Claremore staff reports DEQ praised city stormwater program; staff outlines public education and inspections

City staff presented Claremore’s required municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) annual report and described the six minimum control measures the program uses to reduce pollution and keep stormwater discharges compliant with state and federal permits.

Deputy mayor Scott Vaughn (presenting as the program lead) said Claremore is a Phase 2 MS4 and detailed the program’s work on public education and involvement, illicit-discharge detection and elimination, construction-site runoff control, post-construction management, and pollution-prevention housekeeping for municipal operators. He said staff reached roughly 292 students with school demonstrations, distributed 14,000 pet-waste bags last year, cleaned 363 catch basins, and collected about 4,100 bags of litter and debris through parks and cleanup events.

The city screens 34 stormwater outfalls that discharge to local waterways (identified in the presentation as Cat and Bell Creeks). Staff said dry-weather screening, complaint response (about 30 complaints last year), voluntary stream monitoring through the Blue Thumb program and pet-waste and educational outreach are part of the illicit-discharge detection efforts.

Vaughn told the council the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) reviewed Claremore’s annual report and said it was the best-written Category 2 report in the state; DEQ’s feedback was described as positive. Staff acknowledged a few DEQ-noted violations are already being addressed.

Why it matters The annual MS4 report documents how the city is meeting federal and state permit obligations to limit polluted runoff entering local streams and rivers. The program’s education, inspections and maintenance work affects water quality, drainage reliability and compliance with state environmental rules.

Implementation details and next steps Staff said they perform inspections of construction sites, issue sediment erosion-control permits, review stormwater plans for larger developments, and perform quarterly inspections of city facilities. The city maintains a priority-area map of pollutants of concern and noted possible inclusion of industrial runoff controls in future permit updates. Staff also flagged an optional MCM 7 (municipal construction activities) used for internal projects such as the Lowry Detention Pond.

Quotes “It allows us to discharge our storm water to local streams…we are classified as municipal separate storm sewer system, for a town between 10,000 and a 100,000 folks. So we’re a phase 2 MS4,” Scott Vaughn said.

“DEQ said it was the best written category 2 of us in the state, so they wanna use it as an example for other cities in the state,” Vaughn said of the state review of Claremore’s annual report.

Ending Council members thanked staff for the report and asked about next steps, including discussion of a proposed FOG (fats, oils and grease) program for commercial kitchens that would require an ordinance and annual inspections.