Bowling Green, KY Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Sec. 21-2.03 of the Bowling Green Code of Ordinances grounds the city's stormwater program in KRS 91A.510-530, which the Board of Commissioners cites as authority to establish and implement a stormwater management program, including a stormwater utility operated as a division of the Public Works Department and run day to day by an Environmental Manager acting as Utility Manager. Sec. 21-2.01 explains why: the federal Clean Water Act's Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Phase II rules are enforced against the City through an MS4 permit issued by the Kentucky Division of Water, and the City built and maintains the separate storm sewer system that serves the community to meet those state and federal requirements.

To pay for it, Sec. 21-2.06 imposes a monthly Stormwater Management Fee on every parcel in the Service Area starting no earlier than January 1, 2027, calculated from each property's impervious surface area against an Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU) set at 4,200 square feet. The adopted rate schedule charges $4.00 per month for a single-family home with one dwelling unit, $4.00 per dwelling unit for a two-unit SFR property or a non-SFR property with three or more units, and $4.00 per ERU for commercial, industrial or other non-SFR property, with the rate reviewed for adjustment every five years against the Consumer Price Index.

Federal, state, county and city roads are exempt, as is non-developed property left in its natural state, but tax-exempt government-owned property that is developed is not. Sec. 21-2.12 backs the fee and the broader BMP Manual requirements with enforcement: the Utility can issue a Stop Work Order on an active permit, cite violations under Chapter 27 (Property Code), and place a lien on a property for any public funds it has to spend cleaning up a violation.