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Engineers present watershed mapping and next steps for Plainfield stormwater plan
Summary
An engineer from Pennoni Associates told the council Plainfield’s MS4 inventory is complete and that a digitized ArcGIS Pro map with more than 3,000 inlets, over 2,000 manholes and 40+ outfalls will be delivered to the city and NJDEP; phase 2 watershed assessment begins next year.
Plainfield — Pennoni Associates briefed the council and public on the status of the Greenbrook and Cedarbrook watershed improvement plan, reporting that field data collection in Plainfield is complete and mapping is underway.
Chris Perone, an engineer at Pennoni Associates, told the council the team has collected an inventory of stormwater infrastructure in Plainfield and digitized it into an ArcGIS Pro map. "There are over 3,000 [stormwater] inlets, over 2,000 manholes, over 40 outfalls," Perone said, noting that each feature has attributes and IDs that can be toggled in the GIS so officials can trace flow paths and pollution sources. He added the map and inventory report will be delivered to the city and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection by year-end.
Perone said the MS4 permit changes enacted in 2023 require municipalities to participate in a five-year amendment cycle and that Plainfield has moved from data-collection to map creation and will begin a watershed assessment in the new year to identify candidate projects, pollutant load reductions (including TMDLs) and estimated costs. He described typical impairment categories (total suspended solids, fecal coliform, PCBs, phosphorus) and explained how the map supports problem identification and project prioritization.
Council members and residents asked about how map IDs relate to physical inlets in the field. Perone explained the GIS includes unique IDs for each feature that can be located by zooming in on the map but said there are currently no physical, numbered plates on inlets in the right-of-way; the administration said it would coordinate with engineers to explore visible numbering so residents could report blocked inlets more easily.
Perone said Pennoni plans two additional public information sessions next year as part of phase 2 outreach to gather resident input and site-specific observations that may not have been captured during fieldwork. The next phase will include an assessment report with project cost estimates and an implementation schedule.
The council thanked Pennoni for the work and indicated staff will follow up to make mapping outputs available to the public.
