The Natural Resources Section ensures the Department’s construction and maintenance projects are in regulatory compliance with the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.
Storm water is a term used to describe water that originates when precipitation runs off the natural landscape and manmade surfaces such as sidewalks, streets, and parking lots. This surface runoff either flows directly into surface waters or is channeled into storm sewer systems which carry the runoff to waterbodies. Storm water has been shown to be one of the leading contributors to pollution of urban waterways since it can contain fertilizers, oil, pesticides, trash, sediment and animal wastes. Because of this, certain storm water discharges are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State of Arkansas.
The Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) mission includes planning, designing, constructing and maintaining large-scale transportation facilities such as highways, interchanges, bridges, and tunnels for public use. The ARDOT has the responsibility of accomplishing this mission in ways that comply with various laws and regulations, including the Federal Clean Water Act and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Program. ARDOT activities fall under the storm water provisions of the NPDES program for two primary reasons. First, the ARDOT's highways and highway-related properties, facilities and activities are served by extensive storm drain systems that are considered to be municipal separate storm sewer systems, and thus are required to be permitted under the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) portion of the Program. Second, NPDES regulations require the ARDOT to obtain construction storm water permit coverage for activities such as highway construction and maintenance where the soil disturbance is equal to or greater than one acre.
This website explains details of the ARDOT storm water management, provides links to current state and federal regulations, suggests measures that the public can take to reduce polluted storm water runoff, and contains copies of storm water education material. In addition, the website contains a copy of ARDOT’s Storm Water Management Program (SWMP) document which is used to implement the Department’s NPDES MS4 Program.
Choose one of the topics on the top of the page that you wish to know more about and click on the link. This action will connect you to web pages of additional information on that topic. For further information concerning the ARDOT Storm Water Program, contact the ARDOT Environmental Division at Stormwater@ardot.gov