Do you know what New Hartford has in common with Clayville, Utica, Kirkland, Deerfield, Westmoreland and a dozen other communities in our area? They're all MS4s. Bet you weren't expecting that answer! So, what's an MS4? An MS4 is a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System. It's a publicly owned storm sewer system that conveys stormwater to a creek or a lake or a wetland, rather than a sewage treatment plant. That's right…the water that lands on the streets and the parking lots in our area flows into a series of drains called catch basins or storm grates. All of that water eventually finds its way, untreated, into tributaries of the Mohawk River including the Sauquoit Creek, the Oriskany Creek and Realls Creek. In order to protect the water quality of our streams, the MS4 communities in the Utica Urbanized Area had to develop Stormwater Management Plans. These state mandated plans include public education and outreach activities, erosion and sediment control ordinances, and storm system mapping. Want to help keep our streams clean? Avoid littering - garbage collects in the catch basins and can end up polluting your favorite fishing hole. Keep your car maintained - fluids that leak out of your car collect in parking lots and can be washed into the catch basins and carried to the creeks. Finally, don't dump anything like motor oil or dirt into the catch basins - remember the water in the catch basins is not filtered before it enters our creeks. For more information about the MS4 program, please contact Joseph Jerzak at 315-839-5678  or the Oneida County Soil and Water Conservation District at 736-3334. 

Take care of those catch basins! 

Here's a question…when you pick up the debris from your lawn, where do you put it? Do you put it at the curb waiting for the local public works officials to pick it up? Before you do, you may want to check to see if and when that pick up will happen. That's because if your leaves/sand/lawn debris are piled on top of a catch basin, flooding could result. Catch basins are the drains for storm sewer systems. If the drain is clogged, it won't work properly. That means that stormwater from a heavy rainfall might not be able to find its way into a drain and could cause flooding. So, if you keep those catch basins clear of debris, you may reduce flooding in your neighborhood. If you're going to put your lawn debris next to the curb, call the DPW first to find out about pick up options. 

Stormwater: Better Site Design Practices 

Better Site Design describes a series of innovative stormwater management practices. Many of these practices focus on the basic principles of stormwater management: reduction of impervious surfaces and protection of vegetation. Impervious surfaces include roads, driveways, rooftops, and parking lots. The more impervious surfaces we create, the more stormwater we have to deal with. Better Site Design calls for redesign of roads and cul-de-sacs and incorporation of porous pavement in parking lots. Another basic tenet of stormwater management and Better Site Design is protection of vegetation. When vegetation is removed from a site, stormwater runoff tends to increase. Vegetation helps to collect and treat stormwater to prevent flooding and pollution. Construction phasing can go a long way toward reducing stormwater runoff by simply protecting existing vegetation or by seeding areas that are temporarily idle. For more information about Better Site Design practices, please visit http://www.stormwatercenter.net/.