Surface Water Quality

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services (CMSWS) protects and improves the surface water quality of more than 3,000 miles of streams and numerous acres of lakes, ponds and wetlands. Unfortunately, many of these surface waters have degraded water quality, habitat and aquatic life largely due to the impacts of historical stormwater management practices and urbanization. The majority of streams in Charlotte-Mecklenburg are designated by the state as “impaired”, meaning that they are not clean enough to support swimming, fishing, or diverse and abundant aquatic life.

CMSWS implements some of the most innovative surface water quality management programs in North Carolina, some of which have been awarded national recognition. All of them are focused on the goal of improving the quality and usability of our surface waters such as streams and lakes. Information about these programs is organized on this surface water quality tab as follows:

• Education and Outreach: Resources and outreach programs that educate the community about stormwater and surface water quality.
  
  
• Illegal Discharges: Programs that find, respond to, reduce and correct pollution sources for surface waters.
  
  
• Monitoring: Monitoring techniques, the quality of local stream and lakes, and swimming and fish advisories.
  
  
• Volunteer: Programs for residents to get involved in preventing stormwater pollution and improving streams and lakes.
  
  
• Watershed Improvement: Watershed planning, stream and wetland restoration, mitigation banking, and pollution control programs.

Surface Water Improvement and Management Program

Surface water quality is a core concern of all communities within our jurisdiction. In 1998, Mecklenburg County Board of County Commissioners issued a “Creek Use Policy” requiring drastic improvements to surface water quality throughout the County. This multi-phased program governs our approach to improving water quality and sets the standard for future land-use and development. Watch our video describing Mecklenburg County's Journey to Clean Water.

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permits

Many of these surface water quality programs are driven by NPDES Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) regulations. The Federal NPDES regulations are part of the 1972 Clean Water Act and are administered by the State of North Carolina.

NPDES MS4 regulations require the following public entities to obtain permits to discharge stormwater: City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, the Towns of Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Matthews, Mint Hill, Pineville, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Central Piedmont Community College. These entities are subject to these regulations because of population numbers and densities. The City of Charlotte is considered a Phase I permittee because it has over 100,000 residents within its jurisdiction. The rest of the above jurisdictions are Phase II permittees because they are within an urbanized area as defined by the U.S. Census. 

Requirements for Phase I and Phase II permittees are slightly different, but each applies for a permit that is issued by the state for a five-year term. This permit requires the permittees to develop a Storm Water Management Plan (SWMP) that outlines how the permittee(s) will implement the following six minimum measures to reduce stormwater pollution:  

Stormwater Pollution Prevention in Charlotte-Mecklenburg is encouraged through education and outreach efforts to teach residents about the surface water pollution control ordinances in the area.

Education and Outreach

Each year, pollution prevention education is provided to thousands of residents, K-12 students, businesses and municipal employees through presentations, mailings, contests, brochures, and one-on-one interactions with the use of our Educational Resources.

• Businesses
• Residents - Tips for Preventing Stormwater Pollution

Ordinances

Surface water pollution control ordinances prohibit the discharge of pollutants into the storm drainage system, streams, lakes, or other surface waters. Through the issuance of penalties and other enforcement mechanisms, the intention of these ordinances is to make generating pollution more expensive and burdensome than preventing it.

Violations of pollution ordinances can result in local fines of up to $10,000 per day, per event.

Local Surface Water Quality Pollution Ordinances:

• City of Charlotte(PDF, 175KB)
• Mecklenburg County(PDF, 11MB)
• Town of Davidson(PDF, 188KB)
• Town of Matthews(PDF, 237KB)

For more information contact:

Ryan Spidel
Mecklenburg County Environmental Supervisor
980.721.3762
Ryan.Spidel@mecknc.gov

Andrew DeCristofaro
City of Charlotte Water Quality Specialist
704.517.8771
Andrew.DeCristofaro@charlottenc.gov 

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services is a joint municipal/county stormwater utility that includes the City of Charlotte, the surrounding towns of Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Matthews, Mint Hill and Pineville and Mecklenburg County.

Illegal discharges are almost any pollutant that enters stormwater and drains into surface waters like streams, ponds and lakes. Illegal discharges are also called Illicit Discharges.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services has an Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination Program that finds, responds to, reduces and corrects pollution sources for surface waters throughout Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

A few common examples of pollution sources include:

Monitoring surface water quality is one of the best ways to protect streams and lakes. It helps identify problems, determine whether streams and lakes are improving or declining over time, and most importantly it helps protect quality of life and public health.

Each year, a wide range of surface water quality monitoring data is collected from streams and lakes throughout the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

• Almost 15,000 water samples are collected per year and over 20 different parameters are routinely screened.
• Automated samplers at 35 locations measure five parameters per hour, 24 hours a day. This equals approximately 1.5 million measurements a year.
• Fish communities are assessed at five locations.
• Macroinvertebrate communities are assessed at 34 locations.

For more information, visit our Quality of Streams and Lakes page.

Public involvement is an essential component of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services’ (CMSWS) Program. CMSWS recognizes that without public involvement and support, little progress can be made toward protecting and restoring water quality in our streams and lakes. We are thankful for the 4,000+ volunteers that participate every year in our programs.

There are many waterbodies throughout Charlotte and Mecklenburg County that are designated as "impaired" by the State of North Carolina because of degraded water quality and/or degraded habitat and aquatic life. This degradation has largely resulted from the impacts of historical stormwater management practices implemented prior to current surface water quality regulations and the impacts of urbanization.

We aim to protect and improve the water quality of streams and lakes, so they are no longer considered "impaired". This will require decades of programs that reduce erosion, restore natural features, and reduce polluted stormwater runoff.

Watersheds cannot be improved by stream restoration alone. Additional measures, practices, and policies that support the integration of Green Infrastructure (GI) throughout the community are also needed.

According to the EPA, "Green Infrastructure uses vegetation, soils, and other elements and practices to restore some of the natural processes required to manage water and create healthier urban environments."

GI generally refers to Stormwater Control Measures (SCMs), or structural Best Management Practices (BMPs), that store stormwater and/ or allow it to be absorbed into the ground. These measures reduce the volume and velocity of stormwater generated by impervious surfaces and allows pollutants to settle out or break down before they reach local streams and lakes. GI can be something as simple as preserving buffers along streams or planting trees throughout the community, or as complicated as designing and constructing wet ponds and rain gardens to reduce stormwater pollution from hundreds of acres of impervious cover (i.e., parking lots, buildings, houses).

While GI is primarily used to improve stormwater quality, GI's incorporation of natural elements can provide additional benefits for the community beyond stormwater management. GI can help improve air quality, provide habitat for wildlife, reduce the urban heat island effect, reduce energy usage required for heating and cooling, provide more urban-nature connections for aesthetic and psychological benefits to residents, and generally improve the quality of life.

Examples of GI that have been installed throughout the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County include:

• Bioretention (aka Rain Gardens)
• Wetlands
• Wet ponds
• Water Quality Buffers
• Trees
• Restoration of Floodplains

The benefits of GI are best realized when departments, agencies, and organizations work together to incorporate GI principles throughout their projects, policies, and programs.

Examples of City and/or County wide initiatives that support GI include policies such as Post Construction Stormwater Ordinances (PCSO), Mecklenburg County's Floodplain Ordinance, the Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) Ordinance that protects stream and lake buffers, and the City Council's 2011 goal to establish a 50% tree canopy by 2050. For more information about the city’s tree program, please visit our tree management site. For more information about the PCSOs, floodplain or buffer policies see Watershed Protection or for the specific ordinances themselves see Stormwater Regulations. 

For more information about GI practices that have been installed, please see Projects or scroll down to the Pilot Stormwater Control Measures Program information lower on this page. 

Green Infrastructure Questions?

Jordan Miller, PE
City of Charlotte Surface Water Quality & Environmental Permitting Program Manager
704.432.5571
Jordan.Miller@charlottenc.gov

Rusty Rozzelle
Mecklenburg County Water Quality Program Manager
980.314.3217
Rusty.Rozzelle@mecknc.gov

The Pilot Stormwater Control Measures (SCM) Program monitors SCMs on public and private property to evaluate their ability and cost effectiveness for removing stormwater pollution. This helps staff determine which SCMs are best for managing stormwater within the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County under different conditions and which performance standards should be included in local Post Construction Stormwater Ordinances. The monitoring and analysis results also help advance the science of stormwater treatment.

SCMs are structures used to remove pollution from stormwater and/or reduce the risks of flooding. They can be made of natural materials such as plants and soil (i.e., rain gardens and grassy swales), hard structures (i.e., detention basins, catch basin inserts) or a combination (i.e., a sand filter with forebay). SCMs remove pollutants in a variety of ways and their performance may vary based on soil type, land use, climate, and specific application.

The Pilot SCM Program evaluates SCMs based on the following parameters:

• Capital costs
• Operation and maintenance requirements and costs
• Pollutant removal efficiency
• Stormwater quantity control capabilities

While most SCM evaluations are located on public property, SCMs on private property and proprietary SCMs are also considered on a case-by-case basis as governed by the following guidance documents:

• Pilot SCM Program Procedures and Requirements(PDF, 332KB)

• Proprietary and Innovative SCM Testing and Approval Requirements(PDF, 128KB)

The following provides a final report for the SCMs that have been evaluated:

Wet Ponds

• Shade Valley(PDF, 658KB)

• Pierson(PDF, 377KB)

• LSC Hidden Valley North Tryon(PDF, 3MB)

Wetlands

• Edwards Branch(PDF, 458KB)

• Bruns Ave School(PDF, 536KB)

• LSC Westfield Brandywine(PDF, 3MB)

• LSC Hidden Valley Wellingford(PDF, 3MB)

Bioretention

• Hal Marshall(PDF, 819KB)

• Bruns Ave School(PDF, 3MB)
  

• Shops on Freedom Drive LID(PDF, 4MB)

Sand Filters

• Fire Station 39(PDF, 4MB)

Dry Detention

• Morehead Place(PDF, 428KB)

• University Place(PDF, 538KB)

Infiltration

• Wilmore Walk Pervious Concrete(PDF, 1MB)

Level Spreaders

• LSC Westfield(PDF, 444KB)

Proprietary Hydrodynamic SCMs

• Ashley Park FloGard(PDF, 4MB)

• CATS BMOF Crystal Stream(PDF, 367KB)

• CATS BMOF CDS Technologies(PDF, 379KB)

• CATS BMOF Baysaver(PDF, 377KB)

• CATS BMOF Downstream Defender(PDF, 363KB)

• CATS TMOC Stormceptor(PDF, 4MB)

• CDOT North Point Stormceptor(PDF, 4MB)

• CDOT North Point Storm Trooper(PDF, 4MB)

• Lions Gate Vortechnics(PDF, 4MB)

• Lions Gate Vort Sentry(PDF, 4MB)

• Lowes South Blvd Crystal Stream(PDF, 4MB)

• Lowes South Blvd Baysaver(PDF, 4MB)

Proprietary Filter SCMs

• Cherry Gardens StormTech(PDF, 4MB)

Pilot Stormwater Control Measures Program Questions?
Contact:

Steve Jadlocki
City of Charlotte Water Quality Administrator
704.336.4398
Steve.Jadlocki@charlottenc.gov