Stormwater Discharge Ordinance

City Adopts Updated Stormwater Discharge Requirements

The City of Roanoke has strengthened its efforts for improving overall water quality throughout the Roanoke Valley with City Council’s recent adoption of an updated ordinance limiting the types of discharges permitted into the city’s storm sewer system.

While dumping materials into the storm sewer system already has been a prohibited activity, the updated ordinance –- adopted August 15, 2005, and effective September 1, 2005 –- better defines both those discharges into the city’s storm sewer system that are acceptable and what constitutes an illicit discharge to the storm sewer system. Additionally, penalties have been established for those who violate the stormwater discharge regulations. Fines of not more than $2,500 per violation per day and/or confinement in jail for not more than 12 months are possible.

The adoption of this ordinance was a requirement of the City of Roanoke’s Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which mandates that the city enact measures to improve the overall quality of stormwater discharged into the city’s creeks, streams, and river.

For additional information, please contact the Office of Environmental Services at 853-2425 or view a copy of the ordinance at www.roanokeva.gov.

This text came from a press release sent by the Office of Communications.