The term “MS4” is an abbreviation for “Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System”.  Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued and administers over 100 MS4 Permits within Virginia. Fauquier County received its MS4 Permit in May 2014.  The purpose of MS4 Permits is to ensure that surface water quality within urbanized areas is improved, and that these waters are properly managed.

Tải game bắn cáThe general premise of an MS4 Permit is as follows:

1. Urban stormwater systems are known to pollute surface waters.
2. These stormwater systems are owned by some public entity.
3. That public entity is either generating pollutants and discharging into surface waters, or is allowing pollutants generated elsewhere, to flow through their stormwater system to eventually discharge into surface waters.
4. Therefore, that public entity must manage their stormwater systems in a way that reduces the pollutant load within their stormwater systems.
5. The MS4 Permit allows that public entity to discharge urbanized stormwater into surface waters, but must legally take systematic steps to ensure that the pollutant load within their urban stormwater is reduced. 
6. Since all of Fauquier County’s stormwater eventually enters the Chesapeake Bay, the County’s MS4 Permit is closely tied to the restoration goals of the Chesapeake Bay.