WPDES Municipal Stormwater Permit Information

The Clean Water Act which was mandated by Congress in 1972, is enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and was developed to address urban sources of stormwater pollution called the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). The NPDES requirements were then passed on to the states for implementation. In an effort to meet these requirements, Wisconsin created its version of the NPDES called the Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES). Under the WPDES program, municipalities that discharge pollutants into the storm drain system are required to obtain a storm water discharge permit.

The City received its current WPDES Permit on March 1, 2007. This permit allows discharges of stormwater from all portions of the City’s municipal storm sewer system and will expire on February 28, 2012. The stormwater permit requires the City of Cedarburg to implement a variety of programs that are intended to reduce the amount of pollutants entering the storm sewer system, which ultimately ends up in our streams, rivers and lake.