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About the Baldwin County Watershed Coalition
Why do we need regional
stormwater management?
In Baldwin County,
increases in population over the past ten years have driven an economic
boom resulting in the construction of new homes, roads and businesses.
This rapid conversion of land from natural to urban landscapes has
meant an increase in impervious or hard surfaces that cause rainwater
to runoff of our roofs, driveways, parking lots and sidewalks and into
our streams, rivers, lakes and bays.
Stormwater runoff threatens
water bodies in many ways. As land use in Baldwin County becomes
increasingly urban, increases in the volume and velocity of stormwater
runoff causes streambank erosion. Stormwater runoff is also the primary
vehicle for transporting sediments, excess nutrients, bacteria and
other pathogens, debris, and automotive and household hazardous wastes
into Baldwin County streams, rivers, and bays untreated.
Baldwin County’s
estuaries (where fresh water meets salt water) provide the economic and
ecological engines that power much of Alabama’s economies.
If not managed to reduce its velocity and pollutants, stormwater runoff
will deteriorate the quality of water in our waterways, negatively
impacting our economy, our coastal ecosystem, and most importantly our
quality of life.
Throughout Baldwin County,
which receives an average of 66 inches of rain annually, increases in
stormwater runoff exceed existing infrastructure capacities, causing
more frequent episodes of flooding, sedimentation, debris polluted
waters, habitat destruction and decreasing aesthetics and property
values. Local governments face increased regulatory pressure and
greater demands on already limited public works budgets. Seeking
a collaborative solution to an environmental challenge that does not
follow geopolitical lines, Baldwin County and all fourteen of its
municipalities have come together to establish a mechanism for managing
stormwater runoff on a regional, or watershed scale.
What is the BCWC?
The Baldwin County Watershed Coalition (BCWC) is the result of this
collaboration, which includes municipal and county representatives
comprised of both staff and elected officials, representatives of
local environmental organizations, state legislators, and
representatives of local business and development interests. The
mission of the BCWC is to act as a voluntary, non-regulatory
association of local interests that will operate on a
regional/watershed scale “to support local communities in
managing flooding, drainage, and issues related to stormwater runoff in
Baldwin County while preserving and improving water quality and the use
of our water resources.” A public corporation currently under
development by the BCWC would be funded by a small, equitable user fee,
based generally on area of impervious surface (hard surface which does
not allow water penetration), with credits for innovative stormwater
management features. Its function will include watershed
stewardship provision, standards and criteria development, regulatory
compliance coordination, stream system management, and partnership in
local stormwater programs.
In
order to establish this public corporation, the Alabama Legislature
passed a 2008 local constitutional amendment allowing Baldwin County
residents to vote in a November 2010 referendum. The referendum would
authorize the “formation of a public corporation for the purpose
of managing stormwater in the county.”
Who serves on the BCWC?
The
Baldwin County Watershed Coalition is made up of representatives from
municipal and county representatives comprised of both staff and
elected officials, representatives of local environmental
organizations, state legislators, and representatives of local business
and development interests. To see a full list of Committee members,
click here.
Resources
To download an educational Powerpoint Presentation about stormwater in Mobile
Bay, click
here. If you don't have Powerpoint
on your computer, you can click the
following link to view the presentation
(without animation and with some compromised
graphics) in PDF format:
Stormwater and
Mobile Bay.pdf.
The
Baldwin County Watershed Coalition Education
Committee has prepared a Powerpoint Presentation to provide
information about Baldwin County Watershed Coalition efforts and
activities. Click
here
to view this presentation.
To view the BCWC
conceptual plan, including its
organizational structure and the rate
structure for the Baldwin County Stormwater
Corporation, click
here.
In 2006, AMEC, an environmental and
engineering consulting firm, was
commissioned to draft a feasibility
assessment for the creation of a county-wide
stormwater management corporation. To view the Feasibility Assessment, click
here.
Recently, the BCWC
Technical Committee completed a list of
priority projects to be undertaken in the
corporation's first three years. Out of over
100 projects, the top fifteen projects were
chosen to distribute the benefits of BCWC
projects equally throughout the County, to
have the greatest positive environmental
impacts, and to have the most "bang for the
buck." To view the priority project list,
click
here.
To view a map of those projects, click
here.
Minutes
from the Steering Committee of the Baldwin County Watershed Coalition:
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February 20, 2009
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March 20, 2009
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May 1,2009
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June 19, 2009
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August 21, 2009
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September 25, 2009
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October 23, 2009
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November 20, 2009
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January 22, 2010
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February 19, 2010
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April 12, 2010
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