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A meeting concerning stormwater regulations by TDEC will be held Friday, May 8 at 3 p.m. at the Morristown-Hamblen County Library Community Room.

Jason Mann, Stormwater Engineer for UES, addressed Monday’s Hamblen County Commission Committees meeting about the upcoming session.

The county has a MS4 Stormwater Permit that is operated under TDEC, Mann said.

An audit of that program was conducted by TDEC, which was found to be deficient for Hamblen County’s legal mechanism, Mann said.

“TDEC is asking you to revise your stormwater resolution to get up to snuff with their current stormwater permit,” Mann said. It is important to know that the county is not officially in enforcement violations with TDEC at this time.

Mann said that some of the major components is that TDEC is asking the county to issue some sort of land disturbance/stormwater permit to protect water quality in Hamblen County when the commission does a plans review. That could be part of a building permit review.

The two people who were in the stormwater office in the county had left that office, but now one person was recently hired.

“Some of the components in that are a runoff reduction component, which is something that a lot of developers understand in some of these counties and cities,” Mann said. “It’s like adding detention ponds to your permit review process.

“They are trying to get you to improve water quality by retaining more water on site,” he said. “It is definitely a very interesting legal process that you all are already in.”

TDEC issued a letter in February to Hamblen County which told the county to “get your regulatory mechanism up to snuff,” Mann said.

The May 8 meeting will allow for public comments for stormwater policy.