For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGE. A discharge prohibited by this chapter, which occurs by chance and without planning or thought prior to its occurrence.
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPs). Schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, general good housekeeping practices, pollution prevention and educational practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to prevent or reduce the discharge of pollutants directly or indirectly to stormwater, receiving waters, or stormwater conveyance systems. BMPs also include treatment practices, operating procedures, and practices to control site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or water disposal, or drainage from raw materials storage.
CLEAN WATER ACT. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq.) and any subsequent amendments thereto.
CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY. Activities subject to the South Carolina Stormwater Management and Sediment Reduction Act (Regulation 72-300) or NPDES General Construction Permits. These include construction projects resulting in land disturbance. Such activities include, but are not limited to, clearing, grubbing, grading, excavating and demolition.
HAZARDOUS MATERIAL. Any material, including any substance, waste, or combination thereof, which because of its quantity, concentration, 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.
ILLICIT DISCHARGE. Any direct or indirect non-stormwater discharge to the municipal separate storm sewer system, except as exempted in § 53.15(B).
ILLEGAL CONNECTION. Either of the following:
(1) Any pipe, open channel, drain or conveyance, manmade or natural, whether on the surface or subsurface, which allows an illicit discharge to enter the storm drain system, including but not limited to, any conveyances that allow any non-stormwater discharge, including sewage, process wastewater, and wash water, to enter the storm drain system, regardless of whether such pipe, open channel, drain or conveyance has been previously allowed, permitted or approved by an authorized enforcement agency; or
(2) Any pipe, open channel, drain or conveyance connected to the municipal separate storm sewer system that has not been documented in plans, maps or equivalent records, and approved by an authorized enforcement agency.
INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY. Activities subject to NPDES Industrial Permits, as defined in 40 C.F.R. § 122.26(b)(14).
MUNICIPAL SEPARATE STORM SEWER SYSTEM (MS4). Any facility designed or used for collecting and/or conveying stormwater, including but not limited to, any roads with drainage systems, highways, municipal streets, curbs, gutters, inlets, catch basins, piped storm drains, pumping facilities, structural stormwater controls, ditches, swales, natural and manmade or altered drainage channels, reservoirs and other drainage structures, and which is:
(1) Owned or maintained by the city;
(2) Not a combined sewer;
(3) Not part of a publicly-owned treatment works; and
(4) Shown as an easement on any recorded subdivision/development plat.
NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES) STORMWATER DISCHARGE PERMIT. A permit issued by South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) that authorizes the discharge of pollutants to waters of the United States, whether the permit is applicable on an individual, group or general area-wide basis.
NON-STORMWATER DISCHARGE. Any discharge to the storm drain system that is not composed entirely of stormwater.
PERSON. Except to the extent exempted from this chapter, any individual, partnership, firm, association, joint venture, public or private corporation, trust, estate, commission, board, public or private institution, utility, cooperative, city, county or other political subdivision of the state, any interstate body or any other legal entity.
POLLUTANT. Anything that causes or contributes to pollution. POLLUTANTS may include, but are not limited to: paints, varnishes and solvents; petroleum hydrocarbons; automotive fluids; cooking grease; detergents (biodegradable or otherwise); degreasers; cleaning chemicals; non-hazardous liquid, solid and yard wastes; refuse, rubbish, garbage, litter, or other discarded or abandoned objects and accumulations, so that same may cause or contribute to pollution; floatables; pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers; liquid and solid wastes; sewage, fecal coliform and pathogens; dissolved and particulate metals; animal wastes; wastes and residues that result from constructing a building or structure; concrete and cement; and noxious or offensive matter of any kind that may cause or contribute to pollution.
POLLUTION. The contamination or other alteration of any waters’ physical, chemical or biological properties by the addition of any constituent. This includes, but is not limited to, a change in the temperature, taste, color, turbidity or odor of such waters; the discharge of any liquid, gaseous, solid, radioactive or other substance into any such waters as will or is likely to create a nuisance or render such waters harmful, detrimental or injurious to:
(1) The public health, safety, welfare or environment; or
(2) Domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, recreational or other legitimate beneficial uses; or
(3) Livestock, wild animals, birds, fish or other aquatic life.
PREMISES. Any building, lot, parcel of land, or portion of land, whether improved or unimproved, including adjacent sidewalks and parking strips.
STATE WATERS. Any and all rivers, streams, creeks, branches, lakes, reservoirs, ponds, drainage systems, springs, wells, and other bodies of surface and subsurface water, natural or artificial, lying within or forming a part of the boundaries of the State of South Carolina, which are not entirely confined and retained completely upon the property of a single person.
STORM DRAINAGE SYSTEM. Publicly-owned facilities or those facilities shown as stormwater drainage easements on plats for subdivisions or developments, by which stormwater is collected and/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, natural and manmade or altered drainage channels, reservoirs and other drainage structures.
STORMWATER or STORMWATER RUNOFF. Any surface flow, runoff and drainage consisting entirely of water from any form of natural precipitation, and resulting from such precipitation.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT (SWMD). The city department responsible for implementing the provisions of this chapter.
STRUCTURAL STORMWATER CONTROL. A structural stormwater management facility or device that controls stormwater runoff and changes the characteristics of that runoff, including but not limited to, the quantity and quality, the period of release or the velocity of flow.
WASTEWATER. Any water or other liquid, other than uncontaminated stormwater, discharged from a facility.
(Ord. 2004-19, passed 11-8-04)