Chapter 3 – Surface Water Management
3.1 Utility Responsibilities
Limits of Utility Responsibility
3.2 Utility Organization and Staffing
3.3 Relationships with Other City Department
3.4 Relationships with Other Agencies and Jurisdictions
Government-to-Government Relations
Chapter 3 Figures
Figure 3.1 Public Works Department Organizational Relationships
Figure 3.2 Storm and Surface Water Utility Staffing
This chapter gives an overview of the Storm and Surface Water Utility’s areas of responsibility, a description of how the Utility is organized and staffed, and its relationships with other agencies and jurisdictions.
3.1 Utility Responsibilities
This section reviews the Utility’s primary responsibilities, and limits on those responsibilities.
Primary Responsibilities
The Storm and Surface Water Utility’s mission is to reduce flooding, improve water quality, and protect and enhance aquatic habitat in Olympia.
To accomplish this mission, the Olympia City Council mandated the Utility with three basic responsibilities:
• Flood Management. Within Olympia’s organizational structure, the Utility has primary responsibility for preventing and managing flooding. Duties include monitoring construction standards for new development to prevent flooding, maintaining conveyance systems, constructing minor improvements, and responding to emergencies. The Utility’s capital facilities program resolves regional flooding problems through large-scale construction projects.
• Water Quality Improvement. Stormwater runoff is a key source of water contamination. Many contaminants from cars and homes reach streams, wetlands, and marine waters via stormwater flows. The Utility plays a key role in managing surface water quality. Duties include monitoring construction of public and private treatment facilities, technical assistance and education, and helping to fund water quality monitoring and reporting.
• Aquatic Habitat Enhancement. Many federal, state, tribal, and local management responsibilities and ordinances affect Olympia’s natural environment. The Utility’s role is to support the protection, restoration, and enhancement of aquatic habitat on both public and private lands. Utility duties include policy guidance, technical assistance, and education to the community as well as within City government.
Limits of Utility Responsibility
The Utility is responsible for managing the stormwater infrastructure located within the public right-of-way and stormwater within dedicated easements and on City-owned property. Property owners are responsible for maintaining stormwater facilities constructed on private property.
The Utility attempts to control stormwater runoff from the street right-of-way that discharges onto or through private property. On new street construction projects, management of this runoff is required for compliance with the City’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Municipal Stormwater Permit (Permit) and City code. However, much of the City was developed prior to these standards. The primary objective is and has been to maintain historical and natural drainage paths. As a general policy, the Utility does not address or attempt to correct issues caused by groundwater on private property.
The Utility provides stormwater services within Olympia city limits. Outside of Olympia city limits and within its designated Urban Growth Area (UGA), stormwater services are provided by Thurston County consistent with its NPDES permit. When Olympia annexes a part of its UGA, Utility staff work with Thurston County Stormwater Management Utility staff to transfer mapping data, maintenance agreements and stormwater system inspection records for the annexed properties and the properties become City of Olympia Storm and Surface water Utility customers.
3.2 Utility Organization and Staffing
This section describes where the Utility fits within the organization of the City and Public Works Department.
Public Works Department
The Public Works Department is organized into four lines of business: Water Resources, Waste Resources, Transportation, and Engineering, as shown in Figure 3.1. Water Resources includes the three water-related utilities (Storm and Surface Water, Wastewater, and Drinking Water). Each utility develops its own annual operating budget and capital facilities program.
Engineering supports the other lines of business by providing capital facilities engineering, design, and construction management. The Public Works Director’s office provides accounting, strategic communications, and gateway services.
The Storm and Surface Water Utility is also supported by three other City departments:
• General Government. Oversight of City policies and legal issues as well as coordination of emerging issues.
• Administrative Services. Billing, payroll, financial planning and cash management.
• Community Planning and Development. Implementation of regulations for private development.
View Figure 3.1 Public Works Department Organizational Relationships
Water Resources
The Storm and Surface Water Utility is structured as shown in Figure 3.2, with a staff of 21.6 FTE in Planning and Engineering, Operations, and Environmental Services.
View Figure 3.2 Storm and Surface Water Utility Staffing
*One Associate Planner and both Program Specialists are currently project funded.
On a day-to-day basis, these staff are assigned to one or more of the Utility’s nine core services:
• Long Range Planning
• Asset Management
• Technical Review and Support
• Flood Prevention
• Emergency Response
• Pollution Prevention
• Habitat Management
• Capital Facility Program
• Utility Administration and Support Services
See Chapter 9 for a detailed explanation of these core services and current programs and activities. Chapter 10 summarizes the goals, objectives, and strategies recommended for the 2018-2027 planning period.
3.3 Relationships with Other City Departments
To prevent flooding, improve water quality, and protect aquatic habitat the Utility works with other City departments to implement overlapping responsibilities. Coordination related to the Utility’s Core Services is described below.
Long Range Planning
The Community Planning and Development (CP&D) department regularly leads citywide, long-range planning efforts, such as the Comprehensive Plan update and development of the Action Plan. The Utility participates in helping to shape these plans.
The Utility also interacts with CP&D when aquatic habitat related development regulations, such as the critical areas ordinance and shoreline master program, are being updated.
NPDES Permit Compliance
All stormwater runoff flowing through Olympia’s pipes, ponds, and ditches is managed according to the requirements of the Western Washington Phase II Municipal Stormwater Permit (Permit) issued by the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). To ensure the City remains in compliance with the Permit, the Utility performs a lead role in coordinating Permit and municipal stormwater related activities among City departments.
Development Permit Review
The Utility’s stormwater engineer reviews stormwater drainage plans for public and private development proposals that are processed through the Community Planning and Development (CP&D) department for permitting. The stormwater engineer works with CP&D staff and the applicant to make sure that all development proposals comply with the Olympia Drainage Design and Erosion Control Manual (DDECM).
Flood Prevention
Impervious surfaces contribute to localized flooding more than any other factor. As a result, the Utility regularly coordinates with the Transportation Line of Business to identify, troubleshoot, and solve flooding threats before incidents occur. This work is done through the Stormwater Operations Problem Solving (STOPS) team.
Emergency Response
In major storm events, the Utility has a primary role as a first responder to prevent harm to life, health, and safety. The Utility coordinates before and during the event with City police and fire departments, as well as other local and state agencies. To minimize the effects of flooding in downtown Olympia, the Utility coordinates with the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services, which is responsible for monitoring Deschutes River levels and tide elevations and managing Capitol Lake levels to reduce flooding.
Spill Response
The Utility has a joint role with the Public Works Transportation Line of Business and the Wastewater Utility as first responders to non-hazardous spills. This requires frequent coordination with other first responders including police, fire, Ecology, and CP&D.
Habitat Management
The Utility and the Olympia Parks, Arts, and Recreation Department (OPARD) often partner on habitat restoration projects on park’s properties. Because OPARD is one of the largest property owners in Olympia and many of Olympia’s parks have important aquatic habitat areas, OPARD is a natural partner for implementing the Utility’s Habitat Stewardship Project.
3.4 Relationships with Other Agencies and Jurisdictions
Because storm, surface water and pollutants cross jurisdictional boundaries, the Utility must work in conjunction with others to prevent flooding, improve water quality, and protect aquatic habitat. The Utility’s most important relationships with other agencies and jurisdictions are described below.
Public Education and Outreach
An educated and informed public is one of the Utility’s best means of stopping pollution from entering storm and surface water. To make efficient use of public outreach and education dollars, the Utility partners with two organizations.
Thurston Conservation District
Under an Interlocal Agreement, the Utility provides funding support to Thurston Conservation District for the District’s South Sound GREEN watershed education program. School-aged children participating in the program conduct stream investigations and learn how human actions impact water quality.
Regional Environmental Education Partnership
Under an Interlocal Agreement, the Utility partners with Thurston County and the Cities of Lacey and Tumwater to implement the Regional Environmental Education Program. Under this program, the four jurisdictions conduct on-site source control training for businesses, coordinate the Stream Team, and implement a Salmon Stewards Program, as well as other educational activities. The Utility supports this partnership by providing staff and sharing financial costs with the other jurisdictions.
Puget Sound Partnership
The Puget Sound Partnership is a Washington State agency charged with leading regional efforts to restore and protect Puget Sound. In 2007, the State legislature created the Partnership and identified the first Puget Sound recovery goals: a healthy human population, vibrant quality of life, thriving species and food web, a protected and restored habitat, abundant water quantity, and healthy water quality. The Puget Sound Action Agenda is a collaboratively developed list of near term actions necessary to stay on track to meet these goals. The first Action Agenda in 2008 listed actions, priorities, and opportunities for improving the health of Puget Sound. This document is updated every two years.
Utility staff engages in this process by participating in the Alliance for a Healthy South Sound (AHSS), the integrating organization responsible for coordinating recovery planning and actions in the South Sound (south of Tacoma Narrows). AHSS recently completed its South Sound Recovery Strategy, which is intended to guide decision making about ecosystem restoration and recovery.
Surface Water Monitoring
The Utility participates in regional and local water quality monitoring programs to assess the health of streams, lakes, and marine waters. Monitoring data and analysis is used to develop policies, programs, and capital facility plans to protect water resources. See Chapter 7 for details.
Regional Stormwater Action Monitoring
The Utility pays into a collective fund to implement a regional Stormwater Action Monitoring program, administered by the Washington Department of Ecology. Western Washington municipal stormwater NPDES Permit holders collaborate in this program.
Local Monitoring Partnership
The Utility participates in a joint storm and surface water monitoring program along with Thurston County, Lacey, and Tumwater stormwater utilities. The program has been administered by Thurston County through an interlocal agreement for over 20 years. The type and frequency of data collected has varied throughout this period.
Salmon Recovery
Thurston Conservation District serves as the Lead Entity for implementing the Salmon Recovery Act (RCW 77.85) for Water Resource Inventory Area 13, the Deschutes watershed. In this role, the District coordinates the selection and ranking of salmon habitat restoration and protection projects for possible funding. Recommendations are based on the input of a technical committee, made up of local experts knowledgeable about the local watershed, habitat, and fish conditions; and a citizens’ committee with representatives of local, state, federal, and tribal government, community groups, environmental and fisheries groups, conservation districts, and regional fisheries enhancement groups. Utility staff participates in the technical committee.
Noxious Weed Control
Each year, the Thurston County Noxious Weed Board compiles a list of species required for control in Thurston County. The City is required to control weeds designated by the State and/or Thurston County. Utility staff has taken a lead role in coordinating communication between various City departments and the County Weed Board staff, serving as a single point of contact for the City and tracking weed occurrence and management records.
Government-to-Government Relations
The Utility coordinates with the Nisqually and Squaxin Tribes to ensure that treaty rights are honored. The Utility seeks the expertise of tribal representatives on aquatic habitat and fishery issues.
The Utility also participates in a regional Stormwater Technical Advisory Committee (StormTAC) attended by Thurston County, the City of Lacey, the City of Tumwater, the Washington Department of Transportation, the Washington Department of Enterprise Services, and the Port of Olympia. StormTAC discusses storm and surface water-related issues including Permit regulations, stream and lake monitoring, education and outreach collaboration, and interjurisdictional stormwater outfalls.