The Salisbury Township Environmental Advisory Council held a working session June 20 to update its role in meeting requirements enforced by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection concerning stormwater pollution.

Salisbury Township MS4 Coordinator, Building Code Enforcement Officer, Assistant Zoning Officer and Building Inspector Sandy Nicolo chaired the meeting.

Nicolo must meet an Aug. 4 deadline to file information with the DEP for renewal of the township’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which expires Feb. 28, 2019.

Nicolo also has a Sept. 30 deadline to submit a progress report on the township’s Pollutant Reduction Plan, for which a public hearing is to be held 7 p.m. June 28, prior to the second monthly board of commissioners’ meeting in the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.

Nicolo handed out a 10-page outline of the stormwater management program. EAC members are each helping to fulfill goals of the program.

Attending the June 20 EAC meeting was Brian Hillard, a member of the City of Bethlehem EAC and technical specialist, Sustainable Energy Fund, which has an office in Schnecksville, North Whitehall Township.

Hillard advised the township EAC panel on setting up a chart to provide a checklist for fulling the goals.

MS4 stands for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System. The “M” stands for “Municipal.” The numeral “4” represents the four “S” first letters of each word in Separate Storm Sewer System.

The township EAC is tasked with implementing the first two goals of the MS4 Stormwater Management Program Protocol, which requires Minimum Control Measures.

Municipalities must fulfill six MCMs: 1. Public Education and Outreach, 2. Public Participation and Involvement, 3. Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination, 4. Construction Site Runoff Control, 5. Post-Construction Stormwater Management, and 6. Pollution Prevention for Municipal Operations and Maintenance.

Nicolo is in charge of all six MCMs, but mainly Numbers 3 through 6.

The township must meet the PRP mandate to receive renewal of its NPDES permit, which expires Feb. 28, 2019. The township must submit the PRP for DEP approval for the permit to be renewed.

The deadline for implementing the PRP, dating from granting a new NPDES permit, is 2023.

It’s expected the PRP will cost the township $1.2 million during the five-year period, 2019-2023.

“The numbers that I highlighted I think can be met,” Nicolo said of the outline distributed to the township EAC.

“We do have a written plan. What we must do is match that up with what we’ve planned to do and what we’ve done,” Nicolo said.

EAC Chair Kreg Ulery said a lot of the information could be obtained from EAC meeting notes. “We need to have someone go through the meetings notes,” Ulery said.

“We need to document that,” Nicolo agreed.

“It’s not an issue of what did or didn’t get done, it’s a matter of documenting it,” Ulery said.

The EAC meeting notes to be reviewed are from Feb. 1, 2017, through Sept. 30.

“As we do something, we can add it in,” Ulery said. “It’s a living document. We can add to it monthly.”

The EAC next meets 7 p.m. July 18.

The DEP is requiring Salisbury to reduce its existing sediment load by 10 percent, or 198,354.61 pounds, i.e., about 200,000 pounds, per year.

The goal of the PRP is to reduce debris, soil, cinders, sedimentation and the like from entering the township’s stormwater system and flowing into rivers, creeks and ponds in the township.

The major source of groundwater and surface contamination is said to be nonpoint source pollution.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Administration website, “NPS pollution is caused by rainfall or snowmelt moving over and through the ground. As the runoff moves, it picks up and carries away natural and human-made pollutants, finally depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and groundwaters.”