Community News

01.14.09- City Unveils Storm Water Master Plan

The City’s Public Works Department, with assistance from the engineering firm of Woolpert Inc., has developed a Storm Water Master Plan for Trotwood. The Master Plan was finished in July and is available for review at the Public Works Director’ s office. The Master Plan is essentially a road map for addressing storm water issues in Trotwood for the next twenty years.

The Master Plan includes recommendations for storm water management throughout the entire community to help ensure that Trotwood residents don’t suffer adverse affects because of storm water. It also looks at ways to utilize storm water as a resource, instead of taking the old school view of treating all storm water as a nuisance.
As Trotwood has grown, flooding has become a more serious problem. Other pollution problems are being caused by substances like yard fertilizers, car and lawn mower fuels and oils, ice melting agents, pesticides, soaps, pet waste, and grass clippings. These things, called 'non-point sources', are all making their way into the community's streams, where kids like to play, creating a danger to citizens' health and the health of the environment. Trotwood understands the need to address these issues. So do the Federal and State governments, whose laws now require the City to improve the quality of the community's storm water.

Storm water is a high priority in Trotwood, requiring more resources that what have historically been provided from the City’s general and street funds. A Storm Water Utility is now in place to provide that funding.  The Master Plan addresses the wise use of this money to accomplish the recommendations of the plan along with the State and Federal requirements.

Taking care of storm water quantity (flooding) goes hand-in-hand with managing storm water quality (pollution). Most times, fixing one of these problems also address the other. The Master Plan has identified four critical storm water maintenance issues and the City is in the process of addressing them with appropriate fixes. the City has also added six storm water related projects to its capital improvement projects program as a result of the study.

The City is working diligently with Woolpert, its storm water consultant to continue to address the requirements of the State and Federal government in maintaining a storm water program that includes: maintenance issues such as street sweeping; educational challenges like newsletters to help educate citizens about this important issue and how they can help; and reviewing its ordinances and regulations to be sure that any future development or redevelopment in the community is focused on good storm water practices.  Woolpert is also helping to train City staff about water quality BMPs, and is working closely with the City to develop a list of ten top practices that are most appropriate for use in the community.

The City is looking to combine storm water improvements with park improvements through an approach referred to as 'Storm Water To Recreation'.  The City envisions this as a way to use the beneficial aspects of storm water while managing its challenges – while at the same time providing passive and active recreational benefits to its community.

For more information on storm water related topics, please visit www.nonpointsource.org. Information is also available at the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency Websites www.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater or
www.epa.gov/nps.

For more information please contact Public Works Director Thomas N. Odenigbo at (937) 837-1702 or todenigbo@trotwood.org.

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