COURT HOUSE – New state regulations scheduled to take effect March 2 will change how development projects must plan to handle stormwater in the future.
At Middle Township Committee’s Feb. 1 work session, Municipal Engineer Vincent Orlando explained that new regulations place greater reporting and oversight burdens on municipalities, while also changing the way planning engineers will have to manage stormwater in designs presented to planning and zoning boards across the county.
The new regulations will have no impact on single-family dwellings and do not require retrofitting existing development. The new rules are future-oriented and their full magnitude, according to Orlando, is not yet clear. Public Works Director Robert Flynn said, “The first couple of years will be a learning curve.”
Flynn and Orlando acknowledged that the new reporting and enforcement responsibilities may require an additional position in the Public Works Department.
The new regulations are built on a state Department of Environmental Protection concept of green infrastructure that establishes practices intended to mimic the natural water cycle to capture, filter, or reuse stormwater.
Orlando said direct discharge of the water into a pipe will no longer be allowed. Large single catch basins will also no longer be part of subdivisions. Instead, mechanisms will be required to be in place that will lead to “filtering before discharge.”
