On May 11-12, the "Great Lakes Activists Water Infrastructure Workshop" was held in Chicago. Sponsored by American Rivers and the Clean Water Fund, the purpose of the workshop was to bring together activists from around the Great Lakes watershed to discuss the varying systems of funding for water infrastructure projects, mostly focusing on each state's revolving fund. Some workshop participants suggested it may be time to reexamine the State Revolving Fund to give support to communities taking steps to coordinate their water management plan with their community's land use and transportation master plans.

The State Revolving Fund program supports a range of environmental projects, generally focused on clean water and drinking water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides grants to all 50 states, which in turn make loans to communities and individuals and others for "high-priority water-quality activities." The project priority level is determined by each state through a quantitative point system, which is developed by each state's Department of Environmental Quality.

Phase II permit requirements for better stormwater management are looming for smaller communities, and the flexibility of Michigan's State Revolving Fund is a key concern. Michigan has historically directed the funding to point source pollution prevention entities like municipal sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants, as well as allowing a good portion of the loans to fund the construction of new sewers serving urban sprawl development.

Throughout the two days of presentations, policy analysis and general education, it came to light that in almost every state there was a conspicuous lack of coordination between the point priority system for water infrastructure planning and local land use and transportation planning.

As more open lands are converted to impervious surfaces such as roads, driveways, parking lots and rooftops, communities see major increases in non-point stormwater runoff discharges chock full of oil, salt, sediment, tire particles and other pollutants. The EPA estimates that watersheds with greater than 10% imperviousness experience stream degradation. With greater than 26% imperviousness, streams are seriously degraded and may never recover to their predevelopment condition.

Theoretically, communities that coordinate municipal planning entities and programs that rehabilitate existing sewer infrastructure and use alternative methods, such as vegetative roofs and rain gardens, to control non-point source stormwater runoff, could be given priority funding from the State Revolving Fund. This would not only limit the effects of disastrous water infrastructure planning that focuses on building new sewers before fixing older systems, but would provide an incentive for communities to coordinate their master planning practices between municipal planning entities and throughout the regional watershed.

For further information on Michigan's State Revolving Fund, contact the MDEQ Water Division at 517-241-1300 or visit: http://www.michigan.gov/deq/.

For a breakdown of the Phase II Storm Water program, visit: http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/home.cfm?program_id=6