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Projects & Programs - Watershed Planning & Implementation

Troy Brook Implementation Project

Project Funding Source:  NJDEP 319(h)

Greening the Department of Public Works (DPW) Facility in the Troy Brook Watershed

Department of Public Works (DPW) yards are often an ignored sector in municipal/county environmental rehabilitation efforts. DPW yards are often the workhorses of the municipality, frequently out of sight, and near a waterbody. Installing demonstration projects at the DPW yards in Parsippany-Troy Hills and Mountain Lakes as part of the Troy Brook Implementation grant provided a new way to look at stormwater runoff from DPW yards.   The staff at the DPW yard has been educated about the practices. The DPW is a stop on all of the Morris County educational stormwater BMP tours. Brochures were developed for each BMP. A Power Point presentation has been developed based on this case study. The specific BMPs that were installed as demonstration projects at these two DPWs were:

• Pervious pavers: Turfstone pavers are interlocking pavers that are placed on roads or parking areas that do not receive heavy traffic. The pavers allow grass to grow between them, decreasing the amount of runoff from the area and allowing infiltration. 
• Cistern: A cistern is a large rain water harvesting system that can be installed to capture roof runoff from buildings. This can reduce the amount of runoff by thousands to tens of thousands of gallons in a year.    
• Vegetated swale: A vegetated swale is a channel where directed stormwater flow is allowed to settle out pollutants as it travels the length of the swale. Often a check dam, frequently made of rocks, assists with reducing velocity and thereby helping the settling of pollutants, notably sediment and sediment-bound pollutants.
• Sedimentation boxes: Sand filter boxes are 2 or 3 chambered boxes that collect stormwater and allow it to settle out pollutants prior to releasing it to a stormwater system or a stream. In the case study four concrete boxes were modified and used in series perpendicular to the vegetated swale and the parking lot to capture stormwater runoff from the parking lot and slowly release to the vegetated swale. The boxes were not filled with sand, but rather were modified due to the amount of sediment coming off the parking lot. Along the side edge of the parking lot, also in series, fourteen sedimentation chambers were placed to capture runoff prior to reaching the sedimentation chambers that drain directly to the swale. These chambers are tied directly to the set of chambers that drain to the swale, allowing for considerable slowing of velocity and reduction of sediment of the stormwater runoff prior to reaching the vegetated swale.
• Rain garden: Rain gardens are shallow, landscaped, depressed areas that capture runoff from a roof, driveway or parking lot and treat and infiltrate the water.
• Brochures were created for each BMP that can be used to educate DPWs statewide.  Educational programs will be conducted county wide for DPW staff.

  Program Brochures

  • Permeable Grass Pavers
  • Harvesting Cisterns
  • Vegetated Swale
  • Sedimentation Chamber
  • Rain Gardens

For more information on this project contact Pat Rector, Environmental and Resources Management Agent with Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Morris County at rector@njaes.rutgers.edu or (973) 285-8303.