MN CSW Permit Section 17 Filtration Systems

SECTION 17 FILTRATION SYSTEMS

17.1

Filtration Systems.

17.2

Filtration options include, but are not limited to: sand filters with underdrains, biofiltration areas, swales using underdrains with check dams and underground sand filters. If permittees utilize a filtration system to meet the permanent stormwater treatment requirements of this permit, they must comply with items 17.3 through 17.11.

17.3

Permittees must not install filter media until they construct and fully stabilize the contributing drainage area unless they provide rigorous erosion prevention and sediment controls (e.g., diversion berms) to keep sediment and runoff completely away from the filtration area.

17.4

Permittees must design filtration systems to remove at least 80 percent of TSS.

17.5

Permittees must use a pretreatment device such as a vegetated filter strip, small sedimentation basin, water quality inlet, forebay or hydrodynamic separator to remove settleable solids, floating materials, and oils and grease from the runoff, to the maximum extent practicable, before runoff enters the filtration system.

17.6

Permittees must design filtration systems to treat a water quality volume (calculated as an instantaneous volume) of one (1) inch of runoff, or one (1) inch minus the volume of stormwater treated by another system on the site, from the net increase of impervious surfaces created by the project.

17.7

Permittees must design the filtration system to discharge all stormwater (including stormwater in excess of the water quality volume) routed to the system through the uppermost soil surface or engineered media surface within 48 hours. Additional flows that the system cannot filter within 48 hours must bypass the system or discharge through an emergency overflow.

17.8

Permittees must design the filtration system to provide a means to visually verify the system is discharging through the soil surface or filter media within 48 hours.

17.9

Permittees must employ appropriate on-site testing to ensure a minimum of three (3) feet of separation between the seasonally saturated soils (or from bedrock) and the bottom of the proposed filtration system.

17.10

Permittees must ensure that filtration systems with less than three (3) feet of separation between seasonally saturated soils or from bedrock are constructed with an impermeable liner.

17.11

The permittees must design a maintenance access, typically eight (8) feet wide, for the filtration system.