Muddying the Waters

They are rehabilitating the water lines in our part of Glenwood - primarily on Lexington, Haywood, Highland, and maybe Union. This involves them runing the water to our houses temporarily through above ground hoses connected to the fire hydrants. They they cut into the ground and drain water from the existing pipes so that they can "reline" the pipes to get them to last longer. This is great!

Today, I noticed that a hose was coming out of the ground where workers had cut into the ground and was discharging water over the asphalt and into a storm drain. In this case, the storm drain runs all of 50 feet before it enters into a tributary of the creek that flows through Steelman Park and ultimately into South Buffalo Creek, Haw River, Jordan Lake, etc. I asked the foreman on the site if they had a permit to discharge in the creek. He says go talk to the Water Resources guy. So, I do.

I asked the WR guy...so why discharge the water over the asphalt where it is picking up mud and debris from last week's storms as well as grease, oil and other associated contaminants and putting into the creek. I asked him if he had an NPDES Permit to discharge to the creek. This guy, who works for the Water Resources Department had no idea what I was talking about. In my mind, this is like hearing from an engineer that they have no idea what the word "blueprint" means. But, for the record, an NPDES permit is a component of the federal Clean Water Act that stipulates you must have a permit to discharge stuff into open water ways. This could be stormwater, water treatment discharges, etc. The City of Greensboro has what's called a "general permit" which covers all of its stormwater discharges and it is this permit which would say what is and is not acceptable practice. While I haven't looked up the City's current permit (a new one went into effect on June 1), I do know that I should be very surprised when the City's Water Resources supervisor on the job tells me - what does it matter - the water all ends up in the same place anyway (i,e. the water treatment plant). I had to explain to him the concept that the creek is more than just a conveyance system for water to reach the treatment plant and that there is a federal law that tells us we can't put mud in the creek without a permit.

So, I'm troubled by the mud and dirt entering the creek and I'm equally troubled that our Water Resources department has someone supervising a job that doesn't value the functions that our urban creeks play in filtering out pollutants, proving wildlife habitat, aesthetic values, flood control functions and that these are compromised when you start filling the creek with mud.

The kicker is that all they would have had to do is extend the house 15 feet to discharge right into the storm drain rather than on top of the asphalt and they would have just been sending clean water into the creek.