City staff on Tuesday briefed the Madison Common Council on water-quality challenges facing the Yahara-area lakes and the city’s efforts to reduce pollution from streets, leaves and winter maintenance.

Janet Schmidt, principal stormwater engineer, opened the presentation by noting that "the waters around Madison are impaired," pointing to the Clean Water Act Section 303(d) listings and work under the Rock River Basin TMDL. She summarized common pollutants — including total phosphorus, total suspended solids (TSS), floatables and chloride — and reviewed the city’s WPDES/MS4 permitting obligations and regional partnerships that include Madison Metropolitan Sewer District, YaharaWinds and Clean Lakes Alliance.

Charlie Romine of Streets and Urban Forestry described how the city sweeps streets and collects leaves and the operational constraints that shape those programs. He said the city’s sweeping program removed nearly 5,000 tons of non-leaf material this year and that the city collects "about 20,000 tons of leaves every year." Romine explained the shift to scheduled leaf-collection windows with three guaranteed set-out dates and why vacuum trucks — while effective at fine particles — are slow, lower-capacity and costly to operate for Madison’s scale.

Staff and alder members discussed winter operations and the city’s Saltwise approach. Romine and engineering staff said the city keeps rock salt use lower on many residential routes for environmental reasons, and noted that magnesium chloride is held in reserve to allow de-icing at lower temperatures. Greg Freeze, senior engineering staff, framed a practical limit: "There is no treatment for chloride ... The only way to control chloride is to not use it," and said chloride moves through soils and cannot be removed once it is in circulation.

Freeze walked the council through the technical accounting that underpins regulatory targets: the MS4 permit requirement, TMDL accounting for the Rock River Basin and why some removal goals can only be feasibly met with ponds, infiltration, or by buying credits from agricultural practices. He noted that the city currently pays about "$500,000 a year" for credits (via YaharaWinds and Madison Metropolitan programs) to meet TMDL obligations more cost-effectively than trying to retrofit dense urban areas.

Parks staff described shoreline buffers, shoreline management and public access: Lisa Laschinger said the parks division manages roughly 5,700 acres (about 1,000 acres of wetland) and maintains beaches and boat launches while working with Dane County on daily water-quality monitoring at beaches.

Council members pressed staff on specifics — whether permit limits are absolute numeric caps, the relative contribution from agriculture versus urban sources, dredging and maintenance cycles for detention ponds, and where pervious pavement or vacuum sweepers make sense. Staff said dredging is done when basins reach design thresholds (dredging intervals commonly decades long) and that pervious pavement and similar technologies work in limited, controlled conditions but face durability and maintenance trade-offs.

The only formal vote during the short meeting was procedural: earlier the council moved, seconded and unanimously adopted Item 1 (the 2026–2027 appointment of election inspectors). For the remaining items discussed staff indicated operational plans and funding already in place (including a modest stormwater utility grant program to encourage rain gardens on private property).

The council took no further formal actions on policy changes at the meeting; staff said they will continue implementing the city’s Saltwise program, expand partnerships such as YaharaWinds, and explore limited spring leaf pickups if weather permits.

The discussion closed with staff and alder members noting the technical complexity of meeting both regulatory goals and operational constraints; council members thanked staff for the detailed briefing and the session adjourned.