This chapter shall be known as the "Town of Lewiston Drainage
Control Law".
Certain terms used herein shall be defined as follows:
AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITY
The activity of an active farm, including grazing and watering
livestock, irrigating crops, harvesting crops, using land for growing
agricultural products, 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.
AVERAGE RECURRENCE INTERVAL
The average interval in years between peak stream flows or
rainfall intensity of a given magnitude, determined statistically
or measured hydrologically over a base period of time.
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 (New
York State Department of Environmental Conservation), most recent
version or its successor, including applicable updates, which serves
as the official guide for stormwater management principles, methods
and practices.
DEVELOPER
A person who undertakes land development activities.
DEVELOPMENT
Indicates any improved land use, including residential, commercial,
industrial, institutional or recreational.
DRAINAGE SYSTEM
A network consisting of any combination or type of open channels
and enclosed artificial facilities employed to convey the runoff of
natural waters and shown on the Official Town Drainage Map.
ENCROACHMENT LIMIT
The boundary of a maintenanceway easement or right-of-way
adjacent to a drainage channel within which no building or structure
shall be erected, or trees, bushes or other plantings planted, which
shall interfere with the maintenance of the drainage channel.
EROSION CONTROL MANUAL
The 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, commonly known
as the "Blue Book."
FLOOD HAZARD
Indicates overflow water having sufficient velocity to transport
debris, to scour the surface soil or to dislodge or damage structures
or contents. It also indicates erosion of the banks of watercourses.
GRADING
Excavation or fill of material, including the resulting conditions
thereof.
IMPERVIOUS COVER
Those surfaces, improvements and structures that cannot effectively
infiltrate rainfall, snowmelt and water (e.g., building rooftops,
pavement, sidewalk, driveways, etc.).
INDUSTRIAL STORMWATER PERMIT
A State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) 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.
INUNDATION
Indicates standing water or water in motion of sufficient
depth to damage property due to the mere presence of or momentary
contact with water, or to the deposition of silt.
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, excavation,
soil disturbance or placement of fill, that results in land disturbance
of equal to or greater than one acre, or construction activity disturbing
less than one acre of total land area that is part of a larger common
plan of development or sale disturbing one acre or more in the aggregate,
even though multiple separate and distinct land development activities
may take place at different times on different schedules.
LICENSED PROFESSIONAL
A landscape architect or professional engineer licensed to
practice his or her profession in New York State.
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 discernable,
confined and discrete conveyances, and shall include, but not be limited
to, pollutants from agricultural, silvicultural, mining, construction,
subsurface disposal and urban runoff sources.
OPEN DRAINAGE SYSTEM
A network of natural streams, constructed channels and ditches
employed to convey the runoff of natural waters.
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 measure 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
Coldwater fisheries, shellfish beds, swimming beaches, groundwater
recharge areas, water supply reservoirs, or 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 which requires that all construction activity
on a site be stopped.
STORMWATER
Rainwater, surface runoff, snowmelt and drainage.
STORMWATER HOTSPOT
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.
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 (SMO)
An officer or employee designated by the Town Board to accept
and review stormwater pollution prevention plans (SWPPPs), forward
the plans to such agency, committee, employee, or board of the Town
of Lewiston which may be reviewing any application for a construction
activity requiring submission of a SWPPP, 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 surface water, natural or artificial,
inland or coastal, fresh or salt, public or private (except those
private water 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 water of the state (such as a disposal
area in wetlands) nor resulted from impoundment of waters of the state.
TOWN
The Town of Lewiston.
TOWN BOARD
The Town Board of the Town of Lewiston.
TOWN DRAINAGE REPORT
A report entitled "Comprehensive Drainage Study, Town of
Lewiston," dated December 1972, by Krehbiel-Gray-Rugg-Hall and as
may be amended from time to time.
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.