Under the Federal Clean Water Act local municipalities are responsible for the quality of the water discharged from their storm drains in waterways. Stormwater quality is regulated at the local level through the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit. There are two levels of these permits: Phase I is for large cities and Phase II is for small cities. Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issued Phase II permits to cities in the Rogue Valley in 2007. Prior to permit issuance, the communities went through an extensive process with nationally recognized consultants, public meetings, and local agencies to determine the most cost-effective manner to implement the permit requirements. At the end of the process it was decided that jointly running the stormwater quality program through a single entity would be most cost effective, since RVSS already jointly provided sanitary sewer service it made sense for us to provide the stormwater quality program as well. RVSS now holds the permit and manages the program for the cities of Phoenix, Talent, and unincorporated, urbanized Jackson County.