For the purpose of this subchapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
AUTHORIZED ENFORCEMENT AGENCY. The City Department of Storm Water Management.
CAPACITY (OF A STORM DRAINAGE FACILITY). The maximum flow that can be conveyed or stored by a storm drainage facility without causing damage to public or private property.
COMPLIANCE. The act of correcting a violation or violations within the time frame specified by the City of Decatur.
CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY. Land disturbing activities, and land disturbing activities associated with the construction of infrastructure and structures. This term does not include routine ditch or road maintenance or minor landscaping projects.
CONSTRUCTION SITE ACCESS. A stabilized stone surface at all points of ingress or egress to a project site, for the purpose of capturing and detaining sediment carried by tires of vehicles or other equipment entering or exiting the project site.
CONTOUR. An imaginary line on the surface of the earth connecting points of the same elevation.
CONTRACTOR or SUBCONTRACTOR. An individual or company hired by the project site or individual lot owner, their agent, or the individual lot operator to perform services on the project site.
CONVEYANCE. Any structural method for transferring storm water between at least two points. The term includes piping, ditches, swales, curbs, gutters, catch basins, channels, storm drains, and roadways.
DEPARTMENT. The City Department of Storm Water Management.
DETENTION. Managing storm water runoff by temporary holding and controlled release.
DETENTION BASIN. A facility constructed or modified to restrict the flow of storm water to a prescribed maximum rate, and to detain concurrently the excess waters that accumulate behind the outlet.
DETENTION STORAGE. The temporary detaining of storage of storm water in storage facilities, on rooftops, in streets, parking lots, school yards, parks, open spaces or other areas under predetermined and controlled conditions, with the rate of release regulated by appropriately installed devices.
DEVELOPER. Any person financially responsible for construction activity, or an owner of property who sells or leases, or offers for sale or lease, any lots in a subdivision.
DEVELOPMENT. Any man-made change to improved or unimproved real estate including but not limited to:
(1) Construction, reconstruction, or placement of a building or any addition to a building;
(2) Construction of flood control structures such as levees, dikes, dams or channel improvements;
(3) Construction or reconstruction of bridges or culverts;
(4) Installing a manufactured home on a site, preparing a site for a manufactured home, or installing a recreational vehicle on a site for more than 180 days;
(5) Installing utilities, erection of walls, construction of roads, or similar projects;
(6) Mining, dredging, filling, grading, excavation, or drilling operations;
(7) Storage of materials: or
(8) Any other activity that might change the direction, height, or velocity of flood or surface waters.
DITCH. A man-made, open watercourse in or into which excess surface water or groundwater drained from land, storm water runoff, or floodwaters flow either continuously or intermittently.
DRAIN. A buried slotted or perforated pipe or other conduit (subsurface drain) or a ditch (open drain) for carrying off surplus groundwater or surface water.
DRAINAGE. The removal of excess surface water or groundwater from land by means of ditches or subsurface drains. Also see NATURAL DRAINAGE.
EROSION AND SEDIMENT CONTROL. A practice, or a combination of practices, to minimize sedimentation by first reducing or eliminating erosion at the source and then as necessary, trapping sediment to prevent it from being discharged from or within a project site.
FLOODPLAIN. The channel proper and the areas adjoining the channel which have been or hereafter may be covered by the regulatory or 100-year flood. Any normally dry land area that is susceptible to being inundated by water from any natural source. The floodplain includes both the floodway and the floodway fringe districts.
FLOODWAY. The channel of a river or stream and those portions of the floodplains adjoining the channel which are reasonably required to efficiently carry and discharge the peak flow of the regulatory flood of any river or stream.
FLUVIAL EROSION HAZARD (FEH) CORRIDOR. Represent the areas along the streams (including the channel and immediate overbanks areas) that are believed to be subject to stream movement or streambank erosion. These corridors have been delineated for most actively migrating and relatively stationary streams in Indiana through an Indiana Silver Jackets initiative.
INDIVIDUAL BUILDING LOT. A single parcel of land within a multi-parcel development.
INDIVIDUAL LOT OPERA TOR. A contractor or subcontractor working on an individual lot.
OUTLET. The point of water disposal from a stream, river, lake, tidewater, or artificial drain.
PERMANENT STABILIZATION. The establishment, at a uniform density of 70% across the disturbed area, of vegetative cover or permanent non-erosive material that will ensure the resistance of the soil to erosion, sliding, or other movement.
PROJECT SITE OWNER. The person required to submit a storm water permit application and required to comply with the terms of this chapter, including a developer or a person who has financial and operational control of construction activities, and project plans and specifications, including the ability to make modifications to those plans and specifications.
REDEVELOPMENT. Development occurring on a previously developed site.
REGIONAL POND. A detention/retention basin sized to detain/retain the runoff from the entire watershed, on-site and off-site, tributary to the pond's outlet.
RETENTION. The storage of storm water to prevent it from leaving the development site. May be temporary or permanent.
SEDIMENT. Solid material (both mineral and organic) that is in suspension, is being transported, or has been moved from its site of origin by air, water, gravity, or ice and has come to rest on the earth's surface.
SOIL. The unconsolidated mineral and organic material on the immediate surface of the earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of land plants.
SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT (SWCD). A public organization created under state law as a special-purpose district to develop and carry out a program of soil, water, and related resource conservation, use, and development within its boundaries. A subdivision of state government with a local governing body, established under I.C. 14-32.
STORM WATER DRAINAGE SYSTEM. All means, natural or man-made, used for conducting storm water to, through or from a drainage area to any of the following: conduits and appurtenant features, canals, channels, ditches, storage facilities, swales, streams, culverts, streets and pumping stations.
STORM WATER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. A collection of structural and non-structural practices and infrastructure designed to manage storm water on a site. This system may include but is not limited to erosion control measures, storm drainage infrastructure, detention/retention facilities, and storm water quality BMPs.
STORM WATER POLLUTION PREVENTION PLAN. A plan developed to minimize the impact of storm water pollutants resulting from construction activities.
STORM WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN. A comprehensive written document that addresses storm water runoff quality.
STORM WATER QUALITY MEASURE. A practice, or a combination of practices, to control or minimize pollutants associated with storm water runoff.
SWALE. An elongated depression in the land surface that is at least seasonally wet, is usually heavily vegetated, and is normally without flowing water. SWALES conduct storm water into primary drainage channels and may provide some groundwater recharge.
TRAINED INDIVIDUAL. An individual who is trained and experienced in the principles of storm water quality, including erosion and sediment control as may be demonstrated by state registration, professional certification (such as CESSWI and/or CPESC certification), or other documented and applicable experience or coursework as deemed sufficient by the City of Decatur that enable the individual to make judgments regarding storm water control or treatment and monitoring.
WATERCOURSE. Any river, stream, creek, brook, branch, natural or man-made drainageway in or into which storm water runoff or floodwaters flow either continuously or intermittently.
WATERSHED. The region drained by or contributing water to a specific point that could be along a stream, lake or other storm water facility. Watersheds are often broken down into subareas for the purpose of hydrologic modeling.
WETLANDS. 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.
(Ord. 2023-11, passed 8-1-2023)