Nahant submits plan to manage storm water runoff

NAHANT – The town recently submitted its storm water management plan to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP.)Town Administrator Mark Cullinan said every municipality in the state is required to submit a management plan on an annual basis to both agencies.”It lists our best management practices in maintaining storm water discharge areas,” he said. “The plan outlines what steps the town is taking, what we are trying to do and how we monitor our progress throughout the year.”Cullinan said each community has to get a permit every year for storm water discharge and submission of the management plan is a prerequisite for obtaining the permit.Cullinan said the town is in good shape with its storm water runoff management plan.”We have a pretty good program in place,” he said. “We have a monitoring program in place and do periodic testing of the outflows. We monitor for illicit discharge and sometimes we run dye tests.”Cullinan said the town also conducts periodic street cleanings, which prevent harmful materials from washing into storm water drains when it rains.”We also clean the catch basins on a regular basis,” he said. “We’re good at controlling runoff in sensitive areas.Cullinan said another component of the storm water management plan is public education.”We’re seeing positive results as a result of our storm water discharge plan,” he said. “We’re not finding anything in our discharge that concerns or alarms us. The end result of our plan is people are seeing cleaner waters.”