For purpose of this subchapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ADMINISTERING AUTHORITY. The Town of Lowell Storm Water Management Board through the MS4 Operator, or designee, having been designated by the Town Council to administer this subchapter.
APPLICANT. A property owner or agent of a property owner who has filed an application for a storm water management permit.
AVERAGE ANNUAL RAINFALL. A calendar year of precipitation, excluding snow, that is considered typical.
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICE (BMP). Any structural or nonstructural control measure utilized to improve the quality and, as appropriate, reduce the quantity of storm water runoff. The term includes schedules of activities, prohibitions of practice, treatment requirements, operation and maintenance procedures, use of containment facilities, land use planning, policy techniques, and other management practices.
BUILDING. Any structure, either temporary or permanent, having walls and a roof, designed for the shelter of any person, animal or property, and occupying more than 100 square feet of area.
BUSINESS DAY. A day the office of the MS4 Operator is routinely and customarily open for business.
CEASE AND DESIST ORDER. A court–issued order to halt land-disturbing construction activity that is being conducted without the required permit.
CHANNEL. A natural or artificial watercourse with a definite bed and banks that conduct continuously or periodically flowing water.
CLEARING. Any activity that removes the vegetative surface cover.
CONNECTED IMPERVIOUSNESS. An impervious surface that is directly connected to a separate storm sewer or water of the state via an impervious flow path.
CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY. Land-disturbing activities associated with the construction of infrastructure or structures. The term CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY does not include routine ditch or road maintenance, or minor landscaping projects.
CONSTRUCTION PROJECT SITE. The physical location(s) or legal boundaries within which a construction activity or a series of construction activities is planned to be or is being accomplished.
CONSTRUCTION SITE ACCESS. A stabilized stone surface at all points of construction-related egress from a project site, planned and installed in accordance with specification from an approved reference manual, and maintained throughout the period of land-disturbing activities for the purpose of capturing and detaining sediment carried by tires, tracks, or other surface-contact components of vehicles, earthmoving equipment, or material and personnel transport conveyances.
DEDICATION. The deliberate appropriation of property by its owner for general public use.
DEPARTMENT. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM).
DESIGN STORM. A hypothetical, discrete rainstorm, characterized by a specific duration, temporal distribution, rainfall intensity, return frequency, and total depth of rainfall.
DETENTION. The temporary storage of storm runoff in a storm water management practice, with the goals of controlling peak discharge rates and providing gravity settling of pollutants.
DETENTION FACILITY. A detention basin or alternative structure designed for the purpose of temporary storage of stream flow or surface runoff, and gradual release of stored water at controlled rates.
DEVELOPER. A project site owner or person financially responsible for construction activity; or an owner of property who sells, leases, or offers for sale or lease, any lot(s) in a subdivision or larger common plan of development or sale.
DIRECTOR. The chief executive officer of IDEM or his or her designee.
DRAINAGE EASEMENT. A legal right granted by a landowner to a grantee, allowing the use of private land for storm water management purposes.
DRAINAGE WAY. Any channel that conveys surface storm water runoff.
EFFECTIVE INFILTRATION AREA. The area of the infiltration system that is used to infiltrate runoff, which does not include the area used for site access, berms or pretreatment.
EROSION. The process by which the land's surface is worn away by the action of wind, water, ice or gravity.
EROSION AND SEDIMENT CONTROL PLAN. A set of plans prepared by or under the direction of a licensed professional engineer, licensed land surveyor, or certified professional in storm water quality (CPSWQ), indicating the specific measures and sequencing to be used to control sediment and erosion on a development site during and after construction.
EROSION AND SEDIMENT CONTROL SYSTEM. Appropriate control measures combined to prevent or minimize the wearing away of soil, sediment and rock fragments by water, wind or ice, and to intercept detached or suspended particles to prevent their discharge from or within a project site.
FEE IN LIEU. A payment of money in place of meeting all or part of the storm water performance standards required by this subchapter.
FINAL STABILIZATION. The establishment of permanent vegetative cover or the application of a permanent, non-erosive material to areas where all land-disturbing activities have been completed, and no additional land-disturbing activities are planned under the current plan.
FINANCIAL GUARANTEE. A performance bond, maintenance bond, surety bond, irrevocable letter of credit, or similar guarantees submitted to the town by the responsible party to assure that requirements of the article are carried out in compliance with the storm water management plan.
GRADING. Excavation or fill of material, including the resulting conditions thereof.
HOTSPUR. An area where land use or activities generate highly contaminated runoff, with concentrations of pollutants in excess of those typically found in storm water.
HYDROLOGIC SOIL GROUP (HSG). A Natural Resource Conservation Service classification system, in which soils are categorized into four runoff potential groups. The groups range from A soils, with high permeability and little runoff production, to D soils, which have low permeability rates and produce much more runoff.
IMPERVIOUS SURFACE. An area that releases as runoff all or a large portion of the precipitation that falls on it, except for frozen soil. Rooftops, sidewalks, driveways, parking lots and streets are examples of areas that typically are impervious.
INDIVIDUAL BUILDING LOT. A single parcel or land in a multi-parcel development.
INDUSTRIAL STORM WATER PERMIT. A National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit issued to a commercial industry or group of industries, which regulates the pollutant levels associated with industrial storm water discharges or specifies on-site pollution control strategies.
IN–FILL AREA. An undeveloped area of land located within existing development.
INFILTRATION. The entry of precipitation or runoff into or through the soil.
INFILTRATION SYSTEM. A device or practice, such as a basin, trench, rain garden or swale, designed specifically to encourage infiltration, but does not include natural infiltration in pervious surfaces such as lawns, redirecting of rooftop downspouts onto lawns, or minimal infiltration from practices, such as swales or roadside channels, designed for conveyance and pollutant removal only.
JURISDICTIONAL WETLAND. An area that is inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions, commonly known as hydrophytic vegetation.
LAND-DISTURBING CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY. Any man-made change of the land surface, including removing vegetative cover that exposes the underlying soil, excavating, filling, transporting and grading.
LANDOWNER. The legal or beneficial owner of land, including those holding the right to purchase or lease the land, or any other person holding proprietary rights in the land.
MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT. A legally recorded document that acts as a property deed restriction, and provides for long-term maintenance of storm water management practices.
MEASURABLE STORM EVENT. A precipitation event that results in a total measured accumulation of precipitation equal to or greater than one-half inch of rainfall.
MAXIMUM EXTENT PRACTICABLE (MEP). A level of implementing best management practices that takes into account the best available technology, cost effectiveness and other competing issues, such as human safety and welfare, endangered and threatened resources, historic properties and geographic features.
MS4 AREA. Within this subchapter, the corporate limits of the town permitted under an NPDES permit regulated by 327 IAC 15-13.
MS4 OPERATOR. The person locally responsible for development, implementation or enforcement of the storm water quality management plan (SWQMP) for the town, as regulated under 327 IAC 15-13, or an authorized representative thereof.
MUNICIPAL SEPARATE STORM SEWER SYSTEM (MS4). A system of storm water conveyances either owned or operated or regulated by a governmental agency that IDEM has designated as responsible to eliminate or minimize pollutant loadings of the storm water entering waters of the state.
NEW DEVELOPMENT. Development resulting from the conversion of previously undeveloped land or agricultural land uses.
NON-POINT SOURCE POLLUTION. Pollution from any source other than from any discernible, confined and discrete conveyances, including but not be limited to, pollutants from agricultural, silvicultural, mining, construction, subsurface disposal and urban runoff sources.
NOTICE OF PLAN APPROVAL (NPA). A notification from the MS4 Operator to the project site owner that the construction plan for a project site has been reviewed and approved by the MS4 Operator. The project site owner must insert the NPA with the notice of intent sent to the Director of IDEM at least 48 hours prior to initiating land-disturbing activities at the construction project site.
NPDES. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, a program administered by IDEM to reduce or eliminate pollutant loadings into public waters.
OFF-SITE FACILITY. A storm water management measure located outside the subject property boundary described in the permit application for land development activity.
ON-SITE FACILITY. A storm water management measure located within the subject property boundary described in the permit application for land development activity.
PEAK DISCHARGE. The maximum rate of flow from a point of storm water discharge during or immediately following a storm event, usually in reference to a specific return period or “design storm”.
PERCENT FINES. The percentage of a given sample of soil that passes through a # 200 sieve.
Note to users: Percent fines can be determined using the American Society for Testing and Materials, Volume 04.02, “Test Method C117-95 Standard Test Method for Materials Finer than 75–_ m (No. 200) Sieve in Material Aggregates by Washing”. Copies can be obtained by contacting the American Society for Testing and Materials, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, Conshohocken, PA 19428-2959, by phoning 610-832-9585, or online at: "http://www.astm.org".
PERIMETER CONTROL. A barrier that prevents sediment from leaving a site by filtering sediment-laden runoff or diverting it to a sediment trap or basin.
PERMANENT STABILIZATION. The establishment, at a uniform minimum of 70%, across the disturbed areas of vegetative cover or permanent non-erosive material that ensures the resistance of the underlying soil to erosion, sliding or other movement.
PERVIOUS SURFACE. An area that releases as runoff a small portion of the precipitation that falls on it. Lawns, gardens, parks, forests or other similar vegetated areas are examples of surfaces that typically are pervious.
PHASING OF CONSTRUCTION. Sequential development of smaller portions of a large project site, stabilizing each portion before initiating land-disturbing activities on the next portion, to minimize exposure of land to erosion.
POST-CONSTRUCTION SITE. A site following the completion of land-disturbing construction activity and final site stabilization.
PRE–DEVELOPMENT CONDITION. The extent and distribution of land cover types present before the initiation of land-disturbing construction activity, assuming that all land uses prior to development activity are managed in an environmentally sound manner.
PROTECTIVE AREA. An area of land that commences at the delineated boundary of lakes, streams, rivers or wetlands, and that is the greatest of the following widths, as measured horizontally from the boundary to the closest impervious surface. However, in this definition, PROTECTIVE AREA does not include any area of land adjacent to any stream enclosed within a pipe or culvert, such that runoff cannot enter the enclosure at this location. Six categories of protective area have been identified:
(1) For outstanding resource waters and exceptional resource waters, and for wetlands in areas of special natural resource interest: 75 feet.
(2) For perennial and intermittent streams identified on a United States geological survey 7.5–minute series topographic map, or a county soil survey map, whichever is more current: 50 feet.
(3) For lakes: 50 feet.
(4) For highly susceptible wetlands: 50 feet. Highly susceptible wetlands include the following types: fens, sedge meadows, bogs, low prairies, conifer swamps, shrub swamps, other forested wetlands, fresh wet meadows, shallow marshes, deep marshes and seasonally flooded basins. This paragraph does not apply to wetlands that have been completely filled in accordance with all applicable state and federal regulations. The protective area for wetlands that have been partially filled in accordance with all applicable state and federal regulations shall be measured from the wetland boundary delineation after fill has been placed.
(5) For less susceptible wetlands: 10% of the average wetland width, but no less than 10 feet nor more than 30 feet. Less susceptible wetlands include degraded wetlands dominated by invasive species such as reed canary grass.
(6) For concentrated flow channels with drainage areas greater than 130 acres: 10 feet.
RECHARGE. The replenishment of underground water reserves.
REDEVELOPMENT. Any construction, alteration or improvement where structures and/or impervious surfaces are removed and/or replaced.
RESPONSIBLE PERSON. Any person who is responsible for or permits any violation of this subchapter.
RUNOFF. An accumulation of storm water flow that is moving across the surface of the earth as sheet flow or concentrated flow in natural surface watercourses, drains or waterways.
SEDIMENT. Solid material, both organic and mineral, that is in suspension, is being transported, or has been moved from its site of origin by air, water, gravity or ice, and has come to rest on the earth's surface.
SEDIMENT CONTROL. Measures that prevent eroded sediment from leaving the site.
SEDIMENTATION. The settling and accumulation of unconsolidated sediment carried by storm water runoff.
SITE. A parcel of land, or a contiguous combination thereof, where grading work is performed as a single unified operation.
SITE DEVELOPMENT PERMIT. A permit issued by the municipality for the construction or alteration of ground improvements and structures for the control of erosion, runoff and grading.
START OF CONSTRUCTION. The first land-disturbing activity associated with a development, including land preparation such as clearing, grading and filling; installation of streets and walkways; excavation for basements, footings, piers or foundations; erection of temporary forms; and installation of accessory buildings such as garages.
STOP WORK ORDER. An order issued by the MS4 Operator, or designee, that requires that all construction activity on the site be stopped.
STORM WATER MANAGEMENT. The use of structural or nonstructural practices designed to reduce storm water runoff pollutant loads, discharge volumes, peak-flow discharge rates, and detrimental changes in stream temperature that affect water quality and habitat.
STORM WATER MANAGEMENT PLAN. A comprehensive plan designed to reduce the discharge of pollutants from storm water after the site has undergone final stabilization following completion of the construction activity.
STORM WATER QUALITY MEASURE. A practice or combination of practices to control or minimize pollutants associated with storm water runoff.
STORM WATER RETROFIT. A storm water management practice designed for an existing development site that previously had either no storm water management practice in place, or a practice inadequate to meet the storm water management requirements of the site.
TEMPORARY STABILIZATION. The covering of soil to ensure its resistance to erosion, sliding or other movement. The term includes vegetative cover, anchored mulch, or other non-erosive materials applied at a uniform minimum density of 70% across the disturbed areas of a project site.
TOTAL MAXIMUM DAILY LOAD (TMDL). A calculation of the maximum amount of pollutant that a water body can receive and still meet water quality standards, established under Section 303(d) of the Federal Clean Water Act, and allocating pollutant loadings among point and non-point sources. The calculation must include a margin of safety that accounts for scientific uncertainty and future growth. Seasonal variations are also included. The TMDL is calculated using the following equation:
TMDL = WLA + LA + MOS + SV, where:
• WLA = Waste Load Allocations (point sources)
• LA = Load Allocations (non-point sources)
• MOS = Margin of Safety
• SV = Seasonal Variation
TOP OF THE CHANNEL. An edge or point on the landscape, landward from the ordinary high–water mark of a surface water of the state, where the slope of the land begins to be less than 12% continually for at least 50 feet. If the slope of the land is 12% or less continually for the initial 50 feet, landward from the ordinary high–water mark, the TOP OF THE CHANNEL is the ordinary high–water mark.
TR-55. The United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service (previously Soil Conservation Service), Urban Hydrology for Small Watersheds, Second Edition, Technical Release 55, June 1986.
TRACKING. The movement and re-depositing of dirt, mud, aggregate, sediment or other storm water pollutants from a project site by the actions of wheels, tires, skids, tracks or other surface-contact components of cars, trucks, heavy equipment, or material and personnel transport conveyances.
TYPE II DISTRIBUTION. A rainfall type curve as established in the United States Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service, Technical Paper 149, published 1973.
WATER QUALITY VOLUME (WQV). The storage needed to capture and treat the “first flush” of runoff. The WATER QUALITY VOLUME is determined as the runoff resulting from the first inch of rainfall upon the site.
WATERCOURSE. Any body of water, including but not limited to, lakes, ponds, rivers, streams and bodies of water, delineated within the town.
WATERWAY. A channel that directs surface runoff to a watercourse or to the public storm drainage system.
(Ord. 2006-25, passed 12-28-06; Am. Ord. 2019-10, passed 5-28-19)