Benefits

Pennsylvania abounds in natural beauty, its landscape entwined with 83,161 miles of streams and more than 3,900 lakes, reservoirs, and ponds. Water is the lifeblood of the Commonwealth, supporting vast forests, abundant fish and wildlife, and a wide array of human uses that draw more than four billion gallons of ground and surface water per day. This wealth of water is a blessing, but population growth has radically altered the natural systems that manage rainfall through transpiration, infiltration, and gradual runoff into surface waters—leading to everything from poor water quality to flooding, severe erosion, and droughts. The solution lies in comprehensive stormwater management, which offers tremendous rewards to local economies, the environment, and quality of life.

MUNICIPALITIES

Stormwater may be low on the list of municipal priorities in times of drought, but it jumps to the top in serious storms. The increase in impervious surfaces from development causes runoff to overburden the sewer infrastructure, which in turn degrades the environment, impacts water quality, and affects human health. Local governments have the power to enact stormwater regulations that comply with state and federal laws, reduce damage from flooding, erosion, and combined sewer overflows, and improve the quality of residents’ lives.
Effective stormwater programs prevent flood damage >>

DEVELOPERS

Stormwater management for new developments has become synonymous with engineering, extensive site preparation, and costly infrastructure investment, but innovative approaches use site planning and design techniques to take advantage of natural land features. Instead of feeling burdened, forward thinking developers are finding opportunity in new stormwater regulations, and are creating more functional, livable, profitable communities in the process.
Stormwater management adds to the bottom line >>

ENGINEERS

With Pennsylvania averaging 42 inches of precipitation a year, it is easy to understand how development activities that change the surface features of land alter volume, rate, and water quality of the precipitation that runs off the land and into waterways. Communities across the Commonwealth are developing stormwater management programs to not only meet their regulatory requirements, but to “convert” stormwater from nuisance to be disposed of into an important local resource. Innovative approaches to stormwater management can expedite permits, reduce infrastructure costs, and increase property values.
The value-added far exceeds any monetary cost >>