Urban Storm Water Quatlity Management and Discharge Control

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Illicit discharge -  means any drain or conveyance, whether on the surface or subsurface, which allows an illegal 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 and any connections to the storm drain system from indoor drains and sinks, regardless of whether said drain or connection had been previously allowed, permitted, or approved by a government agency; or any drain or conveyance connected from a commercial or industrial land use to the storm drain system which has not been documented in plans, maps, or equivalent records and approved by the city.

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

Watercourse  -  means any body of water, including but not limited to lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and bodies of water, whether natural or man-made, which are indicated on the City’s storm sewer system map.

Waterway  -  means a channel that directs surface runoff to a watercourse or to the public storm sewer system.

No person shall discharge or cause to be discharged into the storm drain system or watercourses any materials, including but not limited to pollutants or waters containing any *pollutant that cause or contribute to a violation of applicable water quality standards, other than storm water. The commencement, conduct or continuance of any illegal discharge to the storm drain system is prohibited except as described hereinafter:

Nonpoint-source pollutants -  Nonpoint source pollution comes from many diverse sources and is hard to control. Major nonpoint sources of pollution include excess farm and lawn nutrients that move through the soil into the groundwater or enter local water directly through runoff during heavy rains. Nonpoint source pollution includes nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizers, sediments from construction sites, pesticides from agricultural lands, salts from winter road treatment, and trace metals and toxic chemicals from inadequately protected landfills; animal wastes; and even pollutants released directly into the atmosphere. Pollutants contaminate half the swimming water in the United States and also contaminates groundwater, which makes up 95% of the country’s freshwater.

Discharges for the following activities will not be considered a source of pollutants to the storm drain system and to waters of the United States when properly managed to ensure that no potential pollutants are present, and therefore they shall not be considered illegal discharges unless determined to cause a violation of the Clean Water Act or this article: water line flushing, uncontaminated pumped groundwater, and other discharges from potable water sources, landscape irrigation or lawn watering, diverted stream flows, rising groundwater, groundwater infiltration to the storm drain system, uncontaminated foundation and footing drains, uncontaminated water from crawl space pumps, air conditioning condensation, uncontaminated non-industrial roof drains, springs, individual residential and occasional non-commercial car washing, flows from riparian habitats and wetlands, dechlorinated swimming pool discharges, street wash waters, flows from fire fighting or training activities and those set forth in section 86-182 of the City Code.

Watercourse protection/maintenance - Every person owning property through which a waterway passes, or such person's lessee, shall keep and maintain that part of the watercourse within the property reasonably free of trash, debris, excessive vegetation, grass clippings, garden debris, tree limbs and branches, and other obstacles that would pollute, contaminate, or significantly retard the flow of water through the watercourse. In addition, the owner or lessee shall maintain existing privately-owned structures within or adjacent to a waterway. The owner or lessee shall not remove healthy bank vegetation beyond that actually necessary for maintenance, nor remove such vegetation in such a manner as to increase the vulnerability of the watercourse to erosion. The property owner shall be responsible for maintaining and stabilizing that portion of the watercourse that is within their property lines in order to protect against erosion and degradation of the watercourse originating or contributed from their property. (86-322)

 

 

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