Stricter Controls Drafted for Montgomery Runoff

Maryland environmental officials proposed tougher pollution controls yesterday on Montgomery County's storm water runoff as part of an effort to protect drinking water supplies and restore the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

State authorities drafted a new federal storm water permit directing Montgomery to be more aggressive in capturing, cleaning up and reducing runoff from developed areas such as shopping malls that are without modern storm water controls. Montgomery's storm water drains into the Anacostia, Patuxent and Potomac rivers.

A coalition of environmental groups had been pressing Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) to use the renewal of the permit to create a model for reducing and cleaning up polluted discharge in more-urban areas of the state.

Environmentalists, who had been concerned that the measure would not go far enough, applauded state and local officials yesterday for essentially putting Montgomery on a "pollution diet."

"Storm water from urban areas is the last big hurdle in trying to clean up the bay and our water quality," said Robert M. Summers, deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment, in announcing the draft five-year permit, which is required by the federal Clean Water Act.

Leggett said in a statement that the county would work "diligently to achieve the permit's objectives to the maximum extent possible within our fiscal limits" and called on residents to stop littering and illegal dumping to help the effort.

When storm water rushes over paved roads, parking lots and roofs, it carries sediment, trash and other pollutants into the region's waterways. Runoff from urban areas is considered the fastest-growing source of nitrogen and phosphorous pollution in the bay.

For new development and redevelopment projects, the county's permit would require builders to use low-impact, environmentally friendly design. Legislation that O'Malley signed into law last year already requires developers to make use of "green roofs," "rain gardens" and other methods of soaking up and filtering rainwater with vegetation and landscaping.

County officials, who worked closely with state environmental officials on the permit, also would be required to come up with a plan to implement a regional agreement to eliminate trash pollution in the Potomac River and its tributaries by 2013.

The draft permit will be finalized after public comment. Permits are up for renewal in Charles and Frederick counties this year and in Prince George's County next year.

Since 2005, more than two dozen environmental groups, including the Audubon Naturalist Society, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Anacostia Watershed Society, have been pressing for tougher standards, with pollutant-by-pollutant limits, enforceable deadlines and cleanup targets.

"This is a very big step forward," said Diane Cameron, conservation director for the Audubon Naturalist Society. "Uncontrolled or inadequately controlled storm water runoff is the leading cause in this region of pollution of our drinking water supplies."

But Cameron said the draft falls short of adding enforceable deadlines for cleaning up polluted waters such as the Anacostia, Rock Creek and Cabin John Creek. The permit, she said, requires the county to set a schedule for meeting certain benchmarks, but "it does not say when the county needs to cross the finish line for cleanup."

Summers said state officials determined that the county should take the lead in developing a strategy and setting deadlines because it is closest to the problem. The system, he said, encourages the county to track its progress and to revise its approach if it is not meeting its targets.

"It's not flexible in terms of doing less," he said.

Part of the challenge in managing urban runoff and reducing pollution is attributable to an aging storm water system designed to prevent flooding. In addition, Summers said, the system is dealing with factors that are hard to predict, such as rainfall levels, or hard to control, such as how residents handle trash, pesticides and fertilizers.