Black Mountain awarded $5.4 million for stormwater infrastructure and planning

Swannanoa River floodplain funding marks significant step for town utility

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
March 10, 2023

Town of Black Mountain Stormwater Technician Anne Phillip tests water at an outflow along the Swannanoa River. Photo courtesy of the Town of Black Mountain

A pair of grants totaling $5.4 million, awarded to the Town of Black Mountain through the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Local Assistance for Stormwater Infrastructure Investments (LASII) Program, will fund several projects within the utility’s master plan, which was adopted by the town last September. 

The funding includes $5 million to support stream and river bank restoration, erosion mitigation and water quality treatment on a section along the north bank of the Swannanoa River, and $400,000 to map the existing stormwater infrastructure beneath the ground. Each grant awarded to the town represented the maximum amount of funds available to a single municipality. 

The grants, according to Planning Director Jessica Trotman, will allow the town to address significant stormwater management priorities in its efforts to restore, protect and preserve surface waters in Black Mountain.

The stormwater utility was approved by town council in 2021, less than a year after the municipality was among dozens in the state to receive a notice of violation from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality the previous year. Regular audits are mandatory for towns and cities operating a Municipal Separate Sewer System (MS4), which conveys discharge stormwater to local waterways, and requires a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. The town resolved the notice of violation after completing a stormwater management plan and establishing a utility,  ensuring sufficient funding to remain compliant with federal permitting requirements.

The town hired stormwater technician Anne Phillip in November of 2021, and a stormwater master plan was adopted by elected officials the following year. 

“The purpose of my position is primarily to ensure the town is in compliance with the NPDES permit, which has a lot of pieces ranging from outreach and education, to inspections of town-owned facilities, stream walks and locating and tracking illicit discharges,” Phillip said. “There are a lot of things that weren’t being addressed, prior to having an employee who is responsible for those pieces.”

The stormwater management program, which bills most land owners within town limits $72 per year, is tasked with addressing a wide variety of concerns, according to Trotman. 

“There are traditional projects, like culvert replacement, upsizing and relocating pipes and things like that,” she said. “But, there are also green infrastructure projects, as well as hazard mitigation and water quality projects. Stormwater is a great many things.”

An estimated $5 million in improvements within a corridor along the north bank of the Swannanoa River between South Blue Ridge Road and the Dr. John Wilson Community Garden, are included in one of the costliest projects in the utility’s updated master plan. The project calls for grading areas north of the river, establishing a floodplain bench that reduces erosion. Wetlands designed to hold and cool runoff will keep stormwater out of sections downstream, according to the planning document.

“When we’re trying to prioritize funding for these big ticket items, the big question is always how to fund these massive projects,” Trotman said. “The (LASII) pot of money was particularly interested in nature-based solutions and hazard mitigation. So, it’s funding something that is beneficial to the river, as a whole, while mitigating some risk in the community through reducing some flash flooding concerns. It will also help with water quality issues.”

Anne Phillip performs a stream walk for the Black Mountain Stormwater Utility. The practice allows the town’s stormwater technician to identify outflows feeding into local waterways. Photo courtesy of the Town of Black Mountain

Approximately seven miles of the Swannanoa River were listed on the NCDEQ 303(D) Impaired Waters list in 2006, when it was determined sediment and stormwater runoff were impacting the benthos inhabiting the river bed. Fecal coliform was identified in the same stretch of the waterway in 2022.

The North Bank of the Swannanoa Project was created to address issues arising from the heavy development on the south side of the waterway, according to the master plan. 

While improvements to the river bank will focus on water quality and reducing flood risks, an additional $400,000 in LASII funding awarded to the town will support asset mapping and planning tasks for the stormwater utility. 

The grant will allow the town to scope and document the condition of the pipes in the stormwater system and inform decisions about asset management and repair. The work will build upon the stormwater master plan, allowing for detailed capital planning.

“Mapping our system is a requirement of our NPDES permit, and we have some of it, and some of our largest outfalls mapped now,” Phillip said. “We don’t have equipment that allows us to scope the lines under the ground, so without this grant it would take a lot longer to complete that.”

The funding will also help the town assess the current conditions of the town’s closed stormwater infrastructure. 

“Everything they learn in that condition assessment will help us figure out how to implement projects over time, and how to pay for them,” Trotman said. “We’ll get a much more thorough and accurate strategy for maintenance and improvements to the system.”

Receiving the grants, which are being dispersed from $2.3 billion appropriated by the General Assembly from the state’s allocation of the American Rescue Plan Act, is a significant step for Black Mountain’s stormwater utility, according to the planning director.

People don’t experience compliance, but they do experience improvements through big projects like this,” Trotman said. “Our main focus with our stormwater program is compliance, but we understand that’s not something people can look at and touch. At the end of the day, the goal is for the water to be clean.”