These definitions apply to this chapter. Unless specifically defined below, the words or phrases used in this chapter shall have the same meaning as they have in common usage. When not inconsistent with the context, words used in the present tense include the future tense, words in the plural number include the singular number, and words in the singular number include the plural number. The words “shall” and “must” are always mandatory and not merely directive.
Subd. 1. APPLICANT. Any person or group that applies for a building permit, subdivision approval, or a permit to allow land-disturbing activities. APPLICANT also means that person's agents, employees, and others acting under this person's or group's direction. The term APPLICANT also refers to the permit holder or holders and the permit holder's agents, employees, and others acting under this person's or group's direction.
Subd. 2. AUTHORIZED ENFORCEMENT AGENCY. Employees or designees of the director of the municipal agency designated to enforce this chapter.
Subd. 3. BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPs). Erosion and sediment control and water quality management practices that are the most effective and practicable means of controlling, preventing, and minimizing degradation of surface water, including avoidance of impacts, construction-phasing, minimizing the length of time soil areas are exposed, prohibitions, and other management practices published by state or designated area-wide planning agencies.
Subd. 4. BUFFER. A protective vegetated zone located adjacent to a natural resource, such as a water of the state, that is subject to direct or indirect human alteration. Such a buffer strip is an integral part of protecting an aquatic ecosystem through trapping sheet erosion filtering pollutants, reducing channel erosion and providing adjacent habitat.
Subd. 5. CLEAN WATER ACT. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. §§ 1251 et seq.), as it may be amended from time to time.
Subd. 6. CLEARING. Any activity that removes the vegetative surface cover.
Subd. 7. COMMON PLAN OF DEVELOPMENT OR SALE. A contiguous area where multiple separate and distinct land-disturbing activities may be taking place at different times, on different schedules, but under one proposed plan. One plan is broadly defined to include design, permit application, advertisement or physical demarcation indicating that land-disturbing activities may occur.
Subd. 8. CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY. For this permit, construction activity includes construction activity as defined in 40 C.F.R. part 122.26(b)(14)(x) and small construction activity as defined in 40 C.F.R. part 122.26(b)(15). This includes a disturbance to the land that results in a change in the topography, existing soil cover (both vegetative and non-vegetative), or the existing soil topography that may result in accelerated stormwater runoff, leading to soil erosion and movement of sediment into surface waters or drainage systems. Examples of CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY may include clearing, grading, filling and excavating. CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY includes the disturbance of less than one acre of total land area that is a part of a larger common plan of development or sale if the larger common plan will ultimately disturb one acre or more.
Subd. 9. DEWATERING. The removal of water for construction activity. It can be a discharge of appropriated surface or groundwater to dry and/or solidify a construction site. It may require Minnesota Department of Natural Resources permits to be appropriated, and if contaminated may require other MPCA permits to be discharged.
Subd. 10. DRAINAGE WAY. Any channel that conveys surface runoff throughout the site.
Subd. 11. EROSION. The process by which ground surface is worn away by action of wind, water, ice or gravity.
Subd. 12. EROSION CONTROL. A measure that prevents erosion.
Subd. 13. EROSION PREVENTION. Measures employed to prevent erosion including but not limited to soil stabilization practices, limited grading, mulch, temporary or permanent cover, and construction phasing.
Subd. 14. FINAL STABILIZATION. Means that either:
A. All soil-disturbing activities at the site have been completed and a uniform (e.g., evenly distributed, without large bare areas) perennial vegetative cover with a density of 70% of the native background vegetative cover for the area has been established on all unpaved areas and areas not covered by permanent structures, or equivalent permanent stabilization measures (such as the use of riprap, gabions, or geotextiles) have been employed;
B. For individual lots in residential construction by either: (a) the homebuilder completing final stabilization as specified above; or (b) the homebuilder establishing temporary stabilization including perimeter controls for an individual lot prior to occupation of the home by the homeowner and informing the homeowner of the need for, and benefits of, final stabilization; or
C. For construction projects on land used for agricultural purposes (e.g., pipelines across crop or range land) final stabilization may be accomplished by returning the disturbed land to its preconstruction agricultural use. Areas disturbed that were not previously used for agricultural activities, such as buffer strips immediately adjacent to surface waters and drainage systems, and areas which are not being returned to their preconstruction agricultural use must meet the final stabilization criteria in A. or B. above.
Subd. 15. GENERAL CONTRACTOR. The party who signs the construction contract with the owner to construct the project described in the final plans and specifications. Where the construction project involves more than one contractor, the general contractor will be the party responsible for managing the project on behalf of the owner. In some cases, the owner may be the general contractor. In these cases, the owner may contract an individual as the operator who would become the co-permittee.
Subd. 16. GRADING. Excavation or fill of material, including the resulting conditions thereof.
Subd. 17. GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE. An array of practices at multiple scales that manage wet weather and that maintains or restores natural hydrology by infiltrating, evapotranspiring, or harvesting and using stormwater. On a local scale, GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE consists of site and neighborhood-specific practices, such as bioretention, trees, green roofs, permeable pavements and cisterns.
Subd. 18. GROUNDWATER. Water that collects beneath the surface.
Subd. 19. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS. Any material, including any substance, waste, or combination thereof, which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics may cause or significantly contribute to, a substantial present or potential hazard to human health, safety, property, or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed of, or otherwise managed.
Subd. 20. ILLICIT CONNECTION.
A. Any drain or conveyance, whether on the surface or subsurface, that allows an illicit discharge to enter the storm drainage system, including any non-stormwater discharge such as sewage, process wastewater or wash water and any connections from indoor drains and sinks, regardless of whether such connection had been previously allowed, permitted, or approved by an authorized enforcement agency; or
B. Any drain or conveyance connected from a residential, commercial or industrial land use to the storm drainage system that has not been documented in plans, maps, or equivalent records or approved by an authorized enforcement agency.
Subd. 21. ILLICIT DISCHARGE. Any direct or indirect non-stormwater discharge to the storm drainage system, except as exempted in § 20.04, Subd. 8.A.3.
Subd. 22. IMPERVIOUS SURFACE. A constructed hard surface that either prevents or retards the entry of water into the soil and causes water to run off the surface in greater quantities and at an increased rate of flow than prior to development. Examples include rooftops, sidewalks, patios, driveways, parking lots, storage areas, and concrete, asphalt, or gravel roads.
Subd. 23. INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY. Activity subject to NPDES industrial permits as defined in 40 C.F.R. pt. 122.25(b)(14), as it may be amended from time to time.
Subd. 24. MAXIMUM EXTENT PRACTICABLE (MEP). The statutory standard (33 U.S.C. § 1342(p)(3)(B)(iii)) that establishes the level of pollutant reductions that an owner or operator of regulated MS4s must achieve. The USEPA has intentionally not provided a precise definition of MEP to allow maximum flexibility to MS4 permitting. The pollutant reductions that represent an MEP may be different for each small MS4, given the unique local hydrologic and geologic concerns that may exist and the differing possible pollutant control strategies.
Subd. 25. MPCA. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Subd. 26. MS4. Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System; a conveyance or system of conveyances including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels, or storm drains: (a) owned or operated by the city: (b) designed used for collecting or conveying stormwater; (c) that is not a combined sewer; and (d) that is not part of a publicly-owned treatment works, as defined in 40 CFR § 122.2.
Subd. 27. NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES). The program for issuing, modifying, revoking, reissuing, terminating, monitoring, and enforcing permits under the Clean Water Act (Sections 301, 318, 402, and 405) and United States Code of Federal Regulations Title 33, Sections 1317, 1328, 1342, and 1345.
Subd. 28. NEW DEVELOPMENT. All construction activity that is not defined as redevelopment.
Subd. 29. NON-STORMWATER DISCHARGE. Any discharge to the storm drainage system that is not composed entirely of stormwater.
Subd. 30. OPERATOR. The person (usually the general contractor), designated by the owner, who has day-to-day operational control and/or the ability to modify project plans and specifications related to the SWPPP. The person must be knowledgeable in those areas of the permit for which the operator is responsible, and must perform those responsibilities in a professional manner.
Subd. 31. OWNER. The person or party possessing the title of the land on which the construction activities will occur; or if the construction activity is for a lease holder, the party or individual identified as the lease holder; or the contracting government agency responsible for the construction activity.
Subd. 32. PERIMETER CONTROL. A barrier that prevents sediment from leaving a site by filtering sediment-laden runoff or diverting it to a sediment trap or basin.
Subd. 33. PERMANENT COVER. Final stabilization. Examples include grass, gravel, asphalt, and concrete.
Subd. 34. PERSON. Any individual, firm, corporation, partnership, franchise, association or governmental entity.
Subd. 35. PHASING. Clearing a parcel of land in distinct phases, with the stabilization of each phase completed before the clearing of the next.
Subd. 36. POLLUTANT. Any substance which, when discharged, has the potential to or does interfere with state-designated water uses; obstructs or causes damage to waters of the state; changes water color, odor, or usability as a drinking water source through causes not attributable to natural stream processes affecting surface water or subsurface processes affecting groundwater; adds an unnatural surface film to the water; adversely changes other chemical, biological, thermal, or physical conditions in any surface water or stream channel; degrades the quality of groundwater; or harms human life, aquatic life, terrestrial plant or wildlife. POLLUTANTS include, but are not limited to, dredged soil, solid waste, incinerator residue, garbage, wastewater, wastewater sludge, chemical waste, biological materials, radioactive materials, rock, sand, dust, industrial waste, sediment, nutrients, toxic substances, pesticides, herbicides, trace metals, automotive fluids, petroleum-based substances and oxygen-demanding materials.
Subd. 37. POLLUTE. To discharge pollutants into the waters of the state. POLLUTION means the direct or indirect distribution of pollutants into the waters of the state.
Subd. 38. PREMISES. Any building, lot, parcel of land or portion of land, whether improved or unimproved including adjacent sidewalks and parking strips.
Subd. 39. REDEVELOPMENT. Any construction activity where, prior to the start of construction, the areas to be disturbed have 15% or more impervious surface(s).
Subd. 40. SATURATED SOIL. The highest seasonal elevation in the soil that is in a reduced chemical state because of soil voids being filled with water. Saturated soil is evidenced by the presence of redoximorphic features or other information.
Subd. 41. SEDIMENT CONTROL. Methods employed to prevent sediment from leaving the site. Sediment control practices include silt fences, sediment traps, earth dikes, drainage swales, check dams, subsurface drains, pipe slope drains, storm drain inlet protection, and temporary or permanent sedimentation basins.
Subd. 42. SITE. A parcel of land or a contiguous combination thereof, where grading work is performed as a single, unified operation.
Subd. 43. SITE DEVELOPMENT PERMIT. A permit issued by the municipality for the construction or alteration of ground improvements and structures for the control of erosion, runoff and grading.
Subd. 44. SMALL CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY. Small construction activity as defined in 40 C.F.R. part 122.26(b)(15). Small construction activities include clearing, grading and excavating that result in a disturbance of equal to or greater than one acre and less than five acres. Small construction activity includes the disturbance of less than one acre of total land area that is part of a larger common plan of development or sale if the larger common plan will ultimately disturb equal to or greater than one and less than five acres. A SMALL CONSTRUCTION SITE is a site that disturbs less than one acre of land, whether or not it is part of a larger common plan of development.
Subd. 45. STABILIZATION. The use of practices that prevent exposed soil from eroding, such as covering exposed ground surfaces with mulch, staked sod, riprap, wood fiber blanket, or other material that prevents erosion from occurring. Grass seeding is not stabilization.
Subd. 46. START OF CONSTRUCTION. The first land-disturbing activity associated with a development, including land preparation such as clearing, grading, and filling; installation of streets and walkways; excavation for basements, footings, piers, or foundations; erection of temporary forms; and installation of accessory buildings such as garages.
Subd. 47. STORM DRAINAGE SYSTEM. A conveyance or system of conveyances that is owned and operated by the city or other entity and designed or used for collecting or conveying stormwater. This includes but is not limited to any roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, gutters, curbs, inlets, piped storm drains, pumping facilities, retention and detention basins, natural and human-made or altered drainage channels, reservoirs and other drainage structures.
Subd. 48. STORMWATER. Defined under Minn. R. 7077.0105, Subp. 41(b). Includes precipitation runoff, stormwater runoff, snow melt runoff, and any other surface runoff and drainage.
Subd. 49. STORMWATER POLLUTION PREVENTION PLAN (SWPPP). A set of plans prepared by or under the direction of a licenses professional engineer indicating the specific measures and sequencing to be used to control sediment and erosion on a development site during and after construction.
Subd. 50. SURFACE WATER or WATERS. All streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, wetlands, reservoirs, springs, rivers, drainage systems, waterways, watercourses, and irrigation systems whether natural or artificial, public or private.
Subd. 51. TEMPORARY EROSION PROTECTION. Methods employed to prevent erosion. Examples of temporary cover include; straw, wood fiber blanket, wood chips, and erosion netting.
Subd. 52. UNDERGROUND WATERS. Water contained below the surface of the earth in the saturated zone including, without limitation, all waters whether under confined, unconfined, or perched conditions, in near surface unconsolidated sediment or regolith, or in rock formations deeper underground. The term “groundwater” shall be synonymous with underground water.
Subd. 53. USEPA. United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Subd. 54. WASTE. Any construction and demolition debris, concrete truck washout, chemicals, litter, mixed municipal solid waste, scrap metal, sanitary waste, or any other non-useable debris generated at a construction site that may cause adverse impacts to water quality.
Subd. 55. WASTEWATER. Any water or other liquid, other than uncontaminated stormwater, discharged from a facility.
Subd. 56. WATERS OF THE STATE. As defined in M.S. § 115.01, Subd. 22, means all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, reservoirs, aquifers, irrigation systems, drainage systems and all other bodies or accumulations of water, surface or underground, natural or artificial, public or private, which are contained within, flow through, or border upon the state or any portion thereof.
Subd. 57. WATERCOURSE. Any body of water, including, but not limited to, lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and bodies of water delineated by the city.
Subd. 58. WATERWAY. A channel that directs surface runoff to a watercourse or to the public storm drain.
Subd. 59. WETLAND OR WETLANDS. Defined in Minn. R. 7050.0130, Subp. F and includes those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. Constructed wetlands designed for wastewater treatment are not waters of the state. Wetlands must have the following attributes:
A. A predominance of hydric soils;
B. Inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support a prevalence of hydrophytic vegetation typically adapted for life in a saturated soil condition; and
C. Under normal circumstances support a prevalence of such vegetation.
(Ord. 622, passed 12-1-14)