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Eugene Weekly : 12.18.03 Page 4 of 8 <br /> pollution to the creek. <br /> • Not that the city hasn't tried. Eugene's Stormwater Management Program was launched in <br /> 1993 after the completion of an ambitious management plan to protect residents from <br /> floods, improve water quality, and protect natural resource values. The program is <br /> financed by monthly stormwater user fees,which are based on the quantity of impervious <br /> surfaces at all households and businesses in Eugene. <br /> Still,Thieman is not convinced that the creek is getting healthier. The amount of paved <br /> surfaces is increasing,and residents are still contaminating them. <br /> "If everybody's adding pollutants from their own property, and it ends up in the creek," she <br /> says, "there's nothing you can do to the creek itself to be able to clean all that water." <br /> Industrial Pollution <br /> Both city officials and representatives of the Watershed Council say that residential <br /> industrial stormwater discharge is a minimal threat to the health of the creek because, <br /> unlike residential runoff, it is regulated by federal law. <br /> Certain industries, such as textile mills,printers, and makers of wood and metal products, <br /> have been identified by the EPA as having the potential to contaminate stormwater runoff. <br /> • If stormwater drains from the property of such an industry into a public waterway via a <br /> point source, like a pipe or a catch basin,the industry is required to obtain a 1200-z <br /> National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System(NPDES)permit from the state of <br /> Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality(DEQ). <br /> The 1200-z permit requires its holder to create a stormwater pollution control plan by <br /> identifying activities that could impact stormwater runoff and developing a strategy to <br /> eliminate or minimize the exposure of pollutants to stormwater. <br /> Twice a year, industries with 1200-z permits are required to sample and analyze <br /> stormwater runoff for contaminants listed in their permits as "benchmarks." If <br /> contaminants exceed suggested "benchmark" levels, industries must review their <br /> stormwater pollution control plans and identify additional ways to reduce pollutant levels. <br /> "Industries are doing a pretty good job. They can always do better," says Gary Cloyes, <br /> industrial source control technician for the city of Eugene's Wastewater Division of Public <br /> Works. "The regulations are going to get stricter all the time in the city." <br /> But industries whose stormwater runoff violates water quality standards have plenty of <br /> chances to reform. If an industry violates a condition of its permit for the first time,the city <br /> sends a"request for corrective action" letter. If a second violation occurs,the city sends the <br /> industry another letter and refers the violation to the DEQ,which then issues a notice of <br /> noncompliance. The first notice is a warning, says Cloyes, and"more could result in <br /> • penalties." <br /> Eugene's most notorious case of stormwater contamination involves the J. H. Baxter wood <br /> http://www.eugeneweekly.com/archive/12_18_03/coverstory.html 1/6/04 <br />