Storm water discharges from municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) are a major concern in urbanized areas due to the high concentration of pollutants found in these discharges. Urbanized areas, because of dense development, have a high concentration of impervious surfaces, such as city streets, driveways, parking lots, and sidewalks, on which pollutants settle and remain until a storm event washes them into nearby storm drains. The most common pollutants include pesticides, fertilizers, oils, salts, litter and other debris, and sediment. 

The City of Terre Haute, Vigo County, Seelyville, West Terre Haute, Indiana State University, Ivy Tech Community College, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and the Honey Creek-Vigo Conservancy District are co-permittees of a general permit with the City of Terre Haute taking the lead position within the group for reporting and communications with IDEM.

This co-permit group works together to reduce or eliminate polluted storm water runoff by developing and implementing six minimum control measures to address the issues affecting our local river, lakes and streams.  These minimum control measures are found in the storm water pollution prevention plan.

• 1. Public Education and Outreach - distributing educational materials and performing outreach to inform citizens about the impacts storm water runoff can have on water quality
• 2. Public Participation and Involvement - providing opportunities for citizens to participate and provide input in the development and implementation of the storm water management program.
• 3. Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination - developing and implementing a strategy to detect and eliminate illicit discharges to the storm sewer system.
• 4. Construction Site Storm water Runoff Control - developing, implementing, and enforcing an erosion and sediment control program for construction activities.
• 5. Post-Construction Storm water Runoff Control - developing and enforcing a program to address discharges of post-construction storm water runoff from new development and redevelopment areas.
• 6. Municipal Operations Pollution Prevention and Good Housekeeping - developing and implementing a program to prevent and reduce pollutant runoff from municipal operations.