The NJDEP is currently in the process of making revisions to the Stormwater Management Rules SWM. The revisions focus mainly on residential site improvement standards which could potentially affect the highways’ stormwater management. These changes will be more stringent thus complicating the development of highway projects through environmentally sensitive areas.

A proactive approach to meet DEP’s goals is to develop a plan to identify and make improvements to existing watersheds. These improvements, consisting of improved stormwater runoff treatment, recharge, and controlled discharge into streams and rivers, can then be used to negotiate with the DEP for credit against future projects where compliance with stormwater rules can’t be met.

Primarily the approach of banking credits for storm water improvements will demonstrate compliance with the current mitigation requirements. The banking of credits for improvements will assure that projects can be built without costly delays. The basic premise is that if improvements to stormwater runoff are made at feasible locations within the same watershed, the DEP will issue credit to be applied towards those situations where improvements cannot be made, due to environmental constraints such as ROW, parklands, historic concerns, wetlands, flood plains, etc.

The objective of this study is to:

• Investigate water quality mitigation/banking/retrofit sites along State owned roadways within local watershed areas
• Eliminate or reduce linear development waivers from strict compliance for future projects
• Eliminate or reduce hardship waivers for project scope, schedule, cost and funding impact due to water quality mitigation