Bowling Green, KY Environmental Rules: Grading & Drainage (2026)

Bowling Green's grading and drainage controls sit at the intersection of three documents: Chapter 21 of the City Code (Stormwater), Appendix B of the Warren County Subdivision Regulations (the Stormwater Management Guide), and the City's adopted Stormwater BMP Manual. Section 21-3.01(b) is the central karst-protection rule: no person may alter, improve, or otherwise disturb the flow characteristics of stormwater — INCLUDING by routing drainage into a sinkhole, drainage crevice, dry well, ditch, closed system, or catch basin — without prior approval through permitting or plan approval by the Public Works Director or designee. This rule treats karst features as engineered infrastructure that cannot be modified at will. The City uses a 100-year design storm for sizing detention and retention basins. Two stormwater quantity strategies are recognized: retention basins, in which captured runoff is released slowly through a dry well (a Class V injection well regulated by EPA under 40 CFR 144); and detention basins, in which captured runoff is metered through outlet pipes built into berms or walls. Bowling Green has historically relied on dry wells because the karst geology gives very few surface streams to receive stormwater discharge — but every dry well must be approved by Public Works and registered with EPA. Post-construction water quality standards (Section 21-2.05) require sites disturbing more than one acre that create more than 10,000 square feet of new impervious surface to design BMPs that remove 80% of the average annual post-development total suspended solids (TSS) load. Site permits are reviewed by the Building Division at (270) 393-3676 with Stormwater concurrence at (270) 393-3628.