Codes and Ordinances

EPA's Water Quality Scorecard was developed to help local governments identify opportunities to remove barriers, and revise and create codes, ordinances, and incentives for better water quality protection. It guides municipal staff through a review of relevant local codes and ordinances, across multiple municipal departments.

• Water Quality Scorecard

Most rural communities want to maintain their rural character while also strengthening their economies. Many fast-growing rural areas are now at the edge of major metropolitan regions and face metropolitan-style development pressures. They seek to manage new growth in a way that promotes prosperity yet is sustainable over the long run.

• Essential Smart Growth Fixes for Rural Planning, Zoning, and Development Codes

Over the past few decades, many American communities have realized considerable financial and water quality gains by adding green infrastructure to their toolkit of approaches to reducing and managing stormwater. Green infrastructure techniques can include using rooftop vegetation to control stormwater and reduce energy use, restoring wetlands to retain floodwater, installing permeable pavement to mimic natural hydrology, and using or capturing and re-using water more efficiently on site.

• Banking on Green