MS4 Program Provides H2O Answers

MS4 Program Provides H20 Answers
Journal Review (4/11/2009)
by Frank Phillips

If you have noticed that the level of Sugar Creek fluctuates more rapidly than in the past, you are correct.

The unusual rise and fall of the creek can be attributed to development of land in the Sugar watershed, said Gary Weliver, Crawfordsville’s Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) operator. The watershed includes Montgomery, Parke, Tippecanoe, Boone, Clinton and Tipton counties.

That quick rise and fall is just one signal of a problem and its another reason that people are talking more about MS4 programs.

The MS4 program had been put into place to monitor water quality since 1987, mostly aimed at larger cities. The past five years, the federal government has been making compliance with MS4 policies mandatory in smaller communities. Crawfordsville is required to follow those guidelines, which can be an expensive proposition.

However, the problems that have been caused by neglect are real.

As more land is developed for homes and businesses, more land is paved over and the water is collected and directed away homes and businesses by artificial means.

“Rain water used to soak into the ground and slowly get to the creek,” Weliver said Friday. That resulted in slowly changing levels of the creek.

Now, water is directed from roofs to driveways to streets to storm sewer pipes and into Sugar Creek or its tributaries. The water is drained away as quickly as possible, Weliver said.

Another example of how land development has changed water levels of Sugar Creek is that large diameter drainage pipe has been inserted into ditches and covered up with dirt and sod.

The reason for doing so was economic.

“It was felt that it was not cost effective to maintain the sides of the ditches,” he said.

It was easier and less expensive to mow a flat surface above the drainage pipe than to mow the sides of a ditch.

As rain water flowed over tall grasses, an open ditch discharged rain water into streams more slowly than drainage pipe. During a heavy rain, a drainage pipe can discharge water so fast that the pressure damages the opposite creek bank as well as raising the level of the creek dramatically.

Another problem caused by quickly draining rain water through storm sewer pipes is that the water is not filtered and returned to underground wells, which happens in nature.

As a result, oil, brake pad dust, antifreeze and other contaminants are carried by rainwater and dumped into Sugar Creek and its tributaries instead of the rain water being filtered as it soaks through several feet of soil.

There are many things being done to solve the problem.

Farmers are being encouraged to leave grassy waterways in their fields. Government programs reimburse farmers for not farming the waterways.

Weliver encourages businesses to build islands of soil and vegetation in their parking lots. The island spaces contain grass, perhaps flowers or ferns and a tree. The islands are usually bordered by a curb. If the curb is cut to allow rain water flowing off the parking lot to enter the island, that water can be absorbed into the soil, filtered and find its way back to natural, underground aquifers and wells.

“That’s just a small thing,” Weliver said. “But if there were many of these spaces designed to collect rain water, they would make a big difference.”

When the big picture is considered, it is easier to understand why Indiana law defines the municipal separate storm sewer system as “a conveyance or system of conveyances, including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, manmade channels, or storm drains ...”