For the purposes of this chapter the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
APPLICANT. A property owner or agent of a property owner who has filed an application for a stormwater management permit.
BUILDING. Any structure, either temporary or permanent, having walls and a roof, designed for the shelter of any person, animal, or property, and occupying more than 100 square feet of area.
BUFFER STRIP. Areas of open vegetated land adjacent to drainage ways, stormwater facilities, lakes, ponds, streams, wetlands, or other surface waters.
CHANNEL. A natural or artificial watercourse with a definite bed and banks that conducts continuously or periodically flowing water.
CITY. The City of Columbia City, or designated party.
HOTSPOT. An area where land use or activities generate highly contaminated runoff, with concentrations of pollutants in excess of those typically found in stormwater.
IMPERVIOUS SURFACE. Those surfaces that cannot effectively infiltrate rainfall (e.g., building rooftops, pavement, sidewalks, driveways, etc).
INFILTRATION. The process of percolating stormwater into the subsoil.
JURISDICTIONAL WETLAND. An area that is inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions, commonly known as hydrophytic vegetation.
LAND DISTURBING ACTIVITY. Any manmade change of the land surface including removing vegetative cover, excavating, filling, transporting, and grading. In the context of this chapter, it includes only nonagricultural land-disturbing activities on sites which also require a local improvement location permit or an approved subdivision plat.
LANDOWNER. The legal or beneficial owner of land, including those holding the right to purchase or lease the land, or any other person holding proprietary rights in the land.
MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT. A legally recorded document that acts as a property deed restriction, and which provides for long-term maintenance of stormwater management practices.
NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION. Pollution from any source other than from any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyances, and shall include, but not be limited to, pollutants from agricultural, silvicultural, mining, construction, subsurface disposal and urban runoff sources.
OFF-SITE FACILITY. A stormwater management measure located outside the subject property boundary described in the permit application for land development activity.
ON-SITE FACILITY. A stormwater management measure located within the subject property boundary described in the permit application for land development activity.
PERSON. Any individual, partnership, co-partnership, firm, company, corporation, association, trust, estate, political subdivision, state agency, or any other legal entity or their legal representative, agent or assigns legally capable of owning property in the state.
POLLUTANT. A pollutant is something that 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, ordnances, and accumulations so that some 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 or building a structure; sediments and noxious or offensive matter of any kind.
RIPARIAN ZONE. The area along water bodies that serve as interfaces between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
SITE. The entire area included in the legal description of the land on which land-disturbing activity has been proposed in the permit application.
STOP WORK ORDER. An order issued which requires that all construction activity on a site be stopped.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT. The use of structural or non-structural practices that are designed to reduce stormwater runoff pollutant loads, discharge volumes, peak flow discharge rates and detrimental changes in stream temperature that affect water quality and habitat.
STORMWATER RUNOFF. The portion of the precipitation from such sources as rainfall, snowmelt, or irrigation water that flows over the ground surface.
STORMWATER TREATMENT PRACTICES (STPS). Measures, either structural or nonstructural, that are determined to be the most effective, practical means of preventing or reducing point source or nonpoint source pollution inputs to stormwater runoff and water bodies.
STORMWATER POLLUTION PREVENTION PLAN. A plan developed to minimize the impact of stormwater pollutants.
SWALE. A grassy depression in the ground designed to collect stormwater runoff from streets, driveways, rooftops and parking lots.