APPLICANT: | Any person or group that applies for a building permit, grading permit, or zoning approvals 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. |
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPs): | Schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, general good housekeeping practices, pollutions prevention and educational practices, maintenance procedures, 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, stormwater, or stormwater conveyance systems. Erosion and sediment control BMPs include 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. BMPs shall be as set forth in the current version of Minnesota Stormwater Manual, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, 2006, as amended, unless a custom plan is specifically authorized by the City. |
BETTER SITE DESIGN: | The control and management of stormwater quantity and quality through the application of Better Site Design Techniques as outlined in the current version of the MPCA Minnesota Stormwater Manual. Better Site Design includes: preservation of natural areas; site reforestation; stream and shoreland buffers; open space design; disconnection of impervious cover; rooftop disconnection; grass channels; stormwater landscaping; compost and amended soils; impervious surface reduction; and trout stream protection. |
BMP(s): | Stormwater Best Management Practices. |
BUFFER: | A regulated area where scrutiny will be exercised over activities near wetlands and water bodies and a non-disturbance area where natural vegetation must be maintained. |
COMMON PLAN OF DEVELOPMENT OR SALE: | A contiguous area where multiple separate and distinct land disturbing activities may be taking place at different times, or on different schedules, but under one proposed plan. This item is broadly defined to include design, permit application, advertisement or physical demarcation indicating that land disturbing activities may occur. |
CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY: | Includes construction activity as defined in 40 CFR pt. 122.26(b)(14)(x) and small construction activity as defined in 40 CFR pt. 122.26(b)(15) and construction activity as defined by Minn. R. 709.0080, subp. 4. 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 (1) acre or more. Construction activity does not include a disturbance to the land of less than five (5) acres for the purpose of routine maintenance that is performed to maintain the original line and grade, hydraulic capacity, or original purpose of the facility. |
CONSTRUCTION STABILIZATION PLAN: | A plan that describes the strategies, applications, and schedule of events for transitioning from construction activity related temporary erosion control measures to achieving final stabilization on the site with permanent cover practices. The plan shall illustrate the permanent erosion control measures and final planting and seeding practices and locations. See FINAL STABILIZATION and PERMANENT COVER. |
CONSTRUCTION STORMWATER GENERAL PERMIT (CSW): | This permit regulates discharges associated with stormwater affected by construction activity to waters of the state of Minnesota. This permit is issued in compliance with the provisions of the Clean Water Act, as amended, (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.), 40 CFR 122, 123, 124, and 450 as amended; Minnesota Statutes chapters 115 and 116, as amended, and Minn. R. chs. 7001, 7050, 7060 and 7090. Minn. R. 7090.2040 requires owner(s) of a construction activity to complete a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) prior to submitting an application for this permit and prior to conducting any construction activity. No person shall commence construction activity covered by Part I.A. of the CSW until permit coverage under this permit is effective or, if applicable, until the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has issued an individual National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)/State Disposal System (SDS) Construction Stormwater (CSW) Permit for the project. |
DEVELOPER: | Any person, group, firm, corporation, sole proprietorship, partnership, State agency, or political subdivision thereof engaged in a land disturbance activity. |
DEVELOPMENT: | Any land disturbance activity that changes the site's runoff characteristics in conjunction with residential, commercial, industrial or institutional construction or alteration. See DEVELOPMENT, NEW and REDEVELOPMENT. |
DEVELOPMENT, NEW: | Any development that results in the conversion of land that is currently prairie, agriculture, forest, or meadow and has less than fifteen percent (15%) impervious surface. Land that was previously developed, but now razed and vacant, will not be considered new development. |
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 Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) permit to be discharged. |
DISCHARGE: | The release, conveyance, channeling, runoff, or drainage, of stormwater, including snowmelt, from a construction site. |
ENERGY DISSIPATION: | This refers to methods employed at pipe outlets to prevent erosion. Examples include, but are not limited to: aprons, riprap, splash pads, and gabions that are designed to prevent erosion. |
EROSION: | Any process that wears away the surface of the land by the action of water, wind, ice, or gravity. Erosion can be accelerated by the activities of people and nature. |
EROSION CONTROL/ PREVENTION: | Refers to methods employed to prevent erosion. Examples include soil stabilization practices, horizontal slope grading, temporary, or permanent cover, and construction phasing. |
EXPOSED SOIL AREAS: | All areas of the construction site where the vegetation (trees, shrubs, brush, grasses, etc.) or impervious surface has been disturbed or removed thus rendering the soil more prone to erosion. This includes topsoil stockpile areas; borrow areas, and disposal areas, within the construction site. It does not include stockpiles or surcharge areas of gravel, concrete or bituminous. Once soil is exposed it is considered "exposed soil", until it meets the definition of "final stabilization". |
FILL: | Any act by which earth, sand, gravel, rock, or any other material is deposited, placed, replaced, pushed, dumped, pulled, transported, or moved to a new location and shall include the resulting conditions of that new location, if applicable. |
FILTER STRIPS: | A vegetated section of land designed to treat runoff as overland sheet flow. Their dense vegetated cover facilitates pollutant removal and infiltration. The design of vegetated filter strips shall follow the criteria and guidance set forth in the MPCA Minnesota Stormwater Manual. |
FINAL STABILIZATION: | All soil disturbing activities at the site have been completed, and that a uniform perennial vegetative cover with a density of seventy percent (70%) of the native background vegetative cover for unpaved areas and areas not covered by permanent structures has been established, or equivalent permanent stabilization measures have been employed. Simply sowing grass seed is not considered final stabilization. (Examples of vegetative cover practices can be found in the current version of the Minnesota Department of Transportation's publication, "Supplemental Specifications to the Standard Specifications for Construction"). |
GENERAL CONTRACTOR: | The party who signs the construction contract with the owner or operator to construct the project described in the final plans and specifications. Where the construction project involves more than one contractor, the general contractor could be the party responsible for managing the project on behalf of the owner or operator. In some cases, the owner or operator may be the general contractor. In these cases, the owner may contract an individual as the operator who would become the co-permittee. |
GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE: | A wide 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 regional scale, green infrastructure is the preservation or restoration of natural landscape features, such as forests, floodplains and wetlands, couples with policies such as infill and redevelopment that reduce overall imperviousness in a watershed. On a local scale, green infrastructure consists of site and neighborhood-specific practices, such as bioretention, trees, green roofs, and permeable pavements. |
GROUNDWATER: | 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. |
HAZARDOUS MATERIAL: | 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. |
HYDRIC SOILS: | Soils that are saturated, flooded, or ponded long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part. |
HYDROPHYTIC VEGETATION: | Macrophytic (large enough to be observed by the naked eye) plant life growing in water, soil or on a substrate that is at least periodically deficient in oxygen as a result of excessive water content. |
ILLEGAL DISCHARGE: | Any direct or indirect non-stormwater discharge to the storm drain system, except as exempted in this chapter. |
ILLICIT CONNECTION: | An illicit connection is defined as either of the following: A. Any drain or conveyance, whether on the surface or subsurface, which allows an illegal discharge to enter the storm drain system including but not limited to any conveyances which allow any non-stormwater discharge including sewage, process wastewater, and wash water to enter the storm drain system and any connections to the storm drain system from indoor drains and sinks, regardless of whether said drain or connection had been previously allowed, permitted, or approved by a government agency. B. Any drain or conveyance connected from a commercial or industrial land use to the storm drain system which has not been documented in plans, maps, or equivalent records and approved by the City. |
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 existed prior to development. Examples include rooftops, sidewalks, |
patios, driveways, parking lots, storage areas, and concrete, asphalt, or gravel surfaces. | |
INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY: | Activities subject to NPDES industrial permits as defined in 40 CFR, section 122.26(b)(14). |
LAND DISTURBANCE ACTIVITY: | Any land change that may result in soil erosion from water or wind and the movement of sediments into or upon waters or lands within this government's jurisdiction, including, but not limited to: development, redevelopment, demolition, construction, reconstruction, clearing and grubbing, grading, filling, stockpiling, excavation, and borrow pits. |
LAND LOCKED BASIN: | Defined as a low area such as a lake, pond, or wetland entirely surrounded by land with no regularly active outlet channel. |
LINEAR PROJECT: | Construction or reconstruction of roads, trails, sidewalks, and rail lines that are not part of a common plan of development or sale. Mill, overlay, and other resurfacing projects are not considered to be reconstruction. |
MPCA MINNESOTA STORMWATER MANUAL: | A guidebook authored and periodically updated by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency which provides practical stormwater management practices that are reviewed and edited regularly. |
MUNICIPAL SEPARATE STORM SEWER SYSTEMS (MS4): | A conveyance or system of conveyances (including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, storm drains, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels, stormwater ponds, and sometimes waters of the State) that are: A. Owned or operated by a jurisdiction, public body, institution, or a designated and approved management agency that discharges to surface waters of the State. B. Designed or used for collecting or conveying stormwater. C. Not a combined sewer. D. Not a part of a publicly owned treatment works. |
NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES) PERMIT: | General, group, and individual permits which regulate facilities defined in Federal NPDES regulations pursuant to the Clean Water Act. The Minnesota MPCA has adopted general permits, including but not limited to the general construction activity, general industrial activity, MS4 and wastewater permits. 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. |
NATIVE VEGETATION: | The pre-settlement (already existing in Minnesota at the time of Statehood in 1858) group of plant species native to the local region, that were not introduced as a result of European settlement or subsequent human introduction. |
NON-STORMWATER DISCHARGE: | Any discharge to the storm drain system that is not composed entirely of stormwater. |
NORMAL WETTED PERIMETER: | The area of a conveyance, such as a ditch, channel, or pipe that is in contact with water during flow events that are expected to occur from a two-year 24-hour storm event. |
OPERATOR: | The person 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 operator must be named on the permit as the Permittee. |
ORDINARY HIGH-WATER MARK: | The boundary of public waters and wetlands and shall be an elevation delineating the highest water level which has been maintained for a sufficient period of time to leave evidence upon the landscape, commonly that point where the natural vegetation changes from predominantly aquatic to predominantly terrestrial. For watercourses, the ordinary high-water level is the elevation of the top of the bank of the channel. For reservoirs and flowages, the ordinary high-water level is the operating elevation of the normal summer pool. |
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, easement, or mineral rights license holder, the party or individual identified as the lease, easement or mineral rights license holder; or the contracting government agency responsible for the construction activity. |
PAVED SURFACE: | A constructed hard, smooth surface made of asphalt, concrete or other pavement material. Examples include, but are not limited to: roads, sidewalks, driveways and parking lots. |
PERMANENT COVER: | Surface types that will prevent soil failure under erosive conditions. Examples include asphalt, concrete, rip rap, roof tops, perennial cover, or other landscaped material that will permanently arrest soil erosion. A uniform perennial vegetative cover (e.g., evenly distributed, without large bare areas) with a density of seventy percent (70%) of the native background vegetative cover for the area must be established on all unpaved areas and areas not covered by permanent structures, or equivalent permanent stabilization measures. Permanent cover does not include the practices listed under temporary erosion protection. See FINAL STABILIZATION. |
PERMIT: | Within the context of this chapter a "permit" is a written warrant or license granted for construction, zoning approval, or to allow land disturbing activities. |
PERMITTEE: | A person or persons, firm, or governmental agency or other entity that signs the application submitted to the MPCA and is responsible for compliance with the terms and conditions of the construction permit. |
PHASED PROJECT OR DEVELOPMENT: | Clearing a parcel of land in distinct phases, with at least fifty percent (50%) of the project's preceding phase meeting the definition of "final stabilization" and the remainder proceeding toward completion, before beginning the next phase of clearing. |
POLLUTANT: | Anything which causes or contributes to pollution. Pollutants may include, but are not limited to: paints, varnishes, and solvents; oil and other automotive fluids; non-hazardous liquid and solid wastes and yard wastes; refuse, rubbish, garbage, litter, or other discarded or abandoned objects, articles, and accumulations, so that same may cause or contribute to pollution; floatables; pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers; hazardous substances and wastes; sewage, fecal coliform and pathogens; dissolved and particulate metals; animal wastes; wastes and residues that result from constructing a building or structure (including but not limited to sediments, slurries, and concrete rinsates); and noxious or offensive matter of any kind. |
PROHIBITED DISCHARGE: | Any substance which, when discharged has potential to or does any of the following: a) interferes with State designated water uses; b) obstructs or causes damage to waters of the State; c) 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; d) adds an unnatural surface film on the water; e) adversely changes other chemical, biological, thermal, or physical condition, in any surface water or stream channel; f) degrades the quality of groundwater; or g) harms human life, aquatic life, or terrestrial plant and wildlife. This includes but is not limited to dredged soil, solid waste, incinerator residue, garbage, wastewater sludge, chemical waste, biological materials, radioactive materials, rock, sand, dust, industrial waste, sediment, nutrients, toxic substance, pesticide, herbicide, trace metal, automotive fluid, petroleum-based substance, and oxygen-demanding material. |
PUBLIC WATERS: | All water basins and watercourses that are described in Minn. Stat. 103G.005 subd. 15. |
RECHARGE: | The replenishment of groundwater reserves. |
REDEVELOPMENT: | Any construction, alteration or improvement of one acre or greater in areas where existing land use is already in a developed condition (i.e., any development that is not considered new development). |
RETAIN: | Manage stormwater on site using a low-impact development approach so that the rate and volume of predevelopment stormwater reaching receiving waters is unchanged. |
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. |
SEDIMENT: | The product of an erosion process; solid material both mineral and organic, that is in suspension, is being transported, or has been moved by water, wind, or ice, and has come to rest on the earth's surface either above or below water level. |
SEDIMENT CONTROL: | The methods employed to prevent sediment from leaving the development 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. |
SITE: | The bounded area defined in an SWPPP including individual parcels of the larger plan's defined area. |
SMALL CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY: | Small construction activity as defined in 40 CFR part 122.26(b)(15). Small construction activities include clearing, grading and excavating that result in land disturbance of equal to or greater than one acre and less than five acres. Small construction activity includes the disturbance of less than one (1) 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 (1) and less than five (5) acres. |
SOIL: | The unconsolidated mineral and organic material on the immediate surface of the earth. For the purposes of this chapter, stockpiles of gravel, aggregate, concrete, or bituminous materials are not considered "soil" stockpiles. |
STABILIZED: | The exposed ground surface after it has been covered mulch, staked sod, riprap, erosion control blanket, mats or other material that prevents erosion from occurring. Grass, agricultural crop or other seeding alone is not stabilization. Mulch materials must achieve approximately ninety percent (90%) ground coverage (typically two (2) ton/acre). Simply sowing grass seed is not considered stabilization. |
STANDARD PLATES: | General drawings showing a common or repeated construction activity or practice. |
STEEP SLOPE: | Any slope steeper than twelve percent (12%) (twelve feet (12') of rise for every one hundred feet (100') horizontal run). |
STOP WORK ORDER: | An order issued which requires that all construction activity not necessary to correct the noncompliance on a site to cease immediately until compliance is achieved and approved by the City. |
STORM DRAIN SYSTEM: | The City-owned facilities by which stormwater is collected or conveyed, including, but not limited to, any roads with drainage systems, Municipal streets, gutters, curbs, inlets, piped storm drains, pumping facilities, retention and detention basins, wet detention or sedimentation basins, natural and human-made or altered drainage channels, reservoirs, and other drainage structures. |
STORMWATER: | Under Minn. R. 7077.0105, subp. 41(b) stormwater means precipitation runoff, stormwater runoff, snow melt runoff, and any other surface runoff and drainage. |
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT PLAN: | A joint stormwater, sediment, and erosion control planning document that when implemented will decrease soil erosion on a parcel of land and offsite non-point pollution. It involves both temporary and permanent BMPs. The plan details site conditions, proposed grading and drainage patterns, and Best Management Practices designed to minimize soil erosion and control sediment. |
STORMWATER POLLUTION PREVENTION PLAN (SWPPP): | A SWPPP is a plan that describes the strategies and steps that will be taken to prevent nonpoint source pollution discharging from a construction site. It includes a plan for stormwater discharge that includes Best Management Practices consisting of erosion prevention measures and sediment controls. The erosion prevention measures contained in the plan shall consist of temporary and permanent measures to stabilize exposed soil. |
STORMWATER TREATMENT PRACTICES: | Physical improvements to the landscape or stormwater infrastructure intended to provide some combination of volume reduction, rate control, water quality benefits, or thermal regulation of untreated runoff. |
STRUCTURE: | Anything manufactured, constructed or erected which is normally attached to or positioned on land, including portable structures, earthen structures, roads, parking lots, and paved storage areas. |
SUBDIVISION: | Any tract of land divided into building lots for private, public, commercial, industrial, etc., development. |
SURFACE WATER(S): | All streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, wetlands, reservoirs, springs, rivers, drainage systems, waterways, watercourses, and irrigation systems whether natural or artificial, public or private, except that surface waters do not include treatment basins or ponds that were constructed from upland. |
TEMPORARY EROSION PROTECTION: | Methods employed to temporarily prevent erosion during construction activities. Examples of temporary cover include straw, wood fiber blanket, wood chips, and erosion netting. |
VEGETATED OR GRASSY SWALE: | A vegetated earthen channel that conveys stormwater, while treating the stormwater by biofiltration. Such swales remove pollutants by both filtration and infiltration. |
WATERS OF THE STATE: | Surface watercourses and water bodies as defined by the State of Minnesota (as defined in Minn. Stat. 115.01, subd. 22): 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 groundwater, natural or artificial, public or private, which are contained within, flow through, or border upon the state or any portion thereof. |
WET DETENTION FACILITY: | Depressions constructed by excavation and embankment procedures to store excess runoff temporarily on site. Wet detention facilities maintain a permanent pool of water between storm events. Wet detention facilities are located to collect stormwater inflows from adjacent drainage areas and are usually designed to control peak discharges from relatively large design storms. |
WET SEDIMENTATION BASIN: | Depressions constructed by excavation and embankment procedures to store excess runoff temporarily on a site. After a runoff event, overflow from the pond is released at a controlled rate by an outlet device designed to release flows at various peak rates and elevations until the design elevation of the pool is reached. Wet Sedimentation Basins are further designed with the goal of capturing and removing sediment from runoff through settling. |
WETLANDS: | As defined in Minn. R. 7050.0130, subp. F, "wetlands" are those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted 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. C. Under normal circumstances support a prevalence of such vegetation. (Ord. 2017-012, 11-21-2017; amd. Ord. 2023-007, 4-18-2023) |