County runoff needs control, officials say

The Cape Girardeau County Commission told a stormwater committee Thursday morning that it was in favor of regulating stormwater runoff within the county.

Currently, there are no local regulatory measures being taken regarding stormwater. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has regulations in place, but some local officials say DNR does not have enough resources to enforce the regulations.

It has not yet been determined how restrictive the local ordinance might be, but rules will be based mostly on what is already in place by the state. The key, Cape Girardeau County stormwater committee members said, is to have someone locally available to issue permits, perform inspections and hand out fines to those who violate the rules.

Much of the stormwater problem, which is evident nationwide, stems from the increased area of hard surfaces such as concrete, asphalt and rooftops.

The water that would have otherwise soaked into the ground now runs off, eroding soil and causing flooding problems in the lower watershed.

The stormwater regulations would force developers to find a way to control the stormwater that they create through construction. It would also force builders to control the mud runoff from construction sites, which pollutes stream water and sometimes other people's property. Many towns, like Cape Girardeau and Jackson, have stormwater ordinances, but there currently is nothing either city can do about the stormwater that comes gushing down from outside the city limits.

Jackson and Cape Girardeau, both of which are represented on the Cape Girardeau County stormwater committee, are two of several local agencies interested in stormwater control.

The committee is headed by Stan Murray of the National Resources Conservation Service, a division of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Murray said the committee was started in 1999, but was dormant for a couple of years. It started meeting again recently after the Missouri Legislature passed a bill that would allow most counties, including Cape Girardeau County, to pass certain ordinances.

Murray and five committee members, including Jackson city engineer Dan Triller and Cape Girardeau city development services coordinator Bill Vaughn, attended Thursday's commission meeting.

Creating a new job

The main question the committee had for the commission was whether the commission would create a stormwater position in the county. The stormwater inspector would issue stormwater permits to developers and inspect sites throughout the county.

The committee members agreed that there is no use in coming up with stormwater regulations if there is no one willing to enforce them.

The commission hedged on making a decision regarding a part-time or full-time position, but all three commissioners said they would be interested in entertaining that idea. They all said they would need more information before creating a position.

"We have been a proponent of this from the start," said Gerald Jones, who has long been frustrated about the county's lack of authority on such issues, and was a key figure in getting the state legislation passed this spring.

Jones said he was afraid that a full-time stormwater inspector wouldn't have enough workload to earn a full-time salary. He mentioned making the position part-time, possibly pulling someone else from another position, training them to do the job and split time between two departments.

Whatever the case may be, Vaughn and Triller especially want to see more control at the local level.

Cape Girardeau, which lies in the Cape LaCroix watershed, has spent $45 million on a massive concrete stormwater system for the city.

Cape Girardeau's flooding problem intensified largely, Vaughn said, because there were no stormwater regulations. Perhaps much of the $50 million worth of damage that occurred in the 1986 flood could have been prevented had there been local stormwater controls in place.

Vaughn said he was encouraged by the meeting with the commission's interest.

So far, Jackson, which lies in the Hubble Creek watershed, hasn't seen the flooding problems that Cape Girardeau has seen.

But Triller said a yearly investment for a part-time or full-time employee would save taxpayers "hundreds of thousands of dollars" that would have to be spent on flood control in the long run.

While the cities look at flooding, while Murray is interested in erosion control and the loss of farmland, while the Department of Conservation is concerned about the affects runoff has on the fish in the streams, Martha Vandivort is worried about water quality.

Vandivort, a retired county employee, is the water quality chairwoman for the Women League of Voters state board.

"Stormwater control is very important to protecting the quality of water," she said. "When soil and water products get washed away in a storm, it gets into the lakes and rivers and soaks into the ground also."

Murray said the committee will meet again some time in the last two weeks of October.

Jones asked the committee to try to get back with the county soon, as the county is in the process of putting together next year's budget.

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635