On January 5, 2004, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) adopted new stormwater regulations which require the City of Linden to comply with the requirements of the NJPDES Tier A Municipal Stormwater Permit. In accordance with this permit, the City of Linden has adopted a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan, Stormwater Management Plan and Stormwater Control Ordinance. In addition, Ordinances were either modified or adopted regarding Pet Waste, Litter, Improper Waste Disposal, Wildlife Feeding, Yard Waste, Containerized Yard Waste and Illicit Connections. A summary of these Ordinances are as follows:
- All pet owners are required to immediately and properly dispose of their pet’s solid waste deposited on any property, public or private, not owned by that person.
- It shall be unlawful for any person to throw, drop, discard or otherwise place any litter of any nature upon public or private property other than in a litter receptacle.
- The spilling, dumping, or disposal of materials other than stormwater to the municipal storm sewer system operated by the City of Linden is prohibited. (Exceptions include potable water, uncontaminated ground water, air conditioning condensate, irrigation water, residential car washing and swimming pool discharges, and flows from firefighting activities.)
- No person shall feed, in any public park or on any other property owned or operated by the City of Linden, any wildlife, excluding confined wildlife.
- Sweeping, raking, blowing or otherwise placing yard waste that is no containerized at the curb or along the street is only allowed during the 7 days prior to a scheduled and announced collection, and shall not be placed closer than 10 feet from any storm drain.
- The owner or occupant of any property, or any employee or contractor of the same engaged to provide lawn care or landscaping services, shall not sweep, rake, blow or otherwise place yard waste, unless the yard waste is containerized, in the street.
- No person shall discharge or cause to be discharged through an illicit connection to the municipal storm sewer system operated by the City of Linden any domestic sewerage, non-contact cooling water, process wastewater, or other industrial waste.
A more visible requirement has been the labeling of storm drains – “Dump No Waste, Drains to Waterways,” and the retrofitting of storm drains during road reconstruction or repaving with inlets that meet the design standards of the permit in order to reduce the amount of solids and floatables in our waterways. For more information, please visit NJDEP Stormwater and read the Solutions to Stormwater Information Guide.
