MS4 Implementation Assistance

city of st. louis park, st. louis park, mn, 2019-2021

Background
The City of St. Louis Park is a fully developed suburban community with nearly 50,000 residents. It is home to an array of water resources, including wetlands, small lakes, parks and recreation, and the Minnehaha Creek corridor. As a municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4), the City is responsible for legal and practical issues of stormwater management. In 2019, the City of St. Louis Park had recently updated its comprehensive surface water management plan, which included updates to the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program (SWPPP), the Erosion and Sediment Control Plans Guidelines, and the Stormwater Management requirement. The City was seeking external permitting assistance with their stormwater program and MS4 permit.

Strengths & Solutions
Young Environmental was selected to work with the City to guide MS4 implementation using the new plan. Our team began by facilitating an internal team meeting focused on the SWPPP work plan, reviewing what was successful in the previous year and how to approach the work in the coming year. We worked with the water resources manager to modify the internal training materials with revisions to match the recent updates. In 2019, we worked as an extension of the team to host and facilitate the City’s field training session. In addition to stakeholder engagement, we worked to review and revise a series of documents, including the SWPPP standard operation procedures and the enforcement response procedures.

Project Impact
The training and updated documents will help the City ensure they are successfully managing stormwater at all levels, protecting important resources from pollution.

Stormwater Management, MS4 Permit Compliance, Stakeholder Engagement, Training