The following definitions are applicable to this chapter:
AGRICULTURAL LAND USE
The use of land for planting, growing, cultivating and harvesting
of crops for human or livestock consumption and pasturing or yarding
of livestock.
CONSTRUCTION SITE
An area upon which one or more land-disturbing construction
activities occur, including areas that are part of a larger common
plan of development or sale where multiple separate and distinct land-disturbing
construction activities may be taking place at different times on
different schedules but under one plan.
EROSION AND SEDIMENT CONTROL PLAN
A comprehensive plan developed to address pollution caused
by erosion and sedimentation of soil particles or rock fragments during
construction.
EXCAVATION
Any act by which organic matter, earth, sand, gravel, rock
or any other similar material is cut into, dug, quarried, uncovered,
removed, displaced, relocated or bulldozed, and shall include the
conditions resulting therefrom.
FILL
Any act by which earth, sand, gravel, rock or any other material
is deposited, placed, replaced, pushed, dumped, pulled, transported
or moved by human forces to a new location, and shall include the
conditions resulting therefrom.
FINAL STABILIZATION
Means that all land-disturbing construction activities at
the construction site have been completed and that a uniform perennial
vegetative cover has been established, with a density of at least
70% of the cover, for the unpaved areas and areas not covered by permanent
structures, or to employ equivalent permanent stabilization measures.
GRADING
Altering the elevation of the land surface by stripping,
excavating, filling or stockpiling of soil materials, or any combination
thereof, and shall include the land from which the material was taken
or upon which it was placed.
IMPERVIOUS SURFACE
An area that releases as runoff all or a large portion of
the precipitation that falls on it, except for frozen soil. Rooftops,
sidewalks, driveways, parking lots and streets are examples of areas
that typically are impervious.
LAND-DISTURBING ACTIVITIES OR USES
Any land alterations or disturbances which may result in
soil erosion, sedimentation and/or the increase in runoff, including
but not limited to tilling, removal of ground cover, grading, excavating
and filling of land, except that the term shall not include such minor
land-disturbing activities as home gardens and repair and maintenance
of driveways. Additionally, this term does not include agricultural
land uses if such are regulated at the federal, state or county level.
LAND TREATMENT MEASURES
Structural or vegetative practices (including fencing), or
combinations of both, used to control erosion, sediment and water
runoff.
LAND USERS
Persons who use land, individually or collectively, as owners,
operators, lessees, renters, occupiers, who are providing a service
that requires access or alterations of the land in order to perform
the service, or by other arrangement which gives them the responsibility
of private or public land use.
LANDOWNER
Any person holding title to or having any interest in land.
MAXIMUM EXTENT PRACTICABLE or MEP
A level of implementing best management practices in order
to achieve a performance standard specified in this chapter, which
takes into account the best available technology, cost-effectiveness
and other competing issues such as human safety and welfare, endangered
and threatened resources, historic properties and geographic features.
MEP allows flexibility in the way to meet the performance standards
and may vary based on the performance standard and site conditions.
PARCEL
All contiguous lands under the ownership or control of a
landowner or land user.
PERFORMANCE STANDARD
A narrative or measurable number specifying the minimum acceptable
outcome for a facility or practice.
PERMIT
The signed, written statement issued under this chapter authorizing
the applicant to engage in general land-disturbing uses specified
and for a specified period of time.
PERSON
Any individual, corporation, limited liability company, partnership,
joint venture, agency, unincorporated association, municipal corporation,
county or state agency within Wisconsin, the federal government, and
other legally recognized entity, or any combination thereof.
POLLUTANT
Any dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage,
garbage, refuse, oil, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological
materials, radioactive substance, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment,
rock, sand, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal and agricultural
waste discharged into water.
POLLUTION
Includes contaminating or rendering unclean or impure the
waters of the state, or making the same injurious to public health,
harmful for commercial or recreational use, or deleterious to fish,
bird, animal or plant life.
POST-CONSTRUCTION SITE
A construction site following the completion of land-disturbing
construction activity and final site stabilization.
PUBLIC LANDS
All lands which are subject to regulation by the Town, including,
but not limited to:
(1)
All lands owned or controlled by the Town; and
(2)
All land within the political boundaries of the Town which is
owned by another unit of government if that unit of government is
acting in a proprietary rather than governmental function.
RESPONSIBLE PARTY
Any person performing services to meet the performance standards
of this chapter through a contract or other agreement.
RUNOFF
The portion of rainfall, melted snow or irrigation water
that flows across the ground surface and eventually is returned to
lakes or streams, creeks or other watercourses.
SEDIMENT
Solid material, both mineral and organic, that is in suspension,
is being transported, or has been moved from its site of origin by
air, water, gravity or ice, and has come to rest on the earth's surface
at a different site.
SEDIMENTATION
The transportation and deposition of sediment that may ultimately
degrade water quality by the presence of suspended solid particles
derived from soils by erosion or discharged into surface waters from
other sources; or the deposition of waterborne sediments in stream
channels, lakes, reservoirs or on floodplains, usually because of
a decrease in the velocity of the water.
SOIL LOSS
Soil movement from a given site because of land-disturbing
activities or by the forces of erosion and redeposited at another
site on land or in a body of water.
STOP-WORK ORDER
A means of giving notice that the Town Engineer believes
that any landowner, land user and/or responsible party has violated
one or more provisions of this chapter or that a land-disturbing activity
is occurring without a control plan being approved and a permit being
issued. Notice is given both by posting upon the lands where the land-disturbing
activity occurs one or more copies of a written notice stating the
violation and by mailing a copy of the notice by certified mail to
landowner, land user, and/or responsible party at the appropriate
address shown on the permit.
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT PLAN
A comprehensive plan designed to reduce the discharge of
pollutants from stormwater after the site has undergone final stabilization
following completion of the construction activity.
STRUCTURAL MEASURES
Works of improvement for land stabilization to prevent erosion,
sediment or runoff, which include, but are not limited to, gully control
structures, fencing, grass waterways, riprap, detention basins, sediment
basins, flood retention dams, diversions, lining channels with rock,
concrete or other materials. Contour strip cropping is not a structural
measure.
SUBSTANDARD LOTS
Parcels that do not conform to one or more of the dimensional
requirements set forth in the Columbia County Zoning Ordinance.
TECHNICAL STANDARD
A document that specifies design, predicted performance,
and operation and maintenance specifications for a material, device
or method.
TOWN ENGINEER
The professional engineer designated by the Town Board or
Town Plan Commission to administer this chapter, and includes any
other persons who are supervised by the Engineer.