DEP Stormwater Engineering "Quarterly" Newsletter (No. 2) - March 2024

What is New with the Stormwater Engineering Team?

If you don’t already know, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Bureau of Land Resources has an engineering unit specialized in stormwater management and implementation of DEP’s Stormwater Management Rules (Chapter 500). We call this unit the Stormwater Engineering Team (SET). Currently, SET has five engineers (Kris Bears, Kerem Gungor, Ken Libbey, Cody Obropta, and Ahmed Shkara) led by Kerem Gungor. Dave Waddell from the Bureau of Water Quality is involved with SET activities as an honorary member of the team.

Maine Construction General Permit: Public Comment Period

An updated Maine Construction General Permit is now available for public comment on the Department’s Website. Written comments may be submitted by mail, e-mail or fax to the contact person before the end of the comment period. To ensure the comments are considered, they must include your name and the organization you represent, if any.

More information can be found at the following link: Opportunity for Comment, Maine DEP

5-Year Recertification Update

Permits issued in 2009, 2014, and 2019 are up for recertification this year. The team is currently working to issue reminder letters to all permit holders up for recertification by the end of this month. A quick reminder: the five-year recertification form was updated in May 2023. The updated form and additional information about the 5-year recertification program can be found on the department’s website at the following link: https://www.maine.gov/dep/land/stormwater/stormwaterbmps/five-year-recertification.html

Don't Let These Mistakes Hold Up Your Stormwater Permit Approval!

As you’re aware, applicants are eager to move through the permitting process as quickly as possible. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that all permit applications are complete and accurate to avoid any delays in the approval process. Unfortunately, even minor errors in the application can lead to significant holdups and may even result in the application being returned. In this newsletter section, we will share some of the most common mistakes that we see in stormwater permit applications and provide tips on how to avoid them. By avoiding these common errors, you can help ensure that your permit application is processed quickly and efficiently, allowing you to move forward with your project without unnecessary delays.

Matchmaker: Hydrocad Reports and Detail Sheets

Accurate stormwater modeling is an important part of the engineering design process for site development. The Stormwater Engineering Team frequently sees projects with a detail sheet showing outlet invert elevations and opening sizes that differ from the post-development Hydrocad model. On occasion, outlets are missing entirely from either the detail sheet or the Hydrocad report. It is important to ensure the Hydrocad report, site plans, and detail sheets are consistently displaying the same information.

Poor Woods? There’s No Such Thing!

These are the hydrologic condition descriptions for the woods land cover type according to Technical Release 55 (Urban Hydrology for Small Watersheds):

Organized grazing and/or burning of woods in Maine is an incredibly uncommon practice. Therefore, woods should always be modeled with a hydrologic condition rating of good.

Additionally, the woods – grass combination cover type is meant to refer to orchards and tree farms. It is not intended for modeling areas that have some woods cover and some grass cover. Whenever possible, cover types should be divided and classified separately.

Testing, 1 – 2, Testing

Stormwater test pits are a requirement for all proposed stormwater management practices. Even if an impermeable liner is proposed, test pits are still necessary. Chapter 500 reads as follows:

The purpose of test pits is to identify the HSG (if that’s applicable to the BMP), identify seasonal high water, identify ledge, and verify the soils aren’t hydric/wetland soils that were missed (if that’s applicable to the BMP). Knowing the hydrologic soil group is necessary for buffers and for infiltration or determining if lining is necessary. Seasonal high water table is also necessary for infiltration systems, but it’s important for all other BMPs that require excavation because we need to make sure the contractor will follow a dewatering plan that won’t just dump sediment-laden water improperly. It is important to identify the potential existence of ledge because it may require a blasting plan or a complete change to the location of the BMP. Hydric/wetland soil identification is important because buffers cannot be on wetland soils.

Chapter 500 Rulemaking: Stakeholder Engagement Update

Chapter 500 Rulemaking is underway! There have been three Steering Committee Meetings to-date and one Technical Committee Meeting that occurred earlier this week on Monday, March 18^th.

More information will be released about upcoming meeting schedules as it becomes available.

If you or your organization has questions or feedback on matters pertaining to Ch. 500, please send them to Chapter500.DEP@maine.gov.

Proprietary Stormwater Measure Approval Letters

The department has not issued any new proprietary stormwater measure approval letters since the last “Quarterly” Newsletter was released in June 2023. Several measures are currently being reviewed for approval.

Previously issued letters can be found at the following link: https://www.maine.gov/dep/land/stormwater/stormwaterbmps/index.html

Questions and Comments about the Newsletter? Contact Cody Obropta (Newsletter Editor)