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1. Soil erosion contributes to the impairment of drainageways, increases road and storm sewer maintenance costs, contributes to the destruction and obstruction to traveled roadways creating a potential hazard for vehicular traffic, and contributes to contamination and degradation of land surfaces and streams, flooding and dusty conditions. This chapter establishes requirements in an effort to control erosion and sediment transport.
2. Owners of certain construction sites are required, under rules contained in General Permit No. 2, Storm Water Discharge Associated with Construction Activities ("General Permit No. 2"), to obtain coverage through the Iowa DNR under that permit.
3. Under its Municipal Stormwater National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit, which permit is on file at the offices of the City Clerk and the City Engineer and is available for public inspection during regular office hours, the city is required to develop, implement and enforce a program to reduce pollutants in any storm water runoff from construction activities. Under that permit the city is required to enforce the General Permit No.2.
4. This chapter establishes requirements for grading, filling, and obtaining erosion control permits.
5. No person shall engage in land-disturbing activities requiring a NPDES permit within the city limits unless they have received an erosion control permit.
Wherever used in this chapter the terms listed below will have the meanings indicated. Words using the present tense shall include the future; the singular shall include the plural; the plural shall include the singular; the masculine gender shall include the feminine; the term "shall" is always mandatory, and the term "may" is permissive.
1. "Applicant" means any individual, firm, corporation, association or partnership, or proprietor of land to undergo land-disturbing activities.
2. "Building Official" means the City Clerk/Administrator or their designee.
3. "Certified professional erosion and sediment control specialist" means a specialist in the area of soil erosion and sediment control as certified by the Soil and Water Conservation Society and the International Erosion Control Association.
4. "City" means the City of Ely, Iowa.
5. "City Council" means the City Council of the City of Ely, Iowa.
6. "City Engineer" means the official so designated by the City Council or designee.
7. "Civil engineer" means a professional engineer licensed in the State of Iowa to practice civil engineering.
8. "Clearing and grubbing" means removal of unwanted growth, in the form of trees, wood, shrubs, brush, or stumps on a site.
9. "Design Professional" means a licensed civil engineer or certified professional erosion and sediment control specialist.
10. "Development" means the alteration of land from its existing state.
11. "Disturbed area" means the part of a site on which land-disturbing activities take place. All land area that is to be disturbed at any time during the project is to be counted in determining the disturbed area, even if part of the land will be stabilized before another part is disturbed.
12. "Erosion" means the wearing away of the land surface by running water, wind, ice, gravity, or other geological, natural, or man-made agents.
13. "Erosion Control Officer" means the City Engineer, Building Official, or designee.
14. "Erosion control permit" means a major erosion control permit or a minor erosion control permit.
15. "Fill site" means land upon which fill materials are placed and which placement does not require a Sanitary Disposal Permit issued by the State of Iowa.
16. "Filling" means placing materials to effectively change the site contours. This shall include placing materials from the site itself, or from off site.
17. "Final stabilization" means that all land-disturbing activities at the site have been completed, and that a uniform perennial vegetative cover with a density of 70 percent for the area has been established or equivalent stabilization measures have been employed.
18. "General Permit No. 2" means General Permit No. 2, Storm Water Discharge Associated with Industrial Activity for Construction Activities, as authored and administered by the Iowa DNR.
19. "Iowa DNR" means the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
20. "Land-disturbing activities" means clearing, grading, excavating, filling, or removal of vegetation, paving, or buildings, exposing earthen material on a site.
21. "Ordinance" means the portion of the City Municipal Code entitled, "Construction Site Erosion and Sediment Control."
22. "Responsible party" means one or more persons who have applied for or hold a city erosion control permit, or who own, control, or perform work on a site.
23. "Sediment" means solid material, both natural and man-made, that is in suspension, has been transported, or has been moved from its origin by air, water, gravity, or ice and has been deposited by the action of water or wind.
24. "Site" means property where land-disturbing activities take place.
25. "Stabilization or stabilized" means vegetative cover with a density of 70 percent has been established, or equivalent stabilization measures have been employed.
26. "Standard specifications" means the latest edition of the Ely Metropolitan Area Standard Specifications for Public Improvements as approved by the City Council.
27. "SUDAS" (Pronounced: "Soo'dahs") - Statewide urban design and specifications. Common urban standards and specifications for public improvements.
28. "Stormwater drainage system" means all man-made facilities and structures and all-natural watercourses that are owned by the city, or that are within a drainage easement owned by the city, and that are used for collection, storage, treatment, and conveyance of stormwater from any area, through any area. This includes without limitation all stormwater facilities, canals, creeks, curb and gutter, dams, ditches, floodwalls, flumes, gulches, gullies, levees, ravines, siphons, streams, streets, and swales. For the purpose of illicit discharge regulation, any discharge to an area tributary to the stormwater drainage system shall be treated as a discharge to the stormwater drainage system. The stormwater drainage system does not include the Cedar River.
29. "Stormwater facilities" means anything built or used for the control of stormwater, including without limitation catch basins, channels, culverts, detention basins, energy dissipation structures, inlets, manholes, outlets, pipes and other conduits, retention basins, and roadways and gutters.
30. "Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan" means a document conforming to the requirements therefore contained in General Permit No. 2 and this chapter, prepared and certified by a design professional as defined herein.
31. "SWPPP" means Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan.
Sites that will result in a total disturbed area of one or more acres and sites less than one acre that are a part of a larger common plan of development that will result in a total disturbed area of more than one acre.
1. All erosion control permits shall be issued by the City Building Official upon approval of a completed application. The application shall be signed by the title holder of the site, together with the applicant, if different from the title holder. The necessary documents are covered in 147.04.
2. Sites required to obtain an erosion control permit shall comply with Section 147.06. Requirements for Sites Covered by the Iowa DNR General Permit No. 2, herein.
3. An erosion control permit application shall include the following:
A. A completed application.
B. A SWPPP conforming to: The requirements of this chapter, and the requirements of General Permit No. 2.
C. A dimensioned drawing including the following:
(1) Property address and legal description;
(2) Property lines and any existing easements of record;
(3) Limits of area of land-disturbing activities;
(4) Existing and proposed ground elevations (2-foot maximum interval);
(5) Other information as required by the City Building Official, City Engineer and/or City Council.
4. The permittee shall provide the City with all material submitted as part of a notice of discontinuation when such a notice is filed with the Iowa DNR.
5. Filling or construction within floodplain limits as established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and in the Ely Floodplain Management Ordinance will require a separate additional permit under that ordinance, in addition to the permits required by this chapter.
6. The following activities are exempt from the requirements of this chapter:
A. Crop production activities;
B. Cemetery graves;
C. Emergencies posing an immediate danger to life or property, or substantial flood or fire hazards;
D. Total fill quantity of less than 25 cubic yards in a 12 month time period.
1. Every SWPPP submitted to the city in support of an application for an erosion control permit:
A. Shall contain complete 24-hour contact information for the site owner and the person in responsible charge of providing and maintaining sedimentation and erosion control for the site. The permittee shall inform the Erosion Control Officer within 7 calendar days of any change in this contact information.
B. Shall comply with all current minimum mandatory requirements for SWPPPs promulgated by the Iowa DNR in connection with General Permit No. 2, including those published as Summary Guidance for General Permit No. 2 by the Iowa DNR. The City Engineer may develop policies modifying these requirements for sites with a disturbed area less than one acre.
C. Shall comply with all other applicable state or federal permit requirements in existence at the time of application.
D. Shall be prepared by a design professional as defined herein.
E. Shall include within the SWPPP a signed and dated certification by the person preparing the SWPPP that the SWPPP complies with all requirements of this section.
2. The SWPPP shall be modified by a design professional (as defined herein) as required in General Permit No. 2. Any modification of a SWPPP shall meet the requirements above.
1. The applicant shall submit a SWPPP for the site, meeting the requirements established in the State Urban Design Standards (SUDAS), to the City Building Official for review and approval, as follows:
A. The City Building Official shall review the submittal for compliance with the requirements of a SWPPP as set forth as in the GP#2. Following the review, the City Building Official may return comments to the design professional.
B. Following receipt of comments from the City Building Official, the applicant shall provide a revised submittal to the City Building Official in accordance with any requested revisions.
C. The City Building Official may require supporting documentation as needed to demonstrate conformance with these requirements. Issuance of an erosion control permit may be delayed pending receipt of the documentation.
D. If the submittal is complete, and meets the requirements as set forth herein, the City Building Official shall approve the plan.
1. The city shall not allow any land-disturbing activity on a site for which coverage under General Permit No. 2 is required, nor shall the city issue any permit, authorization, or license allowing such activity, until the site owner has obtained coverage for the site under General Permit No. 2 from the Iowa DNR.
2. Any responsible party who is required to obtain, or has obtained, coverage under General Permit No. 2 shall comply with all the requirements of General Permit No. 2. Failure to do so is a violation of this section.
A. Completion of work shown in a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan submitted under the provisions of General Permit No. 2 is a requirement of General Permit No. 2 and failure to complete such work is a violation of this section. Completion of work shown in a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan under the provisions of General Permit No. 2 is a requirement of General Permit No. 2 and failure to complete such work is a violation of this section.
3. For sites covered under General Permit No. 2 where the ownership changes, the Enforcement Officer must be notified of the title transfer within 30 days. The new owner shall be subject to all terms and conditions of the erosion control permit. A copy of the notice of transfer that was sent to the Enforcement Officer shall be included in the SWPPP.
For sites that are part of a larger common plan of development such as a housing or commercial development project, if a permittee transfers ownership of all or any part of property subject to an erosion control permit, both the permittee and transferee shall be responsible for compliance with the provisions of General Permit No. 2 and the erosion control permit for that portion of the project which has been transferred including when the transferred property is less than one acre in area. If the new owner agrees in writing to be solely responsible for compliance with the provisions of General Permit No. 2 and the erosion control permit for the property which has been transferred, then the existing permittee shall be relieved of responsibility for compliance with General Permit No. 2 and the erosion control permit for the transferred property, from and after the date the transfer of responsibility is attached to the SWPPP.
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