Water Quality & Development
Currently, sediment contamination is considered to be the number one water quality issue in Tennessee's rivers and streams. Consequently, it has never been more important from a Federal, State, and Local regulatory perspective to halt this excessive loss of sediment from development sites. In fact, here in Nashville, like most large cities, an NPDES permit has been issued by the state environmental regulatory body (Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation - TDEC) making Nashville responsible, by law, for administering a development oversight program that minimizes the negative impacts of development on water quality. However, despite the efforts of the MWS Stormwater NPDES program, some of Nashville's streams are still on TDEC's 303(d) listed stream index and are "not be meeting their designated uses" due to in-stream sediment levels. Like EPA & TDEC, MWS is committed to insuring that every stream in Nashville meets it’s designated use classification making it “fishable, swimmable and environmentally safe”. In order to accomplish this, MWS has devoted several new inspectors and vast amounts of time and effort in improving development oversight/inspection procedures. The first step was taken back on June 1, 2002, when it became mandatory for every development site seeking a grading permit to attain the services of a certified erosion prevention and sediment control (EPSC) professional and to attend a grading pre-construction meeting before any land disturbance activities occurred on site. In a constantly evolving city, where development is a fact of life, the NPDES program continually strives to “keep sediment on site” and maintain our streams and the water quality within them as the precious natural resources they are.