Chapel Hill signs contract with consultants on stormwater

In a sweep of approvals Monday night, the Chapel Hill Town Council set in motion a contract with a consultant company to manage the fight against stormwater-runoff pollution.

Jewell Engineering Consultants, PC, now is approved to start managing the growing problem of pollutant buildup in runoff flowing from developed town areas.

"(The stormwater management plan) is intended to be a holistic, dynamic, strategic framework for how the stormwater utility and program continues to be implemented in Chapel Hill," said Scott Bryant, the project's manager at Jewell.

Bryant said the plan will cover erosion, flooding, watershed protection and water pollution issues and is expected to be a yearlong or multiyear project.

"Depending on where you are in the town you have different issues," said Sue Burke, assistant stormwater management engineer for Chapel Hill.

But one issue has garnered more attention than the rest.

"It has to be mostly directed toward pollution issues," said Ed Harrison, Town Council member.

The town made the contract with Jewell to better manage the funds the town is bringing in from a new stormwater management utility - a yearly fee introduced in 2004 that residents pay based on the amount of impervious surface they own.

Jewell's first step will be to meet with the Stormwater advisory board in Chapel Hill on Sept. 23.

The consultants will work with the board to alleviate local pollution and flooding, both issues that the town has faced in the past.

"We're having to work really hard to remove sediment from stormwater before it enters streams," said Fred Royal, stormwater management engineer for the town.

Pollution from the atmosphere and chemicals from cars, roads and the tops of buildings are transmitted into local streams, drinking water and recreational lakes.

The substances are transmitted as they run over surfaces like parking lots and roads, which do not have the same filtering effect as soil.

"All these pollutants go straight from the cars to the streams," Royal said.

Royal said the town started to address the stormwater issues in the 1990s, after the Environmental Protection Agency began requiring municipalities to have a specific permit for pollution prevention.

The EPA also shifted focus from combating pollution generated in bulk, like factory waste, to fighting low-level, widespread pollution.

Sources of pollution such as household chemicals and lawn fertilizers, called nonpoint pollution sources, are now the main focus for the stormwater management.

Royal said the impurities from the atmosphere and other pollutants are cleaned from drinking water by treatment plants and various water systems.

But that treatment only purifies tap water, while unfiltered stormwater runoff and can damage wildlife in streams and lakes that the surrounding towns use to draw water.

Suburban runoff, often rife with impurities such as nitrogen and phosphorous, can cause large algal blooms that hinder fish and plant life in local lakes.

Royal added that the cost of making increasingly dirty bodies of water safe to drink rises as the level of pollutants increases.

While the issue has been addressed by the local government for many years, the council recently has been organizing its efforts and allocating funds toward water cleanup.

"There's a direct link between managing stormwater and the municipal cost to do so," Royal said.

 

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