The Environmental Protection Agency has given Salisbury Township a clean bill of health concerning the township meeting requirements of the Clean Water Act.

A letter received by Salisbury Township Director of Public Works John Andreas states, in part:, "Based upon EPA's review, Salisbury Township has provided sufficient information and has met the conditions of the administrative order and Section 308 Requirement for Information of the Clean Water Act that was issued on May 29, 2014."

A copy of the letter, requested from and provided to Salisbury Press by Salisbury Township Manager Randy Soriano, was stamped as having been received April 14.

Soriano announced receipt of the EPA letter and read it at the April 23 Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners meeting.

"We also got comments from DEP," Soriano said.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is tasked with enforcing the EPA order.

Fulfilling the EPA administrative order has been a topic of discussion for nearly one year at township Board of Commissioners and Salisbury Township Environmental Advisory Council meetings and workshops.

Not meeting the EPA order could have resulted in the township being fined $35,000 per day.

"We're pleased with this," Soriano told commissioners and township administrators at the April 23 meeting. "That was the good news over the week," he added.

"Perhaps we didn't get information to the state," Soriano mused.

Soriano documented township efforts to meet the EPA-DEP requirements. Municipalities must do so to have a permit renewed for Discharges of Stormwater from Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems.

"That was enough to satisfy the EPA and DEP," Soriano said of the information the township provided.

According to the May 29, 2014, EPA Region III letter, also requested from and provided to Salisbury Press by Soriano, Salisbury received a permit, known as a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit in 2003. It expired in 2008 and was extended since then.

The DEP issued a guidance document called the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Stormwater Management Program Protocol in 2002.

Municipalities are required to fulfill six minimum control measures: public education; public participation; illicit discharge detection and elimination; construction site runoff control; post-construction stormwater management pollution prevention for municipal operations and maintenance.

The Salisbury Township Environmental Advisory Council is tasked to fulfill MCM public education and public participation.

Keystone Consulting Engineers, Inc., the township engineering consultant firm, is tasked to take care of the remaining control measures.

Later during in the April 23 meeting, township Commissioner Joann Ackerman asked Soriano about the progress on Keystone Consulting Engineers, Inc., setting up an MS4 required computerized reporting system for the township.

Commissioners, by consensus at the March 26 township meeting workshop, agreed David J. Tettemer of Keystone Consulting Engineers, Inc., is to be in charge of designated MCM control measures at a cost of $25,000 for sixth months.

"Now we have until 2017," Soriano said. Township officials had been assuming the deadline was April 1.

On a motion by Commissioner Vice President Debra Brinton and seconded by Commissioner President James A. Brown, commissioners voted 4-0, with one commissioner absent April 23, to formalize the agreement with Keystone.

The $25,000 cost includes $17,500 for Keystone to map the township's stormwater sewer system and $7,500 for Keystone to oversee the project for six months.

An MS4 is composed of drainage systems, including streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels and storm pipes owned by a municipality.

As part of the federal Clean Water Act, a municipality is required to have an MS4 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit to cover stormwater discharge and to maintain compliance with the permit.

Salisbury, along with other Lehigh Valley municipalities, received notice to provide EPA with evidence of MS4 compliance.