Item A: Water Quality Waterways Protections

Home Browse Search

standards for various pollutants, including bacteria, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, mercury, and temperature. The federal Clean Water Act requires that states establish pollutant load allocations or Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for these impaired waterways and allocate pollutant load reductions to “designated management agencies” to bring these waterways back into compliance. The City of Eugene is one of the responsible agencies identified in the 2006 Upper Willamette TMDL and as such submitted a plan outlining its strategies for reducing its contribution of these pollutants. The City of Eugene’s TMDL Implementation Plan was approved by DEQ in December 2008. One element of the plan is this proposal to fill gaps in protections on waterways with a relationship to those not meeting water quality standards. The City of Eugene also holds a permit governing the discharges from its municipal stormwater system to Amazon Creek and the Willamette River. The City’s stormwater permit is scheduled to expire on February 28, 2009. The new stormwater permit is expected to include requirements to assess the affects of urbanization on local waterways and prioritize actions to retrofit the drainage system to address the impacts of urban development on local waterways. More detailed information about the federal and state water quality requirements driving this proposal is included in the May 14, 2008, council packet. In addition to federal and state drivers, local adopted policy in the form of the Comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan (CSWMP, adopted by the City Council in 1993) addresses the multiple benefits of waterways in Policy 1.1: Incorporate the beneficial functions (flood control, stormwater conveyance, water quality treatment) of natural resources a [waterways and wetlands] into the City storm drainage system. One of the Implementation Measures b identified to carry out Policy 1.1 is to “Develop and apply waterside protection ordinances.” Relationship to /WR Water Resources Overlay Zone (Goal 5) The Water Quality Protected Waterways proposal is complimentary to the Goal 5 natural resource protections (including /WB Wetland Buffer and /WP Waterside Protection provisions in the Eugene wetlands plan area and the /WR Water Resources Conservation Overlay Zone adopted in November 2005). Parcels that would be affected by the proposed /WQ Overlay Zone are those that contain or are adjacent to waterways of interest for water quality and are not otherwise incidentally protected by Goal 5 natural resources protections. Where Goal 5 currently applies to a waterway, no additional regulation would be applied through this proposal. This proposal recognizes that existing adopted regulations go a long way towards protecting waterways. CITY COUNCIL OPTIONS 1. Direct City Manager to return the ordinance as proposed. 2. Direct City Manager to return the ordinance with specific revisions. 3. Direct City Manager to take no further action on this matter. CITY MANAGER’S RECOMMENDATION The City Manager recommends Option 1: Direct City Manager to return the ordinance as proposed. a Comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan, Policy 1.1, p. 3-5. b CSWMP, Implementation Measure – Other Action, p. 3-5. Z:\CMO\2009 Council Agendas\M090128\S090128A.DOC