§ 23-80. Definitions.  


Latest version.
  • For the purposes of this article, the following words, terms, and phrases shall have the meanings given to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

    Authorized enforcement staff means any town employee designated by the town manager to enforce this article.

    Best management practices (BMPs) means controls, including both nonstructural and structural measures, which are designed to reduce the flow of stormwater runoff, or to reduce or eliminate the amount or concentration of pollutants that enter stormwater and/or the stormwater drainage system. Examples of nonstructural BMPs include inspections for leaks and spills, general maintenance and good housekeeping practices to prevent pollution, education, and on-site maintenance of a spill cleanup kit. Examples of structural BMPs are facilities such as roofed sheds or elevated storage areas to keep precipitation or runoff from reaching raw material storage areas, and stormwater control measures (SCMs), such as bioretention cells, and retention and detention ponds.

    Clean Water Act means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq.), and any subsequent amendments thereto.

    Discharge means to put, place, dump, spill, pump, pour, or otherwise deposit any solid or liquid material.

    Discharger means any person or entity engaged in activities or operations or owning facilities, which will or may result in pollutants entering stormwater, the stormwater drainage system, or receiving waters; and the owners of real property on which such activities, operations or facilities are located; provided, however, that a local government or public authority is not a discharger as to activities conducted by others in public rights-of-way.

    Facility means any building, structure, installation, or activity, including, but not limited to, commercial, industrial and residential land uses, and any other source, including motor vehicles and rolling stock, which may directly or indirectly contribute, cause or permit the contribution of any discharge, illicit or otherwise, to the stormwater drainage system.

    Hazardous materials means any material, including any substance, waste or combination thereof, which because of its quantity, concentration or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may cause, or significantly contribute to, a substantial present or potential hazard to human health, safety, property or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed of or otherwise managed.

    Illicit connections. An illicit connection is defined as either of the following:

    (1)

    Any drain or conveyance, whether on the surface or subsurface, which allows an illicit discharge to enter the stormwater drainage system, including but not limited to conveyances which allow any non-stormwater discharge including sewage, wastewater, and wash water to enter the stormwater drainage system and any connections to the stormwater drainage system from indoor drains and sinks, elevator sump pumps, or interior parking area drains, regardless of whether said drain has been previously allowed, permitted, or approved by the town or other governmental entity.

    (2)

    Any drain, pipe, ditch or other conveyance connected to the stormwater drainage system which has not been documented in construction or site plans, a building permit, maps, or other equivalent records and approved by the town or other governmental entity.

    Illicit discharge means any direct or indirect non-stormwater discharge or contaminated stormwater discharge to the stormwater drainage system, including the MS4 and waters of the state, except as exempted in section 23-84 of this article.

    Industrial activity means activities subject to NPDES industrial permits as defined in 40 CFR 122.26(b)(14).

    Municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) means a conveyance or system of conveyances (including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, manmade channels, inlets, piped storm drains, pumping facilities, retention and detention basins, natural and human-made or altered drainage channels, reservoirs, and other drainage structures or storm drains) within the Town's jurisdictional area. Additionally, an MS4 is:

    (1)

    Owned or operated by a city, town, county, district, association, or other public body (created by or pursuant to state law) having jurisdiction over disposal of sewage, industrial wastes, stormwater, or other wastes, that discharges to waters of the United States or waters of the state.

    (2)

    Designed or used for collecting or conveying stormwater;

    (3)

    Not a combined sewer; and

    (4)

    Not part of a publicly owned treatment works (POTW) as defined at 40 CFR 122.2.

    National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) stormwater discharge permit shall mean a permit issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) (or by a state under authority delegated pursuant to 33 U.S.C. § 1342(b)) that authorizes the discharge of pollutants to waters of the United States, whether the permit is applicable on an individual, group or general area-wide basis.

    Non-stormwater discharge means any discharge to, or pollution of, the stormwater drainage system that is composed not entirely from a form of natural precipitation.

    Person means any individual or group of individuals, association, organization, partnership, firm, corporation or other entity recognized by law and acting as either the owner or as the owner's agent.

    Pollutant means anything which causes or contributes to pollution. Pollutants may include, but are not limited to: paints, varnishes and solvents; gasoline and other petroleum fuels; oil and other automotive fluids; detergents; food waste, including cooking oil and grease; non-hazardous liquids and solid wastes and yard wastes; pool filter backwash; refuse, rubbish, garbage, litter, or other discarded or abandoned objects; floatables; insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, and other pesticides; fertilizers; soot, slag, and ash; hazardous substances and wastes; sewage, animal wastes, fecal coliform, Escheria coli , and pathogens; dissolved and particulate metals; hot water; wastes and residues that result from constructing a building or structure (including, but not limited to, sediments, slurries, and concrete rinsates); eroded soils, sediments, and particulate matter; and noxious or offensive matter of any kind.

    Premises means any building, lot, parcel of land, or portion of land whether improved or unimproved.

    Stormwater means any surface flow, runoff and drainage consisting entirely of water from any form of natural precipitation and resulting from such precipitation.

    Stormwater control measure (SCM) means a permanent structural device that is designed, constructed, and maintained to:

    (1)

    Remove pollutants from stormwater runoff by promoting settling or filtration; and

    (2)

    Mimic the natural hydrologic cycle by promoting infiltration, evapo-transpiration, post-filtration discharge, reuse of stormwater, or a combination thereof.

    Stormwater drainage system means the system of natural and constructed conveyances for collecting and transporting stormwater, whether publicly or privately owned. It includes lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, connected wetlands, and other waterbodies; open ditches, catch basins and other inlets, pipes, sewers, drains, culverts, and stormwater control measures (SCMs) that provide partial treatment by passive means, such as wet detention ponds, detention basins, and stormwater wetlands. The MS4 and waters of the state within the town's municipal and extra-territorial jurisdiction (ETJ) are components included within the stormwater drainage system, among other components.

    Stormwater management division means the town agency created and/or designated to manage the town's stormwater management program pursuant to G.S. 160A-311(10).

    Stormwater manager means the town employee, or his/her designee, authorized by the town manager to implement responsibilities stated in this article.

    Town means the Town of Chapel Hill, a North Carolina municipal corporation.

    Town manager means the town manager as appointed by the town council of the Town of Chapel Hill, or his/her designee.

    Wastewater means any water or other liquid, other than uncontaminated stormwater, discharged from a facility after use. Examples include water used for washing, flushing, cleaning, or in a manufacturing process.

    Watercourse means any channel, ditch, gully, swale or stream, which sole purpose is to convey the flow of water.

    Waters of the state means all creeks, streams, rivers, brooks, lakes, ponds, swamps, marshes, water courses, waterways, wells, springs, reservoirs, aquifers, irrigation systems, drainage systems and all other bodies or accumulations of water, surface or underground, natural or artificial, public or private, which are contained within, flow through, or border upon the State of North Carolina or any portion thereof.

(Ord. No. 2016-11-14/O-1 , § 1)