This chapter shall be known as the "Rockland County Stream Conservation
and Universal Flow Control Act."
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
CHANNEL LINES
That area between a stream's outside edges or the top of the
banks of a stream.
COUNTY STREAM
Those watercourses and/or streams identified on the Rockland County
Official Map. Mapping of official County streams shall also include floodplains,
ponding areas, tidal marshes, water recharging areas and underground water
reserves.
DRAINAGE PATTERN
The naturally created watercourse, which surface water will follow
within the one-hundred-year floodplain.
EXCAVATE
To dig, plow, bulldoze or otherwise relocate or move natural materials
such as earth, trees, rocks, etc., from their original location to another
location.
OBSTRUCTIONS
Any object or accumulation of materials, either man-made or biological,
which are placed, moved, piled or, due to the normal processes of nature,
deposited within a protected area which would have the effect of changing
the channel lines of any County stream or adversely affecting the flow of
County streams or water absorption in the one-hundred-year floodplain.
ONE-HUNDRED-YEAR FLOODPLAIN
That area that would be submerged during the flood discharge of an
individual stream caused by a one-hundred-year flood which makes up the one-hundred-year
frequency line of a County stream, plus an additional 100 feet, as indicated
from studies and investigations by the Drainage Agency which identifies the
channel lines of said streams. The one-hundred-year floodplain is the area
that would be submerged when the flood discharge of the associated stream
is at a level deemed to have a recurrence interval of 100 years. The recurrence
interval is defined as the average time, in years, in which a given magnitude
can be expected to be equaled or exceeded once. It may alternatively be defined
as an area of land that would be inundated by a flood having a one-percent
chance of occurring in any given year. If the study and investigation by the
Drainage Agency has not been completed, the one-hundred-year floodplain line
shall be 150 feet in distance from the stream's center line or three
feet in elevation, from the normal high-water line, as evidenced by vegetation
undisturbed by flowing waters, whichever is greater.
PERSONS
Any entity, including an individual, firm, co-partnership, association
or corporation other than the state and a state public corporation and a public
corporation.
PONDING AREA
Those areas of standing water naturally accumulated, to a depth at
its center of two inches or greater, with a surface measurement of greater
than 600 square feet.
PUBLIC UNDERGROUND WATER RESERVES
The areas mapped on the County Official Map which locate the underground
water streams and water retention areas that are used by municipal and/or
public water utilities to supply potable water to the general public.
STRUCTURES
Any man-made object, including, but not limited to, buildings, houses,
warehouses, cranes, billboards, dams and retaining walls, which the Agency
may from time to time identify as prohibited objects in the one-hundred-year
floodplain.
WATER RECHARGE AREAS
Those areas mapped on the County Official Map which locate areas
where precipitation or surface run-off water naturally percolates through
the ground surface into underground water reserves.
WETLANDS
As defined in Environmental Conservation Law § 24-0107.