GSWA model ordinance is fair, do-able, affordable
Many members remember the enormous effort undertaken by participants in the Great Swamp Watershed Advisory Committee (GSWAC). GSWAC, a committee of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), worked for over three and one-half years researching and preparing its recommendations. The Committee was chaired by Candace Ashmun; its members included representatives from each watershed community, two counties, business, development, education and environmental groups and local non-governmental organizations. It reached its recommendations with near unanimity.
One major recommendation of the GSWAC was that watershed municipalities establish and implement policies requiring "no net increase" in stormwater runoff volumes and pollutant loadings. In addition, GSWAC suggested that watershed towns "emphasize nonstructural methods of nonpoint source and stormwater control rather than structural remedies wherever and whenever possible."
In its response to the GSWAC recommendations, NJDEP agreed that this goal was important. In the legislation subsequently proposed by Senator Robert Martin and Assemblyman Richard Bagger to create a Great Swamp Watershed Regional Planning Commission, stormwater volumes and pollutant loadings were also high on the lists of important issues to be tackled if the region were to achieve downstream property protection.
When GSWAC first proposed a "no net increase" goal for the Great Swamp watershed many said it couldn't be done -- not here, with our predominantly clay soils and critical wetland areas. And besides, it wouldn't be fair, placing a burden on new development that hadn't been expected of earlier development.
The Great Swamp Watershed Association "took the bull by the horns" and has developed a model stormwater ordinance for Great Swamp watershed communities that will indeed achieve "no net increase" in stormwater volume and pollutant loadings for our watershed if it is used as a guide by watershed municipalities for their own stormwater ordinances.
It is simple in concept, fair, doable and affordable for developers of any size property. For those who would like to see development arrested in our watershed, this ordinance will not be the vehicle!
However, it should prove essential in providing long-term protection to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness Area and to help prevent increased flooding of private properties located in the watershed's downstream areas.
We were extremely fortunate to have been able to take advantage of the knowledge and experience of a number of people in developing this ordinance.
Toby Tourbier of Tourbier & Walmsley, located in Philadelphia and New York, is responsible for the principles and creative thinking behind the ordinance and has prepared a guidance document to back it up.
Charles Miller of CH2MHill in Philadelphia (consultants to GSWAC) provided "no net" advice.
John Thonet of South Orange gave us New Jersey and Great Swamp watershed expertise and actually put the ordinance in writing.
Thanks to Harding Township which permitted Bob Fox of Apgar Associates (their municipal engineer) to review the ordinance and provide local municipal comment and support; we have sent the ordinance to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
While the ordinance was developed to aid Chatham Township in the short-term, we hope it will support the effort undertaken by the Ten Towns Great Swamp Committee as it addresses stormwater and wastewater planning for the watershed. Finally, this expert professional guidance should help each watershed community in reviewing its own stormwater ordinance.
-- Julia Somers, Executive Director, Great Swamp Watershed Association