Stormwater staff: TDEC accepts 2022–23 annual MS4 report; department highlights training and outreach

Speaker 3, identified in the transcript as the stormwater presenter, told the meeting the department’s consolidated annual report for 2022 and 2023 was accepted by TDEC and that staff will need to add monitoring elements to future reports. Speaker 3 said, “TDEC had determined that we successfully developed and implemented MCDM 3 for illicit discharge,” and confirmed the accepted submittals cover 2022 and 2023.

The presenter described a quarter dominated by staff training and operational shifts: Ed, Jacob and Christian attended a three-week CDL school and “all 3 had passed and now have 3 new CDL drivers in stormwater,” which staff said improves their ability to deploy crews and equipment without external scheduling delays. Speaker 3 added that the department used a new cement mixer successfully on a local inlet repair and reported several rapid-response maintenance actions at private commercial sites to address ponding and track-out.

Outreach was also prominent. Speaker 3 said the department ran public events including a well-attended "Trailer Treats" event and that the public-services parade float earned second place; a tree-giveaway is scheduled for March 18 and staff plan to pair it with other spring events. The presenter emphasized continuing public-outreach priorities: “Only rain down the drain,” and encouraged residents to use free leaf bags when appropriate.

Why it matters: acceptance of the MS4 annual reports by TDEC means the city’s stormwater program met key permit submittal requirements for the covered years, but staff said additional monitoring components in the permit will require further work in next year’s reporting. The training and added CDL capacity were presented as operational improvements likely to shorten response times for maintenance and capital-work support.

The department said it will continue weekly and monthly inspections for known outfalls and hotspots and will copy stakeholders on follow-up emails about drainage calculations and repairs. No formal votes were taken on program changes during the report; staff asked the council to note the operational improvements and schedule the next quarterly update in March.