The definitions in these regulations, in some cases, are stricter or expanded and shall take precedence in the event of conflict or inconsistency with the definitions in MGL c. 131, § 40, and regulations of 310 CMR 10. The following definitions apply to the interpretation of Chapter
472, Wetlands Protection, of the Code of the Town of Plainville and these regulations:
ABUTTER
Means the owner of land abutting the subject property including
owners of land directly opposite on any public or private street or
way including another municipality or across a body of water.
ALTER
Shall include, without limitation, the following activities when undertaken to, upon, within or affecting resource areas protected by Chapter
472, Wetlands Protection, of the Code of the Town of Plainville and these regulations:
A.
Removal, excavation, or dredging of soil, sand, gravel, or aggregate
materials of any kind;
B.
Changing of preexisting drainage characteristics, flushing characteristics,
salinity distribution, sedimentation patterns, flow patterns, or flood
retention characteristics;
C.
Drainage or other disturbance of water level or water table;
D.
Dumping, discharging, or filling with any material which may
degrade water quality;
E.
Placing of fill, or removal of material, which would alter elevation;
F.
Driving of piles, erection, or repair of buildings, or structures
of any kind;
G.
Placing of obstructions or objects (including docks and piers)
in water;
H.
Destruction of plant life including the cutting of trees;
I.
Changing water temperature, biochemical oxygen demand; or other
physical, biological, or chemical characteristics of water;
J.
Any activities, changes, or work which may cause or tend to
contribute to pollution of any body of water or groundwater;
K.
Incremental activities which have, or may have a cumulative adverse impact on the resource areas protected by Chapter
472, Wetlands Protection, of the Code of the Town of Plainville and these regulations;
L.
Application of pesticides or herbicides.
APPLICATION
When referring to a submittal to the Commission, means a
notice of intent as required by 310 CMR 10.05(4).
BANK
Includes the land area which normally abuts and confines
a water body; the lower boundary being the mean annual low flow level,
and the upper boundary being the first observable break in the slope
or the mean annual flood level, whichever is higher.
BOGS
Are areas where standing or slowly running water is near
or at the surface during a normal growing season and where a vegetational
community has a significant portion of the ground or water surface
covered with sphagnum moss (Sphagnum), and where the vegetational
community is made up of a significant portion of one or more of, but
not limited to nor necessarily including all of, the following plants
or groups of plants: aster (Aster nemoralis), azaleas (Rhododendron
canadense and R. viscosum), black spruce (Picea mariana), bog cotton
(Eriophorum), cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon), high-bush blueberry
(Vaccinium corymbosum), larch (Larix laricina), laurels (Kalmia angustifolia
and K. polifolia), leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata), orchids
(Arethusa, Calopogon, Pogonia), pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea),
sedges (Cyperaceae), sundews (Droseraceae), sweet gale (Myrica gale),
white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides).
BORDERING VEGETATED WETLANDS
Are freshwater wetlands which border on creeks, streams,
rivers, ponds and lakes. Bordering vegetated wetlands are areas where
the soils are saturated and/or inundated such that they support a
predominance (50% or greater) of wetland indicator plants. Wetlands
and their boundaries shall be identified in the manner designated
in the Massachusetts DEP Handbook "Delineating Bordering Vegetated
Wetlands under Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act," March 1995,
and future amendments, or other DEP guidance documents generally accepted
by conservation commissions for purposes of bordering vegetated wetland
delineation.
BUFFER ZONE
Means that area of land extending 100 feet horizontally outward
from the boundary of the following resource areas: freshwater wetlands,
marshes, wet meadows, bogs, swamps, lakes, ponds, rivers, streams,
creeks, banks, beaches, vernal pools, isolated wetlands, and lands
under water bodies.
CLEAR-CUT
Shall mean the removal of all or substantially all overstory
trees within a prescribed area, such as within the footprint of a
proposed structure or portion thereof.
CREEK
Means the same as a stream.
DREDGE
Means to deepen, widen, or excavate, either temporarily or
permanently.
LAKE
Means any open body of fresh water with a surface area of
10 acres or more, and shall include great ponds.
LAND SUBJECT TO FLOODING OR INUNDATION
Is as defined in 310 CMR 10.57(2) with the addition that
it shall include vernal pools whether or not they are within another
resource area, and with the difference that isolated land subject
to flooding may contain a minimum of 1/8 acre-foot. A vernal pool
may be any size.
MARSHES
Are areas where a plant community exists in standing or running
water during the growing season and where a significant part of the
vegetational community is composed of, but not limited to nor necessarily
including all, of the following plants or groups of plants: arums
(Araceae), bladder worts (Utricularia), burr reeds (Sparganiaceae),
button bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), cattails (Typha), duck weeds
(Lemnaceae), eelgrass (Vallisneria), frog bits (Hydrocharitaceae),
horsetails (Equisetaceae), hydrophilic grasses (Gramineae), leatherleaf
(Chamaedaphne calyculata), pickerel weeds (Pontederiaceae), pipeworts
(Eriocaulon), pond weeds (Potamogeton), rushes (Juncaceae), sedges
(Cyperaceae), smartweeds (Polygonum), sweet gale (Myrica gale), water
milfoil (Haloragaceae), water lilies (Nymphaeaceae), water starworts
(Callitrichaceae), water willow (Decodon verticilatus).
PONDS
Shall include any substantially open body of fresh water
with a surface area observed or recorded, within 10 years prior to
the date of application, of at least 5,000 square feet. Ponds may
be either naturally occurring or man-made by impoundment, excavation,
or otherwise. Ponds shall contain standing water except for periods
of extended drought.
RARE SPECIES
Shall include, without limitation, all vertebrate and invertebrate
animal and plant species listed as "endangered," "threatened" or "of
special concern" by the Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and
Wildlife, regardless of whether the site in which they occur has been
previously identified by the Department.
RESOURCE AREA VALUES
Include but are not limited to the following: public or private
water supply, groundwater, flood control, erosion and sedimentation
control, storm damage prevention, water quality, fisheries, and wildlife
habitat.
RESOURCE AREAS
Include any freshwater wetlands, marshes, wet meadows, bogs,
swamps, lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, creeks, banks, beaches, vernal
pools, isolated wetlands, land under water in each resource area,
riverfront area, and land subject to flooding or inundation by groundwater
or surface waters.
RIVER
Shall be defined as a natural flowing body of water of any
size that empties to any ocean, lake or other river and which flows
throughout the year.
STREAM
Is a body of running water, and the land under the water,
including brooks, creeks, and man-made watercourses, which moves in
a definite channel in the ground due to hydraulic gradient. A portion
of a stream may flow through a culvert, or beneath a bridge, or beneath
the surface of the ground. Such a body of running water which does
not flow throughout the year (i.e., which is intermittent) is a stream
except for those that serve only to carry the immediate surface runoff
from stormwater or snowmelt.
SWAMPS
Are areas where groundwater is at or near the surface of
the ground for a significant part of the growing season or where runoff
water from surface drainage frequently collects above the soil surface,
and where a significant part of the vegetational community is made
up of, but not limited to nor necessarily include all of the following
plants or groups of plants: alders (Alnus), ashes (Fraxinus), azaleas
(Rhododendron canadense and R. viscosum), black alder (Ilex verticillata),
black spruce (Picea mariana), buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis),
American or white elm (Ulmus americana), white Hellebore (Veratrum
viride), hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), highbush blueberry (Vaccinium
corymbosum), larch (Larix laricina), cowslip (Caltha palustris), poison
sumac (Toxicodendron vermix), red maple (Acer rubrum), skunk cabbage
(Symplocarpus foetidus), sphagnum mosses (Sphagnum), spice bush (Lindera
benzoin), black gum tupelo (Nyssa sytvatica), sweet pepperbush (Clethra
alnifolia), white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides), willow (Salicaceae),
common reed (Phragmites communis), and jewelweed (Impatiens capensis).
VERNAL POOL
Shall include a confined basin depression of any size which
is subject to flooding, which, at least in most years, holds water
for a minimum of two continuous months during the spring and/or summer,
and which is free of adult fish populations, or are areas that vernal
pool species, as recognized by the Massachusetts Natural Heritage
and Endangered Species Program, used for breeding as evidenced by
breeding adults, eggs, tadpoles, or transforming adults. These areas
are essential breeding habitats and provide other extremely important
wildlife habitat functions during nonbreeding season as well for a
variety of amphibian species and are important habitat for other wildlife
species. The vernal pool need not be certified. Vernal pool habitat
shall include the pool and the area within 100 feet of the mean annual
boundary of the pool.
VISTA PRUNING
Means the selective thinning of tree branches or understory
shrubs to improve visibility. "Vista pruning" does not include the
cutting of trees nor the mowing or removal of understory brush.
WET MEADOWS
Are areas where groundwater is at the surface for the significant
part of the growing season and near the surface throughout the year
and where a significant part of the vegetational community is composed
of various grasses, sedges, and rushes, made up of, but not limited
to nor necessarily including all of the following plants or groups
of plants: blue flag (iris), vervain (Verbena), thoroughwort (Eupatorium),
dock (Rumex), false loosestrife (Ludwigia), hydrophilic grasses (Gramineae),
loosestrife (Lythrum), marsh fern (Dryopteris thelypteris), rushes
(Juncaceae), sedges (Cyperaceae), sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis),
and smartweed (Polygonum).
Any discharge into a wetland or buffer area shall be regulated
by the Commission whether or not the pipe actually intrudes into the
buffer area or wetland. Design plans must be submitted to the Commission
for review and approval in such instances.
Filings with the Plainville Conservation Commission shall be accompanied by a fee payable to the Town of Plainville, in the amounts listed in §
472-4 of Chapter
472, Wetlands Protection, of the Code of the Town of Plainville.
If any provision of these regulations or the application thereof
is held to be invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such invalidity
shall not affect other provisions or the application of any part of
these regulations not specifically held invalid, nor shall it invalidate
any Order, Permit, or Determination which previously had been issued,
and to this end the provisions of these regulations are declared to
be severable.
These regulations took effect on January 27, 2009, and a notice
of the public hearing was published in The Sun Chronicle on December
31, 2008, and January 6, 2009.