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Stormwater Management


Stormwater Management Coordinator
Bob Tome

What is Stormwater runoff?
Stormwater runoff is unfiltered water that reaches streams, lakes, sounds, and oceans by means of flowing
across impervious surfaces. These surfaces include roads, parking lots, driveways, and roofs.

How water recycles itself
The water cycle is the process by which water is recycled. To many people, recycling seems like a fairly new
concept. Actually, water has been recycling itself for thousands of years. This natural water recycling system is
highly sophisticated and successful.

An ideal water cycle:

    • rain falls on the earth, it follows one of four paths:
    • It soaks into porous ground surfaces and becomes part of the groundwater, which feeds streams and wetlands and supplies much of our drinking water;
    • It remains in lakes or topsoil and eventually evaporates;
    • It is absorbed by vegetation and then transpires (evaporates from the plant tissues); or
    • It forms streams and rivers that eventually empty to the Gulf of Mexico

 

What is storm water management?
Stormwater management is management of the pollution in drainage - whether it's from a flood or from hosing it off your driveway
and the rainwater picking it up and floating it eventually to our rivers, streams and oceans it is part of the Clean Water Act.

What is the Federal Clean Water Act?
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the cornerstone of surface water quality protection in the United States. (The Act does not deal directly with ground water nor with water quantity issues.) The statute employs a variety of regulatory and non regulatory tools to sharply reduce direct pollutant discharges into waterways, finance municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and manage polluted runoff. These tools are employed to achieve the broader goal of restoring and maintaining the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters so that they can support "the protection and propagation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife and recreation
in and on the water.".........read more


Leon Valley Storm Water Program and Fees to be Added to Water Bills
 The Leon Valley City Council adopted a storm water program which will allow the City to implement activities to comply with the Clean Water Act.  All municipalities must undertake this effort to prevent pollution from entering the State's waters by way of storm water drains, creeks and rivers.  Storm water programs are unfunded mandates from the Federal and State level, with which the
City of Leon Valley must comply.

For purposes of determining the Storm Water Management Fee, all properties in the City are classified into
one of the following classes:

(a)       Residential property,

(b)       Commercial property,

(c)        Multifamily property, or

(d)       Public Use property.

 

The Fee is based on:

(a)       The property land area in square feet,

(b)       The classification of the property, and

(c)        The cost of implementing, operating and maintaining a storm water management program.

Benefitted properties will be assessed a fee based on square footage of real property as follows:

Residential               Area   (Square Feet)                                   Monthly Rate

Tier I                           0 to 4,999                                                        $  2.78

Tier II                          4,999 or more                                                   $  3.68

Multifamily:

Tier I                           0-21,999                                                          $  6.19

Tier II                          22,000 to 43,999                                              $ 19.37

Tier III                         44,000 to 131,999                                             $ 58.73

Tier IV                         132,000 or more                                               $279.49

Commercial:

Tier I                           0-21,999                                                         $ 15.85

Tier II                          22,000 to 43,999                                             $ 43.35

Tier III                         44,000 to 86,999                                             $ 77.70

Tier IV                         87,000 to 131,999                                          $133.91

Tier V                          132,000 or more                                            $295.87

Public:

Tier I                           0-21,999                                                        $ 15.70

Tier II                          22,000 to 43,999                                            $ 42.94

Tier III                         44,000 to 86,999                                            $ 77.56

Tier IV                         87,000 or more                                              $131.12

Property owned by the Federal Government, State of Texas, Bexar County and the City of Leon Valley will be exempt from this charge.  Activities are currently underway to finalize the list properties for the purpose of billing
for storm water services. 

NOTE:  Staff anticipates that the water bills for both Leon Valley water system and for Leon Valley properties that are on the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) will include a storm water fee in December 2009.

The full text of the Stormwater Management program for the City of Leon Valley can be found under Ordinance No. 09-003, approved by the City Council in January 2009.  That ordinance can be viewed on the City's website at:  http://www.leonvalleytexas.gov/Ordinances/ORD%20NO%2009-003_001.pdf   Please note that it may take a couple of minutes to download the pdf file.

For additional information, please contact the Leon Valley Public Works Department at (210) 681-1232 during normal business
hours. 

Tips for around the house

What you can do

If you burn fuel to heat your home, use a car, truck, bus, boat, train, airplane, or buy products transported by any of these, you contribute to non-point pollution. Although one person's contribution to non-point pollution may seem insignificant, the combined effects of all Leon Valley residents greatly influences water quality and quantity in our lakes, streams, wetlands. We must work together to control non-point pollution and protect our valuable resources.

The following handy tips will help us reduce our pollution of storm water. With your help, we can work to make stormwater runoff cleaner, which in turn, makes Leon Valley a better place to live.

Sidewalks and driveways

Streets and driveways are sources of water pollution. Oil leaking from cars is a major cause of water pollution. Spilled
or leaked antifreeze kills fish when it reaches streams. Remember, most of the water from your driveway and sidewalk flows directly into streams without treatment.

Keep suds out of the storm drains.

Use low-phosphate soaps when you wash your car. Wash your car on the lawn rather than the driveway. Do not dump detergents or cleaning compounds into local waterways. Consider washing your car at a carwash, which disposes of
the wash water properly.

Sweep walkways and driveways rather than hosing debris into storm drains.

Tips for lawn and garden

Fertilize wisely and use pesticides only when necessary. Pesticides can be toxic to fish and can contaminate drinking water. Chemical and organic fertilizers both can cause excessive plant growth in water. When these plants die, they
rob the water of oxygen and this can kill fish.

Compost your yard wastes. Keep grass clippings out of ravines and waterways, where they will become unwanted fertilizer. Encourage insect-eating birds and "friendly" insects like ladybugs and lace-wings. Attract birds by providing
tree cover and food during winter.

Never spray pesticides or fertilizers near ditches, lakes, or bays. Spray on cool, windless days.

Dispose of lawn and garden chemicals carefully. Follow instructions on the container. Never dump them down the drains, in the gutter or near water. They can "upset" the sewage treatment plant. If you have unused pesticides,
please contact the Leon Valley Public Works Department , 681-1232 for instructions on proper disposal.

Gardening for Clean Water
Whether your garden is two feet or two miles from the nearest stream, lake, it affects our water quality.

Garden with native plants. Native plants are especially adaptive to our dry summers. Native plants require little additional water after they become established. They are also more disease susceptible, requiring less fertilizers and pesticides.

Garden with drought-tolerant plants. There are hundreds of beautiful plants that thrive in the Southwest on little or no additional water, after they are established.

Seek non-chemical solutions to plant pest problems. Some chemicals may remain in the environment for many years, accumulating to cause damage to aquatic life. Additionally, chemicals may pose a health risk. For alternatives to
chemicals, contact the Public Works Department, 681-1232

Control runoff and erosion
Removing vegetation or covering the ground with pavement and buildings prevents water from soaking into the soil. During rainstorms, this water flows across the ground, picking up oil, pesticides, fertilizers, grit, or anything else that
will float, dissolve or be moved along. These pollutants are carried into surface and ground water.

Retain natural ground cover whenever possible.

Stabilize areas of bare soil with vegetation as soon as possible after grading.

Plant more trees and shrubs. They capture and hold a lot of rain before it reaches the ground. Wherever possible, keep existing trees and bushes and plant more.

Avoid landscaping plastic. Large plastic sheets used to prevent erosion or weeds create as much runoff as paved
streets. Use burlap on hillsides and perforated landscaping fabrics on level areas.

Direct storm water to its' proper place. Roof drains, driveway drains, and yard drains connected to the sanitary sewer take up valuable capacity.

Direct the water over lawns or construct French drains (gravel-filled trenches) whenever possible.

Collect roof water with a rain barrel. Use collected water for the garden.

More tips

Clean up pet wastes. Runoff can carry wastes into lakes and streams. Either bury pet wastes or flush them down the toilet.

Drain hot tubs and swimming pools away from waterways and storm sewers. Chlorinated water is deadly to fish and aquatic life, and should be drained onto the ground or into domestic sewers.




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