While Salisbury Township residents may be preoccupied with shoveling snow, they may soon be thinking about new ways to handle grass clippings and leaf raking.

That is because township officials have adopted a sweeping measure that could change the way residents handle their yard work.

The new provisions also regulate construction sites, work by contractors and use of fertilizer.

It is all part of township officials’ continuing efforts to enforce Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System regulations.

Township commissioners voted unanimously 5-0 at the Feb. 11 meeting to amend the township private property maintenance ordinance.

Commissioner Vice President Robert Martucci, Jr., made the motion to bring the amendment measure to a vote, seconded by Commissioner Debra Brinton.

According to Sandy Nicolo, Salisbury Township MS4 coordinator, who is also the assistant zoning officer and code enforcement officer, the additions to the property maintenance ordinance prohibit a property owner from depositing anything into a stream or on stream banks, including grass clippings and leaves.

The ordinance also makes it a violation to use lawn fertilizers within 10 feet of a stream, pond or water course.

Grass clippings blown into a street are also a violation.

“This ordinance is based on the federal Clean Water Act and is part of the MS4 (Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System) that the EPA [United States Environmental Protection Agency] and DEP [Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection] mandated municipalities to enforce,” Nicolo said.

“Failure to enforce these regulations can result in heavy fines to the township. Code enforcement is trying to inform and educate township residents of the importance eliminating pollutants from entering watercourses.”

Nicolo added, “Township residents are encouraged to get involved and visit the township website, salisburytownshippa.org, in the Environmental Advisory Council Board section for more information on environmental issues within the township.”

A copy of the ordinance can be found on the township website under the Agenda for the Feb. 11 commissioners’ meeting.

The new provisions are listed under the ordinance’s Section 201, “Prohibiting Certain Conditions.”

Here are the five provisions added to the ordinance:

• It is unlawful for any person to sweep into, shovel, or deposit into any public storm drain, gutter, drainage ditch, street, catch basin, stream or other public place any accumulation of litter from any public or private sidewalk in front of his or her premises. All litter sweepings, leaves, grass clippings, branches and other debris must be collected and properly contained for disposal.

• It is unlawful for any owner, agent or contractor in charge of a construction or demolition site to permit the unprotected or uncontained accumulation of litter before, during or immediately following completion of any construction or demolition project. It is the duty of the owner, agent and-or contractor in charge of a construction site to furnish containers adequate to accommodate flyable or non-flyable debris or trash and to maintain and empty receptacles in such a manner and with such frequency as to prevent spillage of such debris or refuse.

• It is unlawful to allow for the spilling, dumping or disposal of materials other than permitted stormwater into the municipal separate storm sewer system operated by the Township of Salisbury. Roof drains shall discharge to infiltration areas or vegetative BMPs to the maximum extent practicable. Permitted stormwater discharges shall include clean stormwater runoff from undisturbed lands and stormwater discharges from erosion control plans approved by the Township of Salisbury or the Lehigh County Conservation District.

• It is unlawful for any owner, agent or contractor to store material including yard waste within 10 feet of any stream banks and-or within the flood plain, where delineated, or floodway of any waters of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

• It is unlawful for any owner, agent or contractor to apply lawn fertilizers within 10 feet of the top of bank or high water surface elevation of any stream, pond, water course or wetland. No fertilizer shall be deposited, washed, swept or blown off intentionally or inadvertently onto any impervious surface that discharges to any stormwater drain, ditch or other stormwater conveyance or directly to a water body.

MS4 is an acronym for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System, with the “M” standing for “Municipal” and the numeral “4” representing the four “S” first letters of each word in “Separate Storm Sewer System.”

MS4 Stormwater Management Program Protocol requires Minimum Control Measures to enforce the MS4 program, mandated by the EPA and enforced by the DEP.

Municipalities are required to fulfill six MCMs: 1. Public Education, 2. Public Participation, 3. Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination, 4. Construction Site Runoff Control, 5. Post-Construction Stormwater Management and 6. Pollution Prevention for Municipal Operations and Maintenance.

Nicolo is tasked to address all MCMs, but specifically Numbers 3 through 6.

The Salisbury Township Environmental Advisory Council is tasked by the township board of commissioners to implement the first two of the six MCMs.

Salisbury provided sufficient information and has met conditions of the Administrative Order and Section 308 Requirement for Information of the Clean Water Act issued May 29, 2014, according to an EPA letter received by the township April 14, 2015. The township’s five-year National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, issued in 2014, is good until 2019.

Under the federal Clean Water Act, a municipality must have a MS4 NPDES permit to cover stormwater discharges and to maintain compliance with the permit.