City of Albany, CA
Home MenuStormwater Management and Regulations
Albany’s unique blend of waterways and urbanization allow our community to enjoy a natural feature that flows through the City. Unfortunately, these waterways can be negatively impacted by urbanization. Urban runoff is water that becomes polluted when it picks up items such as litter, leaves, pesticides, motor oil, and pet waste that flushes into storm drains and are then discharged into the San Francisco Bay.
The new Municipal Regional National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Stormwater Permit (also known as the MRP), issued December 1, 2009 by the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board, mandates 70+ municipalities in the Bay Area, including the City of Albany, to implement a variety of stormwater pollution prevention activities.
Provision C3 of the MRP requires permittees to place conditions on development projects to incorporate site design measures, source controls, treatment measures, and on larger projects, flow duration controls (FDCs). Requirements for new development and re-development projects fall into several categories, defined in section C.3 of the Municipal Regional Permit (9.3 MB). While many engineering aspects of C3 requirements are unchanged from previous permits, there are differences in site planning approaches and potential exemption status of proposed projects.
Click here to determine the category of a development project and see what requiremens apply.
Provision C10 of the MRP requires permittess to the reduce the trash load entering storm drain systems and local waterways. Permittees must implement an assortment of control measures and other actions to demonstrate compliance with this provision of the MRP. For more information of the Trash Load Reduction provsion of the MRP and what the City is doing to meet the requirement, please visit Litter Reduction in Local Waterways.
In addition to development project stormwater requirements and trash load reduction, the City’s Clean Water/Urban Runoff Program also includes public outreach, maintenance, street sweeping, inspections, and enforcement all geared at minimizing the amount of pollution entering our local waterways.