Illicit discharge

Collier County Code Sec. 54-65, part of the Water Pollution Control and Prevention Ordinance, defines an illicit discharge as "substances not composed entirely of Stormwater that may directly or indirectly enter a Stormwater Management System or Waters of the State, except as exempted in Section 54-68 and Section 54-72."

Stormwater and Stormwater Management System, the capitalized terms in that sentence, are defined in the same section, and so is Pollutant. Stormwater is "the water that results from a rainfall event." A Pollutant is a substance that alters the chemical, physical, biological, thermal or radiological integrity of soil, stormwater, ground water or surface water. The Stormwater Management System is the network of roads with drainage, ponds, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, channels and storm drains, public or private, that collects and carries rainwater; the stormwater system entry takes that part of the definition apart.

The exemptions in Sec. 54-72(4) are a list of discharges allowed “provided they do not cause a violation of water quality standards.” The list includes air conditioning condensation, rising ground water, firefighting, “uncontaminated roof runoff” and “any other water source not containing Pollutants”, and how it reads for wash water is argued in the answer linked at the foot of this entry.

The reach matters as much as the words. Sec. 54-64 applies the ordinance to the unincorporated county, and to a city inside the county only where that city agrees by resolution of its governing body. The sources behind this page do not settle whether the City of Naples has done so.

The federal stormwater rule defines the same phrase more narrowly. Under 40 CFR 122.26(b)(2), an illicit discharge "means any discharge to a municipal separate storm sewer that is not composed entirely of storm water except discharges pursuant to a NPDES permit (other than the NPDES permit for discharges from the municipal separate storm sewer) and discharges resulting from fire fighting activities."

A municipal separate storm sewer, in paragraph (b)(8), is a system of conveyances for storm water that a public body owns or operates; the stormwater system entry lists its parts. Storm water, in paragraph (b)(13), "means storm water runoff, snow melt runoff, and surface runoff and drainage."

The difference in one sentence: the federal definition is limited to a publicly owned or operated storm sewer and exempts permitted discharges and fire fighting, while the county's reaches privately owned systems and Waters of the State too and points to its own exemption list.

Two local government pages put the term into everyday words, and one of them names wash water outright.

The City of Naples Streets and Stormwater Pollution Prevention page, as the Internet Archive saved it on March 19, 2022, states that “Illicit Discharges are prohibited”.

Its description of an illicit connection includes conveyances “which allow any non-storm water discharge including sewage, process wastewater, and wash water to enter the storm drain system”. The page asks readers to report paint, soap or other pollutants entering a storm drain to the city's Code Enforcement Division, and a caption beside that request reads “Power washing soap entering stormdrain”.

Collier's NPDES Permit page, as archived on October 28, 2025, explains the federal side: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires the county “to operate its storm sewer system in a manner that prevents pollution flowing into state waterbodies.” It describes pollution that “can come from pipes from homes or businesses dumping into swales or canals” or from hazardous materials poured into a storm drain, adds that “These are referred to as illicit discharges”, and lists what untreated discharges carry: heavy metals, toxic substances, oil and grease, solvents, nutrients, viruses and bacteria.

Every definition on this page is printed as its author's, and none of them is applied here to any property. Whether a particular discharge falls inside an exemption, or counts as a violation, is decided by the office that enforces the code at that address: the county's Pollution Control section for the unincorporated county, or the City of Naples' Code Enforcement Division inside the city. For a Marco Island, Estero or Bonita Springs address, the local government there says which code, if any of these, applies.

Sec. 54-65's sentence speaks only of substances and where they go. It names no license, no permit and no certificate of insurance, so paperwork of that kind is not part of the definition at all. Whether a wash needs a permit in the first place is a separate question, answered on whether a permit is needed for exterior cleaning.

• Whether rinse water from a wash may reach a street drain is argued on whether the wash water goes into the storm drain.
• Where a roof wash's water ends up on the ground is covered by what happens to the runoff from roof cleaning.
• The county's washing rule for a driveway, including where its water must drain, is on the paver cleaning rules section.