Stormwater

The City of Grand Rapids operates under a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. This permit regulates how we discharge stormwater to the waters of West Michigan.

To meet permit requirements and protect the waters of the West Michigan, the City adopted an ordinance regulating stormwater discharge.

Looking to start a new development project? You probably need to apply for a permit through our LUDS program.

• Chapter 32 City Stormwater Drainage System
• Stormwater Credit Trading Program
• LGROW Design Spreadsheet (Download)
• LGROW Design Spreadsheet Tutorial
• Stormwater Standards Manual
• MS4 Permit
• Stormwater Oversight Commission - Design Documents
• LGROW Design Tools - Grand Rapids

Appendixes

• Appendix 1- Application Letter
• Appendix 2 - Public Education Plan
• Appendix 3 - Illicit Discharge Elimination Plan (IDEP) Ordinance
• Appendix 4 - Illicit Discharge Elimination Plan (IDEP)
• Appendix 5 - Stormwater Standards Manual
• Appendix 6 - Facilities
• Appendix 6 - Inspections and Figures
• Appendix 7 - Lower Grand BMP Manual
• Appendix 8 - TMDL Monitoring Manual
• Appendix 9 - Stormwater Asset Management and Capital Improvement Plan

Since the 1980s, Grand Rapids has monitored the quality of the Grand River and major tributaries upstream and downstream of the city. We sample quarterly at 15 locations and take several complex measurements. We then combine those measurements into one easy-to-understand score. This score is the Water Quality Index.

Today, the index is consistently above 70, upstream and downstream. This indicates “good” water quality.

Check out our Water Quality Index map. You can click a sampling point on the map and see the index at that point for the past several years.