Lakewood, NJ Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Township of Lakewood Code § 32-3, adopted by Ordinance No. 2010-42, targets solids and floatables such as plastic bottles, cans, food wrappers and litter that would otherwise wash into the township's municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4). Section 32-3.3 requires any owner of property other than a single-family residential lot to retrofit or replace a storm drain inlet before completing any repaving, repairing, resurfacing, reconstructing or altering of a surface that touches that inlet, unless the inlet already meets the design standard. Section 32-3.4 sets the standard: grates must use the NJDOT bicycle-safe grate design or one where every clear opening is no larger than 7.0 square inches or no more than 0.5 inches across its smallest dimension, and curb-opening inlets must limit each clear opening to 7.0 square inches or 2.0 inches across the smallest dimension.

Section 32-3.4c exempts a project where the Municipal Engineer finds the standard would cause inadequate hydraulic performance, where flows already pass through a device screening to at least a 4-5/8-by-1-1/2-inch opening or a 0.5-inch bar screen, where a trash rack uses one-inch bar spacing, or where the NJDEP finds the retrofit would damage a State Register-listed historic property. The rule sits alongside § 32-2's ban on illicit connections dumping domestic sewage, process wastewater or industrial waste into the MS4, and § 32-5's requirement that privately stored road salt and de-icing material stay covered between October 15 and April 15.