Many cities and towns, as they’ve had to comply with federal clean water laws and get NPDES or similar stormwater permits, have objected—to the cost, or to requirements they considered excessive. The engineer for Franconia, Pennsylvania, a town of just over 13,000 people, went a bit farther during a meeting of the township’s board of supervisors last week, calling proposed new stormwater measures “eco-tolitarianism” and warning that individual property owners will feel their effects.
As this article notes, in April, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued a draft document describing the stormwater management programs that Franconia and other towns will need to develop. Recommended BMPs listed in the state’s draft include such things as stream buffers and bioswales, plus a number of methods to keep runoff from leaving a property and entering the storm sewer system: disconnecting roof drains, retrofitting detention basins, and so on. City-owned buildings, but not necessarily private ones, might be required to have low-impact-development or green infrastructures like rain gardens, green roofs, and permeable pavement.
Some members of the board viewed the requirements a bit differently; the chairman noted “We can fight this all we want, but some of it makes sense,” and called for the town to move ahead with engineering studies. The towns have until the end of the year to submit their stormwater plans.