existing programs so that rather than sweeping solely for aesthetic reasons, sweeping is also conducted at strategic times to control urban runoff pollution. This
may include implementation of parking restrictions on specific days to maximize sweeping effectiveness. In addition, it is recommended that the co-applicants consider sweeping weekly In all commercial and industrial areas, and that all co-applicants consider Improving equipment and methods to make the sweeping program more effective."

Street sweeping is just one of the City activities outlined as Component #2: Municipal Government Activities. Other activities currently in place are: maintenance of storm drainage facilities; used motor oil recycling at the Transfer Station; spill responses; litter pickup and control; storm drain stenciling; and erosion control. In addition, there are four other program components that the City implements. These other components are: public information and participation; new development and construction site controls; Illicit discharge identification and elimination; and industrial dischargers identification and runoff control.

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