Stormwater Seminar: HRI’s Latest Public Outreach Coup

Riverkeeper shows municipal officials how to not “get caught in the rain”

 

By Hugh M. Carola

 

On Monday, March 31, Hackensack Riverkeeper hosted a standing-room only seminar on New Jersey’s upcoming Phase Two Stormwater Regulations in the Dickinson Hall Auditorium at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Entitled “New Jersey’s New Stormwater Regulations: Don’t Get Caught in the Rain,” the event was co-sponsored by the NJDEP Division of Watershed Management, the Watershed Management Area Five Public Advisory Committee and FDU’s School of Natural Sciences.  A total of one hundred and twenty-eight persons attended, representing municipalities, engineering firms, environmental organizations and neighborhood groups.

“The new rules are coming,” said Capt. Bill in his welcoming remarks to the attendees, “and every municipality in the state will have to implement their fair share of stormwater controls to the benefit of New Jersey’s waterways.” The municipal requirements were well presented by Jim Cosgrove of TRC Omni Environmental who spent over 90 minutes detailing the new regulations and fielding questions from the audience. Kim Cenno of the NJDEP detailed funding opportunities available to communities to help implement the rules.

The new stormwater regulations are an outgrowth of the Clean Water Act’s requirement that each state has a responsibility to provide clean, healthy, plentiful and biologically-productive waters for its citizens. That requirement is now being translated to the local level. “In New Jersey, most water pollution comes from nonpoint sources like stormwater runoff so that is where we need to concentrate our clean water efforts,” said Capt. Bill.

Among those in attendance, sixty-four people were municipal, county or regional officials or employees. They included representatives from the NJ Meadowlands Commission, the Passaic Valley Water Commission, the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners, and even the Delaware River Joint Tollbridge Commission. Civil engineers representing twenty-five municipalities and Hudson County.  Fourteen other engineering and environmental consultants were also on hand. Every participant was given a packet of information featuring ways in which Hackensack Riverkeeper can help towns meet the extensive public education component of the regulations.

The seminar was the latest in a series of community-based public service events hosted by Hackensack Riverkeeper and was designed to help municipal and other local leaders better serve the needs of residents and their environment. “We’re talking about our communities, our waterways and a tough job that has to be done,” said Capt. Bill, “but it’s a job that we can do, we must do, and we will do.”