MEJO Report: Starkweather Creek & Toxic Stormwater Runoff in Madison, Wis.

On Earth Day, April 22, the Midwest Environmental Justice Organization released a report on its USEPA-funded Starkweather Creek Environmental Justice project.

STARKWEATHER CREEK & TOXIC STORMWATER RUNOFF REPORT

Pollution, governance & environmental justice in Madison, Wisconsin

Executive Summary

Project overview

From 2017 through 2018, the Midwest Environmental Justice Organization (MEJO) was funded by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency environmental justice grant for its Starkweather Environmental Justice Project. Starkweather Creek is a highly impaired, 303d-listed waterway in Madison, Wisconsin, affected by numerous toxic chemicals and other pollutants from point and nonpoint sources along the creek. The creek flows through two of Madison’s diverse low income neighborhoods, Truax and Darbo-Worthington (Darbo) on the city’s north/east sides.

The central goals of the Starkweather project were to engage Truax and Darbo residents (as well as others we encountered along the creek), hear their perspectives about the creek, stormwater pollution that affects it, and recommendations to improve it. MEJO leaders, volunteers, and project interns surveyed 100 community members in both neighborhoods and along the creek, took fishing trips to the creek, organized trash cleanups, held a variety of community meetings and trainings, and testified at public meetings.

To better understand regulatory authorities to address MEJO’s and community members’ concerns and recommendations about the creek, we reviewed available environmental reports and documents on the creek, as well as city, county, and state regulations relevant to these issues. We also talked with city, county, and state government officials about their stormwater regulatory requirements pertaining to issues community members expressed concerns about during surveys and meetings.

Summary of key findings

• Although much more outreach to increase awareness of Starkweather Creek among Truax and Darbo community members is needed, significant proportions of residents of all ages in both areas are aware of the creek and interact with it in a variety of ways, including: walking and biking along it, fishing, observing wildlife, exploring and playing.
• Community members expressed interest in learning more about Starkweather Creek, stormwater pollution that affects it, cleanup efforts, Ho-Chunk history of the area, and more; many said they would like to engage in future decisions and actions to clean up the creek.
• Community members’ top three recommendations regarding Starkweather Creek were: cleaning up trash, preventing toxic pollution, and mitigating toxic pollution along or in the creek.
• The City of Madison and Dane County are required under their DNR-issued WPDES stormwater permit (as co-permittees in the Madison Area Municipal Stormwater Partnership, or MAMSWaP) to “exercise and enforce legal authority” to control the discharge of pollutants to and from their stormwater sewer systems. Neither entity is meeting this requirement in regards to trash and several toxic contaminants discharged into storm systems draining to the creek.
• DNR-issued municipal and industrial stormwater permits primarily rely on “best management practice” approaches that do not require stormwater contaminant testing nor do they include numeric stormwater effluent limits. However, city, county, and state agencies have authorities to gather contaminant data from the creek (or ask permittees and other stormwater dischargers to do so) but rarely use these authorities. When they do it is only for a small range of contaminants. The resulting lack of contaminant data makes it difficult to prevent toxic pollution from sources, mitigate contamination in the creek, and assess the health of the creek, its fish and/or wildlife.
• The City of Madison and/or Dane County failed to meet (or only sporadically met) several of their DNR stormwater permit (MAMSWaP) requirements from 2014-2019, including:
  • Inadequately fulfilling (or not fulfilling) public outreach/engagement requirements
  • Failing to gather/report Illicit Discharge Detection Elimination (IDDE) data on time/at all
  • Not submitting required biennial reports for review before appropriate governing bodies
  • Inaccurate, incomplete and/or outdated information on biennial reports
  • Not addressing impaired waterways requirements in biennial reports
  • Not posting agendas and minutes from MAMSWaP meetings
• City and county government agency staff interviewed said some stormwater permit requirements could not be met due to lack of staff/resources, and budgets for these permit activities from 2014-2019 were very low (and zero some years). The permit requires permittees to “provide adequate financing, staff, equipment, and support capabilities to implement the requirements of this permit.”
• As regulator of the city and county, DNR has authorities to address the above permit violations, but we found little evidence that they were aware of them and/or took any actions to address them. Also, the City and County operated under an expired MAMSWaP permit from 2014-2019 due to DNR backlogs.
• DNR’s draft MAMSWaP permit (released for public comment on April 1, 2019) clarifies some public outreach/education and involvement/engagement requirements (in response to a 2016 EPA rule intended to improve public engagement among municipal permittees) but proposed revisions also allow more general, less specific reporting of these activities, weakening accountability.
• City, county and state agencies and officials have not been very responsive (or have not responded at all) to community questions and complaints about toxic contaminants discharging into Starkweather Creek through storm drains.

Stormwater regulations and citizen engagement are not taken seriously by government agencies

Overall, our community work, regulatory reviews, and interviews with government officials indicate that city, county, and state agencies are not taking some stormwater regulations very seriously, particularly those pertaining to toxic contaminants and community engagement. Unfortunately, whether intended or not, this exacerbates disparities in exposures to toxic chemicals in already at-risk low income communities who have more limited capacities and resources than more privileged residents to learn about and engage in community decisions about pollution and their health. Not fulfilling these regulations contributes to community environmental injustices and is not in line with the city’s and county’s stated policies and commitments to social justice and equity.

In sum, city, county and state agencies are not adequately addressing environmental injustices or protecting Starkweather Creek water, fish, and wildlife from further degradation by trash and toxic chemicals.

Recommendations

1. All city and county stormwater permit requirements should be met through leadership commitment, expressed through adequate funding and enforcing staff fulfilment of permit requirements.
2. Government regulators should take serious enforcement actions to address chronic violators of existing stormwater and other environmental regulations—and publicly document them.
3. City, county and state agencies should work to fill critical toxic contaminant gaps related to Starkweather Creek to protect public and environmental health.
4. Government agency staff and elected officials should receive training on stormwater and other environmental regulations, citizen engagement, and environmental justice.
5. Relevant and appropriate stormwater pollution education and outreach should be initiated in low income, at-risk neighborhoods.
6. Outreach and education on Ho-Chunk history (led by Ho-Chunk leaders, in collaboration with communities) should occur throughout Madison, including in low income neighborhoods.
7. Anti-littering campaigns should be revived.
8. Comprehensive testing for PFAS in Starkweather Creek/Lake Monona fish should be conducted, and appropriate fish advisories should be developed/distributed to anglers throughout the county.
9. A Joint City-County Starkweather Creek Task Force should be created.
10. A Joint City-County Task Force on PFAS should be created.

FULL REPORT