For purpose of this regulation, the following terms shall have the meaning herein indicated:
(a) "Abbreviated stormwater pollution prevention plan (abbreviated SWP3)" is the written document that sets forth the plans and practices to be used to meet the requirements of this regulation.
(b) "Acre" means a measurement of area equaling 43,560 square feet.
(c) "Administrator" means the person or entity having the responsibility and duty of administering and ensuring compliance with this regulation.
(d) "Best Management Practices (BMPs): also stormwater control measure (SCM)" means schedule of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices (both structural and non-structural) to prevent or reduce the pollution of water resources. BMPs also include treatment requirements, operating procedures, and practices to control facility and/or construction site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal; or drainage from raw material storage.
(e) "Commencement of construction" means the initial disturbance of soils associated with clearing, grubbing, grading, placement of fill, or excavating activities or other construction activities.
(f) "Concentrated stormwater runoff" means any stormwater runoff that flows through a drainage pipe, ditch, diversion, or other discrete conveyance channel.
(g) "Construction entrance" means the permitted points of ingress and egress to development areas regulated under this regulation.
(h) "Development area" means a parcel or contiguous parcels owned by one (1) person or persons, or operated as one (1) development unit, and used or being developed for commercial, industrial, residential, institutional, or other construction or alteration that changes runoff characteristics.
(i) "Dewatering volume." See current Ohio Rainwater and Land Development Manual.
(j) "Discharge" means the addition of any pollutant to surface waters of the state from a point source.
(k) "Disturbance" means any clearing, grading, excavating, filling, or other alteration of land surface where natural or man-made cover is destroyed in a manner that exposes the underlying soils.
(l) "Disturbed area" means an area of land subject to erosion due to the removal of vegetative cover and/or soil disturbing activities such as grading, excavating, or filling.
(m) "Drainage" means:
(1) The area of land contributing surface water to a specific point.
(2) The removal of excess surface water or groundwater from land by surface of subsurface drains.
(n) "Drainage watershed" means, for the purpose of this regulation, the total contributing drainage area to a BMP, i.e., the "watershed" directed to the practice. This includes offsite contributing drainage.
(o) "Drainage way" means a natural or manmade channel, ditch, or waterway that conveys surface water in a concentrated manner by gravity.
(p) "Erosion" means the process by which the land surface is worn away by the action of wind, water, ice, gravity, or any combination of those forces.
(q) "Erosion and sediment control" means the control of soil, both mineral and organic, to minimize the removal of soil from the land surface and to prevent its transport from a disturbed area by means of wind, water, ice, gravity, or any combination of those forces.
(r) "Final stabilization" means all soil disturbing activities at the site have been completed and a uniform perennial vegetative cover with a density of at least eighty percent (80%) coverage for the area has been established or equivalent stabilization measures, such as the use of mulches or geotextiles, have been employed. In addition, all temporary erosion and sediment control practices are removed and disposed of and all trapped sediment is permanently stabilized to prevent further erosion. Final stabilization also requires the installation of permanent (post-construction) stormwater control measures (SCMs).
(s) "General contractor" means the primary individual or company solely accountable to perform a contract. The general contractor typically supervises activities, coordinates the use of subcontractors, and is authorized to direct workers at a site to carry out activities required by the permit.
(t) "Grading" means the excavating, filling, or stockpiling of earth material, or any combination thereof, including the land in its excavated or filled condition.
(u) "Grubbing" means removing or grinding of roots, stumps and other unwanted material below existing grade.
(v) "Impervious" means that which does not allow infiltration.
(w) "Landscape architect" means a professional landscape architect registered in the State of Ohio.
(x) "Larger common plan of development or sale" means a contiguous area where multiple separate and distinct construction activities may be taking place at different times on different schedules under one (1) plan.
(y) "Maximum extent practicable (MEP)" means the technology-based discharge standard for municipal separate storm sewer systems to reduce pollutants in storm water discharges that was established by the Clean Water Act § 402(p). A discussion of MEP as it applies to small MS4s is found in 40 CFR 122.34.
(z) "Municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4)" means a conveyance or system of conveyances (including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels, or storm drains) that are:
(1) Owned or operated by the Federal government, state, municipality, township, county, district, or other public body (created by or pursuant to state or Federal law) including a special district under state law such as a sewer district, flood control district or drainage districts, or similar entity, or a designated and approved management agency under Section 208 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act that discharges into surface waters of the state; and
(2) Designed or used for collecting or conveying solely stormwater,
(3) Which is not a combined sewer, and
(4) Which is not a part of a publicly owned treatment works.
(aa) "National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)" means the national program for issuing, modifying, revoking and reissuing, termination, monitoring and enforcing permits and enforcing pretreatment requirements, under §§ 307, 402, 318, 405 under the Clean Water Act.
(bb) "Natural channel design" means an engineering technique that uses knowledge of the natural process of a stream to create a stable stream that will maintain its form and function over time.
(cc) "Non-sediment pollutant" means any solid (other than sediment) or liquid waste, including building materials, which shall be prevented from discharging to the site drainage system or to waters of the state.
(dd) "Operator" means any party associated with a construction project that meets either of the following two (2) criteria:
(1) The party has day-to-day operational control of all activities at a project which are necessary to ensure compliance with a stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWP3) for the site and all other permit conditions including the ability to authorize modifications to the SWP3, construction plans and site specification to ensure compliance with the general permit; or
(2) Property owner meets the definition of operator should the party which has day to day operational control require additional authorization from the owner for modifications to
the SWP3, construction plans, and/or site specification to ensure compliance with the permit or refuses to accept all responsibilities as listed above.
Subcontractors generally are not considered operators for the purposes of this permit. There can be more than one (1) operator at a site and under these circumstances, the operators shall be co-permittees.
(ee) "Owner or operator" means the owner or operator of any "facility or activity" subject to regulation under the NPDES program.
(ff) "Subdivisions, major and minor." See Ohio Administrative Code 711.001 for definition.
(gg) "Parcel" means a tract of land occupied or intended to be occupied by a use, building or group of buildings and their accessory uses and buildings as a unit, together with such open spaces and driveways as are provided and required.
(hh) "Percent imperviousness" means the impervious area created divided by the total area of the project site.
(ii) "Permanent stabilization" is the establishment of permanent vegetation, decorative landscape mulching, matting, sod, rip rap, and landscaping techniques to provide permanent erosion control on areas where construction operations are complete or where no further disturbance is expected for at least one (1) year.
(jj) "Person" means any individual, corporation, firm, trust, commission, board, public or private partnership, joint venture, agency, unincorporated association, municipal corporation, county or state agency, the Federal government, other legal entity, or an agent thereof.
(kk) "Phasing" means clearing a parcel of land in distinct sections, with the stabilization of each section before the clearing of the next.
(ll) "Point source" means any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, landfill leachate collection system, vessel or the floating craft from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include return flows from irrigated agriculture or agricultural stormwater runoff.
(mm) "Professional engineer" means a professional engineer registered in the State of Ohio.
(nn) "Qualified inspection personnel" means a person knowledgeable in the principles and practice of erosion and sediment controls, who possess the skills to assess all conditions at the construction site that could impact stormwater quality and to assess the effectiveness of any sediment and erosion control measure selected to control the quality of stormwater discharges from the construction activity.
(oo) "Rainwater and Land Development" are Ohio's standards for stormwater management, land development, and stream protection. The most current edition of these standards shall be used with this regulation.
(pp) "Riparian area" means the transition area between flowing water and terrestrial (land) ecosystems composed of trees, shrubs and surrounding vegetation which serve to stabilize erodible soil, improve both surface and ground water quality, increase stream shading and enhance wildlife habitat.
(qq) "Runoff" means the portion of rainfall, melted snow, or irrigation water that flows across the ground surface and is eventually conveyed to water resources or wetlands.
(rr) "Runoff coefficient" means the fraction of rainfall that will appear at the conveyance as runoff.
(ss) "Sediment" means the soils or other surface materials that are transported or deposited by the action of wind, water, ice, gravity, or any combination of those forces, as a product of erosion.
(tt) "Sedimentation" means the deposition or settling of sediment.
(uu) "Sediment settling pond" means a sediment trap, sediment basin or permanent basin that has been temporarily modified for sediment control, as described in the latest edition of Rainwater and Land Development.
(vv) "Sediment storage volume." See current edition of Rainwater and Land Development.
(ww) "Setback" means a designated transition area around water resources that is left in a natural, usually vegetated, state to protect the water resources from runoff pollution. Soil disturbing activities in this area are restricted by this regulation.
(xx) "Soil disturbing activity" means clearing, grading, excavating, filling, grubbing or stump removal that occurs during clearing or timber activities, or other alteration of the earth's surface where natural or human made ground cover is destroyed and that may result in, or contribute to, erosion and sediment pollution.
(yy) "Soil & Water Conservation District" is an entity organized under R.C. Chapter 940 referring to either the Soil and Water Conservation District Board or its designated employee(s). Hereafter referred to as Cuyahoga County SWCD.
(zz) "Stabilization" means the use of BMPs, such as seeding and mulching, that reduce or prevent soil erosion by water, wind, ice, gravity, or a combination of those forces.
(aaa) "Steep slopes" means slopes that are fifteen percent (15%) or greater in grade. NOTE: If otherwise defined in community zoning, use community definition.
(bbb) "Stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWP3)" means the written document that sets forth the plans and practices to be used to meet the requirements of this regulation.
(ccc) "Stormwater" means stormwater runoff, snow melt and surface runoff and drainage.
(ddd) "Subcontractor" means an individual or company that takes a portion of a contract from the general contractor or from another subcontractor.
(eee) "Surface outlet" means a dewatering device that only draws water from the surface of the water.
(fff) "Surface water of the state: also water resource or water body" means all streams, lakes, reservoir, ponds, marshes, wetlands, or other waterways situated wholly or partly within the boundaries of the state, except those private waters which do not combine or affect a junction with natural surface water or underground waters. Waters defined as sewerage systems, treatment works or disposal systems in R.C. § 6111.01 are not included.
(ggg) "Temporary stabilization" means the establishment of temporary vegetation, mulching, geotextiles, sod, preservation of existing vegetation, and other techniques capable of quickly establishing cover over disturbed areas to provide erosion control between construction operations.
(hhh) "Topsoil" means the upper layer of the soil that is usually darker in color and richer in organic matter and nutrients than subsoil.
(iii) "Total maximum daily load" means the sum of the existing and/or projected point source, nonpoint source, and background loads for a pollutant to a specified watershed, water resource or wetland, or water resource or wetland segment. A TMDL sets and allocates the maximum amount of a pollutant that may be introduced into the water and still ensure attainment and maintenance of water quality standard.
(jjj) "Water quality volume (WQv)" means the volume of stormwater runoff which must be captured and treated prior to discharge from the developed site after construction is complete.
(kkk) "Water resource: also surface water of the state" means any stream, lake, reservoir, pond, marsh, wetland, or waterway situated wholly or partly within the boundaries of the state, except those private waters which do not combine or affect a junction with surface water. Waters defined as sewerage systems, treatment works or disposal systems in R.C. § 6111.01 are not included.
(lll) "Watershed" means the total drainage area contributing runoff to a single point.
(mmm) "Wetland" means those areas, that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water 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, including swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas (40 CFR 232, as amended).
(Ord. 2019-13. Passed 6-18-19.)