Stormwater Management Program

Stormwater is a vital component of our community, as it has a direct effect on our water quality and our capacity to avoid flooding during heavy rainstorms. The stormwater collection system includes all publicly maintained pipes, culverts, catch basins, channels, ditches, ponds, wetlands and related waterways.

Linn County has obtained a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) MS4 Phase II Stormwater Permit through the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

The County has developed, implemented and will enforce a Stormwater Management Program (SWMP) designed to reduce pollutants from the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) to the maximum extent practicable, to protect water quality and to satisfy the appropriate water quality requirement of the Clean Water Act (CWA).

A municipal separate storm sewer system is a collection of structures, including retention basins, ditches, roadside inlets and underground pipes which are under the jurisdiction of a local government, designed to gather stormwater and discharge it, without treatment, into local streams and rivers. It's called a separate system because it's not connected to the sanitary sewer system which drains waste water from inside a home to a sewage treatment facility or a private septic system.

The Linn County Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Area, (MS4) area, is the stormwater management area of land under Linn County jurisdiction, within the limits of the city urban growth boundary, but outside of the city limits for the cities of Millersburg, Albany and Tangent.

The Linn County Stormwater Management Program is designed to reduce pollutants from public and private development and/or construction activities within the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) area.

The County has developed the following Programs to comply with the Clean Water Act and the NPDES MS4 and the NPDES 1200-CA Permits:

STORMWATER MANAGEMENT

EROSION AND SEDIMENT CONTROL

ILLICIT DISCHARGE DETECTION AND ELIMINATION

TOTAL MAXIMUM DAILY LOADS (TMDL)

COUNTY CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMP's)

Stormwater Management Contacts:

Linn County Road Department

Daineal Malone, P.E.

County Engineer

3010 Ferry Street, S.W.

Albany, Oregon 97322