FAQs • Cocoa Beach, FL • CivicEngage

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Stormwater

Please Email the Stormwater Team or call 868-3292 to report any concerns about a pollutant discharge violation.

To report illicit discharge anonymously please fill out a Pollution Discharge Notification Form on the Website's Form Center.

2. Am I in a flood zone?: Here in Cocoa Beach we have 2 flood zones - "within the 100-year flood zone" and "outside the 100-year flood zone". These flood zones are based on elevation, water table elevation, soils and historical flooding information. On the barrier island, storm surge is most likely source of our flood hazards. The flood hazard lines are established by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and can be found on the FIRM (Flood Insurance Rate Map) maps. The FIRM maps of our area can be found at the City's Building and Stormwater Utility departments and are also on file at all libraries.

3. How is storm runoff treated?: Throughout the 80+ years of development in Cocoa Beach, there has been no treatment of the storm runoff. All of the runoff from our buildings, parking lots and roads was designed to drain to our canals or straight to the lagoon. The huge construction boom of the '60's (Apollo program) sent great loads of sediment and other pollutants draining to the canals. Another boom in the '70's (shuttle program) heavily polluted our canals again. Early in the '70's legislation was passed that helped reduce this pollution. Still today, most of the runoff from Cocoa Beach is heavily polluted and drains directly to our waters. We are now in the process of turning the tide. We will try to re-route the water back into the soil where feasible. We will construct filtering devices to clean the stormwater in areas where re-routing or retention is not possible.

4. What are the laws regulating the discharge of stormwater?: Stormwater is the greatest threat to our nation's waters. Only recently has strong regulation been passed that reduces runoff pollution to our drinking, recreational and fishery waters. The Clean Water Act helped reduce industrial and wastewater discharges but did little to address the widespread pollutant loading from our storms. In the '70's, St. Johns River Water Management District began requiring private development to retain a portion of their stormwater on-site. This regulation (FAC 40C-42) greatly helped reduce runoff from private properties. Now the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is passing legislation that will enforce strict stormwater regulation on cities and counties. By the beginning of the 2nd millennium, cities and counties across the nation will be greatly reducing the pollutants from stormwater. This legislation called NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Program) will greatly improve our waters.

5. How much runoff can there possibly be from Cocoa Beach?: This is a simple mathematical equation if we multiply the rainfall over all of the area where rain can't soak in. If we conservatively assume that only 40% of the rain does not percolate into the ground - turns into runoff - then a 1-inch rainfall will translate into 20 million gallons of runoff flowing into our canals and lagoon.

6. Can we ever stop all the runoff into our waters?: Considering the residential and commercial development in Cocoa Beach, we probably cannot stop all of the runoff into our canals. Where we have room - we can significantly reduce the volume by creating swales for runoff retention. As we redevelop, we can make private development retain a portion of their runoff. In spots where we have little room for retention, we can at least reduce the amount of dirt, leaves, grass clippings, and debris in the runoff by constructing various kinds of "filters."

7. Why is dredging considered a stormwater activity?: In the past, dredging was primarily for creating canals or opening navigable channels back up. Dredging had a bad reputation environmentally because of the impact it had on habitat. Recently, dredging has been considered a Stormwater BMP (best management practice) because of its ability to improve water quality by removing nuisance muck sediment. Muck sediment is very light and is easily stirred up into the water column. Once in the water column, it does not settle easily and makes the water "turbid" or unclear. Unclear water doesn't allow sunlight through and so seagrass can't grow. Seagrass is considered the primary production resource in the Indian River Lagoon system and all other lagoon habitat depends on it. Most important is to reduce the muck by reducing pollution to the canals. Even after we have reduced most of our upstream loading, we will still have to dredge the nuisance muck in order to have cleaner water.

8. What is muck?: Although muck has different scientific meanings, stormwater muck is fine sediments washed into our waters by storm runoff. They are a mixture of sand, silt, leaves and grass clippings with a fair amount of settled algae from algae blooms. They may contain heavy metals and organic pollutants depending on their source. Algae blooms occur from nutrients like phosphorous and nitrogen (grass clippings, leaves, fertilizers and soaps) washing into the canals. Once the algae has "bloomed", it quickly dies and settles to the bottom as muck. Just think what your pool would look like if your neighborhood drained into it!

9. What are those openings in the curb along roads?: Those curbs are called storm drains and their function is to remove the storm runoff from the roadway. Those "mouths" in the curb lead to pipes that run directly to the nearest canal or lagoon. The good news is they keep the roads and private property from flooding. The bad news is, although convenient, it destroys the quality of our waters and the habitat that it supports. Storm runoff is the greatest threat to our national waters' health. Keep our curbs clean!

10. Are any more manatees going to be stuck in drainage pipes?: For those of you that don't know, Cocoa Beach has had a few instances lately in which manatees have swum into our stormlines. Once in the lines, they were unable to turn around to return to the lagoon. In each case, they were rescued and recovered at Sea World. We're really not sure why this occurred, but we believe it had a lot to do with the high water level experienced during those El Nino years. Nevertheless, to ensure that this situation never occurs again, we have constructed "Manatee Proof Gates" in front of our outfalls so that our mammalian explorers will no longer risk their lives pipe-diving. These gates are made of marine grade pilings and are formed in a semi-circle around the outfall so that flow is not obstructed. Large debris in high runoff flow can cause blockages and cause flood risks upstream. These gates were designed to minimize this threat and have low maintenance requirements for long-lasting quality.