Three panelists at today’s green infrastructure webinar shared their views on what local governments will need to do to comply with a state environmental regulation that will require construction projects to treat stormwater runoff with green infrastructure – a practice that The Watershed Institute has strongly endorsed.
More than 150 attendees, including municipal engineers and land-use board members, environmental commission members and environmentalists attended the webinar. They listened to panelists Brian Friedlich, a civil and environmental engineer; Clay Emerson, a water resource engineer at Princeton Hydro; and Gabriel Mahon an engineer at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Water Quality and Bureau Chief of its Bureau of Nonpoint Pollution Control.
The regulations will require the use of green infrastructure practices–such as rain gardens and swales vegetated with native plants–to achieve water quality, water quantity, and groundwater recharge standards. As far as possible, or to the “greatest extent practicable,” green infrastructure must be used to treat and absorb stormwater close to its source and in a manner that mimics nature.
The webinar focused on several topics, including a clear explanation of the new rules, how local governments will comply with these requirements, how planning and zoning boards will incorporate the new law into their review processes, and how applicants will comply with the new requirements.
NJDEP has developed a model ordinance and The Watershed Institute is working with local government engineers, attorneys and land-use members adapt the state model into local ordinances.
The webinar was co-sponsored by the New Jersey Section of American Waters Resources Association.
Speakers and their presentations
Brian Friedlich, P.E. has fifteen years of private consulting experience in civil and environmental engineering disciplines. His expertise includes stormwater management, water resources, wastewater treatment, and environmental permitting. He has extensive experience with the planning and design of stormwater management facilities with a focus on green infrastructure and natural systems. Brian is a Professional Engineer in the State of New Jersey. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from Tufts University and a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from MIT.
Clay Emerson, P.E. is a Water Resource Engineer at Princeton Hydro where he works on a wide variety of water resources projects, with a specific focus on stormwater management. He has graduate degrees from Drexel University and Villanova University where his research focused on stormwater management.
Gabriel Mahon, P.E. graduated from Lafayette College in 2004 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and he is currently a licensed professional engineer in both Pennsylvania and Delaware. He spent the first 12 years of his professional career working in the NJDEP Division of Land Use Regulation as an environmental engineer responsible for reviewing the engineering aspects of Land Use Regulation applications to ensure compliance with the Flood Hazard Area Control Act Rules, Coastal Zone Management Rules, Stormwater Management rules, and Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act Rules. For the last 3 years, he has been working in the NJDEP Division of Water Quality, where he is now the Bureau Chief of the Bureau of Nonpoint Pollution Control (BNPC). As the Bureau Chief of BNPC, he is responsible for managing the NJPDES industrial stormwater permitting program, the NJPDES discharge to groundwater program, the onsite wastewater management (septic system) program, and the municipal stormwater regulation program, which includes the Stormwater Management rules (N.J.A.C. 7:8) and the NJPDES municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) permitting program.
