Murrysville council members will vote Wednesday on a storm water ordinance update that, according to engineering technician Emily Mallisee, largely goes beyond county and state requirements.

“All of these are basically enhancing the rules and regulations we already have in place,” Mallisee said. “Our regulations weren’t too stringent, but they were more so than a lot of other municipalities had in 2016, and I think that’s helped Murrysville to be more ‘green’ over the years.”

The municipality is the recipient of the Westmoreland Conservation District’s 2020 J. Roy Houston Conservation Partnership Award. Some of its recent projects include retrofitting detention ponds to drain more slowly, creating a natural buffer along the headwaters of Steele’s Run near Murrysville Community Park, and creating a trail head at the Westmoreland Heritage Trail along Route 22.

Mallisee said the municipality has stayed on top of best management practices in both maintenance and development.

“(Our ordinance) was very progressive,” she said. “The way we had it set up is a lot more intense than other municipalities. This (update) will be modeled after the Pennsylvania DEP 2022 model ordinance and Westmoreland County’s integrated water resource plan. It’s going to use both of those plans together.”

Communities that are subject to the state’s MS4 regulations must develop a storm water ordinance. The county’s resource plan, among other things, identified storm water hot spots like heavily developed areas in Murrysville and Jeannette, and identified mitigation opportunities.

Measures that Murrysville officials have taken beyond the update’s tenets will remain in place.

“For example, in new developments, we require 50% permeable pavement for parking spaces,” Mallisee said. “That’s not something that’s in either the DEP or county plans, but it’s something we’re going to keep in our ordinance.”

Council is expected to take a vote at its next meeting, set for 7 p.m. Wednesday. Meetings are streamed live at Murrysville.com and broadcast via Comcast local access Channel 19.

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