Replumbing the Bay

Retrofitting Barnegat Bay's Green Infrastructure to Reduce Polluted Stormwater Runoff

In 2011 the American Littoral Society was awarded Clean Water Act [319(h)]  funding from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to Prioritize and implement targeted stormwater management strategies to reduce nutrient, pathogen, and sediment loading to Long Swamp Creek, Lower Toms River and Barnegat Bay.

Our Principal Investigator is Dr. Stephen Souza, President of Princeton Hydro, LLC. 

Our project partners include: 

Ocean County Soil Conservation District
Ocean County Department of Planning  
Ocean County Department of Engineering and Roads
Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve

Numerous studies have linked the decline in Barnegat Bay’s water quality and negative ecosystem impacts to multiple pollution sources including a recent USGS report which attributed pollution loads as: 22% Atmospheric Deposition (e.g. coal power plants & automobile emissions) 12% Groundwater Introduction and 66% from Land Use and Development  (e.g. Stormwater runoff, non-point source “stormwater” pollution).

In recent years, it has become evident that many existing stormwater basins are not functioning in a way that fully utilizes their pollution reduction potential. There are over 2,700 stormwater basins located in the Barnegat Bay watershed and the American Littoral Society is committed to researching and implementing innovative approaches to retrofit them to improve the health of the Bay. In essence, we are finding ways to "replumb" the bay.

Over 3 years our Clean Water Project will:

• Develop a multi-faceted prioritization methodology to help us and others select and prioritize which stormwater retrofits will deliver the most improvement to the bay for funds available. This component of the project is complete and we are now developing an action plan to put this to use in the next phases of our project and to share it with others who can put it to good use in the watershed and beyond. 
• Physically retrofit selected basins for more effective pollutant removal and recharge
• Study the results of several retrofitted basins 
• Educate numerous professionals and the general public about improving water quality through stormwater retrofit  projects and soil restoration

As the project work advances, we will update this webpage. Please check back frequently to keep up with our progress. Outreach and Education is a main component of this project and as workshops and other project milestones are reached, we will provide you with access to the educational materials.

STORMWATER BASIN ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION WORKSHOP

On December 13th, through coordination and participation with our partners from Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve and Ocean County Soil Conservation District, a skill-based workshop was held for professional engineers in order to train them in the application of a stormwater basin "Assessment and Evalution/Prioritization Matrix" tool developed for prioritizing individual basin retrofits so that they can be 'ranked' in order of environmental and economic 'values'.

To learn more, you can review or download all of workshop documents below. In addition to significant input by our project partners Princeton Hydro LLC and the Jaques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, information was also provided by representatives of the New Jersey Department of Evironmental Protection and the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust program.

Workshop Agenda Download PDF 

Overview and Application of a Stormwater Basin Assessment and Evaluation Matrix 
Stephen J. Souza, Ph.D. Princeton Hydro, LLC Download PDF

Stormwater Basin Matrix and Ranking Procedure – Project Field Evaluation 
Stephen J. Souza, Ph. D. Princeton Hydro, LLC Download PDF

Stormwater Basin Retrofit Options: BMP’s and More including Gravel Wetland Systems
Stephen Souza, Ph. D. Princeton Hydro, LLC  Download PDF

Stormwater Funding Programs & Opportunities
John Hansbury, Jr., MBA, Chief Budget Officer New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust  Download PDF