(A) Definitions as set forth in Appendix B of the Minnesota Permit R100001 (the General Permit Authorization to Discharge Storm Water Associated With Construction Activity Under The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) as amended from time to time which are hereby adopted and incorporated by reference.
(B) Unless specifically defined below, words or phrases used in this chapter shall be interpreted so as to give them the same meaning as they have in common usage and to give this chapter its most reasonable application. The following words and terms, whenever they occur in this chapter are defined as follows:
APPLICATION. A completed application for activities regulated by this permit.
ATLAS 14. A publication from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that provides precipitation event frequency and magnitude estimates.
BARE AREAS. Areas that are intended to be fully vegetated, where vegetative cover is less than 70%.
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICE (BMP). A stationary and permanent best management practice that is designed, constructed, and operated to prevent or reduce the discharge of pollutants in stormwater. BMPs may be structural or non-structural.
BIORETENTION. A best management practice (BMP) that captures stormwater runoff, holding it, and removing suspended particles from the runoff via plant uptake and by passing it through a porous media. Also see FILTRATION.
BLUFF. A topographic feature such as a hill, cliff, or embankment having the following characteristics:
(a) The slope rises at least 25 feet; and
(b) The grade of the slope from the toe of the bluff to the top of the bluff averages 30% or greater, except that an area with an average slope of less than 18% of a distance of at least 50 feet shall not be considered part of the bluff.
BLUFF TOP. The top of a bluff is a point on the upper part of a bluff where the average slope levels off to 18% or less.
BRIDGE. Structures having an opening measured horizontally along the center of the roadway of ten feet or more between undercopings of abutments, between spring line of arches, or between extreme ends of openings for multiple boxes. Bridge also includes multiple pipes where the clear distance between openings is less than half of the smaller contiguous opening.
CCWMO. Carver County Water Management Organization.
COMMON PLAN OF DEVELOPMENT. A common plan of development or sale means 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.
COMPENSATORY STORAGE. The replacement of floodplain storage lost by placement of fill below the 100-year flood elevation. Measured by the volume of material excavated below the floodplain elevation that is required to offset floodplain fill.
CONSTRAINED AREA. An area or site with specific conditions that make volume control BMPs difficult, undesirable or impossible. If these conditions are present, the site may qualify as “constrained,” subject to county review and determination. Examples of constraints include potential contamination, low permeability soils and the like.
CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY. 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.
COUNTY. Shall refer to Carver County as the water management authority within the CCWMO.
CROSSINGS. Culverts, bridges, dams or other obstructions or alterations to flow in waters of the state as defined with flows equal to or greater than ten cubic feet per second.
DISCHARGE. The conveyance, channeling, runoff, or drainage of stormwater, including snow melt, from a construction site.
DNR CATCHMENT AREA. The smallest delineated and digitized drainage area mapped by the Minnesota DNR Watershed Delineation Project, as updated from time to time.
DOWNSTREAM CAPACITY. The ability of the natural and structural conveyance system to accommodate additional flows from the site discharge points to the nearest receiving major waterbody without causing nuisance conditions or flooding. This includes capacity of the conveyance system to accommodate additional rates, volumes, velocities and duration of flow.
DOWNSTREAM FACILITY. A constructed/altered water body created specifically for the purpose of treating stormwater runoff which may be located off the project site and would receive runoff from the project site.
EMERGENCY WORK. Work needed to protect life, limb, and property.
EROSION. The wearing away of soil by rainfall, surface water runoff, wind, or ice movement.
EROSION CONTROL. Methods employed to prevent erosion. Examples include, but are not limited to soil stabilization practices, horizontal slope grading, temporary or permanent cover, and construction phasing.
EXISTING CONDITIONS. The condition of a site (amount of impervious, soil condition, topography, vegetative cover, and the like) prior to the start of a land altering activity.
FEEDLOT. Refer to the county feedlot management regulations, Chapter 54 of this Code of Ordinances.
FILL. Any solid material added to or redeposited in an area that changes the area’s hydrological characteristics, obstructs flow patterns, converts wetland to non-wetland, or alters the area’s capacity to store the 100-year flood.
FILTRATION. The process of capturing stormwater runoff, holding it, and removing suspended particles from the runoff by passing it through porous media. Also see BIORETENTION.
FLOOD. A temporary increase in the flow or stage of a stream or in the stage of a wetland or lake that results in the inundation of normally dry areas.
FLOODPLAIN. The beds proper and the areas adjoining a wetland, lake or watercourse which have been or hereafter may be covered by the regional flood.
FLOODWAY. The bed of a wetland or lake and the channel of a watercourse and those portions of the adjoining floodplain which are reasonably required to carry or store the regional flood discharge.
HIGH WATER LEVEL (HWL). The calculated peak elevation of a water body for the greater of the 100-year, 24-hour rainfall or 100-year, ten-day snowmelt event as described in Atlas-14.
IMPERVIOUS. 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.
INFILTRATION AREAS. A stormwater runoff impoundment designed to capture stormwater runoff volume, hold this volume and infiltrate it into subsurface soil.
LAND ALTERING ACTIVITY. See CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY.
LINEAR PROJECT (LINEAR). A project that constructs or reconstructs a road, trail, rail line, or sidewalk and is not part of a common plan of development.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT UNIT, LGU or LOCAL UNIT. Has the meaning given it in M.S. § 473.852, as it may be amended from time to time.
MAJOR WATERBODY. See PROTECTED WATERS AND WATERWAYS.
MAJOR SUBWATERSHED. Major watersheds within the Carver County Watershed Management Organization are defined as the drainage areas for the following waterbodies: Bevens Creek, Carver Creek, East Chaska Creek, West Chaska Creek, and the South Fork of the Crow River.
MILL AND OVERLAY. A pavement maintenance technique that removes the top layer of pavement by the grinding action of a large milling machine. After the top layer is removed, a new layer of bituminous pavement is put in its place. Underlying base, subbase, and subgrade are not disturbed.
MUNICIPAL SEPARATE STORM SEWER SYSTEM (MS4). A conveyance or system of conveyances (roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, man- made channels, storm drains, etc.) that is also:
(a) Owned or operated by a public entity (which can include cities, townships, counties, military bases, hospitals, prison complexes, highway departments, universities, etc.) having jurisdiction over disposal of sewage, industrial wastes, stormwater, or other wastes, including special districts under state law such as a sewer district, flood control district or drainage district, or similar entity, or an Indian tribe or an authorized Indian tribal organization, or a designated and approved management agency under § 208 of the Clean Water Act that discharges to waters of the United States;
(b) Designed or used for collecting or conveying stormwater;
(c) Which is not a combined sewer; and
(d) Which is not part of a publicly owned treatment works.
NORMAL WATER LEVEL (NWL). The elevation of water at its fixed or designed outlet elevation.
PAVEMENT RECLAMATION. A pavement maintenance technique that consists of uniformly crushing, pulverizing and re-mixing the pavement section along with a small portion of the underlying base material and relaying it in one operation. The existing subgrade and the large majority of the subbase are left undisturbed.
PAVEMENT REHABILITATION. A pavement maintenance technique that consists of structural enhancements that extend the service life of an existing pavement and/or improve its load carrying capacity. Rehabilitation techniques include restoration treatments and structural overlays but do not typically involve more than spot corrections to base or subbase.
PEAK RATES. The maximum rate of flow from a point of storm water discharge during or immediately following a storm event, usually in reference to a specific design storm.
PERVIOUS. A surface that is readily penetrated or permeated by rainfall or runoff resulting in infiltration and reduced runoff.
POND. A graded area which collects and stores water.
PRETREATMENT. Sediment removal designed to capture or trap coarse sediments to preserve storage, prevent clogging and extend the life of facilities. Pretreatment may include but is not limited to vegetated filter strips, small sedimentations basins, forebays, and grit chambers.
PROPERTY 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.
PROTECTED WATERS AND WATERWAYS. Water bodies or watercourses so identified on the Public Waters Wetlands Inventory Map published by the Department of Natural Resources, State of Minnesota or watercourses determined by the county to have a watershed of two square miles or more.
PUBLIC WATER. See PROTECTED WATERS AND WATERWAYS.
RECEIVING WATERBODY. A body of water such as a stream, river, lake, or wetland which receives stormwater.
RECONSTRUCTION (FULL RECONSTRUCTION). Full removal and reconstruction of impervious surfaces (including pavement structure, base, and subbase). Activities including mill and overlay projects, pavement reclamation or pavement rehabilitation projects that do not expose the underlying soils are not considered fully reconstructed.
REDEVELOPMENT. A land altering activity that creates new or replaces existing impervious surface on a parcel that is fully or partially occupied by buildings and/or other impervious surface. Redevelopment does not apply to in-kind replacement (i.e., replacing a parking lot with a parking lot in the same location).
REGIONAL FLOOD. A flood which is representative of large floods known to have occurred generally in Minnesota and reasonably characteristic of what can be expected to occur on an average frequency in a magnitude of the 1% chance or 100-year recurrence interval.
RESPONSIBLE PARTY. The property owner or his or her agent.
RIGHT-OF-WAY (R-O-W). A strip of land acquired by reservation, dedication, prescription, or condemnation and intended to be occupied or used by a road, street, trail, water line, sewer line, electrical transmission line or similar public and/or utility service. Unless otherwise specified, the term RIGHT-OF-WAY (R-O-W) as used in this chapter refers to road or street right-of-way.
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, air or ice, and has come to rest on the earth’s surface either above or below water level.
SEDIMENT CONTROL. Methods employed to prevent sediment from leaving the site. Sediment control practices include, but are not limited to 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.
SENSITIVE AREAS. Areas that are within 50 feet of and drain to one or more of the following resources: DNR protected waters, watercourses as defined, designated floodplain, bluffs and bluff tops, Wellhead Protection Areas as adopted by LGU, delineated wetland boundaries, or wetlands as shown on the National Wetland Inventory (NWI). The distance is measured horizontally from construction limits.
SITE. One or more contiguous properties that are the location of construction activity and are under the control of the applicant.
SOIL. The unconsolidated mineral and organic mineral material on the immediate surface of the earth.
STABILIZED. The exposed ground surface has been covered by staked sod, riprap, wood fiber blanket, or other material which prevents erosion from occurring. Grass seed is not stabilization.
STORM EVENT. As defined in Technical Paper 40 from NOAA, Rainfall Frequency Atlas of the United States for Durations from 30 minutes to 24 Hours and Return Periods from 1 to 100 Years (1961).
STRUCTURE. Anything constructed or erected on or connected to the ground.
SWCD. The Carver County Soil and Water Conservation District.
TOP OF BANK. For natural watercourses, the first major change in slope of the incline above a clearly defined channel. For altered watercourses, the top of the constructed bank.
TOPSOIL. The uppermost layer of soil, containing organic matter and micro-organisms.
WATERBODY. All waterbasins, watercourses, and wetlands as defined in these rules.
WATERBASIN. An enclosed natural depression with definable banks, capable of containing water, that may be partly filled with waters of the state.
WATERCOURSE. Any channel having definable beds and banks capable of conducting generally confined runoff from adjacent lands. During floods water may leave the confining beds and banks but under low and normal flows water is confined within the channel. A watercourse may be perennial or intermittent. This definition excludes road ditches and swales constructed solely for the purpose of conveying runoff from highways, roads and streets and the adjacent lands.
WATERS OF THE STATE. 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.
WATERSHED. The drainage area under the jurisdiction of a watershed management organization.
WETLAND CONSERVATION ACT (WCA). As defined by Minnesota Wetland Conservation Rules, Minn. Rules Ch. 8420, as it may be amended from time to time.
WETLANDS. All wetlands identified as wetlands under M.S. § 103G.005, subd 19. The term does not include “public waters wetlands” as defined under M.S. § 103G.005, subd 15a.
(C) All distances, unless otherwise specified, shall be measured horizontally.
(D) Any words not defined in this section shall have the meanings given them in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition.
(Ord. 57-2005, passed 1-10-06; Am. Ord. 75-2012, passed 6-26-12; Am. Ord. 83-2016, passed 9-20-16; Am. Ord. 99-2022, passed 6-28-22)