Albany, OR Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Chapter 12.10 of the Albany Municipal Code is the core stormwater rule. Section 12.10.010 bars any person from discharging a pollutant to public rights-of-way, a private or municipal stormwater system or Waters of the State, or from placing a pollutant where it is likely to escape into any of them. The list of prohibited discharges includes, but is not limited to, obstructing solids such as grease, garbage, sand, straw, grass clippings, rags, plastics and mud, any discharge with a pH less than six or greater than 10 unless it comes from rainfall pH, toxic pollutants, oils and chemicals, hauled waste and septage, washwater containing surfactants, soaps or detergents, stormwater runoff containing eroded sediments from land-disturbing activities, and pet waste and litter.

Section 12.10.010(2) exempts water line flushing with dechlorination, landscape irrigation, lawn watering, individual residential car washing, footing drains, and dechlorinated swimming pool and hot tub discharges whose heated water is cooled for at least 12 hours before discharge. Dye testing is exempt with verbal notification to the Director before the test starts. Section 12.10.050 bans illicit connections, including existing ones, and a line carrying sewage into the stormwater system must be disconnected and redirected to an on-site wastewater system or the sanitary sewer with the Director's approval.

Under § 12.10.080, every owner or occupant of property through which a watercourse passes must keep that part of the watercourse free of trash, debris and other obstacles, and no one can remove native vegetation near a watercourse except where it poses an imminent hazard to human health and safety or nearby structures. Section 12.10.100 sets the spill routine: a hazardous release goes immediately to emergency dispatch, a nonhazardous release goes immediately to the Public Works Department, and written confirmation must reach the Public Works Director within five business days. Commercial and industrial sites keep an on-site written record for at least three years, and the responsible person pays all cleanup costs and City response expenses. Under § 12.01.090 the Director can require best management practices at the owner's or operator's expense.