Lower Paxton, PA Landscaping Rules: Rainwater Harvesting (2026)

Section 110-14 of the Lower Paxton Township Code, headed Mosquito-breeding conditions, lists the containers it reaches: any pond, privy vault, cesspool, well, cistern, rain barrel or other receptacle containing water. The test is the condition of the water. If mosquitoes breeding in the container can become a menace to the public health, the owner is in violation. The text sets no tank size, no permit and no registration step, so the whole obligation is keeping stored rainwater from becoming a breeding site. Section 110-2 applies the Sanitation and Health Code equally to individuals, partnerships, firms and corporations in the Township, so a homeowner with one barrel and a business with a large tank face the same words.

Two neighboring sections matter to anyone storing water. Section 110-16 bars an owner or occupant from maintaining any well, spring, cistern or other source of water supply for drinking or household purposes to which the public has or can have access and which is polluted or so situated that it can become polluted in a way injurious to health. Section 110-15 provides that no person shall dispose of wash water on any public street, gutter, stream or adjoining property, which governs where overflow and drain-down cannot go.

For development sites, § 170-502 in the stormwater chapter lists cisterns among the BMPs and recharge facilities it encourages, next to rooftop storage, drywells and infiltration systems. Those facilities must be located, designed and constructed under the latest technical guidance published by PADEP and be accompanied by detailed engineering plans and performance data, and additional guidance from other sources is accepted at the discretion of the Township Engineer. The stormwater chapter defines a cistern as an underground reservoir or tank for storing rainwater. Enforcement of the health code sits with the Township Health Officer, whose orders carry the penalties below.