§ 111-249. Definitions.

[The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:]

Accidental discharge means a discharge prohibited by this article into the city separate storm-sewer system which occurs by chance and without planning or consideration prior to occurrence.

Agriculture means the raising, harvesting, or storing of crops; feeding, breeding, or managing livestock or poultry; producing or storing feed for use in the production of livestock, including, but not limited to, cattle, calves, swine, hogs, goats, sheep, ratites, and rabbits, or for use in the production of poultry, including, but not limited to, chickens, hens, and turkeys; producing plants, trees, fowl, or animals, or the production of agricultural, horticultural, dairy, livestock, poultry, eggs and apiarian products.

Applicant means a person submitting a post-development stormwater management application and plan for approval.

Best Management Practices (BMPs) means a collection of structural and nonstructural measures and vegetative practices which, when properly designed, installed and maintained, will provide effective erosion and sedimentation control.

Channel means a natural or artificial watercourse with a definite bed and banks that conducts continuously or periodically flowing water.

City separate storm-sewer system means a conveyance or system of conveyances which is located within city-owned right-of-way and designed and used only for collecting or conveying stormwater runoff or other approved surface water discharges.

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

Clean Water Act (CWA), section 401 means that provision of federal law that requires that an applicant for a federal license or permit provide a certification that any discharges from the facility will comply with the act including water quality standard requirements.

Clean Water Act, section 404 means provisions which regulate the disposal of dredged and fill material into "water of the United States" including wetlands. Other activities which destroy wetlands such as drainage, flooding, pumping and burning are not regulated under the CWA unless they entail discharges of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States.

Conservation easement means an agreement between a landowner and the city or other government agency or land trust that permanently protects open space or greenspace on the owner's land by limiting the amount and type of development that can take place, but continues to leave the remainder of the fee interest in private ownership.

Construction activity means activities subject to the Georgia Erosion and Sedimentation Control Act or NPDES general construction permits. These include construction projects resulting in land disturbance. Such activities include but are not limited to clearing and grubbing, grading, excavating, and demolition.

Conveyance means stormwater features designed for the movement of stormwater through the drainage system, such as concrete or metal pipes, ditches, depressions, swales, catch basins, curbs, gutters, storm drains, etc.

County health department means the Forsyth County Health Department established by the Georgia Health Code (O.C.G.A. § 31-3-1) or the executive officer and his or her designated representative acting on the health department's behalf for the administration and enforcement of septic tank rules.

Crossings means those crossings for roads, driveways, paths and utilities.

Detention means the temporary storage of stormwater runoff in a stormwater management facility for the purpose of controlling the peak discharge.

Detention facility means a detention basin or structure designed for the detention of stormwater runoff and gradual release of stored water at controlled rates.

Developer means a person who undertakes land development activities.

Development means a land development or land development project.

Discharge means the release of treated or untreated stormwater runoff or other material to the city separate storm-sewer.

Drainage easement means an easement appurtenant or attached to a tract or parcel of land allowing the owner of adjacent tracts or other persons to discharge stormwater runoff onto the tract or parcel of land subject to the drainage easement.

Drainage system means a conveyance or system of conveyances designed and used for collecting or conveying stormwater runoff.

Easement means an acquired legal right for the specific use of land owned by others.

Erosion means the process by which land surface is worn away by the action of wind, water or gravity.

Erosion and sedimentation control plan means a plan that is designed to minimize the accelerated erosion and sediment runoff at a site during land disturbance activities.

Extended detention means the detention of stormwater runoff for an extended period, typically 24 hours or greater.

Extreme flood protection means measures taken to prevent adverse impacts from large low-frequency storm events with a return frequency of 100 years or more.

Filling means the natural or manmade placement of any soil or solid material either organic or inorganic on a natural ground surface or an excavation.

Flooding means a volume of surface water that is too great to be confined within the banks or walls of a conveyance or stream channel and that overflows onto adjacent lands.

Grading means altering ground surfaces to specified elevations, dimensions and/or slopes; this includes stripping, cutting, filling, stockpiling and shaping or any combination thereof.

Greenspace or open space means permanently protected areas of the site that are preserved in a natural state.

Hazardous material means a flammable, highly corrosive, acidic or toxic material as identified in O.C.G.A. § 12-14-1 in the oil and hazardous materials spill reporting requirements.

Hotspot means an area where the use of the land has the potential to generate highly contaminated runoff, with concentrations of pollutants in excess of those typically found in stormwater.

Hydrologic soil group (HSG) means a Natural Resource Conservation Service classification system in which soils are categorized into four runoff potential groups. The groups range from group A soils, with high permeability and little runoff produced, to group D soils, which have low permeability rates and produce much more runoff.

Illegal connection means either of the following:

(1)

Any pipe, open channel, drain or conveyance, whether on the surface or subsurface, which allows an illicit discharge to enter the storm drain system, including but not limited to any conveyances which allow any non-stormwater discharge, including sewage, process wastewater, and wash water to enter the storm drain system, regardless of whether such pipe, open channel, drain or conveyance has been previously allowed, permitted, or approved by an authorized enforcement agency; or

(2)

Any pipe, open channel, drain or conveyance connected to the city's separate storm-sewer system which has not been documented in plans, maps, or equivalent records and approved by an authorized enforcement agency.

Illicit connection means a connection to the city's separate storm-sewer system that is not composed entirely of stormwater runoff except discharges pursuant to a NPDES permit (other than the NPDES permit for discharges from the city separate storm-sewer system).

Illicit discharge means any direct or indirect non-stormwater discharge to the city's separate storm-sewer system, except as exempted by this article.

Impervious cover means a surface composed of any material that significantly impedes or prevents the natural infiltration of water into soil. Impervious surfaces include, but are not limited to, rooftops, buildings, streets and roads, and any concrete or asphalt surface.

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

Industrial stormwater permit means a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit issued to an industry or group of industries which regulates the pollutant levels associated with industrial stormwater discharges or specifies on-site pollution control strategies.

Infiltration means the process of percolating stormwater runoff into the subsoil.

Inspection and maintenance agreement means a written agreement providing for the longterm inspection and maintenance of stormwater management facilities and practices on a site or with respect to a land development project, which when properly recorded in the deed records constitutes a restriction on the title to a site or other land involved in a land development project.

Intermittent stream means a stream which flows only at certain times of the year when it receives water from springs or from some sub-surface source such as a seep. This definition is not meant to include drainage ways that flow only during and shortly after storm events.

Issuing authority means the City of Cumming, Georgia.

Jurisdictional wetland means 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 development means any land change, including, but not limited to, clearing, digging, grubbing, stripping, removal of vegetation, dredging, grading, excavating, transporting and filling of land, construction, paving, and any other installation of impervious cover.

Land development activities means those actions or activities which comprise, facilitate or result in land development.

Land development project means a discrete land development undertaking.

Maintenance means any action necessary to preserve stormwater management facilities in proper working condition, in order to serve the intended purposes set forth in this article or to prevent structural failure of such systems.

Maximum extent practicable means best management practices, control techniques, system design or engineering methods and any other provisions which can be economically and reasonably implemented to reduce the discharge of pollutants to the city separate storm-sewer system.

"Municipal separate storm-sewer system" means any facility designed or used for collecting and/or conveying stormwater, including but not limited to any roads with drainage systems, highways, municipal streets, curbs, gutters, inlets, catch basins, piped storm drains, pumping facilities, structural stormwater controls, ditches, swales, natural and man-made or altered drainage channels, reservoirs, and other drainage structures, and which is:

(1)

Owned or maintained by the city;

(2)

Not a combined sewer; and

(3)

Not part of a publicly-owned treatment works.

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) stormwater discharge permit means a permit issued by the Georgia EPD under authority delegated pursuant to 33 USC 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.

Nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) means numerical units of measure based upon photometric analytical techniques for measuring the light scattered by finely divided particles of a substance in suspension. This technique is used to estimate the extent of turbidity in water in which colloidally dispersed particles are present.

New development means a land development activity on a previously undeveloped site.

Nonpoint source pollution means a form of water pollution that does not originate from a discrete point such as a sewage treatment plant or industrial discharge, but involves the transport of pollutants such as sediment, fertilizers, pesticides, heavy metals, oil, grease, bacteria, organic materials and other contaminants from land to surface water and groundwater via mechanisms such as precipitation, stormwater runoff, and leaching. Nonpoint source pollution is a by-product of land use practices such as agricultural, silvicultural, mining, construction, subsurface disposal and urban runoff sources.

Non-stormwater discharge means any discharge to the storm drain system that is not composed entirely of stormwater.

Nonstructural stormwater management practice or nonstructural practice means any natural or planted vegetation or other nonstructural component of the stormwater management plan that provides for or enhances stormwater quantity and/or quality control or other stormwater management benefits, and includes, but is not limited to, riparian buffers, open and greenspace areas, overland flow filtration areas, natural depressions, and vegetated channels.

Off-site facility means a stormwater management facility located outside the boundaries of the site.

On-site facility means a stormwater management facility located within the boundaries of the site.

Overbank flood protection means measures taken to prevent an increase in the frequency and magnitude of out-of-bank flooding (i.e., flow events that exceed the capacity of the channel and enter the floodplain), and that are intended to protect downstream properties from flooding for the two-year through 25-year frequency storm events.

Owner means the legal or beneficial owner of a site, including, but not limited to, a mortgagee or vendee in possession, receiver, executor, trustee, lessee or other person, firm or corporation in control of the site.

Perennial stream means a stream which flows continuously in a well-defined channel throughout most of the year under normal climatic conditions.

Permit means the permit issued by the city to the applicant which is required for undertaking any land development activity.

Person means, except to the extent exempted from this article, any individual, partnership, firm, association, joint venture, public or private corporation, trust, estate, commission, board, public or private institution, utility, cooperative, city, county or other political subdivision of the state, any interstate body or any other legal entity.

Pervious surface means any surface that allows stormwater to infiltrate the ground below, including, but not limited to, gravel, porous pavement (such as a lattice paver), mulch, grassed areas, and forested areas.

Pollutant means anything which causes or contributes to pollution. Pollutants may include, but are not limited to: paints, varnishes, and solvents; petroleum hydrocarbons; automotive fluids; cooking grease; detergents (biodegradable or otherwise); degreasers; cleaning chemicals; non-hazardous liquid and solid wastes and yard wastes; refuse, rubbish, garbage, litter, or other discarded or abandoned objects and accumulations, so that same may cause or contribute to pollution; floatables; pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers; liquid and solid wastes; sewage, fecal coliform and pathogens; dissolved and particulate metals; animal wastes; wastes and residues that result from constructing a building or structure; concrete and cement; and noxious or offensive matter of any kind.

Pollution means the contamination or other alteration of any water's physical, chemical or biological properties by the addition of any constituent and includes but is not limited to, a change in temperature, taste, color, turbidity, or odor of such waters, or the discharge of any liquid, gaseous, solid, radioactive, or other substance into any such waters as will or is likely to create a nuisance or render such waters harmful, detrimental or injurious to the public health, safety, welfare, or environment, or to domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, recreational, or other legitimate beneficial uses, or to livestock, wild animals, birds, fish or other aquatic life.

Post-development refers to the time period, or the conditions that may reasonably be expected or anticipated to exist, after completion of the land development activity on a site as the context may require.

Pre-development refers to the time period, or the conditions that exist, on a site prior to the commencement of a land development project and at the time that plans for the land development of a site are approved by the plan approving authority. Where phased development or plan approval occurs (preliminary grading, roads and utilities, etc.), the existing conditions at the time prior to the first item being approved or permitted shall establish pre-development conditions.

Premises means any building, lot, parcel of land, or portion of land whether improved or unimproved including adjacent sidewalks and parking strips.

Private means property or facilities owned by individuals, corporations, and other organizations and not by city, county, state, or federal government.

Project means a land development project.

Redevelopment means a land development project on a previously developed site, but excludes ordinary maintenance activities, remodeling of existing buildings, resurfacing of paved areas, and exterior changes or improvements which do not materially increase or concentrate stormwater runoff, or cause additional nonpoint source pollution.

Regional stormwater management facility or regional facility means stormwater management facilities designed to control stormwater runoff from multiple properties, where the owners or developers of the individual properties may assist in the financing of the facility, and the requirement for on-site controls is either eliminated or reduced.

Riparian zones or riparian environments means the areas that border streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands. Riparian zones can be floodplains, streamside forests or stream banks. They are usually different from surrounding lands because they have unique soil and vegetation characteristics and are strongly influenced by water. Riparian zones provide an interface between the water and the land and they serve many functions which make them valuable to people.

Runoff means stormwater runoff.

Sediment means soils, both organic and inorganic, or other superficial materials transported and/or deposited by the action of wind, water, ice or gravity as a product of erosion.

Sedimentation means the process by which eroded material is transported and deposited by the action of water, wind, ice or gravity.

Site means the parcel of land being developed, or the portion thereof on which the land development project is located.

Stabilization means the process of establishing an enduring soil cover of vegetation by the installation of temporary or permanent structures for the purpose of reducing to a minimum the erosion process and the resultant transport of sediment by wind, water, ice or gravity.

State waters means any and all rivers, streams, creeks, branches, lakes, reservoirs, ponds, drainage systems, springs, wells, and other bodies of surface and subsurface water, natural or artificial, lying within or forming a part of the boundaries of the state which are not entirely confined and retained completely upon the property of a single person.

Stormwater better site design means nonstructural site design approaches and techniques that can reduce a site's impact on the watershed and can provide for nonstructural stormwater management. Stormwater better site design includes conserving and protecting natural areas and greenspace, reducing impervious cover and using natural features for stormwater management.

Stormwater management means the collection, conveyance, storage, treatment and disposal of stormwater runoff in a manner intended to prevent increased flood damage, streambank channel erosion, habitat degradation and water quality degradation, and to enhance and promote the public health, safety and general welfare.

Stormwater management facility means any infrastructure that controls or conveys stormwater runoff.

Stormwater management measure means any stormwater management facility or nonstructural stormwater practice.

Stormwater management plan means a document describing how existing runoff characteristics will be affected by a land development project and containing measures for complying with the provisions of this article.

Stormwater management system means the entire set of structural and nonstructural stormwater management facilities and practices that are used to capture, convey and control the quantity and quality of the stormwater runoff from a site.

Stormwater retrofit means a stormwater management practice designed for a currently developed site that previously had either no stormwater management practice in place or a practice inadequate to meet the stormwater management requirements of the site.

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

Stream bank means the uppermost part of the bank, usually marked by a break in slope, or as otherwise defined by rules of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR). A stream bank is not necessarily the water's edge.

Structural erosion and sedimentation control practices means practices for the stabilization of erodible or sediment-producing areas by utilizing the mechanical properties of matter for the purpose of either changing the surface of the land or storing, regulating or disposing of runoff to prevent excessive sediment loss. Examples of structural erosion and sediment control practices are riprap, sediment basins, dikes, level spreaders, waterways or outlets, diversions, grade stabilization structures, sediment traps and land grading, etc. Such practices can be found in the publication Manual for Erosion and Sediment Control in Georgia.

Structural stormwater control means a structural stormwater management facility or device that controls stormwater runoff and changes the characteristics of that runoff including, but not limited to, the quantity and quality, the period of release or the velocity of flow.

Subdivision means the division of a tract or parcel of land resulting in one or more new lots or building sites for the purpose, whether immediately or in the future, of sale, other transfer of ownership or land development, and includes divisions of land resulting from or made in connection with the layout or development of a new street or roadway or a change in an existing street or roadway.

Top of bank means the mark on all lakes and streams that will be found by examining the beds and banks and ascertaining where the presence and action of waters are so common and usual and so long continued in all ordinary years, as to mark upon the soil a character distinct from that of the abutting upland in respect to vegetation.

Undisturbed buffer means a natural or enhanced vegetated area with no or limited minor land disturbances, which facilitates the protection of water quality and aquatic habitat.

Undisturbed upland area means any fully vegetated lands, greater than 200 feet from the banks of a water body, that are to remain ungraded after a project's completion. These areas include, but are not limited to, undisturbed forested areas, pasture land that is to remain undeveloped, and other natural areas.

Utility means public or private water or sewer piping systems, water or sewer pumping stations, electric power lines, fuel pipelines, telephone lines, roads, driveways, bridges, river/lake access facilities, stormwater systems and railroads or other utilities identified by a local government.

Water quality means those characteristics of stormwater runoff that relate to the physical, chemical, biological or radiological integrity of the water.

Water quantity means those characteristics of stormwater runoff that relate to the rate and volume of the stormwater runoff.

( Ord. of 2-18-2014 , § 111-249)