PREP Reports & Publications

Abstract

The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) received funds in 2005 from the New Hampshire Estuaries Project (NHEP) to administer grants to coastal municipalities to eliminate illicit discharges into their storm drainage systems. This final report describes the projects that were funded under this grant. Projects in Rye and Somersworth involved eliminating sewage discharges into storm drainage systems from houses. A project in Portsmouth involved developing a standard operating procedure manual and recommendations for future training for illicit discharge detection and elimination (IDDE). The removal of illicit discharges in Rye and Somersworth helped improve water quality in the coastal area by reducing pollution.

NHEP chose to fund IDDE projects for a number of reasons. Primarily, this grant was established in order to fulfill several water quality action plans identified in the NHEP Management Plan. In addition, the Coastal/Piscataqua watershed has been identified by DES as a priority watershed in need of restoration. DES has worked in the coastal watershed since 1996 to reduce bacteria inputs that cause the closure of shellfish beds. Finally, the communities that were awarded grants are regulated as small municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) under the Phase II federal stormwater regulation. The financial assistance these municipalities received has helped them comply with one of the requirements of these regulations.

Department

Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership

Publication Date

12-2006

Publisher

New Hampshire Estuaries Project

Document Type

Report

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