I .
Illicit and Allowable Discharges
The City of Arlington has listed all allowed and prohibited discharges in its Stormwater Pollution Control Ordinance ( SWPCO ). The SWPCO was formally adopted by City Council on December 17 , 1996 , with the most recent amendments in December 2021 . The code describes stormwater violations and the associated enforcement actions . The recently updated SWPCO includes changes found in the state regulations ( the MSGP and CGP , respectively ) that outline prohibited and allowable discharges as well as development regulations .
II .
Detection and Elimination of Illicit Discharges During the permit year , the following IDDE activities were performed :
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623 |
Dry Weather Field Verification ( 1 with flow ) |
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371 |
Monthly Inner-City Creek Screenings |
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3,581 |
Investigations , inspections , and / or spill responses ( includes citizen complaints , SSOs , hazardous |
response ; construction and industrial inspections ) |
o |
100 citizen complaints |
o |
54 industrial inspections |
o |
732 hazardous event responses ( Fire Department ) |
o |
104 hazardous event responses / investigations ( Environmental Management ) |
o |
2,231 construction inspections |
o |
55 sanitary sewer overflow responses ( Environmental Management ) |
o |
305 Automotive Related Businesses ( ARB ) Inspections ( Environmental Management ) |
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177 |
Corrective actions issued ( includes NOV and Stop Work Orders ) |
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44 |
Criminal / Civil citations issued |
COA policy is to assign the responsible party a specified time frame to correct the illicit discharge . The time frame for both residents and industrial facilities is no more than 30 days and is determined at the discretion of the Environmental Specialist . Justification is required for any time extensions .
The SWMP includes a list of techniques used for detecting illicit discharges . These techniques include dry weather sampling , monthly routine sampling , complaint investigations , and inspections . Enforcement actions associated with these activities are also outlined in the SWMP .
III .
Overflows and Infiltration
The City of Arlington Water Utilities Department ( WUD ) responds to sanitary sewer overflows and uses a GIS system to track and manage data on stoppages that caused the overflows . Quarterly maps are generated with location , cause , frequency , and type of stoppage . This system is used to identify problems that contribute to sanitary sewer overflows and to issue work orders for correcting the problems .
When a sanitary sewer overflow occurs , the WUD crew checks the public sewer line to determine if the problem is in the public system or in the private sewer service . If the overflow is caused by a problem in a private service , the WUD crew notifies an Environmental Specialist in the Environmental Management Group . The Environmental Specialist initiates enforcement action that requires the responsible party to stop the overflow and remove any sewage that entered the MS4 . If the overflow is due to a problem in the public sewer , the WUD crew corrects the problem , removes any sewage that entered the MS4 , and reports the overflow to the city ’ s Stormwater Management Division , TCEQ or EPA , as appropriate .
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