Sustainable Jersey has a new action you can take that will significantly help improve stormwater management in your community. Stormwater is rainwater that falls onto impervious surfaces such as asphalt, concrete, or a building, and flows off of that surface where it then often ends up in storm drains and out into a local stream, significantly impacting stream health through flash flooding, erosion, scouring of habitat, non-point source pollution, and lessened aquifer recharge leading to lower base flows and less available drinking water for human consumption.
By passing an enhanced stormwater management control ordinance, new development and redevelopment projects will be required to retain stormwater onsite and allow it to percolate into the ground using green stormwater infrastructure (GSI). GSI mimics natural processes, creating pervious spaces where water flowing off of impervious surfaces is able to infiltrate into the aquifer. These could include projects such as rain gardens, bioswales, street tree trenches, porous pavement, or green roofs. Smaller sites are often exempt from normal stormwater management rules, but this action will award more “points” the smaller the sites required to meet the standards – the cumulative impact of all these small parcels of land is significant. SJ Watersavers would be more than happy to help your Green Team to implement this action to help save our water resources!
Additional Resources
New Jersey Future Stormwater Ordinance
Sustainable Jersey Enhanced Stormwater Action