A Major Flood in Your Backyard

Abstract

Imagine that you are a flood victim. The flooding is not caused by your proximity to the Delaware River or the Susquehanna River or the Alleghany River. Instead, the problem arises solely from the activities of your neighbor. Your neighbor is located on higher ground. He or she is conducting earth-disturbing activities – building a house or a new driveway or a shopping center – and now polluted water is running onto your property and flooding it like never before. How do you protect your land? You hire an attorney! But, could there be a better method? This article suggests that only swift and strict regulatory action adequately protects the public and the flood victim.This article starts with an overview of relevant federal and state regulations. Then it focuses on the obligations created under common law for landowners who engage in earth-disturbing activities. Legal remedies for property owners who are addressing stormwater-related issues caused by a neighboring landowners actions are discussed in following section. The final section suggests that the Commonwealth, its citizens, and landowners alike receive the most benefit from strict regulatory enforcement of stormwater related policies.Statutes: The Importance of Maintaining Pollutant-Free Waterways Federal and state laws make it a violation for landowners who are engaging in construction to pollute our nation’s waterways. The Clean Water Act (CWA) prohibits the discharge of any pollutants from pipes and sewers into the navigable waters of the United States unless the discharge is authorized by a permit. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) is a stormwater program created under the CWA that regulates the discharge of stormwater from all construction activities disturbing more than one (1) acre of land. Thus, the CWA and the NPDES program work together to protect all waterways in the United States.Pennsylvania’s laws work in conjunction with the NPDES program to supplement the CWA. Under the NPDES program’s authority, Pennsylvania requires individual counties to prepare, adopt, and implement watershed-based stormwater management plans. These plans must protect Pennsylvania’s streams and waterways by reducing the overall volume of runoff during rainfalls, improving water quality, and maintaining groundwater recharge for wells and streams. Additionally, many counties require municipalities to enact comprehensive stormwater management ordinances.