An Olympia staffer proposed a method to save the city money on inspecting stormwater catch basins.
Senior Stormwater Specialist Kane Osstifin told the Olympia Utilities Advisory Committee (UAC) at its meeting on Thursday, April 11, about a research project he has been conducting on catch basin inspection frequency. The study investigated potential cost and time savings if the city modifies the frequency of inspecting rainwater catch basins (CB) for sediment.
The other topic covered at that meeting was water cleanup plans for Budd Inlet, Deschutes River, and its tributaries.
Catch basins (CBs) figure into the city’s stormwater runoff management. “[The Washington State Department of] Ecology administers federal, Clean Water Act, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) municipal stormwater permits in Washington State,” Osstifin explained. “NPDES permits require municipalities to manage stormwater runoff before it discharges to surface and groundwater.” One aspect of that requirement is to inspect CBs. Those inspections include both checking sediment levels and recording maintenance issues.
City staff have been conducting these inspections on Olympia’s 7,435 CBs since 2015 every other year, except for those along snow routes, which are inspected annually. These snow routes are major traffic arteries through the city and receive priority sanding and snow plowing. Barham explained, “Every winter is different,” in terms of amounts of snowfall and sanding. He also pointed out that these roads tend to have more pollution because of more traffic.
For his study, Kane analyzed sediment levels in CB inspections. The NPDES permit allows the city to change the inspection frequency up to double the current time frame, extending the time to inspect some CBs every four years.
The goal of the study was to find out which CBs can switch to a less frequent schedule, freeing up city employees’ time and equipment to work on other projects such as pipe cleaning. Currently, Barham noted, the inspection crew must inspect 30-40 CBs daily, taking up all the crew’s time year-round. “If we made the change, it could save a lot of money, staff time, and truck usage,” he remarked.
In response to a question from committee member Dennis Bloom, Barham added that the city has one truck to maintain the CBs, which involves vacuuming the sediment out, drying it, and taking it to a landfill.
The study indicated that 75% of the 6,517 non-snow-route CBs could switch to quadrennial inspections. While it also indicated that 66% of the 1,011 snow-route CBs could switch to biennial inspections, Osstifin explained that city employees determined that it would be best to continue inspecting all the snow-route CBs annually to ensure adequate maintenance.
The new inspection schedule means that all snow-route CBs will remain on annual inspection, approximately 25% of the others will remain on biennial inspection, and 75% of non-snow-route CBs would switch to quadrennial inspections. If problems arise in a CB after the inspection rate change, it would revert to more frequent inspections, Osstifin remarked.
Bloom also inquired whether other cities do this same analysis. Osstifin replied, “that’s the best part - nobody else is doing it. We’re the first. It’s cutting edge, and it allows us to do what the permit allows.”
Osstifin explained that his study also fulfills a requirement for his professional science master’s degree program at Oregon State University).
In the second presentation, Water Resources Director Jesse Barham reported on cleanup plans for local bodies of water. “The federal Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that all states restore their water bodies to be ‘fishable and swimmable.’ … State Water Quality Standards are set by Washington State Department of Ecology to maintain designated uses: aquatic life, recreation, drinking water supply, miscellaneous,” he explained.
Barham’s report involved figures for the maximum levels of pollutants that surface water can contain “and still meet water quality standards.” From those numbers, local, state, and federal governments develop and implement plans to reduce water pollutants, including water temperature reduction, correcting imbalances of substances such as nutrients, phosphorus, and dissolved oxygen, and monitoring fecal coliform bacteria.
Olympia’s Water Resources Department has monitored water quality in the Deschutes River and its tributaries (Black Lake Ditch and Percival Creek) since 2003, with the state’s plan submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2015. EPA approved a portion of it in 2018 and revisions of the remaining parts in 2020. In 2016, Budd Inlet plans were split from the Deschutes and developed separately, with EPA approval granted in 2022. Henderson Inlet’s process began in 2002 and received EPA approval in 2007.
Committee Chairwoman Kristen Lamson asked if the state is “taking into account factors that were upstream of us and we have no control over.” Barham replied in the affirmative.
The primary action item for the Deschutes River is reducing water temperature. For Henderson Inlet, it is controlling phosphorus and monitoring fecal coliform, especially in Woodard Creek. Budd Inlet plans include dealing with nutrients and dissolved oxygen and management of municipal stormwater drainage into the inlet.
One proposed plan for Budd Inlet involves “restoration of Capital Lake into an estuary by removing the 5th Avenue dam,” Barham reported. He added that this would be the largest recommended clean-up action in the plan. It is the preferred alternative of the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services (DES) in its October 2022 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
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JamesBishop
The City of Olympia has been dumping polluted storm water into my property for the last few years. Originally this water ran into this area due to natural runoff which was a very small amount of water compared to what is being dumped into our area now. For a number of years a pumping station was set up and hooked into the Olympia City sewer system which sent the waste water to the sewer plant. It appears the city found it to be costly to treat this water as it contains alot of bad chemicals such as oil, gas, rubber from vehicles and anything else people decide to put in the storm drains. In doing all of this conversion work it was done illegally by NOT constructing a stormwater catch basin. Over the years most new construction sites have been required to include a stormwater catch basin. We must be covered under a special plan or program as WE HAVE NO STORMWATER CATCH BASIN. There are many water wells in our area as we are not on the city sewer.
Long story short, this same stormwater eventually enters INDIAN CREEK which has been destroyed by both Thurston County and City of Olympia because all of the culverts this creek has to pass thru are plugged and not maintained annually. Lies have been told to cover the no-maintenance problem. Indian Creek headwaters out of Biglow Lake and flows either to the treatment plant or directly into the Bay. Where ever it goes we are still receiving polluted stormwater.
We had a group, who tried to keep water flowing in this area, they were called the Blake Drainage Commissioners. On our last attempt to maintain drainage the man in charge said to me, " Jim, I think we are wasting our time as we get no cooperation from either the City or County and I think it is time to hang up the Blake Drainage program." I agreed with him. To this day there is nothing being done in our area except pay our annual stormwater tax each year.
GOD BLESS government control.
Tuesday, April 30 Report this
BobJacobs
Congratulations to city staff on searching for more efficient ways to do their jobs. This should be routine, of course, but it is natural to just keep doing things the way they've always been done.
Bob Jacobs
Tuesday, April 30 Report this
JW
Why is the city employee pictured wearing a mask outside? And we can trust that individual to make wise inspections of the drainage system?
Wednesday, May 1 Report this
Mugwump
JW: Three things, 1) you don't know when this photo was taken, it might have been during the height of the pandemic when lots of people were wearing masks all the time 2) you don't know what sort of crud might be coming out of that sewer, that might warrant wearing a mask 3) you don't know the person in the picture's medical history, they might be immuno-compromised.
Wednesday, May 1 Report this
JW
Mugwump:
1) At any point in time wearing a mask outside, especially a cloth mask, has been a pointless exercise that demonstrates a lack of critical and reasonable thinking.
2) A cloth mask is not going to do anything about "crud" coming up out of the vent. If the vents are that toxic, I guarantee L&I would be requiring a respirator not a porous piece of cloth
3) You don't need to wear a cloth mask outside by yourself if you're immuno-compromised
Wednesday, May 1 Report this