The objectives of this article are to:
A. Prohibit unpermitted or unallowed stormwater discharges to the storm
drainage system; and
B. Set forth the legal authority and procedures to carry out all inspection,
monitoring and enforcement activities necessary to ensure compliance
with this article.
This article shall apply to all persons discharging stormwater
and/or nonstormwater discharges from any premises into the storm drainage
system located within the urban area as depicted in Attachment A.
The Town Manager or his/her designee is the Code Enforcement
Officer who shall administer, implement, and enforce the provisions
of this article.
For the purposes of this article, the terms listed below are
defined as follows:
CLEAN WATER ACT
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. § 1251
et seq.) and any subsequent amendments thereto.
DISCHARGE
Any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emptying, dumping,
disposing or other addition of pollutants to waters of the state.
"Direct discharge" or "point source" means any discernible, confined
and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to any pipe, ditch,
channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling
stock, concentrated animal feeding operation or vessel or other floating
craft from which pollutants are or may be discharged.
EXEMPT PERSON OR DISCHARGE
Any person who is subject to a multi-sector general permit
for industrial activities, a general permit for construction activity,
a general permit for the discharge of stormwater from the Maine Department
of Transportation and the Maine Turnpike Authority municipal separate
storm sewer systems, or a general permit for the discharge of stormwater
from state or federally owned authority municipal separate storm sewer
system facilities, and any nonstormwater discharge permitted under
a NPDES permit, waiver, or waste discharge license or order issued
to the discharger and administered under the authority of the United
States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the Maine Department
of Environmental Protection (DEP).
INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY
Activity or activities subject to NPDES industrial permits
as defined in 40 CFR 122.26(b)(14).
MUNICIPAL SEPARATE STORM SEWER SYSTEM or MS4
Conveyances for stormwater, including but not limited to
roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs,
gutters, ditches, human-made channels or storm drains (other than
publicly owned treatment works and combined sewers), owned or operated
by any municipality, town, sewer or sewage district, fire district,
state agency or federal agency or other public entity that discharge
directly to surface waters of the state.
PERSON
Any individual, firm, corporation, municipality, town, quasi-municipal
corporation, state agency or federal agency or other legal entity
which creates, initiates, originates or maintains a discharge of stormwater
or a nonstormwater discharge.
POLLUTANT
Dredged spoil, solid waste, junk, incinerator residue, sewage,
refuse, effluent, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemicals, biological
or radiological materials, oil, petroleum products or by-products,
heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, dirt and industrial,
municipal, domestic, commercial or agricultural wastes of any kind.
PREMISES
Any building, lot, parcel of land, or portion of land, whether
improved or unimproved, including adjacent sidewalks and parking strips,
located within the Town from which discharges into the storm drainage
system are or may be created, initiated, originated or maintained.
REGULATED SMALL MS4
Any small MS4 regulated by the State of Maine general permit
for the discharge of stormwater from small municipal separate storm
sewer systems (general permit), including all those located partially
or entirely within an urbanized area (UA) and those additional small
MS4s located outside a UA that as of the issuance of the general permit
have been designated by the DEP as regulated small MS4s.
SMALL MUNICIPAL SEPARATE STORM SEWER SYSTEM or SMALL MS4
Any MS4 that is not already covered by the Phase I MS4 Stormwater
Program, including municipally owned or operated storm sewer systems,
state or federally owned systems, such as colleges, universities,
or prisons, Maine Department of Transportation and Maine Turnpike
Authority road systems and facilities, and military bases and facilities.
STORM DRAINAGE SYSTEM
The Town's municipal separate storm sewer system, including
the Town's regulated small MS4 and areas outside the Town's urbanized
area that drain into the regulated small MS4.
STORMWATER
Any stormwater runoff, snowmelt runoff, and surface runoff
and drainage.
TOWN
The Town of Cumberland.
URBANIZED AREA (UA)
The cumulative areas of the State of Maine so defined by
the 2000 and 2010 decennial censuses by the United States Bureau of
the Census.
[Amended 6-5-2023]
Except as allowed or exempted herein, no person shall create,
initiate, originate or maintain a nonstormwater discharge to the storm
drainage system. Such nonstormwater discharges are prohibited notwithstanding
the fact that the Town may have approved the connections, drains or
conveyances by which a person discharges unallowed nonstormwater discharges
to the storm drainage system.
[Amended 3-28-2016]
The creation, initiation, origination and maintenance of the
following nonstormwater discharges to the storm drainage system is
allowed, provided that the discharge does not cause a violation of
water quality criteria:
D. Uncontaminated groundwater infiltration [as defined at 40 CFR 35.2005(20)];
E. Uncontaminated pumped groundwater;
F. Uncontaminated flows from foundation drains;
G. Air-conditioning and compressor condensate;
I. Flows from uncontaminated springs;
J. Uncontaminated water from crawl space pumps;
K. Uncontaminated flows from footing drains;
M. Flows from riparian habitats and wetlands;
N. Residual street wash water (where spills/leaks of toxic or hazardous
materials have not occurred, unless all spilled material has been
removed and detergents are not used);
O. Hydrant flushing and firefighting and firefighting training activity
runoff;
P. Waterline flushing and discharges from potable water sources;
Q. Individual residential car washing;
R. Dechlorinated swimming pool discharges;
S. Discharges specified in writing by the Code Enforcement Officer as
being necessary to protect public health and safety; and
T. Dye testing, with verbal notification to the Code Enforcement Officer
prior to the time of the test.
This article shall not apply to an exempt person or discharge,
except that the Code Enforcement Officer may request from exempt persons
and persons with exempt discharges copies of permits, notices of intent,
licenses and orders from the EPA or DEP that authorize the discharge(s).
In order to determine compliance with this article, the Code
Enforcement Officer may enter upon and inspect premises subject to
this article at reasonable hours with the consent of the premises'
owner, occupant or agent, to inspect the premises and connections
thereon to the storm drainage system and to conduct monitoring, sampling
and testing of the discharge to the storm drainage system.
It shall be unlawful for any person to violate any provision
of or to fail to comply with any of the requirements of this article.
Whenever the Code Enforcement Officer believes that a person has violated
this article, the Code Enforcement Officer may enforce this article
in accordance with 30-A M.R.S.A. § 4452.
Whenever the Code Enforcement Officer believes that a person
has violated this article, the Code Enforcement Officer may order
compliance with this article by written notice of violation to that
person indicating the nature of the violation and ordering the action
necessary to correct it, including, without limitation:
A. The elimination of nonstormwater discharges to the storm drainage
system within 60 days of the identification of the source, including
but not limited to disconnection of the premises from the MS4.
[Amended 6-5-2023]
B. The cessation of discharges, practices, or operations in violation
of this article.
C. At the person's expense, the abatement or remediation (in accordance
with best management practices in DEP rules and regulations) of nonstormwater
discharges to the storm drainage system and the restoration of any
affected property and/or the payment of fines, of the Town's remediation
costs and of the Town's reasonable administrative costs and attorney
fees and costs. If abatement of a violation and/or restoration of
affected property is required, the notice shall set forth a deadline
within which such abatement or restoration must be completed.
Any person who violates this article shall be subject to fines,
penalties and orders for injunctive relief and shall be responsible
for the Town's attorney fees and costs, all in accordance with 30-A
M.R.S.A. § 4452. Each day that such violation continues
shall constitute a separate violation. Moreover, any person who violates
this article also shall be responsible for any and all fines, penalties,
damages and costs, including but not limited to attorney fees and
costs, incurred by the Town for violation of federal and state environmental
laws and regulations caused by or related to that person's violation
of this article; this responsibility shall be in addition to any penalties,
fines or injunctive relief imposed under this article.
The Code Enforcement Officer may, with the approval of the municipal
officers, enter into a written consent agreement with the violator
to address timely abatement of the violation(s) of this article for
the purposes of eliminating violations of this article and of recovering
fines, costs and fees without court action.
The standards set forth herein are minimum standards; therefore
this article does not intend or imply that compliance by any person
will ensure that there will be no contamination, pollution, or unauthorized
discharge of pollutants into waters of the United States caused by
said person. This article shall not create liability on the part of
the Town, or any officer, agent or employee thereof, for any damages
that result from any person's reliance on this article or any administrative
decision lawfully made hereunder.
The Town of Cumberland enacts this article pursuant to 30-A
M.R.S.A. § 3001 (municipal home rule ordinance authority),
38 M.R.S.A. § 413 (the Wastewater Discharge Law), 33 U.S.C.
§ 1251 et seq. (the Clean Water Act), and 40 CFR 122 [the
United States Environmental Protection Agency's regulations governing
the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)]. The
Maine Department of Environmental Protection, through its promulgation
of the general permit for the discharge of stormwater from small municipal
separate storm sewer systems, has listed the Town of Cumberland as
having a regulated small municipal separate storm sewer system ("small
MS4"); under this general permit, listing as a regulated small MS4
necessitates enactment of this article as part of the Town's stormwater
management program.