This project provides for facility planning, Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Permit program implementation and water quality monitoring, watershed assessments, and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Implementation Planning to evaluate watershed conditions, stream health, water quality, and pollution sources to assist with the planning and programming of restoration projects for stormwater management, stormwater retrofit, Environmental Site Design (ESD)/Low Impact Development (LID), stream restoration projects, tree planting and reforestation, and other alternative best management practices. This project supports the regulatory requirements in the MS4 Permit for water quality improvements through management programs, stormwater restoration, TMDL implementation planning, and assessment of controls. Watershed assessment plans are developed to comprehensively understand the changes that have taken place in the County's watersheds, to evaluate the current understanding of watershed conditions, and are used to support the planning to identify potential restoration opportunities in the County's current and future MS4 Permit. The project also provides for development of the annual Comprehensive TMDL Implementation Plan required by the MS4 Permit. The plan lays out the County's progress toward reducing pollutants through past, current, and future planned restoration projects and is used to support the planning to identify potential pollutant reductions from potential restoration opportunities. Restoration projects are implemented in the Stormwater Management Retrofit Countywide project (No. 808726). Facility planning represents planning, monitoring, and programming to support concept and project opportunities in advance of full programming of a restoration project for stormwater management, stormwater retrofit, ESD/LID, and stream restoration projects.

The facility planning project support the requirements outlined in the County's MS4 Permit. This project establishes the facilities planning data and opportunities and alternatives analysis needed to identify and set priorities for individual capital projects. Facility planning costs for projects which are ultimately included in stand-alone Project Description Forms (PDFs) are reflected here and not in the resulting individual project. Future individual CIP projects which result from facility planning will reflect reduced planning and design costs.

In FY25, $4.26 million in contributions from the Monsanto national class action settlement payment to Montgomery County was added to Facility Planning: Stormwater Management. Expenditures in the outyears include expected monitoring, assessment, and TMDL implementation planning to meet the requirements of the Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) TMDL and MS4 Permit. In FY24, there was a shift of $778,000 from the operating budget to Current Revenue: WQP in this PDF to consolidate stream monitoring and gauge costs in the capital budget while also relieving debt service coverage ratio pressure in the operating budget. In FY23, $200,000 in Stormwater Management Waiver Fees was transferred to Stormwater Management: Countywide (P808726).

Expenditures will continue indefinitely. The County Executive asserts that this project conforms to the requirement of relevant local plans, as required by the Maryland Economic Growth, Resource Protection and Planning Act.