Requirements for the Nashville Area

The Town of Nashville is in the process of adopting a new Stormwater Protection Ordinance in order to meet the requirements of Phase II of the Federal Clean Water Act. The following requirements will apply in Nashville:

1. According to this ordinance, dumping any trash, garbage, solid or liquid waste, or anything else that would cause pollution into the storm drain system is illegal. The storm drain system includes all publicly owned facilities that handle stormwater, such as streets, storm drains, temporary holding ponds and basins, ditches, branches, creeks, and other drainage features.
2. The Stormwater Protection Ordinance also includes other provisions to help to protect stormwater quality, including a requirement that anyone responsible for a spill of hazardous materials into the storm drain system must immediately notify the Nashville Fire Department by calling 911.
3. The Town is also in the process of developing new stormwater standards for construction sites that will apply during and after construction takes place. These standards are also needed in order to meet the requirements of Phase II of the Federal Clean Water Act.
   

Stormwater runoff problems have resulted in Federal Regulations that require Towns like Nashville as well as other communities to meet certain standards. A summary of these requirements are as follows:

1. Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972 to begin addressing the problems of water pollution. At the start, the focus of this act was to reduce pollution that was coming from sources that could be easily located, like industrial plants and wastewater treatment plants. This pollution was called “point source” pollution, because it came from individual points (usually a pipe or pipes). Controlling point source pollution improved water quality, but it did not solve the problem, because there are other “non-point” sources (the things that stormwater contacts as it moves across the surface of the land, like chemicals, bacteria, sediment, and trash).
   
2. Therefore, in 1987 Congress amended the Clean Water Act to regulate “non-point” sources of pollution or stormwater runoff. These new regulations came into effect in two phases. Because “non-point” sources of pollution are much harder to tie to individual locations or points, cities and towns that maintained storm sewer systems were given the responsibility of starting new programs to improve overall water quality.

   Phase I: Began in 1990, included cities with a population of 100,000 or more, and required special rules for construction activity that disturbs five acres or more land.
   

   Phase II: Began in 1999, included smaller cities and towns (like Nashville), and required special rules for construction activity that disturbs between one and five acres of land. In order to comply with the phase II requirements, Nashville is developing and implementing a comprehensive stormwater program, which includes six components:

   • Public outreach/education (this website is a part of this component)
   • Public involvement/participation
   • Illicit discharge detection & elimination (rules and a plan to stop illegal dumping, and eliminate piping of waste water from within buildings into ditches and creeks)
   • Construction site requirements (practices that occur during construction to improve water quality)
   • Post-construction site requirements (practices after construction has been completed that improve water quality), and
   • Municipal housekeeping (reduce stormwater pollution that can come from city/town operations (including properties & vehicles).

   The requirements of this phase are ongoing and are still in the process of being implemented.
   

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