5 rules for unincorporated Monroe County, Pennsylvania.
Verified from official government sources
Pennsylvania's Stormwater Management Act (Act 167) drives Monroe County's rules: the county adopts watershed plans and each township enacts an ordinance controlling runoff. On the steep, rocky Pocono slopes above Brodhead Creek, that control matters.
32 P.S. §680.11(b) (Act 167, Section 11)
Within six months following adoption and approval of the watershed storm water plan, each municipality shall adopt or amend, and shall implement such ordinances and regulations, including zoning, subdivision and development, building code, and erosion and sedimentation ordinances, as are necessary to regulate development within the municipality in a manner consistent with the applicable watersh...
Any earth disturbance of 5,000 square feet or more in Monroe County needs a written erosion and sediment control plan under PA DEP's Chapter 102 rules, reviewed by the Monroe County Conservation District before ground is broken.
25 Pa. Code §102.4(b)(1)(i)
A person proposing earth disturbance activities shall develop and implement a written E&S Plan under this chapter if one or more of the following criteria apply: (i) The earth disturbance activity will result in a total earth disturbance of 5,000 square feet (464.5 square meters) or more.
Monroe County has no coast; the analog is the Delaware River and its creeks. Pennsylvania's Flood Plain Management Act (Act 166) makes FEMA-mapped townships enact NFIP floodplain ordinances, and DEP riparian buffer rules protect streambanks.
32 P.S. §679.201 (Act 166, Section 201)
Each municipality which has been notified by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development that it has been identified as having an area or areas which are subject to flooding shall participate in the National Flood Insurance Program.
Monroe County's flood history is brutal: Hurricane Diane's August 1955 Brodhead Creek flood killed about 100 people around Stroudsburg. Today FEMA-mapped townships enforce floodplain construction standards under Act 166 and the NFIP.
32 P.S. §679.202 (Act 166, Section 202)
Each municipality which has been identified by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development as having an area or areas subject to flooding, shall adopt such flood plain management regulations, and amendments thereto, as are necessary to comply with the requirements of the National Flood Insurance Program within six months after a flood plain map is approved or promulgated for t...
Monroe County's steep Pocono slopes make grading and drainage high-stakes. Townships require grading and erosion permits for earthwork, drainage cannot be redirected onto a neighbor, and many lots also depend on on-lot septic.
25 Pa. Code §72.22(a)
No person may install, award a contract for construction or construct an individual or community onlot sewage system, or install, construct, occupy or use a building to be served by that system without first obtaining a permit from the local agency, except as provided in subsections (c)—(e).
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