About SWAC
Southern Indiana Stormwater Advisory Committee
Imagine yourself standing in a huge shopping center parking lot in a torrential downpour. If you could collect all the water streaming off the parking lot, would you swim in that water? Would you drink it? Not likely. Yet that stormwater is almost certainly polluting our streams, rivers, and lakes. Because if it’s on the ground, it’s in our water –the same water bodies we rely on for recreation and even drinking water supplies.
If you’re a municipal engineer, of course you’re not surprised about this. After all, it’s likely part of your job to help educate the public about pollution and to ensure compliance with the EPA’s myriad Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) regulations.
Because regulatory compliance can be burdensome for some communities, banding together to pool resources makes a lot of sense. That’s exactly what nine localities in Southern Indiana set out to do 15 years ago when they formed the Southern Indiana Stormwater Advisory Committee (SWAC). The nine communities that make up the SWAC include the Town of Clarksville, Town of Sellersburg, City of Jeffersonville, City of New Albany, City of Madison, Floyd County, Oak Park Conservancy District, Clark County, and the Town of Georgetown.
The SWAC’s chief aim is to improve quality of life for its 200,000 constituents. Part of that mission includes MS4 compliance. Being out of compliance may mean losing federal grant money, compromised bond ratings, moratoriums, and fines.
The SWAC has been a model for how to share resources, implement consistent messaging, and collaborate effectively. In fact, it has received numerous awards at the Indiana MS4 Annual Meeting, with over 20 Outstanding Program recognition awards being issued to SWAC communities.
How the SWAC Achieves Its Mission
The primary mission of the SWAC has been to protect and improve water quality in southern Indiana. Today, the SWAC works together to organize, coordinate, develop, and implement its initiatives. Among other things, our activities include:
- Host and lead quarterly meetings,
- Write and produce educational outreach materials,
- Maintain the SWAC website and social media page, and
- Review new permitting initiatives.
What’s more, communities that are part of the SWAC have:
- Coordinated with the state and federal MS4 regulators, and other entities,
- Helped prepare for regulatory audits,
- Developed and implemented Stormwater Quality Management Plans (SWQMP),
- Helped rewrite or create new ordinances,
- Performed municipal facility inspections,
- Conducted regional training workshops,
- Developed the Qualified Professional Inspector Program (QPI) Contractor Self-inspection Program,
- And much, much more.
The SWAC is assisted by a team of consultants at OHM Advisors, a local engineering firm, who have continuously served these communities for well over a decade.
