Integrated Watershed Management Planning Approaches to Setting and Achieving Water Quality Goals in CSO Receiving Waters

Abstract

A systems approach to combined sewer overflow control planning is considered that relies upon a proposed concept for classifying and attaining identified water body improvement goals integrating three general planning and implementation targets. These targets provide a basis for comprehensive watershed management planning and for the development of innovative plan implementation strategies. The principal advantage in applying this systems approach to storm water management is the reduction of effective impervious cover. That is, implementing low impact development and redevelopment concepts has the effect of reducing storm water impacts on receiving waters through decreasing the peak discharge rate, the total runoff volume, the stream velocities, and the frequency and severity of flooding during storms, while increasing the time for storm water to reach a stream and the stream baseflow rate between storms. Today, for communities served by combined sewer systems, the adoption of low impact development and redevelopment approaches translates directly into reduced public-sector costs of regulatory compliance with national and state water quality protection policies, laws, and regulations. In the near future, as water quality regulation of communities served by separate storm sewer systems evolves, the public-sector costs of compliance will be greatly reduced for communities that have adopted storm water regulations largely reliant on low impact development approaches. KEYWORDSLow impact development; low impact redevelopment; combined sewer overflow control planning; comprehensive watershed planning.