(A) The Board of Commissioners of Hancock County, State of Indiana, adopted Ord. 1997-3D in 1997, as amended by Ord. 2001-10E in October 2001, which established "Storm Drainage, Erosion, and Sediment Control Ordinance of Hancock County", commonly known as the "Hancock County Drainage Code", in order to govern the control of runoff of stormwater and to protect, conserve and promote the orderly development of the land in Hancock County and its water resources. This code was primarily targeted at stormwater discharge quantity, and erosion and sediment control.
(B) On December 8, 1999, Phase II of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program, was published in the Federal Register. The NPDES program, as authorized by the 1972 amendments to the Clean Water Act, controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States. Phase II of NPDES requires permit coverage for stormwater discharges from regulated small municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) and for small construction activity that results in the disturbance of equal to or greater than one acre. This federal regulation went into effect on March 10, 2003. In response to Phase II of NPDES, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management enacted Rule 13 (327 IAC 15-13) and revised Rule 5 (327 IAC 15-5).
(C) Under these new state and federal regulations, Hancock County was required to establish a regulatory mechanism for regulating stormwater quality management. Therefore, the "Hancock County Drainage Code" was further amended in 2004 and later by Ord. 2005-12C in December 2005 (effective January 2006) and then by Ord. 2018-11-A in October 2018 with a document that included then new requirements for management of stormwater quality in addition to quantity and other necessary updates.
(D) In December 2021, IDEM finalized two new permits, municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) general permit (MS4 GP) and construction stormwater general permit (CSGP), which replaced the previous IDEM's Rule 13 and Rule 5. These new permits require the county to update its stormwater management ordinance to incorporate new requirements contained in the 2021 permits. The 2022 Comprehensive Stormwater Management Ordinance of Hancock County and its companion document, the 2022 Hancock County Stormwater Technical Standards Manual, incorporate the IDEM-required changes and other necessary periodic updates.
(Ord. 2005-12C, passed 12-12-05; Am. Ord. 2018-11-A, passed 11-5-18; Am. Ord. 2022-10A, passed 10-4-22)