The purpose of this article is to establish minimum stormwater management requirements and controls to protect and safeguard the general health, safety, and welfare of the public residing within this jurisdiction and to address the findings of fact in §
386 hereof. This article seeks to meet those purposes by achieving the following objectives:
A. Meet the requirements of minimum measures 4 and 5 of the State Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System (hereinafter "SPDES") General Permit
for Stormwater Discharges from Municipal Separate Stormwater Sewer
Systems (hereinafter, "MS4s"), Permit No. GP-02-02 or as amended or
revised;
B. Require land development activities to conform to the substantive
requirements of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation SPDES
General Permit for Construction Activities GP-02-01 or as amended
or revised;
C. Minimize increases in stormwater runoff from land development activities
in order to reduce flooding, siltation, increases in stream temperature,
and streambank erosion and maintain the integrity of stream channels;
D. Minimize increases in pollution caused by stormwater runoff from
land development activities which would otherwise degrade local water
quality;
E. Minimize the total annual volume of stormwater runoff which flows
from any specific site during and following development to the maximum
extent practicable; and
F. Reduce stormwater runoff rates and volumes, soil erosion and nonpoint
source pollution, wherever possible, through stormwater management
practices and ensure that these management practices are properly
maintained and eliminate threats to public safety.
The following activities may be exempt from review under this
law:
A. Agricultural activity as defined in this article.
B. Silvicultural activity, except that landing areas and log haul roads
are subject to this law.
C. Routine maintenance activities that disturb fewer than five acres
and are performed to maintain the original line and grade, hydraulic
capacity or original purpose of a facility.
D. Repairs to any stormwater management practice or facility deemed
necessary by the Stormwater Management Officer.
E. Any part of a subdivision if a plat for the subdivision has been
approved by the Town of Hempstead on or before the effective date
of this law.
F. Land development activities for which a building permit has been
approved on or before the effective date of this law.
H. Installation of fence, sign, telephone, electric poles and other
kinds of posts or poles.
I. Emergency activity immediately necessary to protect life, property
or natural resources.
J. Activities of an individual engaging in home gardening by growing
flowers, vegetable and other plants primarily for use by that person
and his or her family.
K. Landscaping and horticultural activities in connection with an existing
structure.
The terms used in this article shall have the meaning as set
forth in this section.
AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITY
The activity of an active farm, including grazing and watering
livestock, irrigating crops, harvesting crops, using land for growing
agricultural products, and cutting timber for sale, but shall not
include the operation of a dude ranch or similar operation, or the
construction of new structures associated with agricultural activities.
APPLICANT
A property owner or agent of a property owner who has filed
an application for a land development activity.
BUILDING
Any structure, either temporary or permanent, having walls
and a roof, designed for the shelter of any person, animal, or property,
and occupying more than 100 square feet of area.
CHANNEL
A natural or artificial watercourse with a definite bed and
banks that conducts continuously or periodically flowing water.
CLEARING
Any activity that removes the vegetative surface cover.
DEDICATION
The deliberate appropriation of property by its owner for
general public use.
DEPARTMENT
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
DESIGN MANUAL
The New York State Stormwater Management Design Manual, most
recent version, including applicable updates, that serves as the official
guide for stormwater management principles, methods and practices.
DEVELOPER
A person who undertakes land development activities.
EROSION CONTROL MANUAL
The most recent version of the New York Standards and Specifications
for Erosion and Sediment Control manual, commonly known as the "Blue
Book."
GRADING
Excavation or fill of material, including the resulting conditions
thereof.
IMPERVIOUS COVER
Those surfaces, improvements and structures that cannot effectively
infiltrate rainfall, snow melt and water (e.g., building rooftops,
pavement, sidewalks, and driveways, etc.).
INDUSTRIAL STORMWATER PERMIT
A state pollutant discharge elimination system permit issued
to a commercial industry or group of industries, which regulates the
pollutant levels, associated with industrial stormwater discharges
or specifies on-site pollution control strategies.
INFILTRATION
The process of percolating stormwater into the subsoil.
JURISDICTIONAL WETLAND
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 ACTIVITY
Construction activity, including clearing, grading, excavating,
soil disturbance or placement of fill that results in land disturbance
of equal to or greater than one acre, or activities disturbing less
than one acre of total land area that is part of a larger common plan
of development or sale, even though multiple separate and distinct
land development activities may take place at different times on different
schedules.
LANDOWNER
The legal or beneficial owner of land, including those holding
the right to purchase or lease the land, or any other person holding
proprietary rights in the land.
MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT
A legally recorded document that acts as a property deed
restriction, and which provides for long-term maintenance of stormwater
management practices.
NONPOINT SOURCE POLLUTION
Pollution from any source other than from any discernible,
confined, and discrete conveyances, and shall include, but not be
limited to, pollutants from agricultural, silvicultural, mining, construction,
subsurface disposal and urban runoff sources.
PHASING
Clearing a parcel of land in distinct pieces or parts, with
the stabilization of each piece completed before the clearing of the
next.
POLLUTANT OF CONCERN
Sediment or a water quality measurement that addresses sediment
(such as total suspended solids, turbidity or siltation) and any other
pollutant that has been identified as a cause of impairment of any
water body that will receive a discharge from the land development
activity.
RECHARGE
The replenishment of underground water reserves.
SENSITIVE AREAS
Cold-water fisheries, shellfish beds, swimming beaches, groundwater
recharge areas, water supply reservoirs, habitats for threatened,
endangered or special concern species.
STABILIZATION
The use of practices that prevent exposed soil from eroding.
STOP-WORK ORDER
An order issued that requires that all construction activity
on a site be stopped.
STORMWATER
Rainwater, surface runoff, snowmelt, and drainage.
STORMWATER HOTSPOT
A land user activity that generates higher concentrations
of hydrocarbons, trace metals or toxicants than are found in typical
stormwater runoff, based on monitoring studies.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT
The use of structural or nonstructural practices that are
designed to reduce stormwater runoff and mitigate its adverse impacts
on property, natural resources and the environment.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT FACILITY
One or a series of stormwater management practices installed,
stabilized and operating for the purpose of controlling stormwater
runoff.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT OFFICER
An employee or officer designated by the municipality to
accept and review stormwater pollution prevention plans, forward the
plans to the applicable municipal board and inspect stormwater management
practices.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (SMPS)
Measures, either structural or nonstructural, that are determined
to be the most effective, practical means of preventing flood damage
and preventing or reducing point source or nonpoint source pollution
inputs to stormwater runoff and water bodies.
SURFACE WATERS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
Lakes, bays, sounds, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs,
wells, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, marshes, inlets, canals,
the Atlantic Ocean within the territorial seas of the State of New
York and all other bodies of water, natural or artificial, inland
or coastal, fresh or salt, public or private (except those private
waters that do not combine or effect a junction with natural surface
waters or underground waters), which are wholly or partially within
or bordering the state or within its jurisdiction. Storm sewers and
waste treatment systems, including treatment ponds or lagoons, which
also 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 the waters of the state (such as disposal
area in wetlands) nor resulted from impoundment of waters of the state.
WATERCOURSE
A permanent or intermittent stream or other body of water,
either natural or man-made, which gathers or carries surface water.
WATERWAY
A channel that directs surface runoff to a watercourse or
to the public storm drain.
All land development activities shall be subject to the following
performance and design criteria:
A. Technical standards. For the purpose of this article, the following
documents shall serve as the official guides and specifications for
stormwater management. Stormwater management practices that are designed
and constructed in accordance with these technical documents shall
be presumed to meet the standards imposed by this law:
(1) The New York State Stormwater Management Design Manual (New York
State Department of Environmental Conservation, most current version
or its successor, hereafter referred to as the "Design Manual").
(2) New York Standards and Specifications for Erosion and Sediment Control
(Empire State Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society,
2004, most current version or its successor, hereafter referred to
as the "Erosion Control Manual").
B. Water quality standards. No land development activity shall cause
an increase in turbidity that will result in substantial visible contrast
to natural conditions in surface waters of the State of New York.
The Town of Hempstead may require any person undertaking land
development activities regulated by this article to pay reasonable
costs at prevailing rates for review of SWPPPs, inspections, or SMP
maintenance performed by the Town of Hempstead or performed by a third
party for the Town of Hempstead.