New Britain, CT Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Section 23-136, adopted by Resolution No. 35679-2 on March 15, 2022, hands New Britain's Board of Water Commissioners a second job beyond running the water department: it becomes the stormwater authority for the city under Connecticut Public Act No. 21-115. The section directs the authority to develop a stormwater management program covering both construction and post-construction site runoff control and control of stormwater pollution from land already built out, including finding and eliminating illegal connections into the storm system, and to run public education and outreach on stormwater.

To pay for that program, the authority can recommend a clean water fee to the Common Council, assessed on property owners and deposited into a dedicated clean water fund; the fee schedule must weigh a parcel's impervious surface area, its land-use type, and its grand list valuation, and any owner who has installed and is maintaining approved stormwater best-management practices gets a partial fee credit. Farm, forest and open-space land, and property owned by the state or its subdivisions, is billed only on the portion of the parcel with impervious surface draining to the municipal separate storm sewer system.

The section confirms New Britain already operates under a DEEP MS4 permit, having created a stormwater management plan, sampled selected stormwater pipes annually and filed annual progress reports with DEEP. Unpaid stormwater charges become delinquent 30 days after the due date, draw interest like delinquent property taxes, and attach as a lien on the property; a property owner aggrieved by the authority's action has the same appeal rights as a taxpayer contesting an assessment.