Stormwater

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Ways to Keep Our Waters Clean

You can make a difference in your own backyard to help reduce stormwater runoff and keep our waters clean.

Employ Sustainable Landscaping Practices

1. Reduce your use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.   Change over to organic, natural products.  Do not apply if rain is forecast.  
2. Reduce your lawn size and keep the rest of your property or yard in natural state with native trees and other native vegetation that require little or no fertilizer.
3. Plant a rain garden of native plants, shrubs and trees that reduce the amount of fertilizer needed and provide a way for water to soak into the ground.
4. Plant trees, preferably native varieties, to help reduce erosion. Their leaf canopies help reduce erosion caused by falling rain. They also provide surface area where rain water lands and evaporates. Roots take up water and help create conditions in the soil that promote infiltration.

Reduce Runoff

1. Reduce impervious surfaces such as concrete and asphalt and use pavers and bricks where water can trickle down through the gaps to reach the ground.
2. Grade all areas away from your house at a gentle slope so that water does not seep through the foundation. Once the water has been carried 10 feet from the house, the surface should be graded so that runoff is released gradually.
3. Redirect downspouts and divert rain from paved surfaces onto the grass or rain gardens.  Your goal should be to keep as much rainwater on site as possible. (Here’s a how-to manual to help homeowners build a rain garden - Rutgers Rain Garden Manual of New Jersey.
4. Install a rain barrel(s) to collect rainwater; the rainwater can later be used to water your plants and lawn.

Properly Use and Dispose of Hazardous Products

1. Motor Vehicles.
   Maintain your car properly so that motor oil, brake linings, exhaust, and other fluids don’t contribute to stormwater pollution. Car washing is also a pollution problem because many metals and automotive fluids are washed off with the soapy water, which travels down the gutter collecting more street pollutants, then enters our storm water conveyance system and spills into our waterways and bays. Commercial car washes recycle the water and send it to a wastewater treatment facility.
2. If you have hazardous products in your home or workplace, make sure you store or dispose of them properly such as during Mercer County's Hazardous Waste Disposal Days.  
3. Do not pour any hazardous products down a storm drain because storm drains are usually connected to local water bodies and the water is not treated.
4. Use natural or less toxic alternatives when possible. 

 Dispose of Yard Waste Properly

1. Keep storm drains clean. Keep debris out of the street and away from the storm drains, especially during the leaf and brush pick up seasons.  Leaf and brush materials for pickup should be placed ABOVE the curb, not in the street, properly bagged or containerized.
2. Use leaves and grass clippings as a resource for compost.
3. Use a mulching mower that recycles grass clippings into the lawn. 

Don't Litter

1. Place litter in trash receptacles. 
2. Recycle. Recycle. Recycle.
3. Participate in community cleanups.

Animal Waste 

1. Scoop the Poop.  One gram of pet waste contains 23 million fecal coliform bacteria and does NOT belong in our waterways.  It can suffocate aquatic animals, insects, and fish. Fecal coliform bacteria can cause pneumonia,  abdominal pain, diarrhea, fevers, and possible vomiting in humans.   You can either bag it and dispose of it in the trash, or flush it down the toilet.  Be sure to remove it from the plastic bag before flushing. 

Municipal Stormwater Pollution Protection Plan for the Township of Ewing, adopted June 2005 and describes how we implement the permit requirments in regards to our stormwater program.

Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan for the Township of Ewing, Revised to December 2020.  November 2020.

Check the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection website to learn more about what you can do to improve our water quality.

• Healthy Lawns – Healthy Water
• Pet Waste Pollutes Our Waters - What pet owners can do to help protect our water
• What is NonPoint Source Pollution? - And suggestions for making a difference.
• Leave the Leaves - Learn about our Mulch in Place recommendations in support of Ewing Township Ordinance 21-08 that mandates that leaves and other yard debris (including grass) must be bagged in biodegradable paper bags or containers.  This recommendation encourages all property owners to see leaves as a valuable resource that shouldn't go to waste every fall.  Leaves piled at the curb can create safety hazards for drivers and wash into storm drains, clogging storm sewers.  Leaves decaying on the street release nutrients such as phosphate and nitrogen that eventually wash into our rivers.  Check out our informational pages for homeowners and landscapers.
• Leave the Leaves - A part of a sustainable landscaping campaign by the Ewing Green Team, managing your fall leaf drop on your own property will not only benefit wildlife, nourish your soil and plants, reduce stormwater runoff and pollution, but also Township operating costs through reduced man-hours. 

NJ Green Infrastructure
A NJ DEP site that explains how development practices affect our watersheds and promotes green stormwater practices.
Clean Water New Jersey 
A NJ DEP site that educates the public as to what they can do to promote and protect our waterways in NJ.
NJ Stormwater
The NJDEP's stormwater web site for stormwater management professionals and permittees. Here you'll find links to technical information, guidance materials, forms, and applications.
New Jersey Stormwater Best Management Practices Manual
Developed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, in coordination with the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, the New Jersey Department of Transportation, municipal engineers, county engineers, consulting firms, contractors, and environmental organizations.

• Stormwater Control Ordinance (Amendment effective 12/20/2020)
• Private Retrofitting Ordinance
• Curbing of Dogs
• Litter Ordinance
• Yard Waste Ordinance
• Wildlife Feeding Ordinance
• Yard Waste Collection Program §319-31 (04-14-21) 
• Illicit Connection