ODOT is required to study the potential environmental impacts resulting from the proposed Cleveland Innerbelt project on the “study area’s” aquatic, terrestrial and wetland resources and endangered species. It hired URS Corp. to conduct field surveys of the study area in June, July and August of 2005, which was used to publish the Level 1 Ecological Survey Report in Feb. 07.

In the report, ODOT acknowledges the project will discharge pollutants to the lower Cuyahoga River watershed and to the lakefront. The actual amounts will depend upon the final drainage design and Best Management Practices installed to reduce pollutant loadings.

ODOT will comply with applicable regulations and permits to reduce storm water runoff loadings to these important water bodies.

Urban runoff is identified in the final Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) report for the lower Cuyahoga River as a source of water quality impairment in the watershed. The report identifies specific pollutants of concern in storm water discharges for MS4s involving phosphorus and fecal coliform. "The only implementation activities recommended for storm water management are to allow implementation of the Phase II Storm Water Regulations, which will improve water quality according to the report. ODOT is subject to these Phase II regulations,” the report states.

Communities designated under the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Phase II storm water program can use low impact development to reduce storm water volumes and peak runoff rates, and to facilitate pollutant removal. Owners and operators of construction sites disturbing one acre or more, or less than one acre if part of a larger common plan of development or sale, can use low impact development practices to meet the Ohio EPA’s water quality volume requirements in the NPDES General Construction Site Permit.

OEPA has a new Low Impact Development (LID) pilot project to help implement more innovative stormwater management techniques for land development sites. Low impact development relies on smaller, less intrusive (than the typical manmade solutions such as ponds) bioretention basins and vegetated swales to distribute surface water across development sites with the purpose of increasing infiltration and reducing the quantity of water leaving a site.

Question

Whereas, ODOT acknowledges that the Innerbelt Bridge project will contribute to the urban runoff of pollutants in the lower Cuyahoga River shipping channel, and

Whereas, the Innerbelt Bridge is subject to Phase II stormwater regulations, and

Whereas, Phase II allows for Low Impact Development ideas such as bioretention to mitigate stormwater runoff, and

Whereas, The Cuyahoga River Rap has initiated a Green Bulkhead pilot project as part of the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative (CVI) to mitigate stormwater runoff in the lower Cuyahoga River shipping channel

Be it resolved that ODOT, OEPA, CVI and Cuyahoga River RAP consider funding and implementation of the Green Bulkheads as part of a Phase II/Low Impact Development solution to reduce the stormwater runoff from the construction of the Innerbelt Bridge?

More to come from the report on impacts to wildlife and soils.