Stormwater Management Plan Changes Open for Public Comment

The Town is responsible for implementing a Stormwater Management Plan required by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection General Permit for Stormwater Discharges from Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems, which protects stormwater from pollution. Changes to the Plan must be made available to the Public for 30-day comment by posting on the Town’s website. The most recent changes are now available for comment, and are provided in red-line/strikethrough format on the Town’s Drainage page Drainage – York DPW (yorkpublicworks.org). The changes being made are related to the Public Education, Public Participation, and Illicit Discharge elements. The changes consist of:

1. Discontinuing a requirement to use a proprietary application (Litterati) to track litter collection during public clean up events.
2. Correcting a reference to the primary website used by the Town and its partners about stormwater from Thinkbluemaine.com (managed by a former partner of the Town’s) to the SMSWG.org website (the website used by Berwick, South Berwick, Eliot, Kittery and York) for Public Education and awareness.
3. Updating the requirement to implement Low Impact Development Standards because that requirement is on hold until the Maine DEP instructs us on what standards need to be implemented.
4. Updating the parameters documented when inspections of outfalls and catch basins are done to better align with the Town’s Geographic Information System.
5. Updating some roles and responsibilities for program implementation.
6. A few additional changes are being made to update the contact information for the Maine Department of Transportation and interconnected towns. These changes are in the Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination Plan, which is Appendix E to the Stormwater Management Plan.

The changes being made are consistent with the Maine DEP General Permit, and none of the schedules for compliance are affected by the changes. Comments on the changes can be sent to [email protected] or [email protected] by June 30, 2024.

Read the Stormwater Management Plan by visiting the link, here.