Why is a Storm Water Management Utility Needed?
In the past, storm sewer system planning focused on flood control, utilizing sound practices of sewer system sizing, flood routing, and storm water detention. The growing pressures of urbanization and increased federal regulation have dictated that modern storm water system management must take a total water resources management point of view, considering not only the volume of storm runoff, but also pollution prevention. Most people think storm water runoff is a relatively harmless, natural occurrence, and do not realize it has the potential to pollute one of our most precious natural resources, our lakes and streams. Storm water frequently has high levels of sediment, litter, phosphorus, nitrogen, heavy metals, oil, grease, and organic materials. The City of Bloomington has chosen to take a socially responsible, proactive approach to systematically manage the storm water discharged by our community. By managing runoff and preventing the pollutants from entering the environment, we ar
