This chapter shall be known as "Chapter 153, Stormwater Management and Erosion and Sediment Control, of the Code of the Town of Smithtown."
It is hereby determined by the Town Board of the Town of Smithtown
that:
A.Â
Land development activities and associated increases in site impervious
cover often alter the hydrologic response of local watersheds and
increase stormwater runoff rates and volumes, flooding, stream channel
erosion, or sediment transport and deposition.
B.Â
Stormwater runoff contributes to increased quantities of water-borne
pollutants, including siltation of aquatic habitat for fish and other
desirable species.
C.Â
Clearing and grading during construction tend to increase soil erosion
and add to the loss of native vegetation necessary for terrestrial
and aquatic habitat.
D.Â
Improper design and construction of stormwater management practices
can increase the velocity of stormwater runoff, thereby increasing
stream bank erosion and sedimentation.
E.Â
Impervious surfaces allow less water to percolate into the soil,
thereby decreasing groundwater recharge and stream baseflow.
F.Â
Substantial economic losses can result from these adverse impacts
on the waters of the Town.
G.Â
Stormwater runoff, soil erosion and nonpoint source pollution can
be controlled and minimized through the regulation of stormwater runoff
from land development activities.
H.Â
The regulation of stormwater runoff discharges from land development
activities in order to control and minimize increases in stormwater
runoff rates and volumes, soil erosion, stream channel erosion, and
nonpoint source pollution associated with stormwater runoff is in
the public interest and will minimize threats to public health and
safety.
I.Â
Regulation of land development activities by means of performance
standards governing stormwater management and site design will produce
development compatible with the natural functions of a particular
site or an entire watershed and thereby mitigate the adverse effects
of erosion and sedimentation from development.
In accordance with § 10 of the Municipal Home Rule
Law of the State of New York, the Town Board has the authority to
enact local laws and amend local laws for the purpose of promoting
the health, safety or general welfare of the Town of Smithtown and
for the protection and enhancement of its physical environment. The
Town Board may include in any such local law provisions for the appointment
of any municipal officer, employees, or independent contractor to
effectuate, administer and enforce such local law. This chapter is
adopted pursuant to the requirements of Section 402 of the Clean Water
Act (CWA), which deemed stormwater discharges from certain construction
activities unlawful unless they are authorized by a National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit or by a state permit program.
New York's State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System is a NPDES-approved
program with permits issued pursuant to Article 17, Titles 7, 8, and
Article 70 of the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL).
The purpose of this chapter is to establish minimum stormwater management requirements and controls to protect and safeguard the general health, safety, and welfare of the residents of the Town of Smithtown and to address the findings of fact in § 153-1. This chapter seeks to meet those purposes by achieving the following objectives:
A.Â
Meet the minimum construction site stormwater runoff control and
post-construction stormwater management requirements of the New York
State Department of Environmental Conservation State Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System General Permit for Stormwater Discharges from Municipal
Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s), Permit Number GP-02-02 or as
amended or revised.
B.Â
Require land development activities that will discharge stormwater
to the waters of the Town to conform to the substantive requirements
of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation State
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System General Permit for Construction
Activities, Permit Number GP-02-01 or as amended or revised.
C.Â
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.Â
Minimize increases in pollution caused by stormwater runoff from
land development activities, which would otherwise degrade local water
quality.
E.Â
Minimize the total annual volume of stormwater runoff, which flows
from any specific site during and following development to the maximum
extent practicable.
F.Â
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 as well as minimize
the potential to hinder the conveyance ability or storage capacity
of a Town-owned drainage system.
The terms used in this chapter or in documents prepared or reviewed
under this chapter shall have the meanings as set forth in this section.
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.
A property owner or agent of a property owner who has filed
an application for a land development activity.
A board of the Town of Smithtown as defined in Chapter 322 of the Code of the Town of Smithtown.
Any structure meeting the definition of "building" as defined in Chapter 322 of the Code of the Town of Smithtown.
A natural or artificial watercourse with a definite bed and
banks that conducts continuously or periodically flowing water.
Any activity that removes the vegetative surface cover.
See "land development activity(ies)."
A parcel of land or part thereof upon which a land development
activity(ies) is taking place.
The deliberate appropriation of property by its owner for
general public use.
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.
Any person who undertakes land development activities.
The part of a stormwater pollution prevention plan that includes
the erosion and sediment control component specific measures and sequencing
to be used to control erosion and sediment on a development site during
construction.
The most recent version of the New York Standards and Specifications
for Erosion and Sediment Control Manual, commonly known as the "Blue
Book."
Excavation or fill of material or any other soil disturbance,
including the resulting conditions thereof.
Those surfaces, improvements, and structures that cannot
effectively infiltrate rainfall, snow melt and water (e.g., building
rooftops, pavement, sidewalks, driveways, etc.).
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.
The process of percolating stormwater into the subsoil.
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."
Construction activity including clearing, demolition, grading,
excavating, stockpiling, 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 that will ultimately
disturb one or more acres of land, even though multiple separate and
distinct land development activities may take place at different times
on different schedules, or activities disturbing less than one acre
of total land area where the Town has determined there is a potential
for significant contribution of pollutants to surface waters of the
Town.
The person in whom is vested the ownership, dominion, title
or control of property, including but not limited to the landowner's
duly authorized agent, proprietor, mortgagee or vendee in possession,
assignee of rents, tenant or lessee, purchaser, devisee, fiduciary
and any other person having a vested interest in the property in question.
A contiguous area where multiple separate and distinct construction
activities are occurring, or will occur, under one plan. The term
"plan" in "larger common plan of development or sale" is broadly defined
as any announcement or piece of documentation (including a sign, public
notice or hearing, sales pitch, advertisement, drawing, permit application,
State Environmental Quality Review Act application, zoning request,
computer design, etc.) or physical demarcation (including SPDES General
Permit for Stormwater Discharge from MS4s, GP-0-08-002 boundary signs,
lot stakes, surveyor markings, etc.) indicating that construction
activities may occur on a specific plot. For discrete construction
projects that are located within a larger common plan of development
or sale that are at least 1/4 mile apart, each project can be treated
as a separate plan of development or sale, provided any interconnecting
road, pipeline or utility project that is part of the same "common
plan" is not concurrently being disturbed.
A site design strategy with a goal of maintaining or replicating
the predevelopment hydrologic regime through the use of design techniques
to create a functionally equivalent hydrologic landscape. Hydrologic
functions of storage, infiltration, and groundwater recharge, as well
as the volume and frequency of discharges, are maintained through
the use of integrated and distributed microscale stormwater retention
and detention areas, reduction of impervious surfaces, and the lengthening
of flow paths and runoff time. Other strategies include the preservation/protection
of environmentally sensitive site features such as riparian buffers,
wetlands, steep slopes, valuable (mature) trees, floodplains, woodlands
and highly permeable soils. Low-impact development principles are
based on controlling stormwater at the source by the use of microscale
controls that are distributed throughout the site. This is unlike
conventional approaches that typically convey and manage runoff in
large facilities located at the base of drainage areas.
A legally recorded document that acts as a property deed
restriction and which provides for long-term maintenance of stormwater
management practices.
A conveyance or system of conveyances (including roads with
drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters,
ditches, man-made channels, or storm drains):
Owned or operated by the Town of Smithtown or other public body
(created by or pursuant to state law) having jurisdiction over disposal
of sewage, industrial wastes, stormwater, or other wastes, including
special districts under state law such as a sewer district, flood
control district or drainage district, or similar entity, or an Indian
tribe or an authorized Indian tribal organization, or a designated
and approved management agency under Section 208 of the CWA, that
discharges to surface waters of the state;
Designed or used for collecting or conveying stormwater;
Which is not a combined sewer; and
Which is not part of a publicly owned treatment works as defined
at 40 CFR 122.2.
Pollution from any source other than from any discernible,
confined, and discrete conveyances, and shall include, but not be
limited to, pollutants from agricultural, mining, construction, subsurface
disposal and urban runoff sources.
Clearing a parcel of land in distinct pieces or parts, with
the stabilization of each piece completed before the clearing of the
next.
A board of the Town of Smithtown as defined in Chapter 248 of the Code of the Town of Smithtown.
Any dredged spoil, filter backwash, solid waste, incinerator
residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes,
biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded
equipment, rock, sand, and industrial, municipal, and agricultural
waste and ballast discharged into water and as defined at 40 CFR 122.2.
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.
A component of the stormwater pollution prevention plan that
includes the specific practices to be used and maintained for post-construction
stormwater management on a development site after construction.
Land development activity(ies) as defined herein.
A person who is knowledgeable in the principles and practices
of erosion and sediment control, such as a professional engineer,
certified professional in erosion and sediment control (CPESC), landscape
architect, or other New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
(NYSDEC) endorsed individual(s). It also means someone working under
the direct supervision of the professional engineer or landscape architect,
provided that person has training in the principles and practices
of erosion and sediment control. "Training in the principles and practices
of erosion and sediment control" means that an individual performing
a site inspection has received four hours of training, endorsed by
the NYSDEC, from a Soil and Water Conservation District, CPESC, Inc.,
or other NYSDEC-endorsed entity in proper erosion and sediment control
principles. After receiving the initial training, an individual working
under the direct supervision of the professional engineer or landscape
architect shall receive four hours of training every three years.
Inspections of any post-construction stormwater management practices
that include structural components, such as a dam for an impoundment,
shall be performed by a Professional Engineer.
A person who is knowledgeable in the principles and practices
of stormwater management and treatment, such as a professional engineer,
landscape architect or other New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation (NYSDEC) endorsed individual(s). Individuals preparing
stormwater pollution prevention plans that require the post-construction
stormwater management practice component must have an understanding
of the principles of hydrology, water quality management practice
design, water quantity control design, and, in many cases, the principles
of hydraulics in order to prepare a SWPPP that conforms to the NYSDEC's
technical standard. All components of the SWPPP that involve the practice
of engineering, as defined by Article 145 of the New York State Education
Law, shall be prepared by, or under the direct supervision of, a professional
engineer licensed to practice in the State of New York.
The replenishment of underground water reserves.
Section 303(d) is part of the federal Clean Water Act that
requires the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
to periodically prepare a list of all surface waters of the state
for which beneficial uses of the water, such as for drinking, recreation,
aquatic habitat, and industrial use, are impaired by pollutants. These
are water-quality-limited estuaries, lakes, and streams that fall
short of state surface water quality standards, and are not expected
to improve within the next two years.
Measures that prevent eroded sediment from leaving the site.
Includes but is not limited to cold water fisheries, shellfish
beds, swimming beaches, groundwater recharge areas, water supply reservoirs,
and habitats for threatened, endangered or special concern species.
A permit under the New York State Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (SPDES) issued to developers of construction activities to
regulate disturbance of one or more acres of land that discharge stormwater
to the surface waters of the State of New York.
A permit under the New York State Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (SPDES) issued to municipalities to regulate discharges from
municipal separate storm sewers for compliance with EPA-established
water quality standards and/or to specify stormwater control standards.
The use of practices that prevent exposed soil from eroding.
An order issued which requires that all land development
activities on a site be stopped.
Rainwater, surface runoff, snowmelt and drainage.
A land use or activity that generates higher concentrations
of hydrocarbons, trace metals or toxicants than are found in typical
stormwater runoff, based on monitoring studies.
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.
One or a series of stormwater management practices installed,
stabilized and operating for the purpose of controlling stormwater
runoff.
The Town Engineer or his/her duly authorized deputy or representatives.
The SMO is designated by the Town Board to accept and review stormwater
pollution prevention plans for conformance with this chapter, forward
approved plans to the applicable board, and inspect stormwater management
practices.
A measure(s), either structural or nonstructural, that is
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.
A plan prepared by a qualified professional that formalizes
the selection and design of stormwater management measures that control
stormwater runoff and pollutants from a site during and after construction
activities. The SWPPP includes an erosion and sediment control component,
and, in most cases, a post-construction stormwater control component.
All stormwater controls prescribed in the SWPPP must conform to the
technical standards specified in the New York State Stormwater Management
Design Manual and the New York Standards and Specifications for Erosion
and Sediment Control or meet equivalent standards.
Flow of water on the surface of the ground, resulting from
precipitation.
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 surface 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 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 waters of the state (such as a disposal
area in wetlands) nor resulted from impoundment of waters of the state.
The sum of the allowable loads of a single pollutant from
all contributing point and nonpoint sources. It is a calculation of
the maximum amount of a pollutant that a water body can receive on
a daily basis and still meet water quality standards, and an allocation
of that amount to the pollutant's sources.
The Town of Smithtown.
The Town Board of the Town of Smithtown.
The Town Engineer of the Town of Smithtown.
A permanent or intermittent stream or other body of water,
either natural or man-made, which gathers or carries surface water.
An area bounded peripherally by a divide and draining ultimately
to a particular watercourse.
Any surface waters of the State of New York or groundwater
that is wholly or partially located within the jurisdictional boundaries
of the Town of Smithtown.
A channel that directs surface runoff to a watercourse or
to the public storm drain.
B.Â
All land development activities subject to review and approval of site plans by the Board of Site Plan Review pursuant to Chapter 322 of the Town Code, subdivisions by the Planning Board pursuant to Chapter 248 of the Town Code, building permits pursuant to Chapter 112 of the Town Code, tree preservation and land clearing permits pursuant to Chapter 285 of the Town Code, or permits pursuant to Chapter 154 of the Town Code shall be reviewed subject to the standards contained in this chapter. No permit shall be issued and no approval by any board shall be granted for a land development activity without due consideration of the findings and purpose of this chapter.
C.Â
Any person engaged in a grading activity for which a SWPPP is not
required pursuant to this chapter, shall, at a minimum, employ stormwater
management practices to control erosion and sediment in proportion
to the scale of the activity and file with the Stormwater Management
Officer a SWPPP waiver certification and agreement.
A.Â
The following activities may be exempt from review under this chapter:
(1)Â
Agricultural activity as defined in this chapter.
(2)Â
Routine maintenance activities that disturb less than five acres
and are performed to maintain the original line and grade, hydraulic
capacity or original purpose of a facility.
(3)Â
Repairs to any stormwater management practice or facility deemed
necessary by the Stormwater Management Officer.
(4)Â
Any part of a site plan that has been approved by the Board of Site
Plan Review or subdivision that has been approved by the Planning
Board on or before September 30, 2008.
(5)Â
Land development activities for which any permit has been approved
on or before the September 30, 2008.
(6)Â
Cemetery graves.
(7)Â
Installation of a fence, sign, utility poles and other kinds of posts
or poles, excluding monopoles.
(8)Â
Emergency activity immediately necessary to protect life, property
or natural resources.
(9)Â
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.
(10)Â
Landscaping and horticultural activities in connection with
an existing structure.
B.Â
Any person engaged in any land-disturbing activity that is exempt
pursuant to this section shall comply with the purpose and intent
of this chapter, regardless of whether or not the activity requires
approval. At a minimum, such person shall employ stormwater management
practices for erosion and sediment control in proportion to the scale
of the activity.
