The rapid conversion of land to urban and suburban areas has profoundly altered how water flows during and following storm events, putting higher volumes of water and more pollutants into the nation's rivers, lakes, and estuaries. These changes have degraded water quality and habitat in virtually every urban stream system. The Clean Water Act regulatory framework for addressing sewage and industrial wastes is not well suited to the more difficult problem of stormwater discharges. This book calls for an entirely new permitting structure that would put authority and accountability for stormwater discharges at the municipal level. A number of additional actions, such as conserving natural areas, reducing hard surface cover (e.g., roads and parking lots), and retrofitting urban areas with features that hold and treat stormwater, are recommended.
The second quarterly supplement to SELECTED URBAN STORM WATER RUNOFF ABSTRACTS is a compilation of abstracts summarizing articles from a variety of technical literature concerning the problem of urban drainage published from October 1970 through December 1970. The 50 abstracts covering a range of ten sections are arranged alphabetically by author and numerically by abstract number within each category. Each item includes a bibliographic citation, an abstract, and a set of indexing descriptors and identifiers. A cumulative subject index at the end of the volume provides the necessary access to individual concepts.