Stormwater is considered water that falls from the sky (including snow!). Impervious surfaces such as roads, sidewalks, and roofs do not allow stormwater to penetrate back into the ground.  Instead, these hard surfaces create “stormwater runoff” across their surfaces, carrying waste and excess nutrients into our water bodies. These water bodies eventually connect to Barnegat Bay through our watershed.

The current Stormwater Utility Bill, that is in the process of becoming law, will give individual municipalities, counties and utilities the power to create their own individual storm water utility fee. This fee will keep property owners with a large quantity of impervious surface accountable for their stormwater contributions. The fees collected will go towards implementing better stormwater management practices such as but not limited to native bio-swales, rain gardens, and rain barrels to divert and slow stormwater before it reaches Barnegat Bay.

Yellow card above:

“As Ocean County and New Jersey become largely developed, the emphasis in protecting clean water in Barnegat Bay and other water bodies is gradually shifting from a focus on conservation of natural lands to a new emphasis on modern green-infrastructure stormwater management.

By far the most effective way of implementing up-to-date stormwater techniques is to allow the creation of stormwater utilities by municipalities and counties to fund modern swales, storm drains, detention basins, and treatment devices.

A bill to make storm water utilities possible has passed through Committee and is waiting to be posted by Speaker Craig J. Coughlin for a vote by the whole Assembly.

Please call 732-855-7441 or write

Assembly Speaker Craig J. Coughlin

569 Rahway Ave 

Woodbridge, NJ 07095

Still want to learn more about a Stormwater Utility? Check out this report written by one of our partners, New Jersey Future.