Storm Water

This program generally requires cities with populations greater than 10,000 people obtain a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s) permit and details how storm water will be managed within the city and is based on the city's comprehensive storm water management plan.

View the City's MS4 permit (PDF).

The Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD) was awarded a Clean Water Fund Grant from the Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment, in the amount of $3,000,000 to complete a series of projects designed to clean up Long Lake. One of these projects, the Hansen Park Comprehensive Water Management Project, proposes a series of water quality and flood control enhancements to an existing dam and pond in New Brighton's Hansen Park. Hansen Park is located in central New Brighton, just south of I-694, east of Silver Lake Road and west of Old Highway 8. The City has provided some FAQs about the project. See more information from the Rice Creek Watershed District.

Water Drainage

Once the runoff begins to move downhill it will ultimately drain to a particular body of water. The total land area that drains water into a given stream, river, lake, pond or other body of water is a watershed. New Brighton is located completely in Rice Creek Watershed District, which also covers parts of Anoka, Hennepin, Ramsey and Washington Counties.

Extensive uses of impervious surfaces (such as buildings, parking lots, and roadways) can increase the amount of storm water runoff in the watershed. In urbanized areas like New Brighton, the increased storm water runoff can increase the chances of flooding and cause stream bank erosion.

New Brighton has designed its drainage routes for different extreme runoff events to provide acceptable levels of flooding. Mortgage companies may require a homeowner to have flood insurance if their property is located in a low area. The federal government determines the location of these flood zones through its National Flood Insurance program.

Impervious Impact

Impervious surfaces are building, roads, curbs, gutters, driveways, parking lots and sidewalks with a solid hard surface. These hard surfaces do not allow water to pass through them like the natural ground features did before people built the impervious surfaces. With less water infiltrating into the groundwater we have more storm water runoff in the watershed. Learn why City Streams flood more at Environmental Protection Agency (EPA's) web page (PDF).

The increased volume of storm water runoff on hard impervious surfaces also travels faster than storm water runoff on green areas where some water soaks in. The increasing velocity of storm water runoff can scour stream banks and beds, destroying habitat for aquatic life, and carry more pollution.

The storm water runoff carries more soil particles, pesticides, fertilizers, bacteria, pet waste, trash, debris, oil and other toxic materials into our ponds, streams, lakes and wetlands much easier when these pollution sources are left on or near the impervious surfaces.

Sub-Watersheds

New Brighton has used the physical barriers that cause water to ultimately drain to a particular body of water to divide the City into seven major watershed areas and numerous sub-watersheds.

More Resources & Information

• Clean Water MN - This outreach program provides information and assistance about protecting metro lakes and rivers.
• Adopt-a-Drain - This program asks residents to clear leaves, trash and other debris from neighborhood storm drains.
• Is My Lake Safe? (PDF)

New Brighton has designed its drainage routes for different extreme runoff events to provide acceptable levels of flooding. It would be too costly to design a system that never floods under any circumstances. New Brighton has two design standards, the level of service and level of protection.

The level of service is the system's capacity to convey runoff without unusual hardship or significant interference with routine public activities. Typically, this means flows remain in the storm sewer system and there is no street flooding. The storm design event used for level of service corresponds to a storm with a 10% chance of occurring once in any year.

The level of protection is the total system capacity required to avoid flooding of structures and provide for public safety. Typically, the level of protection is the level at which street flooding, overflow swales, piping systems and ponds work as a total system to prevent flooding of homes/businesses and to prevent dangerous flooding of streets. The design storm event used for level of protection corresponds to a storm with a 1% chance of occurring once in any year.

It is possible to have two 1% or 10% chance storms back to back or they may occur only once every million years. These rain storm events are statistical estimates based on historical data on how frequently a storm will occur.

Mortgage companies may require a homeowner to have flood insurance if their property is located in a low area. Each private company sets their own standards for what is required of the homeowner to prove whether their buildings are or are not located in the flood zones.

The federal government determines the location of these flood zones through its National Flood Insurance program. You may email the National Flood Insurance or call them at 800-638-6620 or 800-424-8872.

Other useful flood insurance information can be found at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The City is responsible for maintenance of its stormwater system, which includes pipes, constructed ponds, lakes, wetlands, ditches, swales, and other drainageways. Other units of government are responsible for maintaining the stormwater systems under their control. Download one of the following maps for the location of who is responsible for what:

• MnDOT is responsible for maintaining the storm sewers located along I-35W and I-694.
• Ramsey County is responsible for maintaining storm sewer catch basins and leads in the county roads, such as County Road D, County Road E, County Road E2, County Road H, Silver Lake Road, Old Highway 8, 10th Street, Cleveland Avenue, New Brighton Boulevard, Rice Creek Road and Long Lake Road, but the city is responsible for maintaining the trunk storm sewer lines.
• RCWD is responsible for maintaining the RCWD trunk system, which in New Brighton includes Ramsey County Ditch 2, Rice Creek, Long Lake, Pike Lake, Jones Lake, and the Long Lake sedimentation basin, which requires sediment removal every five years.

Owners of private stormwater facilities are responsible for maintaining their facilities in proper condition, consistent with the original performance design standards. Responsibilities include removal and proper disposal of all settled materials from ponds, sumps, grit chambers, and other devices, including settled solids

In addition to more typical maintenance measures, maintenance of the city's stormwater system may also mean maintaining or restoring the ecological characteristics of the natural portions of the stormwater system. The city of New Brighton recognizes the importance of maintaining all of the city's stormwater facilities. Proper maintenance will ensure that the stormwater system provides the necessary flood control and water quality treatment.

• Storm Water Structures (PDF): Map of entity responsible for which structures.
• Storm Sewer Inventory Book (ZIP): 38 pages of storm sewer locations, pipe size, owner and New Brighton's unique IDs for each structure.

If you have questions about New Brighton's storm sewer system, please email engineering or call us at 651-638-2050.