A Storm Water Quality Pond Testing Protocol for Regional Use

The Harris County Flood Control District (the District) is a federally permitted municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4). The District was originally created to identify and mitigate flooding problems in the Houston area by siting, designing, and maintaining flood mitigation and drainage facilities. This was, and continues to be, a challenging task due to Houston's flat topography and high precipitation rates. With the issuance of their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) storm water permit, water quality management was added to the District's responsibilities....Critical aspects of a robust test protocol will be outlined, including: monitoring parameters, minimum number of samples required for statistical evaluations, sample splitting procedures, solids characterization, database structure, reporting performance results, and planned monitoring.