(A) Prohibited discharge and disposal. This section shall apply to both actual and potential discharges.
(1) No person shall throw, drain or otherwise discharge, cause, or allow others under its control to throw, drain, or otherwise discharge into the city's MS4, any pollutants or waters containing any pollutants, other than water wholly comprised of stormwater.
(2) No person shall throw, deposit, place, leave, keep or permit to be thrown, placed, left, maintained, or kept any refuse, rubbish, garbage, pet waste or any other discarded objects, articles, or accumulations in or on any street, alley, sidewalk, storm drain, inlet, catch basin, drainage structure, so that it might be or become a pollutant, except in containers, recycling bags, or other lawfully established waste disposal facilities/containers.
(3) No person shall intentionally dispose of leaves, dirt, or other landscape debris into a street, road, alley, catch basin, culvert, curb, gutter, inlet, ditch, natural watercourse, flood control channel, canal, storm drain and any other fabricated or natural conveyance.
(4) All stormwater system users, property owners, and occupants shall provide adequate protective procedures and measures to prevent discharges of any non-stormwater discharge to the city's MS4.
(5) All commercial, industrial, and institutional properties storing salt shall store the salt undercover or indoors. All salt must be stored on an impervious surface. Property owners shall implement best management practices to reduce exposure when transferring material in designated salt storage areas.
(B) Reporting illicit discharges.
(1) Discharge of prohibited waste shall be reported to the water quality specialist by the person(s) responsible for the discharge, or by the owner or occupant of the premises where the discharge occurred, immediately upon obtaining knowledge of the discharge.
(2) Such notification will not relieve users of liability for expense, loss or damage to the stormwater system, or any fines imposed on the city under any state or Federal law. The responsible person shall take immediate action as is reasonably possible to minimize or abate the prohibited discharge.
(3) The responsible person shall send detailed written notification describing the illicit discharge to the water quality specialist within seven days of knowledge of the discharge. The letter shall include the following information:
(a) Time and location of the discharge;
(b) Description of the discharge waste, including estimate of pollutant concentrations;
(c) Time period and volume of discharge;
(d) Actions taken to correct or control the discharge; and
(e) A schedule of corrective measures to prevent further discharges.
(C) Prohibited connections.
(1) The construction, use, maintenance or continued existence of illicit connections to the stormwater system is prohibited.
(2) This prohibition includes, without limitations, previous illicit connections regardless of whether the connection was permissible under law or practices applicable or prevailing at the time of connection.
(3) It is a violation of this ordinance to connect a line conveying non-stormwater, permanent or temporary, to the city's MS4 or allow these connections to continue.
(4) Improper connections in violation of this ordinance must be disconnected and redirected, if necessary, to an approved onsite wastewater management system or upon approval, to the city's wastewater treatment system.
(5) Any drain or conveyance that has not been documented in record drawings, maps, or equivalent, and which may be connected to the storm system shall be located by the owner or occupant of that property within 30 days upon receipt of written notice from the city requiring that the location be disclosed. Documentation shall be provided to the city including location of drain or conveyance, identification as storm sewer, sanitary sewer or other, and the outfall location or point of entry into the city storm sewer, sanitary sewer, or other point of discharge.
(D) Watercourse protection.
(1) Every person owning property which a watercourse passes, shall keep and maintain that part of the watercourse within the property free of trash, debris, yard waste, excessive vegetation, and other obstacles that would pollute, contaminate, or significantly retard the flow of water through the watercourse.
(2) The owner shall maintain private structures within or adjacent to a watercourse, so that such structures will not become a hazard to the use, function, and physical integrity of the watercourse.
(E) Stormwater inspections. The city may conduct tests as necessary to enforce this subchapter, and authorized representatives of the city may enter any property in the manner provided by law for the purpose of inspection, observation, measurement, sampling, obtaining information or conducting surveys or investigations to enforce this subchapter. At the direction of the City Engineer, additional inspections due to noncompliance will be billed to the permittee as outlined in the most current stormwater fee schedule in Chapter 35, Appendix A.
(F) Discharge sampling. The city may require installation of monitoring equipment. All sampling and monitoring equipment shall be maintained and in proper operating condition by the discharger, at their expense. All devices used to measure stormwater flow and quality shall be calibrated, as specified by equipment manufacturer, to ensure accuracy.
(G) Requirement of best management practices. Any owner responsible for the premises that are, or may be, the source of an illicit discharge, may be required at the direction of the city to implement, at the owner's expense, additional best management practices to prevent the further and/or future discharge of pollutants to the city's MS4. In addition, any person discharging to the MS4 in violation of this subchapter may have their MS4 access terminated if such termination would abate or reduce an illicit discharge.
(H) Industrial or land disturbing activity discharges. Any person subject to an industrial or construction activity NPDES stormwater permit shall comply with all provisions of such permit. Written proof of compliance may be required prior to discharge to the city's MS4.
(Ord. 1519, passed 3-3-2015; Ord. 1638, passed 9-20-2022)