Please visit our new HUB for Stormwater resources, guidelines, education and public reporting forums. We have included our newsletter articles and activities for children in addition to our StoryMaps. Keep an eye out for event announcements and pictures!

Stormwater HUB https://stormwater-swatara.hub.arcgis.com/

Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System

The purpose of this page is to help foster public awareness regarding Swatara Township’s implementation of the Municipal ‘Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) as part of the Federal Phase II Stormwater Management Program.

Stormwater Management Program

In 2003, Swatara Township became a Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) under the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permit regulations.

These state regulations enabled Swatara Township to establish its own Stormwater Management Program.  This program adopted the DEP-approved Act 167 plan, which adopted DEP’s protocols.

The DEP’s protocols provide our township with suitable guidelines to design a local program that address the DEP’s six Best Management Practices (or BMP’s), which are also known as “control measures.”  These six BMP’s are designed to reduce the discharge of pollutants from MS4s, to the maximum extend practicable, to protect water quality, and to satisfy the appropriate requirements of the federal Clean Water Act.  The federal regulations provide flexibility within these six categories of BMP’s.  The six BMP categories are:

1. Public Education & Outreach Control Measure.
2. Public Participation & Involvement Control Measure.
3. Illicit Discharge Detection & Elimination Control Measure.
4. Construction Site Stormwater Runoff Control Measure.
5. Post Construction Stormwater Management in New Development & Redevelopment Control Measure.
6. Pollution Prevention and Good Housekeeping for Municipal Operations & Maintenance Control Measure.

The federal regulations provide flexibility within these six categories of BMP’s. 

Please contact Swatara Township if you witness a pollution incident that is impacting a storm sewer system or surface waterway, or even if it threatens a storm sewer system or waterway (such as if you see an oil spill that could enter the storm sewer if it rains). We can be reached at 717-564-2551.

Please visit these websites for more information regarding stormwater.

• Dauphin County Conservation District 
• Department of Environmental Protection
• Bureau of Watershed Management
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) MS4 Regulations
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• Lower Susquehanna Watershed Finder
• Swatara Creek Watershed Association
• EPA Polluted Runoff (non-point pollution)