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City receives annual MS4 stormwater-quality update; Illinois EPA permit renewal remains pending
Summary
Dan Bounds of Baxter & Woodman presented Geneva's annual National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (MS4) stormwater-quality update, noting the city's compliance activities, monitoring partnerships and that the Illinois EPA reissuance of the permit (the prior permit expired in 2021) is still in process.
Dan Bounds of Baxter & Woodman on behalf of Geneva's public-works department gave the council the city's annual update on its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (MS4) stormwater-quality program, describing the program's required minimum control measures and the city's monitoring and training activities.
Bounds said the update focuses on water quality — "the quality of our storm water runoff, not the quantity, not flooding" — and described six program areas required by the permit: public education and outreach, public involvement, detection and elimination of illicit discharges, controlling construction-site runoff, post-construction stormwater controls, and pollution prevention/good housekeeping for municipal operations. He told the council an annual report is prepared each spring and submitted by June 1 to document implementation of the program and that a set of recent annual reports is posted on the city's stormwater web page.
Bounds said the city participates in regional monitoring through the Fox River Study Group and that the city trains public-works staff who work in the field on spill response, waste management and avoiding illicit discharges. He advised residents to contact the public works department for program questions at (630) 232-1501 and noted a stormwater page on the public-works web site with required documents.
On permit timing, Bounds said the requirements the city is operating under expired in 2021 and that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's renewal reissuance remains pending. He told the council: "We don't have a new permit with new requirements yet. It's still in renewal, but we're keeping an eye out for that." A council member asked whether the delay was because the state was finalizing guidelines or the overall permitting process; Bounds said it was the permitting process itself.
Alderman Kilberg raised questions about road salting and effects on sodium/chloride levels in local waters. Bounds said elevated chloride levels are a known concern in more heavily urbanized areas (for example, in Chicago-area watersheds), and that the Fox River in Geneva's watershed is not currently listed as impaired for chloride. He said the city's practice is to train staff to use the minimum effective amount of salt to keep roads safe while also protecting water quality.
No action was required by the council on the MS4 update; staff said they will return to the council if new permit conditions arise once Illinois EPA finalizes the reissuance.
