The purpose of this chapter is to provide for
the protection of the natural environment and for the health, safety,
and general welfare of the citizens of the Town of Ithaca through
the regulation of nonstormwater discharges to the municipal storm
sewer system and surface waters to the maximum extent practicable.
This chapter establishes methods for controlling the introduction
of pollutants into the municipal storm sewer system in order to comply
with requirements of the Town's SPDES general permit for stormwater
discharges from municipal separate storm sewer systems. This chapter
also establishes methods for controlling the introduction of pollutants
into surface waters. The objectives of this chapter are:
A. To regulate the contribution of pollutants to the
municipal storm sewer system, since such systems are not designed
to accept, process or discharge nonstormwater wastes.
B. To prohibit certain activities regarding, and certain
connections and discharges to, the municipal storm sewer system and
surface waters.
C. To meet the requirements of the Town's SPDES general
permit for stormwater discharges from municipal separate storm sewer
systems, as it may be amended or revised from time to time.
D. To establish the legal authority to carry out all
inspection, surveillance, monitoring and enforcement procedures necessary
to ensure compliance with this chapter.
E. To promote public awareness of the hazards involved
in the improper discharge of trash, yard waste, lawn chemicals, fertilizers,
pet waste, wastewater, grease, oil, petroleum products, cleaning products,
paint products, hazardous materials, sediment and other pollutants
into the municipal storm sewer system and into surface waters.
Whenever used in this chapter, the following
terms shall have the meanings set forth below:
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
Schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, general
good-housekeeping practices, pollution prevention and educational
practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices
to prevent or reduce the discharge of pollutants directly or indirectly
to stormwater, receiving waters, or stormwater conveyance systems.
This term also includes treatment practices, operating procedures,
and practices to control site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or
water disposal, or drainage from raw materials storage.
CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITY
Activities requiring authorization under the New York State
SPDES permit for stormwater discharges from construction activity,
GP-02-01, as amended or revised. These activities include, but are
not limited to, construction projects resulting in land disturbance
of one or more acres through clearing, grubbing, grading, excavating,
or demolition.
DEC
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
HAZARDOUS MATERIAL
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. This term
also includes any material or substance defined as or otherwise included
in the definition of "hazardous substances," "hazardous wastes," "hazardous
materials," or "toxic pollutants" under the Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation and Liability Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601
et seq., Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 6901
et seq., Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251 et seq.,
New York Environmental Conservation Law, and all regulations promulgated
under these statutes.
ILLICIT CONNECTION
Any connection to the municipal storm sewer system or surface waters prohibited by §
227-7 of this chapter.
ILLICIT DISCHARGE
Any discharge to the municipal storm sewer system or surface waters prohibited by §
227-5 of this chapter.
INDIVIDUAL SEWAGE TREATMENT SYSTEM
A sewage treatment facility serving one or more residential
parcels of land or residential households, or a private commercial
or institutional sewage treatment facility, that treats sewage or
other liquid wastes for discharge into the groundwaters of New York
State, except where a permit for such a facility is required under
the applicable provisions of Article 17 of the New York Environmental
Conservation Law.
INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY
Activities requiring the New York State SPDES permit for
discharges from industrial activities except construction, GP-98-03,
as amended or revised.
MUNICIPAL STORM SEWER SYSTEM
A conveyance or system of conveyances (including roads with
drainage systems, municipal streets, culverts, catch basins, curbs,
gutters, ditches, man-made channels, swales, ponds, stormwater pipes,
and storm drains):
A.
Owned or operated by the Town;
B.
Designed or used for collecting or conveying
stormwater;
C.
Which is not a combined sewer; and
D.
Which is not part of a publicly owned treatment
works, as that term is defined at 40 CFR 122.2.
NONSTORMWATER DISCHARGE
Any discharge to the municipal storm sewer system or a surface
water that is not composed entirely of stormwater.
PERSON
Any individual, association, organization, partnership, firm,
corporation or other entity recognized by law.
POLLUTANT
Any material which may cause or might reasonably be expected
to cause pollution of waters of the state, including but not limited
to dredged spoil; filter backwash; solid waste; incinerator residue;
treated or untreated sewage; animal wastes; cooking grease; detergents;
oil; antifreeze and other automotive fluids or residues; fertilizers;
pesticides; herbicides; garbage; sewage sludge; munitions; chemical
wastes; paints; varnishes; solvents; pharmaceuticals; biological materials;
radioactive materials; hazardous materials; heat; wrecked or discarded
equipment; rock; sand; industrial waste (including but not limited
to process wastewater and wash water); municipal waste; agricultural
waste; ballast; and wastes and residues that result from constructing
or remodeling a building or other structure (including but not limited
to concrete, cement, slurries, mud, plasters and concrete rinsates).
POLLUTION
The human-made or human-induced alteration of the chemical,
physical, biological, thermal or radiological integrity of water.
PREMISES
Any building, structure, lot, parcel of land, or portion
of land, whether improved or unimproved, including adjacent sidewalks
and parking strips.
SMO
Stormwater Management Officer.
SPDES PERMIT
A State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit issued
by DEC to authorize the discharge of pollutants to the waters of the
state.
STORMWATER
Any surface flow, runoff, and drainage consisting entirely
of water from any form of natural precipitation (such as rain, snow
or ice) and resulting from such precipitation.
SURFACE WATERS
All aboveground waters of the state that lie within the Town's
municipal boundaries or are within the Town's jurisdiction.
303(d) LIST
A list of all surface waters in the state for which beneficial
uses of the water (drinking, recreation, aquatic habitat, and industrial
use) are impaired by pollutants, prepared periodically by DEC as required
by Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251
et seq. Section 303(d)-listed waters are estuaries, lakes and streams
that fall short of state surface water quality standards and are not
expected to improve within the next two years.
TMDL
Total maximum daily load.
TOTAL MAXIMUM DAILY LOAD
The maximum amount of a pollutant allowed to be released
into a water body so as not to impair uses of the water, allocated
among the sources of that pollutant.
TOWN
The Town of Ithaca, New York.
WASTEWATER
Water that is not stormwater, is contaminated with pollutants,
and is or will be discarded.
WATERS OF THE STATE
Lakes, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, wells, rivers,
intermittent and perennial streams, creeks, wetlands, marshes, inlets,
canals, man-made bodies of water created for the treatment of stormwater,
and all other bodies of surface or underground water, natural or artificial,
public or private (except those private waters that do not combine
or effect a junction with natural surface or underground waters),
which are wholly or partially within or bordering the state or within
its jurisdiction. Storm sewers and nonstormwater waste treatment systems,
including treatment ponds or lagoons, which meet the criteria of this
definition are not waters of the state. This exclusion applies only
to man-made bodies of water which neither were originally created
in Waters of the State (such as a disposal area in wetlands) nor resulted
from impoundment of waters of the state.
WETLANDS
Any area that is inundated or saturated by surface or ground
water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that
under normal circumstances does support, a prevalence of vegetation
typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.
All references to discharges in this chapter
shall apply to all discharges entering the municipal storm sewer system
or surface waters generated on any developed or undeveloped lands,
unless explicitly exempted or otherwise authorized by this chapter.
The Stormwater Management Officer(s) (SMO) shall
administer, implement, and enforce the provisions of this chapter.
The SMO shall have such additional powers and duties as the Town Board
may delegate to him or her.
The following activities are prohibited:
A. Activities that cause or contribute to a violation
of the Town's Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System SPDES permit.
B. Activities that cause or contribute to the triggering
of any of the following special conditions in the Town's Municipal
Separate Storm Sewer System SPDES permit:
(1) Discharge compliance with water quality standards:
This condition is triggered where DEC has notified the Town that the
discharge of stormwater authorized under its Municipal Separate Storm
Sewer System SPDES permit may have caused or has the reasonable potential
to cause or contribute to the violation of an applicable water quality
standard. Under this condition, the Town must take all necessary actions
to ensure future discharges do not cause or contribute to a violation
of water quality standards.
(2) 303(d)-listed waters: This condition is triggered
where the municipal storm sewer system discharges to a 303(d)-listed
water. Under this condition, the Town's stormwater management program
must ensure no increase of the listed pollutant of concern to the
303(d)-listed water.
(3) TMDL strategy. This condition is triggered where a
TMDL, including requirements for control of stormwater discharges,
has been approved by the EPA for a water body or watershed into which
the municipal storm sewer system discharges.
(4) This condition is triggered if a TMDL is approved
in the future by the EPA for any water body or watershed into which
a municipal storm sewer system discharges. Under this condition, the
Town must review the applicable TMDL to see if it includes requirements
for control of stormwater discharges. If a municipal storm sewer system
is not meeting the TMDL stormwater allocations, the Town must, within
six months of the TMDL's approval, modify its stormwater management
program to ensure that reduction of the pollutant of concern specified
in the TMDL is achieved.
C. Such prohibited activities include, but are not limited
to, improper management of animal waste, application of fertilizer
or pesticide not in accordance with label directions, and storage
of fertilizers or pesticides so they are exposed to stormwater, where
such activities cause or contribute to violations of the Town's Municipal
Separate Storm Sewer System SPDES permit or cause or contribute to
the triggering of any of the special conditions in said permit.
D. Any person who is notified that its activities violate
the prohibitions in this section shall immediately modify or abate
such activities so they are no longer in violation.
E. Failing individual sewage treatment systems may also
contaminate stormwater, and the failure to properly maintain and operate
an individual sewage treatment system is a violation of the Tompkins
County Sanitary Code. If the Town receives notification of a potentially
failing system, the Town will refer the report to the Tompkins County
Health Department.
Any person subject to an industrial or construction
activity SPDES stormwater discharge permit shall comply with all provisions
of such permit. The Town may require proof of compliance with said
permit in a form acceptable to the Town before it allows such discharges
to the municipal storm sewer system.
In addition to the enforcement processes and
penalties provided in this chapter, any condition caused or permitted
to exist in violation of any of the provisions of this chapter is
hereby deemed and declared to be a threat to public health, safety,
and welfare and is declared and deemed a nuisance and may be summarily
abated or restored at the violator's expense, and/or a civil action
to abate, enjoin, or otherwise compel the cessation of such nuisance
may be undertaken by the Town in its sole discretion.
The remedies set forth in this chapter are not
exclusive of any other remedies available under any applicable federal,
state or local law, and it is within the discretion of the Town to
seek cumulative remedies.