Activists urge stricter controls on storm water runoff into the Bay

State environmental groups are urging Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to step in and toughen proposed rules for more than 100 cities, universities and military bases to better control the No. 1 pollution source in the Chesapeake Bay today: storm water.

Whenever it rains, millions of gallons of runoff tainted with oil, fuel, fertilizers, dirt and toxics rush into storm drains and empty directly into creeks,streams and rivers that feed the Bay.

Owners of storm systems are required to obtain a state environmental permit, which outlines what steps should be taken to reduce pollution.

Local owners caught up in the current permitting debate include the city of Suffolk, Oceana Naval Air Station, Norfolk Naval Station, Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University, the city of Williamsburg and Isle of Wight County.

Larger cities such as Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake and Portsmouth will face similar environmental pressures when their storm water permits, known as MS4 permits, are considered later.

Seven environmental groups say the proposed state permits do not set specific limits or require any pollution reductions in what washes off streets, lawns, development sites and parking lots during rainfalls.

“We’ve spent so much time and energy understanding what it’ll take to clean up the Bay, but then we stop short of doing what needs to be done to actually do it,” said Bill Street, executive director of the James River Association.

Engineers and officials say the issue – and the solution – are not so simple.

They note that no other state has gone as far as environmentalists want Virginia to go by writing specific limits into these permits. If Virginia did so, they say, homeowners and businesses would face huge increases in utility bills that already are rising to pay for other improvements.

“I sympathize with their goal,” said John Carlock, an environmental manager with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. “But if cleaning up the Bay was that easy, we would have done so years ago.”

The permitting debate for the first 100 storm systems, which Carlock said is being closely watched by government planners, developers and engineers across Virginia, is expected to come to a head Thursday at a meeting of the state Soil and Water Conservation Board.

The board is scheduled to vote on proposed permits, valid for five years, as recommended by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.

L. Preston Bryant Jr., the governor’s secretary of natural resources, said he received a copy of a letter sent by the environmental groups to Kaine and has met with them to discuss their ideas.

“No decisions have been made” on whether to intervene and toughen the proposed rules, Bryant said in an e-mail. “We will respond to their letter in due course.”

Gary Waugh, a spokesman for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, said the proposed permits “are head-and-shoulders above” those issued in 2003 by a different state agency, the Department of Environmental Quality.

For example, if a city is emptying storm water into a creek that’s classified as “impaired,” or already polluted, the new permit would require a locality to pursue one of several helpful actions, Waugh said. There is no such requirement now.

But, environmentalists point out, there still is no mandate to actually reduce storm water pollution in that affected creek.

“The real question here is of degree,” Waugh said. “We’re recommending something that’s an improvement and is practicable. And the environmentalists want something that’s ideal.”

The environmental groups are urging Kaine to amend the rules with his executive authority or to delay them until they can be changed through regular channels.

Waugh said any delay would be bad for the Bay.

The groups also did not rule out a lawsuit to force more stringent permits, and they pledged to pressure Maryland and Pennsylvania – two other states involved in the Bay cleanup – as they begin to renew their storm water approaches.

“What good is a permit without any limits?” asked Joe Tannery, an attorney for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “How do you measure success? It’s impossible to know how you’re performing.”