This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Lower Pottsgrove
Township Stormwater Management Ordinance."
The Board of Commissioners of Lower Pottsgrove Township finds
that:
A. Stormwater runoff from lands modified by human activities threatens
public health and safety by causing decreased infiltration of rainwater
and increased runoff flows and velocities, which overtax the carrying
capacity of existing streams and storm sewers, and greatly increases
the cost to the public to manage stormwater.
B. Inadequate planning and management of stormwater runoff resulting
from land development and redevelopment throughout a watershed can
also harm surface water resources by changing the natural hydrologic
patterns, accelerating stream flows (which increase scour and erosion
of stream beds and stream banks, thereby elevating sedimentation),
destroying aquatic habitat, and elevating aquatic pollutant concentrations
and loadings such as sediments, nutrients, heavy metals and pathogens.
Groundwater resources are also impacted through loss of recharge.
C. A program of stormwater management, including reasonable regulation
of land development and redevelopment causing loss of natural infiltration,
is fundamental to the public health, safety, welfare, and the protection
of the people of the municipality and all the people of the commonwealth,
their resources, and the environment.
D. Stormwater can be an important water resource by providing groundwater
recharge for water supplies and base flow of streams, which also protects
and maintains surface water quality.
E. Public education on the control of pollution from stormwater is an
essential component in successfully addressing stormwater.
F. Federal and state regulations require certain municipalities to implement
a program of stormwater controls. These municipalities are required
to obtain a permit for stormwater discharges from their separate storm
sewer systems under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES).
G. Nonstormwater discharges to municipal separate storm sewer systems
can contribute to pollution of waters of the commonwealth by the municipality.
The purpose of this Part
1 is to promote health, safety, and welfare within the municipality and its watershed by minimizing the harms and maximizing the benefits described in §
203-2 of this Part, through provisions designed to:
A. Manage stormwater runoff impacts at their source by regulating activities
that cause the problems.
B. Provide review procedures and performance standards for stormwater
planning and management.
C. Utilize and preserve the existing natural drainage systems as much
as possible.
D. Manage stormwater impacts close to the runoff source, which requires
a minimum of structures and relies on natural processes.
E. Focus on infiltration of stormwater, to maintain groundwater recharge,
to prevent degradation of surface water and groundwater quality and
to otherwise protect water resources and, to the limits possible,
maintain the predevelopment volume of groundwater recharge.
F. Maintain existing flows and quality of streams and watercourses.
G. Prevent significant increase in surface runoff volumes, predevelopment
to post-development, thereby mitigating flooding downstream.
H. Minimize impacts on stream temperatures.
I. Minimize aesthetic impacts.
J. Minimize non-point-source pollutant loading to groundwaters and surface
waters generally throughout the municipality.
K. Maintain predevelopment peak rates of discharge, site by site, so
as not to worsen flooding adjacent to downstream sites.
L. Meet legal water quality requirements under state law, including
regulations at 25 Pa. Code, Chapter 93.4a, to protect and maintain
"existing uses" and maintain the level of water quality to support
those uses in all streams, and to protect and maintain water quality
in "special protection" streams.
M. Prevent scour and erosion of stream banks and stream beds.
N. Provide for proper operations and maintenance of all permanent stormwater
management BMPs that are implemented in the municipality.
O. Provide a mechanism to identify controls necessary to meet the NPDES
permit requirements.
P. Implement an illegal-discharge detection and elimination program
to address nonstormwater discharges into the municipality's separate
storm sewer system.
Q. Prevent significant increase in surface runoff volumes, predevelopment
to post-development, thereby mitigating flooding downstream in the
watershed, enlarging floodplains, eroding stream banks and creating
other flood-related health-welfare property losses and to work to
reduce runoff volumes to predevelopment levels.
The municipality is empowered to regulate land use activities
that affect stormwater impacts by the authority of the First Class
Township Code, 53 P.S. § 55101 et seq., and the Municipalities
Planning Code, 53 P.S. § 10101 et seq.
Any other ordinance provision(s) or regulation of the municipality
inconsistent with any of the provisions of this Part is hereby repealed
to the extent of the inconsistency only.
In the event that any section or provision of this Part is declared
invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall
not affect the validity of any of the remaining provisions of this
Part.
Any permit or authorization issued or approved based on false,
misleading or erroneous information provided by the applicant is void
without the necessity of any proceedings for revocation. Any work
undertaken or use established pursuant to such permit or other authorization
is unlawful. No action may be taken by a board, agency or employee
of the municipality purporting to validate such violation.