Homeowners Stormwater Management Guide
Streambank Stabilization Pamphlet
Best Management Practices for Storm Water in Derry Borough
Derry Borough Council and the Public Works Department is asking all residents to refrain from putting your grass clippings on the street. The reason is to assist with our sediment control of our storm drains as a Best Management Practice to eliminate clogging of our storm drainage system. Recently, we had our streets swept in a cooperative shared service agreement with the City of Latrobe and found that almost 50% of collections were grass clippings. Please know that it is against Derry Code to dispose of any solid waste in our streets due to stormwater BMP’s and grass clippings are considered a solid waste. This type of waste is pushed into our storm sewers and impedes the flow of rain and stormwater in our system causing back-ups and possibly flooding concerns. We appreciate all residents who assist us with good practice of lawn care.
Annual Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Status Report – July 1 2020 to June 30, 2021
Annual Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Status Report July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022
Annual Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Status Report July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024
Four Ways to Reduce Winter Stormwater Pollution
Controlling stormwater pollution is a year-round concern, one that matters in winter just as much as spring and summer. When the temperature drops, vast amounts of deicing chemicals are dumped by the truckload across our roads, sidewalks, and driveways. With each thaw, all that salt washes directly into our waterways. Freezing temperatures also lead to broken pipes, which can lead to erosion issues or even raw sewage pouring into our streams.
- Avoid using sodium chloride as a deicer. Commonly used road salts like sodium chloride (also known as halite) can kill plants, break down concrete, and stain carpets. More environmentally friendly alternatives to sodium chloride are acetates (such as Premiere Ice Melter), potassium chloride, or magnesium chloride (such as SafeStep Mag Chloride 8300).
- Open your rain barrel spigot. Although this doesn’t help with stormwater in the winter, it does help prevent your barrel from filling with ice and potentially cracking. A cracked barrel definitely can’t reduce stormwater pollution!
- Do not pile snow on your rain garden. Though your plants are dormant, heavy snow loads, upon melting, could saturate your garden for long enough to potentially hurt your plants. Normal snow accumulation does not pose a problem, though, so there is no need to shovel the garden! Pile your snow from elsewhere on the uphill side of the rain garden instead so that when it melts your rain garden can do its thing.
- Go pervious! Replacing your walkway or driveway with river stone, pervious pavers, or other porous materials will allow water to soak into the ground instead of becoming runoff. These surfaces not only help reduce polluted stormwater runoff and erosion, they also “breathe” more than impervious surfaces like asphalt and concrete, so they take longer to ice over.