Stormwater Management Program for the O‘ahu Department of Transportation
EnviroServices & Training Center, LLC (ETC) provides Master Consultant professional services to manage the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation, Highways Division, Oahu District’s (DOT Highways) successful compliance with the EPA’s stormwater minimum control measures, as required by the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit No. HI S000001. In 2018, the Water Environment Federation awarded DOT Highways with a Gold Level in Program Management and Silver Level in Innovation as a part of the organization’s National Municipal Stormwater and Green Infrastructure Awards Program. Since 2009, ETC’s Stormwater Management Program business division, through Contract Nos. HWY-OM-2009-46, HWY-OW-2016-01, and HWY-OW-2021-01 (current), has successfully developed and implemented the following DOT Highways’ program components.
Public Education: ETC has helped developed DOT Highways award winning public education program. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ETC built on the Hawaii Storm Patrol brand by developing a series of animated videos to virtually educate keiki on the storm drain system. During the 2020-2021 school year, the animated videos amassed 5,800 views and was recognized with a Silver Pele Award by the American Advertising Federation, Hawaii Chapter.
Illicit Discharge Detection: ETC is responsible for the detection and elimination of illegal connections and illicit discharges by inspecting over 2,100 outfalls annually and providing rapid response to complaints and spills. Additionally, ETC inspects over 125 industrial and commercial facilities annually for potential storm water pollutants. Through improved facility education, deficiencies per inspected facility have decreased by 11% over the past five years. ETC has worked with the DOT Highways’ Deputy Attorney General to strengthen its enforcement through an improved Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Health.
Construction Site Runoff: ETC assists in reducing the discharge of pollutants from DOT Highways’ construction activities by conducting approximately 300 independent construction inspections annually. The results of ETC’s efforts have reduced the number of identified major deficiencies by 70% over the past five years. Additionally, ETC authored the revised Construction Best Management Practices (BMP) Manual which provides the standards for DOT Highways construction BMP selection and implementation across its projects. ETC is also responsible for the organizing the annual Protect Our Water Conference, increasing attendance to this construction training event by 58% over the past five years, with over 500 attendees in 2021.
Post-Construction Site Runoff: ETC authored the Storm Water Post-Construction Best Management Practices Manual in 2021, developing the statewide standards to ensure that post-construction BMPs, including low impact development, are considered and implemented throughout all phases of DOT Highways’ design projects. Additionally, ETC designed post-construction BMP improvement projects valued at $25 million in estimated construction costs. ETC is responsible for the execution of service contracts to maintain post-construction BMPs, resulting in over 350 cleanings, removing over 200 cubic yards of debris.
Good Housekeeping: ETC develops and maintains a comprehensive Asset Management System (AMS) to monitor 20,000 drainage assets and 250 lineal miles of DOT Highways rights-of-way. ETC is responsible for the execution of service contracts to maintain DOT Highways’ drainage infrastructure, removing over 23,300 cubic yards of debris through various activities including street sweeping and MS4 structure cleaning. ETC developed and implemented a novel photo-based visual trash assessment, using car mounted cameras to qualitatively assess trash levels in compliance with DOT Highways’ trash reduction requirements.
Water Quality: ETC successfully negotiated favorable waste load allocations (WLA) for six Total Maximum Daily Load watersheds. Through the successful management of DOT Highways’ program, ETC assisted DOT Highways in achieving compliance with the Ala Wai Canal, Waimānalo Stream, and Kawai Stream WLAs and is on schedule for compliance with the remaining watersheds. ETC conducts monitoring to assess watershed health and effectiveness of post-construction BMPs. ETC has collected 2,000 samples from 14 different watersheds.
