Middle Tennessee State University and the City of Murfreesboro’s Water and Sewer Department are inviting the public to attend an upcoming meeting on how campus stormwater is handled.

MTSU and the city are jointly seeking a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, MS4 Permit. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation requires the permit as mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Water Act of 1972.

The public meeting will highlight the annual report and outcomes of the program. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13, in Meeting Room B at Patterson Park Community Center, located at 521 Mercury Blvd.

This is the first year of the program for MTSU and also the first year of the co-permit between the city and the university.

Both the TDEC and the permit process require MTSU and the city to hold a public meeting to encourage public participation and community involvement with the programs, according to Shelia Knight, an environmental engineer with MTSU Environmental Health and Safety Services.

The primary goal of this permit is improving surface-water quality by reducing pollutants in the runoff water.

Polluted stormwater runoff is commonly transported through Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems, also called MS4s, where it is often discharged untreated into local bodies of water. To prevent harmful pollutants from being washed or dumped into such a system, operators must obtain a NPDES permit and develop a stormwater management program.