Unless specifically defined below, words or phrases used in this chapter shall be interpreted to give them the meaning they have in common usage and to give this chapter its most reasonable application.
"Activity" or "activities" means any land stripping, earthmoving, trenching, road construction and demolition or renovation of manmade facilities.
"Air contaminant" means smoke, vapor, charred paper, dust, soot, grime, carbon, fumes, gases, odors, particulate matter, windborne matter, or any other material in the outdoor atmosphere.
"Anthropogenic" means created or caused by human activity.
"Chemical/Organic stabilizer" means any non-toxic chemical or organic dust suppressant other than water which meets any specifications, criteria, or tests required by any federal, state, or local water agency and is not prohibited for use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or any applicable law, rule or regulation.
"Construction and demolition activities" means any on-site activities preparatory to or related to building alteration, rehabilitation, removal or razing, or improvement on real property, including the placement and upkeep of mobile or manufactured homes or buildings. "Construction" also means construction of roadway systems including, arterials, expressways, interstates, tunnels, overpasses, bridges, interchanges, residential and commercial streets within a subdivision, and airport runway improvements.
"Control measures" or "CM" means techniques or methods used to prevent or reduce the emission and/or airborne transport of fugitive dust and dirt.
"Disturbed area" means any area in which the soil will be altered by grading, leveling, scraping, cut and fill activities, excavation, brush and timber clearing, grubbing, and unpaved soils on which vehicle operations and/or movement will or has occurred.
"Dust" or "dust emissions" means finely divided solid particulate matter occurring naturally or created by mechanical processing, handling or storage of materials in the solid state.
"Dust generating operation" means any activity capable of generating fugitive dust, including, but not limited to, activities associated with creating a disturbed area, construction and demolition activities, and the movement of vehicles on unpaved roadways or parking areas.
"Dust suppressant" means a chemical compound or mixture of chemical compounds added with or without water to a dust source for purposes of preventing air entrainment.
"Emission" means an air contaminant, or the act of discharging an air contaminant, visible or invisible.
"Erosion" means the transportation of soil particles, or mass movement of soil (mass wasting), by water, wind front leaving, or mechanical means.
"Fugitive dust" means particles lifted into the ambient air caused by man-made and natural activities such as the movement of soil, vehicles, equipment, blasting, and wind. This excludes particulate matter emitted directly from the exhaust of motor vehicles and other internal combustion engines, from portable brazing, soldering, or welding equipment, and from pile drivers.
"Haul road" means a road constructed for the principle purpose of hauling construction materials, or to provide access to one or more construction sites or industrial operations.
"High wind event" means a climatological occurrence in which the average wind speed exceeds a threshold in which fugitive dust will be generated from undisturbed areas, naturally covered areas, disturbed areas, and construction sites, regardless of reasonably available control measures implementation. The average wind speed for high wind events is a sustained wind speed of twenty five miles per hour or greater.
"Inactive disturbed area" means any disturbed surface area on which active operations have been suspended.
"Land stripping" or "land stripping activity" means removal of all or any portion of existing vegetation from parcels of land with equipment, which plows or scrapes the surface.
"Maintenance" means the cleaning, shaping, grading, repair and minor replacement of drainage, flood control and erosion control facilities, but not including the cost of power consumed in the normal operation of pump stations.
"Natural cover" means any vegetation which exists on the property, prior to any construction activity or achieved through vegetation restoration back to a natural state, including the placement of sod.
"Owner or operator" means any person or entity who owns, leases, operates, controls, or supervises an affected facility or a stationary source of which an affected facility is a part.
"Palliative" means any agent used to lessen or reduce dust emissions.
"Particulate matter" means any airborne finely divided solid or liquid material with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than one hundred micrometers.
"Sand" means a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles with average diameters of greater than one hundred micrometers.
"Silt fence" means a temporary sediment control device consisting of a synthetic filter fabric stretched across and attached to supporting posts and entrenched.
"Undisturbed" means land or property which is in its natural condition and has not been stripped or graded except if the property has been revegetated and the ground cover is mature.
"Unpaved road" means a road which is not covered with dust-suppressing materials and maintained in such a manner that visible emissions of dust from the road surface are permanently prevented other than during times of normal cleaning and/or after flooding.
"Vacant lot" means a subdivided or unsubdivided parcel of land which contains no buildings or structures of a temporary or permanent nature, excluding perimeter walls or fences.
"Visible emissions" means any emission which are visually detectable without the aid of instruments and which contain particulate matter.
"Wind Erosion Control Plan" or "WECP" means a document used to outline the activities being undertaken which have the ability to create fugitive dust or windblown particulate matter and the steps that will be taken to mitigate the escape of these materials beyond the property lines(s) of the originating land(s).
"Wind fence" means a barrier made of small, evenly spaced wooden slats or fabric. They are erected to reduce wind velocity and to trap blowing sand. Wind fences can be used as perimeter controls around open construction sites to keep sediments from being blown offsite by the wind. The spaces between the fence slats allow wind and sediment to pass through but reduce the wind's speed, causing sediment to deposit along the fence.
"Wind speed" means the average wind velocity, or gusts regardless of direction, of the wind from the nearest weather monitoring station, or by a portable wind instrument located at the site. (Ord. 526 (part), 2014)