Page 50 - Highway Engineering Handbook Building and Rehabilitating the Infrastructure

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES 33

practices that will result in reduction of pollutants in discharges. Road sweeping plans,
storm drains, catch basins, inlet and channel maintenance, and vegetation control plans are
required. Caltrans must prepare storm water pollution prevention plans for maintenance
facilities that cover such activities as vehicle and equipment maintenance, cleaning, fuel-
ing practices, and storage and handling of construction materials, fertilizers, pesticides,
paints, solvents, and other chemicals.
Under the provisions of the permit, Caltrans must rank construction activities on the
basis of their potential impacts on receiving waters from pollutants in storm water dis-
charges. Plans must be developed for erosion control, chemical and waste management,
and postconstruction permanent features. Training is a key component of these plans.
The permit also encompasses permanent control measures for the management of
storm water draining from Caltrans rights-of-way in areas meeting the population criteria.
Consideration must be given to high-risk areas where spills may occur and must include a
plan to reduce the pollutants discharged into the system over time. This portion of the
permit requires Caltrans to develop mechanisms to control illegal dumping, to respond to
accidental discharges, and to identify and control procedures for discharge in a category not
expressly prohibited by the permit.
The RWQCB included specific provisions to assist in meeting water quality goals. For
example, requirements of the permit include specific measures to reduce the mass load of
copper in storm water discharges.
Monitoring plans and annual reports are also required in the NPDES permit and are gen-
erally consistent with these provisions in standard construction and/or municipal storm
water permits.
Sustainable storm water management practices have been evolving over the last 20 years,
but it has been only during the last decade that the movement has gained momentum and
designers are looking toward best management practice and low impact design solutions to
storm water issues. These design concepts use the natural capacity of the environment to
detain, filter, and reduce (through evaporation and transpiration) the runoff from a roadway
facility. Relying on these natural systems, rather than engineered water conveyance and
discharge infrastructure, can

• Reduce regulatory burden and time in gaining approval for the project.
• Improve the function of treatment plant—reduce combine sewer outfills.
• Improve the environment—using design measures to create wetlands and other habitat.
• Gain community buy-in.
• Reduce costs.

Wetlands Involvement (Executive Order 11990). Under Executive Order 11990, the fol-
lowing procedures must be followed for any federal action that involves wetlands:
• An opportunity for early public involvement must be provided for actions involving
wetlands. For those actions requiring either a FONSI or an EIS, any notices for a public
hearing, or an opportunity for a hearing, must indicate if any alternatives are located in
wetlands. At any hearing, the location of wetlands must be identified. A newspaper
notice inviting written comments must be published prior to issuance of a categorical
exclusion.
• Alternatives that would avoid wetlands must be considered, and if avoidance is not
possible, measures to minimize harm to wetlands must be included in the action.
Documentation of these avoidance requirements must be included in an EA or EIS.
• A wetlands-only-practicable-alternative finding must be prepared for actions requiring a
FONSI or an EIS (FHWA Technical Advisory T6640.8A).