Stormwater System Maintenance
Pinellas County’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) MS4 permit, issued by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, requires the County to develop and implement a comprehensive Storm Water Management Program that must include pollution prevention measures, treatment or removal techniques, monitoring, use of legal authority, and other appropriate measures to control the quality of stormwater discharged to the storm drains and then to waters of the United States.
Pinellas County developed the 2013 Surface Water Assessment Governance and Rate Study as a planning document for a rational framework for the operation and management of the County’s Surface Water Program. In 2014, the level of service (LOS) outlined in the Governance Study was used as the basis for funding surface water management activities within the County’s unincorporated service area through a non-ad valorem assessment. In unincorporated areas of Pinellas County, the Surface Water Assessment fee is the funding mechanism for stormwater system maintenance and improvements.
At the current level of funding, Pinellas County is able to offer a baseline Level of Service that includes inspecting and maintaining most stormwater assets on a 10-year basis, with several categories of assets called out for more frequent inspection by the NPDES permit (e.g. detention ponds every 3 years).
In addition to the requirements of the NPDES permit, we also inspect and maintain some assets more frequently because they are prone to obstruction flows, or erosion/sedimentation problems which could inhibit drainage during a major storm event causing additional flooding.
These assets are considered “hot spots” and are typically inspected before and after a major storm event. We inspect certain stormwater ponds and treatment systems every year to ensure they are functioning effectively to their designed purpose.
Pinellas County also performs debris and pollutant removal activities (e.g. hand cleaning, street sweeping, etc.) on cycles of varying lengths to minimize the amount of nutrients and detritus that enter our drainage systems and surface water in between the permit-driven formal inspections and maintenance.
These activities provide an additional benefit of improving our rating under FEMA Community Rating System (CRS), which directly reduces the flood insurance premiums for residents of unincorporated Pinellas County.
This Level of Service was formally approved and funded by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners. In addition, the BCC has adopted an Enterprise Asset Management program that provides guidelines, tools and methods for optimizing asset performance and estimating future needs.
This program helps inform our maintenance schedules and Capital Improvement Plan and has resulted in proposals to help optimize our stormwater program spending. With time and testing, our goal is to identify opportunities where early asset rehabilitation and replacement can reduce future capital spending and yield an overall cost savings.