Q. The current state Construction Storm Water (CSW) permit expired in December 2012.  What permit should I be operating under right now?

A. The current permit (NER110000) is still in effect (under administrative extension).  Coverage under this permit is valid until the new permit is issued.

 Q. My project was authorized under the old permit.  Do I need to reapply after the new permit is issued?

A. Yes.  Once the new permit is issued, you will have a reapplication period.  This period will be either 90 or 180 days, depending on what the EPA allows.  During this period, you will either need to complete your project and apply for the termination of your current permit, or you will need to apply for authorization under the new permit.

Q. When will the new permit be issued?

A. The new permit will most likely be issued some time in 2013.  Before the new permit is issued, it will have to go through a ninety day EPA review, address any comments by the EPA, be on public notice for 30 days, and possibly undergo a public hearing, if so requested and justified by the development community.  NPDES permits are issued quarterly, so the soonest the permit could be issued at this point is October 1, 2013.  If this process takes more time, then it may be pushed to January 1, 2014, or later.

Q. What are some of the changes we can expect in the permit itself?

A. The new permit will include much more guidance in the permit itself, meaning it will be much longer.  It will include requirements for new controls, such as topsoil preservation, minimization of disturbance on steep slopes, and natural buffers.

Q. When will turbidity tests for construction site runoff be required?

A. The Effluent Limit Guidelines (ELG) numeric standard has officially been withdrawn, meaning that at this time, the EPA has no plans to require permits to include a requirement for stormwater sampling and testing on construction sites.

Q. Will the process of applying for a permit change in any way?

A. Yes.  Currently, a project is authorized seven days from the date that a Notice of Intent (NOI) is sent to the NDEQ.   Under the new permit, projects will be authorized fourteen days from the date that the NOI is mailed to the NDEQ.  This means that project managers will have to plan ahead a little more in order to obtain proper permit coverage before beginning a project.

Q. My project began under the old permit.  Will the site controls that I have installed such as sedimentation basins be grandfathered in to the new permit?

A. No.  Any ongoing project must update its Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan and all of its on-site controls to meet the requirements of the new state permit.

Q. Who can I contact for help in obtaining new permit coverage?

A. The NDEQ will not be hiring any additional staff for compliance assistance.  Since every project in the state will need to go through this process, you can expect a longer wait time when contacting the NDEQ.  To aid in this process, NebraskaH2O will do our best to keep you informed of permit requirements via this website.  If you have specific questions not addressed here, feel free to contact us directly at (308) 630-8011.  If you wish to contact the NDEQ directly, the staff member you need to speak to is

Blayne Renner

(402) 471-8330

blayne.renner@nebraska.gov

 Storage and Collection of Used Oil and Other Hazardous Materials

•  Keep hazardous materials separate, properly labeled, and sealed in the recommended containers.
• Use collection tanks with a clearly visible gage that shows the level of product in the tank and overfill protection. This helps prevent overfilling of collection tanks.
• Containers and aboveground tanks used to store used oil shall be in good condition (no severe rusting, apparent structural defects or deterioration (T128, Ch7, 009.04A1); and not leaking (with no signs of visible leaks) (T128, Ch7, 009.04A2)
• Containers and aboveground tanks (and other receptacles of used oil) with a volume of 25 gallons or greater, shall be labeled or marked clearly with the words “Used Oil”, T128, Ch7, 009.04A3
• If possible, store materials under a roof or tarp to protect them from the elements and to prevent contaminated runoff.  The storage or collection location may need to be fenced and locked if vandalism could be a problem.
• Cap, label, cover, and properly store above-ground outdoor liquid containers and small tanks within a bermed area and on a paved impermeable surface, if possible. This practice helps to prevent spills from running into surface or ground water.
• Inspect hazardous materials storage or collection areas at least weekly to ensure there are no leaks or spills.
• Inspect equipment such as pumps, pipes, storage tanks, valves, and material handling equipment for signs of corrosion, support or foundation failure, or other deterioration.
• Promptly clean up spilled materials to prevent runoff, tracking, and spoilage of other materials.
• Stock cleaning and spill response materials where they are readily available.
• Post reminders of good housekeeping practices.
• Schedule housekeeping duties and inspections to ensure good housekeeping is being accomplished.

 Spill Response and Reporting

Spills that equal or exceed 25 gallons must be immediately reported to the NDEQ unless they are confined to a building or other impervious structure (secondary containment) and are cleaned up within 24 hours.  During business hours, the spill should be reported to the NDEQ at (402) 471-2186.  After hours and holidays, the spill should be reported to the Nebraska State Patrol.  All information known about the release at the time of discovery is to be included, such as time of occurrence, quantity and type of material, location and any corrective or cleanup actions presently being taken.  The Department may require a written final report for all releases of an oil or hazardous substance within 15 days after remedial action has been completed, or, if no remedial action occurs, within 15 days of the release, or in such other reasonable time period as the Department shall determine. These reports shall contain, at a minimum, the following information:

• Date, time and duration of the release
• Location of release
• Person or persons causing and responsible for the release
• Type and amount of oil or hazardous substance released
• Cause of the release
• Environmental damage caused by the release
• Actions taken to respond, contain and clean up the release
• Location and method of ultimate disposal of the oil or hazardous substance and other contaminated materials
• Actions being taken to prevent a reoccurrence of the release
• Any known or anticipated acute or chronic health risks associated with the release
• When appropriate, advice regarding medical attention necessary for exposed individuals.

The Site

The area for the demonstration project is a long, narrow strip of land alongside a one-lane, one-way street.  This area used to be underneath a two-way street, but when the street was reduced to one-lane as part of a quiet zone project, it left this long, oddly shaped area between the lane of traffic and the existing buildings and parking lot.  The west half of the project is essentially the entryway to our downtown area, and this made an excellent spot for a tree planting project to frame this entryway and make it more attractive.

The east half of the project, which is lower in grade, is situated to receive the runoff from the adjacent buildings and parking lot.  Over 10,000 sq. ft. of impervious area drain to this portion of the landscaping.  This made it an excellent site for a series of rain gardens.

The Plan

The landscape plan was designed by Amy Seiler, Community Forester with the Nebraska Forest Service.  The tree portion of the project included 96 trees and shrubs, and the series of rain gardens included 492 perennials and grasses.  The area around the rain gardens was seeded to a buffalo/blue gramma grass mix.

The Trees

The City hired Anita’s Greenscaping to install the landscape.  Because the existing soil was poor, the City provided compost to be worked into the soil in order to increase nutrients and organic matter.

The trees and shrubs were planted first.  We wanted to plant the trees before it got too late in the year, since trees do best when planted in spring or fall.  Some of the trees had to be staked due to the high winds that we have here in Western Nebraska.  While staking can be necessary to keep trees from blowing over, the staked trees should still be free enough to rock back and forth in the wind.  This will help the tree develop a good root system.  The stakes should also be removed no more than one year after planting.

The City then installed a drip system to keep the trees irrigated.  This is especially important for this first summer after the trees are planted, while they are still developing their root systems.

The Rain Gardens

The site was graded and rock inlets and outlets were installed to slow runoff and reduce the risk of erosion within the rain gardens.  The next night, we got a small amount of rainfall that filled up the rain gardens.  While we were happy to see that our inlets and outlets were functioning as we had hoped, we were disappointed when over the next couple of days it became apparent that the area was not going to drain the way we had hoped.

Because the soil in this area was extremely sandy, we determined that our problem was most likely compaction.  Once the area dried out, the City Wastewater Department brought a bobcat to the site and dug through the compaction, which allowed the gardens to drain within about 16 hours, which was within our goal drainage time of 12-24 hours.

After the garden was dug out and draining again, it could be clearly seen which areas had been dug out.  Everywhere where the water was able to get through the previously compacted top layer had sunk down a few inches.  Once it was dry, we raked it out and it was ready for the plants!

The 492 plants we used included 187 grasses and 305 perennials.  The grasses included Switch Grass, Little Bluestem, Indian Grass, Sideoats Grama, Big Bluestem, Prairie Dropseed, and Palm Sedge.  The perennials included Liatris, Goldenrod, Penstemon ‘Rondo’, Penstemon ‘Pineleaf’, Jacob Kline Beebalm, Agastache ‘Sunset Hyssop’, Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’, Coneflower, Woods Aster, Butterfly Milkweed, False Indigo, Moonshine Yarrow, and Purple Poppy Mallow.

Mulch

An organic mulch is essential for maintaining soil moisture, suppressing weeds, and improving soil nutrient content.  We used a wood chip mulch around the trees and shrubs.  When mulching around trees and shrubs, the mulch can be placed fairly deep (4-6 inches).  When mulching around perennials, mulch should be placed more thinly.  We chose not to use a wood mulch around the perennials, as wood mulch can sometimes be abrasive to the stems of perennials, and with the water flowing through the area, we didn’t want the wood mulch to float to one end and cover the plants there.  Instead, we decided to try a mulch made of cocoa bean hulls.  We minimized the amount of mulch we used in the bottom of the rain gardens, using just enough to surround each perennial.  So far the cocoa bean hulls seem to be staying in place very well, but of course, the real test will be when we get our first major rain event.

The Completed Project

Below are some pictures of the completed project.  As with any green infrastructure project, the first day after installation is the worst day for functionality.  Be sure to check our website for updates as these plants become established and begin to do the work of filtering and cleaning our stormwater runoff!

Rain Garden located at the corner of Ave B and 19th St in Scottsbluff

The Bee Balm is the only thing in bloom at the moment, but the rest of these plants are doing very well and we should start seeing more of them bloom soon!

Bee balm (pictured above) is an excellent rain garden plant, but it can spread aggressively.  In our rain garden, it spread very quickly in May and June, but once it started getting hot in July, it stopped spreading.

Black Eyed Susans were used in the bottom of the rain garden and have done well, but have not spread as much as the Bee Balm.

Coneflowers were used on the berm and in the bottom of the rain garden.  They did well in both areas.

Prairie Blazing Star (Liatris) was used in the bottom of the rain garden as this plant can tolerate swampy conditions.

Agastache is a plant that was recommended to us by one of our local Master Gardeners.  It was planted in the bottom of the rain garden and has done very well.  It should be noted that our rain garden drains fairly quickly, and a rain garden that stays wet longer may have different results.

Our asters have done very well and were great for their color that lasted late into the fall.

We used sedum as a groundcover on the berm of the rain garden, since this is a plant that doesn’t like to be too wet.

Prairie dropseed was another plant we used on the berm.

For more information on rain garden plants for the state of Nebraska, UNL Extension has developed a very comprehensive plant guide for rain gardens that is available for $15 (Publication #EC1261).  You can order through any Extension office.

If you have used any of these plants in a rain garden, we would love to hear how they did.  Please comment below!

This straw mulch has been crimped into the ground for temporary stabilization.

Stabilization, or establishing ground cover to protect disturbed soils from erosion, is not only a good practice, it is required by law.  The Nebraska state Construction General Permit states that, with a few exceptions such as snow cover or frozen ground conditions, “stabilization measures  must be initiated as soon as practicable in portions of the site where construction activities have temporarily or permanently ceased, but in no case more than 14 days after the construction activity in that portion of the site has temporarily or permanently ceased.” Since it is unlikely that suitable vegetation can be established within 14 days, other methods of stabilization must be considered.  Covering exposed or disturbed areas protects the soil from raindrop impact, slows the flow of and infiltrates stormwater, and protects newly seeded areas.  It also helps retain soil moisture, which will help your vegetation become established more quickly.

One of the simplest methods of erosion control is mulching.  Straw or hay mulch should be applied at a rate of 2-3 tons per acre.  To provide good ground cover, at least 50% of the mulch should be ten inches in length or longer.  The mulch should be crimped using a weighted roller that anchors the mulch into the soil.  If the area is seeded before the mulch is applied, this can be a very simple and effective method of preventing erosion while vegetation is established.

Another method of erosion control is a rolled erosion control blanket.  These can be made from natural or synthetic materials and can be effective in protecting steeper slopes from erosion.  They are designed to be rolled onto the area and stapled into place.  Always follow installation specifications, as poor installation can cause these products to fail. 

This erosion contol blanket temporarily stabilizes the slope while vegetation is established.

If the blanket is not properly anchored and stapled, it can either be washed away or stormwater can wash out soil underneath the blanket, causing small gullies that are difficult to seed.  If the area is seeded and the erosion control blanket is installed correctly, grass will grow up through the blanket, and over time, the blanket will degrade.

Under the first circumstance, coverage under a NPDES construction permit may be terminated 180 calendar days after all soil disturbing construction activity has been completed, final stabilization has been achieved, and all temporary BMPs (silt fence, inlet protection, etc.) have been removed.  In order for a site to be considered stabilized, any areas that are not impervious (covered by buildings or pavement), must be vegetated with 70% perennial groundcover.  Annual vegetation, such as cover crops, do not count as final stabilization.  A simple test to see if you have 70% vegetation is to take a 100 foot long tape measure, lay it out over an area that is representative of the whole site, and count how many plants (in most cases blades of grass) coincide with the 1-foot marks.  If there are plants at 70 or more of these marks, then you have the required stabilization.  After final stabilization has been achieved for 180 calendar days, you may then file a Notice of Termination (NOT) which will terminate your permit coverage.  

The alternative method of terminating permit coverage is to transfer the permit to another Operator or the Owner.  In order to do this, you must file a Construction Storm Water Notice of Transfer (CSW-Transfer) that lists the current permit authorization number and the portion of the project that is to be transferred.  It is possible to retain responsibility for only part of a project, but to transfer a portion of the project to the new owner.  The person to whom you are transferring the permit is then required to submit a Notice of Intent (NOI) to the state, and the current permittee may now file an NOT.

There is often some confusion over who is eligible to take over responsibility for a Construction General Permit.  The permittee must be either the owner or operator of the site.  This means that the general contractor for a project is eligible to hold the permit.  If for some reason the general contractor changes during the course of the project, the permit may be transferred to the new Operator.  However, subcontractors, such as landscapers, are not allowed to take responsibility for the permit, because they do not meet the definition of “operator” for the project.  If a contractor’s portion of a project is complete and they want to terminate their permit coverage before final stabilization is completed, then their only option is to transfer permit coverage to the owner.  The new permittee will then be responsible for all inspections and best management practices required by the Construction General Permit.

If you ever have any questions about the permitting process, contact your local stormwater coordinator.  Contact information for the ten communities in NebraskaH2O can be found under the Communities tab on this website. 

This is an effective, inexpensive concrete washout.

For obvious reasons concrete trucks should never be washed out into the street or into the storm drain.  Solids that are washed out of the concrete trucks can clog storm drains, causing flooding and expensive clean-up.  However, it is also important to contain the concrete wash water as well.  The wash water is very alkaline, which means it has a very high pH.  Water must have a pH in the range of 6.5-9.0 in order for aquatic life to survive.  Concrete wash water typically has a pH of 12 or above.  Furthermore, the pH scale is logarithmic, meaning that a pH of 12 is 10 times greater than a pH of 11, 100 times greater than a pH of 10, and 1000 times greater than a pH of 9.0, which is the highest level of alkalinity that aquatic life can tolerate.  If allowed to escape the site, concrete wash water can have a severe effect on our streams and rivers.

Other significant pollutants in concrete wash water are heavy metals such as chromium.  If wash water that is high in heavy metals leaches through the soil to the water table, it can contaminate our groundwater, which is where most cities in Nebraska get all of their drinking water.

Concrete washout is also high in suspended and dissolved solids.  The average stream or river in the United States typically has a suspended solid count of no more than 60 parts per million (ppm).  The average suspended solids in concrete wash water is 27,000 ppm, well above the range at which aquatic life can survive.

Luckily, it is not very difficult to control concrete washout on your construction site.  There are several different ways to build a concrete washout facility, the most simple being to dig a pit and line it with plastic sheeting that is at least 10-mil thick.  If you don’t have a good location on your site for a facility like this, you can also build a portable facility by building a box with a liner to contain the washout.  There are also several products available for purchase that are effective, portable concrete washout containers.  

Always locate concrete washouts as far away from storm drains as possible.  Make sure they are clearly labeled and that drivers know where they are supposed to wash out.  By doing this, we can make sure that one of the biggest pollutants from construction sites does not reach our waterways.

This bioswale was the Eagle Scout project for Spencer Lake.  Lake worked with the City of Scottsbluff to complete the project with help from members of Boy Scout Troop 13 and the UNL Master Gardeners.  The project was designed by Amy Seiler and was funded in part with grant funds from the Greener Nebraska Towns Initiative and in part by the Lied Scottsbluff Public Library Foundation.   The day of the installation, we had 29 volunteers work for a combined 100 hours.

Scroll through our pictures below for more information on this project.

 This is the site before any work was done.  This part of the library is a recent addition, and the site was very compacted from construction.

 The City Wastewater Department hauled compost in and tilled it into the ground.  This was important because there was no topsoil left after construction.  The compost added organic matter to the soil, which provides nutrients to the plants and improves infiltration of rainwater. 

 Next we placed rocks and installed edging.  The rocks help hold the steep bank in place and also help to slow the flow of stormwater from the roof drains.  The edging gives the garden a defined boundary and keeps grass from spreading into the area.

Next we planted all the trees, shrubs, and perennials.  Trees and shrubs were used on the steep bank to help hold the slope in place.  Native or well-adapted perennials were used in the bottom of the swale to slow and filter stormwater as it flows from the roof drains to the storm drain.

After the planting was completed, we installed a drip system.  In many climates this would probably not be necessary, but here in western Nebraska, where we commonly go for two or more months without any significant precipitation, we felt a drip system would be necessary.

 Once the drip system was installed, we added mulch to suppress weed growth, add organic matter, and help retain soil moisture.  No mulch was added to the bottom of the swale, however, so that during a rain event, the mulch would not be washed away and plug up the storm drain.

 The bioswale will not be fully functional until the plants start spreading and filling in, which will take at least until next spring.  So until then, we have placed temporary rock checks around the storm drain inlet and along the length of the swale.  This will slow and filter stormwater, so that if there is any erosion in the swale, the sediment will have a chance to drop out of the stormwater before it reaches the inlet.  This swale has a very gradual slope (less than .5%), so this should be sufficient for erosion control.  On a steeper slope, an erosion control blanket or something similar may be necessary.

In the future, we will be monitoring the bioswale and making any changes needed to make it more functional.  Check back here for updates on how it functions over the next year.

A special thanks to Spencer Lake and Boy Scout Troop 13, the UNL Master Gardeners, Amy Seiler, Scottsbluff Landscaping, Greg Suhr, and Doug Hoevet for your contributions to this project.