What is Stormwater Management?

Stormwater management is the control of runoff as close as possible to its point of origin in order to provide for infiltration and prevent the worsening of downstream flooding. In addition to preventing/reducing flood damage, stormwater management has additional benefits for water quality control and enhancement of infiltration to groundwater.

Who Manages Stormwater?

In the Delaware River Basin, state and local governments are responsible for stormwater management.

In March 2024, the DRBC released a new, interactive tool that allows users to obtain estimates of future changes in intensity, duration and frequency (IDF curves) of extreme rainfall in the Delaware River Basin. This tool will help inform community stormwater management and infrastructure design, increasing climate resilience.

• Learn more about this tool

Examples of Stormwater Management

• Detention Basins
  
  
• Natural landscaping and stream buffers
  
  
• Reducing mowing in floodplains and detention basins
  
  
• Diverting gutter downspouts to lawns or rain barrels
  
  
• Retrofitting impervious surfaces to make them more pervious, e.g., porous paving

Delaware

• Delaware DNREC Sediment and Stormwater Management Program

New Jersey

• Camden SMART Initiative
  
  
• New Jersey DEP Stormwater
  
  
• NJ Stormwater Matters (news stories about stormwater)

New York

• New York State DEC Stormwater

Pennsylvania

• Center for Watershed Protection: Stormwater Management
  
  
• Pennsylvania DEP Stormwater Management Program
  
  
• Philly Water Department's Green City, Clean Waters Program
  
  
• StormwaterPA Web Site (an initiative of GreenTreks Network)
  
  
• Temple University: Pennypack Watershed Act 167
  
  
• Villanova Urban Stormwater Partnership

Federal/Nationwide

• The National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies
  
  
• NOAA: Adapting Stormwater Management for Coastal Floods
  
  
• U.S. EPA: Green Infrastructure
  
  
• U.S. EPA: National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System - Stormwater Planning

Stormwater Presentations Given at DRBC Meetings

• At the December 10, 2008 DRBC meeting, Howard M. Neukrug, P.E., then-Director of the Philadelphia Water Department's (PWD) Office of Watersheds, gave a presentation on "Philadelphia Water Conservation and Stormwater Management Approaches." Click here to view the presentation (pdf 12.5 MB). 
  
  
• At the December 12, 2007 DRBC meeting, Rebecca L. Schneider, Ph.D., Director of the Department of Natural Resources at Cornell University, gave a presentation on "Roadside Ditch Management to Reduce Stormwater Runoff and Mitigate Floods and Droughts;" click here to view the presentation (pdf 2.9 MB).

DRBC Stormwater Demonstration Project

• At the July 18, 2007 DRBC meeting, a ribbon cutting ceremony was held to mark the completion of the first phase of the DRBC Stormwater Demonstration Project, an ongoing effort to demonstrate how an older site (the DRBC Headquarters) can be transformed (or retrofitted) to properly handle stormwater. View the press release.