Stormwater the final frontier: Exploratory study of state-level implementation of the phase II municipal stormwater program

ABSTRACT The importance of water to support all aspects of human and non-human life has led to debates over the quality of water in the United States and continues to be a salient political issue. Stormwater runoff specifically continues to be a primary source of water pollution in the US posing risks to human health and ecosystems which is further exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. Growing concerns over water quality due to stormwater runoff as well as mixed results on the effectiveness of the stormwater permitting program is the basis for this research. The purpose of this articles is to gain a better understanding of how the municipal stormwater program operates by examining phase II of the program. Through an exploratory case study this article seeks to understand how states develop and implement their municipal stormwater programs. Findings from this study illustrate several important lessons including that how stormwater regulations are written allows for discretion across states in how state-wide general permits are written and implemented. Second, that permits are becoming increasingly prescriptive; and third, numerous environmental and contextual factors impact how states design and implement their programs.