Salisbury Township officials have approved a memorandum of understanding between the township and the Lehigh County Conservation District in order to comply with MS4 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits.

MS4 refers to catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels, pipes, tunnels or storm drains discharging into waters.

Township MS4 compliance will be discussed at a workshop at the 7 p.m. Aug. 28 meeting in the Salisbury Township Municipal Building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.

Salisbury Township, along with other Lehigh Valley municipalities, received notice June 25 of a 30-day deadline to provide EPA with evidence of compliance.

The MS4 order is to prevent lawn pesticides, animal manure, vehicle used oil and fluids, swimming pool chlorine, household detergents and the like from getting into stormwater systems and streams and rivers in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, which includes Lehigh and Delaware valleys.

The LCCD is revising language in the memorandum to cover "minimum control measure requirements that municipalities are tasked with meeting to maintain compliance with their MS4 NPDES Permits," stated a July 7 letter from LCCD Resource Conservationist Kevin Frederick to Salisbury Township Manager Randy Soriano.

"Upon completion of the revised MOU, the district will be contacting you to schedule a meeting to discuss and format the MOU to fit the needs of your municipality," the letter states.

Salisbury commissioners voted unanimously at the July 10 township meeting to authorize the memorandum of understanding agreement.

Commissioner Robert Martucci, Jr. made the motion to vote. Commissioner Joanne Ackerman seconded.

"We need to get some guidelines," Soriano said of the proposed meeting with the LCCD.

Soriano said township water and sewer bills would include information for residents, asking them to not wash cars in driveways and to not use fertilizer.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency could level a $35,000 per day fine against municipalities for noncompliance.

EPA recommended ed- ucation materials and strategies include: brochures, fact sheets, recreation guides, websites, volunteer citizen educators, event participation, school student education programs, storm drain stenciling, tributary signs and homeowner product rebates.

The MS4 issue was discussed at the July 16 Salisbury Township Environmental Advisory Council meeting.

Ten municipalities in Lehigh County and 20 in Northampton County are among 85 in north central and northeast Pennsylvania receiving the EPA order.

The NPDES permit program authorized by the Clean Water Act controls water pollution by regulating point sources discharging pollutants into waters of the United States. Point sources are conveyances such as pipes or man-made ditches.

The objective of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, commonly referred to as the Clean Water Act passed by the United States Congress in 1972, is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nation's waters by preventing point and nonpoint pollution sources, providing assistance to publicly-owned treatment works for the improvement of wastewater treatment and maintaining the integrity of wetlands.