City staff reviews draft 2026 stormwater management plan; no public commenters

Don, an operations manager and the city's NPDES coordinator, told the Environmental Services Commission on Feb. 5 that the draft 2026 Stormwater Management Program Plan implements requirements of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System municipal stormwater permit and must be updated annually and submitted to the Department of Ecology by March 31.

The presentation summarized nine permit program areas — planning; public education and outreach; public involvement; mapping; illicit-discharge detection and elimination; controlling runoff; stormwater management; source control; and operations and maintenance — and highlighted new obligations for the permit term, including stormwater-specific tree-canopy mapping and a retrofit provision that requires treatment upgrades on up to 24 equivalent drainage acres of city-owned system. Don said the permit cycle will also require development of targeted Stormwater Management Action Plans (SMAPs) for localized areas and that the city must map tributary basins with flow-control and treatment features by 2028.

Don described Bellevue's ongoing compliance work and performance: roughly 12,000 inspections in 2025, about 2,200 cleaned public structures, roughly 720 private drainage inspections and 376 source-control site visits; he said roughly 227 of last year's 200–300 reported spills became illicit discharges reported to Ecology. He also said Bellevue typically performs more extensive screening (about 50% of structures annually) than the minimum permit screening requirement.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions about Ecology's upcoming planning questions, how the city will meet tree-canopy and mapping tasks, and whether the retrofit clause will be expensive. Don said the city is on track to meet permit deadlines and that roughly half of the retrofit obligation might be achieved through operational efforts while the remainder will require physical upgrades in the field. He also said the city will adopt an updated stormwater manual by June 2027 and will document current practices and standard operating procedures required by the permit.

The public hearing portion of the meeting was opened by motion and closed at 7:00 p.m.; staff reported no written testimony and no attendees registered to speak in person or remotely.

The Commission will summarize any comments and forward them to the City NPDES coordinator for consideration; Don and staff invited commissioners to provide additional feedback if they have it while the plan is finalized for submittal.