Share Your Feedback
We want to hear from you. Please take a few minutes to answer the city's questionnaire about its Stormwater Management Program.
The City's MS4 Permit
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) released its general permit for small municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) in August 2007. The permit allows stormwater, along with certain other non-stormwater flows, to be released into a city's MS4. It covers cities that had fewer than 100,000 residents in the 1990 Census. Dallas, Fort Worth, Cedar Bluff and other larger cities were regulated earlier under the Phase I rules and already run their own stormwater programs.
Fredville filed a Notice of Intent (NOI) with the TCEQ asking for coverage under the permit. With it, the city submitted a Stormwater Management Program (SWMP) laying out the six minimum control measures (MCMs) it planned to carry out:
- Educating the public about how stormwater affects water quality
- Involving residents and encouraging them to take part
- Finding and eliminating illicit discharges
- Controlling runoff from active construction sites
- Managing stormwater once construction is finished
- Preventing pollution and practicing good housekeeping in city operations
For each measure, the program names specific best management practices designed to reduce the pollutants that reach the city's storm sewer system. That is good news for Fredville residents, for visitors and for the local environment.
The TCEQ approved the city's NOI and SWMP and authorized Fredville to discharge stormwater from its small MS4 under the terms and conditions of the permit.
When the TCEQ renewed the MS4 permit in January 2019, the city updated its SWMP to meet the new requirements and sent a revised NOI and SWMP for approval in July 2019.
Questions about the Fredville Stormwater Management Program can go to the Health and Environment Department by calling (555) 010-1261.
History
In 1972, Congress passed amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, which most people know as the Clean Water Act (CWA). The change made it illegal to release pollutants from a "point source" into waters of the United States without a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. A point source is one specific, identifiable place where pollution enters the water, such as a factory, a business or a sewer system.
A 1987 amendment to the CWA set up a $400 million program that let states design and carry out watershed-based plans for managing nonpoint source pollution. Water quality research had found that scattered, diffuse sources were also a major cause of pollution. Nonpoint source pollution is hard to trace to a single outfall because it comes from many places at once. Typical examples are fertilizers, pesticides, sediment, oil, salt, trace metals and litter washed off farms, lawns, rooftops, construction sites, vehicles and streets.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put Phase I of its stormwater program into effect under the CWA in 1990. Phase I uses NPDES permits to regulate runoff from three groups: medium and large MS4s, which usually serve 100,000 people or more; construction projects that disturb 5 or more acres; and ten categories of industrial activity. In September 1998, authority over stormwater permits in Texas moved from the EPA's NPDES program to the state-run Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (TPDES).
Rules for Phase II, aimed at smaller cities and at construction sites, became final in December 1999. In August 2007, the TCEQ issued its Phase II MS4 permit for small cities with fewer than 100,000 residents in the 1990 Census. Under Phase II, every small MS4 inside an urbanized area needs permit coverage. The U.S. Census Bureau defines an urbanized area as one or more central places plus the densely settled urban fringe around them, with a combined population of 50,000 or more and an overall density of 1,000 or more residents per square mile.
2007 SWMP
- Stormwater ordinance adopted by the city (PDF)
- City of Fredville Stormwater Management Program, 2007 to 2012 (PDF)
- MS4 annual reports for permit years 1 through 5, plus the extended fifth year (PDF)
2013 NOI and SWMP
- Notice of Intent for Phase II MS4 permit coverage, filed in 2013 (PDF)
- Stormwater Management Program, 2013 to 2018 (PDF)
- MS4 annual reports for permit years 1 through 5 (PDF)
2019 NOI and SWMP
- Notice of Intent for Phase II MS4 permit coverage, filed in 2019 (PDF)
- Stormwater Management Program, 2019 to 2023 (PDF)
- MS4 annual reports for permit years 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7 (PDF)
- TCEQ general permit and its fact sheet (PDF)
2024 NOI and SWMP
- Notice of Intent for Phase II MS4 permit coverage, filed in 2024 (PDF)
- Stormwater Management Program, 2025 to 2029 (PDF)
- TCEQ general permit and its fact sheet (PDF)
Fredville is a demonstration city built by Talk to Fred. Names, numbers and details on this page are sample content.