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Fight flooding and pollution with the updated Green Infrastructure Municipal Toolkit

#Featured Articles,

#Drinking Water,

#Green Infrastructure/Stormwater Management

09/09/19

Kandyce Perry, New Jersey Future

Have you seen the award-winning Green Infrastructure Municipal Toolkit?

The Green Infrastructure Municipal Toolkit is perfect for community leaders who want to manage stormwater sustainably, reduce localized flooding, and improve water quality. When NJDEP adopts stormwater rule amendments later this year that require the use of green infrastructure, the Toolkit will be an especially valuable resource to New Jersey cities and towns.

The Toolkit is a one-stop online resource that helps communities implement successful green infrastructure projects. It’s full of information about planning, implementing, and sustaining green infrastructure to manage stormwater — and it contains direct links to Sustainable Jersey’s green infrastructure actions, which can earn up to 20 points each.

Here’s what’s new:

New Complete and Green Streets Model Policy and Guide

With support and input from New Jersey Future, Jersey Water Works Green Infrastructure Committee, and many other partners (see page ii), the New Jersey Department of Transportation just released Complete and Green Streets for All: Model Complete Streets Policy and Guide, which provides guidance for municipalities, counties, and transportation agencies to create effective complete streets policies that are safe for all users. We are especially excited that the inclusion of green infrastructure means roads can act as stormwater management assets, instead of simply channeling stormwater into existing gray infrastructure systems. The model policy also includes language for addressing health, economic development, and equity, and it provides strengthened implementation mechanisms. Read more.

New Resources

Additional Green Street Resources:

Stormwater Utilities

In March 2019, New Jersey joined more than 40 other states in allowing local and regional government entities to establish stormwater utilities. Like energy and water utilities, a stormwater utility provides stormwater management services to its customers for a fee, which is used to maintain and improve public stormwater management systems, including green infrastructure. This is an important new option for jurisdictions in New Jersey that struggle with storm-related flooding and polluted runoff. To learn more about stormwater utilities in New Jersey, please visit New Jersey Future’s stormwater utilities resource page.

For Planners and Local Decision-Makers

Milwaukee recently adopted a comprehensive Green Infrastructure Plan, including a “priority location analysis” (pp 30-39).
New Jersey Institute of Technology Decision Tree for Brownfield sites

For Engineers and Other Design Professionals:

General

Maryland MOST (Municipal Online Stormwater Training Center)
Stormwater Greening is Good for Business

Find all these resources and more on the Toolkit’s Resources page.
Do you know a resource we should include? Email Julia McBride.

Stormwater Camp 2019

Stormwater Camp was filled with field trips and hands-on activities designed to help campers in grades 5-7 understand the connection between rainfall, runoff, the rivers and lakes they love, the wildlife that surrounds them, and the water flowing into and out of their homes. Read more.

Upcoming events:

Sept. 24: Complete Streets Summit (Rutgers University, New Brunswick)
Oct. 4: ANJEC Environmental Congress (Mercer County Community College)
Oct. 5: Managing Stormwater by Engaging Private Landowners: Success Stories and Strategies (Villanova University)
Dec. 13: Jersey Water Works Conference (New Brunswick)

Green Infrastructure Municipal Toolkit in the News

The Toolkit was developed in consultation with the Green Infrastructure Municipal Toolkit Advisory Committee, a group of more than 20 municipal leaders and experts. It is a product of New Jersey Future’s Mainstreaming Green Infrastructure program, which aims to move green stormwater infrastructure practices into the mainstream.

Would you like more green infrastructure updates in the future? Sign up for our mailing list.

Share the Green Infrastructure Municipal Toolkit on social media! Connect with New Jersey Future on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn (@newjerseyfuture). Use these hashtags: #NJGIToolkit #MainstreamingGI #greeninfrastructure #stormwater

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