Council Introduces Revised Stormwater Management Ordinance

On June 10th, the Council introduced a revised ordinance for Stormwater Management. This revision was required following the adoption of the NJ Department of Environmental Protection's Inland Flood Protection Rule, effective July 17, 2023. New Jersey’s residents face threats from the devastating impacts of extreme rainfall events which are expected to continue to intensify in their frequency and severity. The Inland Flood Protection Rule protects public safety by ensuring that areas at most significant risk are better defined and that new and reconstructed assets in these areas are designed and constructed using the best available climate-informed precipitation data. Using the best available data is critical to protecting New Jersey’s assets, economy and, above all, our people from the catastrophic effects of worsening floods.

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This ordinance will be reviewed at the next Planning Board meeting on June 19, 2024 at 6:30pm. The hearing for adoption of this ordinance is scheduled for the next Council meeting on June 24, 2024, at 7:00pm. If you have an opinion on this issue, please consider coming to either or both of these meetings and make your voice heard.

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I voted against the introduction of this municipal ordinance revision because I felt that the revisions were not strong enough.

At the previous Council meeting, this body made recommendations regarding changes and enhancements to this ordinance. I specifically requested enhancements to further protect West Windsor residents from flooding and water pollution. The enhancements that I requested, both during the meeting and in writing, were to 1) reduce the threshold definition for major development; 2) to require major developments to treat runoff from all impervious surfaces for water quality; 3) to require stormwater management for minor development; 4) to address redevelopment; 5) to require the use of Low Impact Development techniques, and 6) to include maintenance and inspection reporting requirements.

I was disappointed that none of these enhancements were included in the ordinance that was submitted for introduction.

In addition, members of the community have asked that language be added regarding how proposed revisions to previously approved plans should be handled. Specifically, their request is that any proposed revision to an existing plan should require adherence to the current ordinance.

While the proposed revised ordinance is not bad, we can do so much better. It includes the minimum standards set forth by the NJDEP, as well as an enhancement regarding driveways. I believe we should be doing everything possible to protect and improve water quality while mitigating flooding for the public health, safety and welfare of our community.

If we claim to be environmentalists, if we claim to want to mitigate flooding in our community, if we claim that we want to keep our water clean, then we should turn our claims into actions, demonstrate leadership, and enhance this ordinance to further protect our community.

Without these enhancements, I could not support the introduction of this revised ordinance.

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The following is my prepared remarks during the discussion of this ordinance at the May 28th Council meeting.

The NJ Department of Environmental Protection’s model ordinance sets minimum standards for stormwater management.  It also affirms that municipalities may “undertake additional actions including ordinances with standards stronger than the statewide minimum requirements”.

Last year, the Watershed Institute released an Enhanced Stormwater Management Model Ordinance, based on the NJDEP model ordinance and held a webinar that provided a technical overview, which was recorded, and is available online on their website.

The Watershed Institute is a New Jersey not-for-profit organization.  Keeping water clean, safe and healthy is the heart of their mission. They work to protect and restore our water and natural environment through conservation, advocacy, science and education.

Flooding is an urgent problem for municipalities. This problem is exacerbated by the continued increase in impervious cover.  According to a NJDEP's report, the state is experiencing significant increases in precipitation and storms resulting in extreme rain events due to climate change. The report predicts that the size and frequency of floods will increase as annual precipitation increases. As a result of this report, among other factors, the DEP adopted the Inland Flood Protection Rule.

A significant contributor to flooding and poor water quality is inadequate management of stormwater runoff.  The goal of a municipal stormwater ordinance should be to protect and improve water quality while mitigating flooding for the public health, safety and welfare of the community.  

Existing state regulations and many municipal stormwater control ordinances are inadequate because the current "quantity requirement" is misleading. It’s based on a rate and not volume.  New developments meet this requirement by reducing the rate of stormwater runoff, yet the total volume of runoff has increased, leading to flooding and stream erosion. Revising ordinances to manage stormwater volume through onsite retention or other reduction measures is essential.

The Watershed Institute Enhanced Stormwater Management Ordinance includes the following:

·        Reduced threshold definition for major development

·        Requires major developments to treat runoff from all impervious surfaces for water quality

·        Requires stormwater management for minor development

·        Addresses redevelopment

·        Requires the use of Low Impact Development techniques

·        Includes maintenance and inspection reporting requirements

I believe that municipalities must act aggressively to address the serious problems of water pollution and flooding. 

All of the enhancements found in the Watershed Institute model ordinance should be considered for adoption as allowed in the current Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit.

Furthermore, the new NJ MS4 Permit will require towns to come up with a plan to reduce flooding by 2027.  We should be doing everything that we can do to minimize flooding now, especially in terms of new development.  If we ignore this, it will result in a significant future taxpayer bill to remediate the flooding problems in West Windsor, which are only going to get worse.

I look forward to seeing a revised version of this ordinance prior to introduction.