Hamden, CT Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Section 51.30 of the Hamden Code of Ordinances, Storm Water and Unpolluted Drainage, splits the town's sewer network into two lanes that cannot mix. Paragraph (A) forbids discharging sewage, directly or indirectly, into any storm sewer. Paragraph (B) forbids discharging storm water, surface water, groundwater, roof runoff, subsurface drainage, uncontaminated cooling water, or unpolluted industrial process water into any sanitary sewer. Paragraph (C) requires that storm water and other unpolluted drainage go to sewers specifically designed as storm sewers, or to a natural outlet the Town Engineer signs off on.

Industrial cooling water or unpolluted process water can reach a storm sewer or natural outlet only with specific written approval from the Town Engineer and the State Commissioner of Environmental Protection. The Town Engineer is the town's own engineer or an authorized deputy, agent, or representative designated by the Mayor with the Legislative Council's consent, per the chapter's definitions. The rule sits inside the same chapter that regulates building sewers, connections, and treatment plant discharges, so a property owner running a downspout or sump pump into the sanitary line, or a contractor tying storm drainage into the wrong pipe, is violating this section rather than a separate stormwater code. Hamden has no free-standing land use stormwater management ordinance in this code; drainage control here is a sewer-separation rule enforced through the Sewers chapter.