This chapter shall be known as the "Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance of Buchanan County, Virginia." The purpose of this chapter is to prevent degradation of properties, stream channels, waters and other natural resources of Buchanan County, VA by establishing requirements for the control of soil erosion, sediment deposition and nonagricultural runoff and by establishing procedures whereby these requirements shall be administered and enforced. Buchanan County and the Big Sandy Soil and Water Conservation District have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding by which the Big Sandy Soil and Water Conservation District will act as the agent of the County to implement the provisions of this chapter. The Erosion and Soil Control Ordinance provisions at Chapter
31.1, §
31-1, et. seq. are hereby repealed and replaced by this chapter, Chapter
31.1, §
31.1-1, et. seq.
This Chapter is authorized by the Code of Virginia, Title 62.1,
Chapter 3.1, Article 2.4, known as the Virginia Erosion and Sediment
Control Law.
As used in the ordinance, unless the context requires a different
meaning:
1. AGREEMENT IN LIEU OF A PLAN
A contract between the plan-approving authority and the owner
that specifies conservation measures that must be implemented in the
construction of a single-family residence; this contract may be executed
by the plan-approving authority in lieu of a formal site plan.
2. APPLICANT
Any person submitting an erosion and sediment control plan
for approval or requesting the issuance of a permit, when required,
authorizing land-disturbing activities to commence.
3. BOARD
The Virginia State Water Control Board.
4. CERTIFIED INSPECTOR
An employee or agent of a VESCP authority who (i) holds a
certificate of competence from the Board in the area of project inspection
or (ii) is enrolled in the Board's training program for project
inspection and successfully completes such program within one year
after enrollment.
5. CERTIFIED PLAN REVIEWER
An employee or agent of a VESCP authority who (i) holds a
certificate of competence from the Board in the area of plan review,
(ii) is enrolled in the Board's training program for plan review
and successfully completes such program within one year after enrollment,
or (iii) is licensed as a professional engineer, architect, certified
landscape architect or land surveyor pursuant to Article 1 (§ 54.1-400
et seq.) of Chapter 4 of Title 54.1 or a professional soil scientist
as defined in § 54.1-2200 of the Code of Virginia.
6. CERTIFIED PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR
An employee or agent of a VESCP authority who (i) holds a
certificate of competence from the Board in the area of program administration
or (ii) is enrolled in the Board's training program for program
administration and successfully completes such program within one
year after enrollment.
7. CLEARING
Any activity which removes the vegetative ground cover including,
but not limited to, root mat removal or top soil removal.
10. DEVELOPMENT
A tract or parcel of land developed or to be developed as
a single unit under single ownership or unified control which is to
be used for any business or industrial purpose or is to contain three
or more residential dwelling units.
11. DIRECTOR
The Director of the Department of Environmental Quality.
13. EROSION AND SEDIMENT CONTROL PLAN or PLAN
A document containing material for the conservation of soil
and water resources of a unit or group of units of land. It may include
appropriate maps, an appropriate soil and water plan inventory, and
management information with needed interpretations, and a record of
decisions contributing to conservation treatment. The plan shall contain
all major conservation decisions and all information deemed necessary
by the VESCP plan approving authority to assure that the entire unit
or units of land will be so treated to achieve the conservation objectives.
14. EROSION IMPACT AREA
An area of land not associated with a current land-disturbing
activity but subject to persistent soil erosion resulting in the delivery
of sediment onto neighboring properties or into state waters. This
definition shall not apply to any lot or parcel of land of 10,000
square feet or less used for residential purposes.
15. EXCAVATING
Any digging, scooping or other methods of removing earth
materials.
16. FILLING
Any depositing or stockpilling of earth materials.
17. GRADING
Any excavating or filling of earth material or any combination
thereof, including the land in its excavated or filled conditions.
18. LAND-DISTURBING ACTIVITY
Any man-made change to the land surface that may result in
soil erosion from water or wind and the movement of sediments into
state waters or onto lands in the Commonwealth, including, but not
limited to, clearing, grading, excavating, transporting, and filling
of land, except that the term shall not include:
a)
Minor land-disturbing activities such as home gardens and individual
home landscaping, repairs and maintenance work;
b)
Individual service connections;
c)
Installation, maintenance, or repair of any underground public
utility lines when such activity occurs on an existing hard-surfaced
road, street or sidewalk, provided the land-disturbing activity is
confined to the area of the road, street, or sidewalk that is hard-surfaced;
d)
Septic tank lines or drainage fields unless included in an overall
plan for land-disturbing activity relating to construction of the
building to be served by the septic tank system;
e)
Permitted surface or deep mining operations and projects, or
oil and gas operations and projects conducted pursuant to Title 45.1
of the Code of Virginia;
f)
Tilling, planting, or harvesting of agricultural, horticultural, or forest crops, or livestock feedlot operations; including engineering operations as follows: construction of terraces, terrace outlets, check dams, desilting basins, dikes, ponds, ditches, strip cropping, lister furrowing, contour cultivating, contour furrowing, land drainage, and land irrigation; however, this exception shall not apply to harvesting of forest crops unless the area on which harvesting occurs is reforested artifically or naturally in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 11 (§ 10.1-1100 et seq.) of Title 10.1 of the Code of Virginia or is converted to bona fide agricultural or improved pasture use as described in Subsection
B of § 10.1-1163;
g)
Repair or rebuilding of the tracks, rights-of-way, bridges,
communication facilities, and other related structures and facilities
of a railroad company;
h)
Agricultural engineering operations, including but not limited
to the construction of terraces, terrace outlets, check dams, desilting
basins, dikes, ponds not required to comply with the provisions of
the Dam Safety Act (Va. Code § 10.1-604 et seq.), ditches,
strip cropping, lister furrowing, contour cultivating, contour furrowing,
land drainage, and land irrigation;
i)
Disturbed land areas of less than 10,000 square feet in size;
j)
Installation of fence and sign posts or telephone and electric
poles and other kinds of posts or poles;
k)
Shoreline erosion control projects on tidal waters when all
of the land-disturbing activities are within the regulatory authority
of and approved by local wetlands boards, the Marine Resources Commission,
or the United States Army Corps of Engineers; however, any associated
land that is disturbed outside of this exempted area shall remain
subject to this chapter; and
l)
Emergency work to protect life, limb or property, and emergency
repairs; however, if the land-disturbing activity would have required
an approved erosion and sediment control plan, if the activity were
not an emergency, then the land area disturbed shall be shaped and
stabilized in accordance with the requirements of this chapter.
19. LAND-DISTURBING PERMIT OR APPROVAL
A permit or other form of approval issued by Buchanan County
or its agent for the clearing, filling, excavating, grading, transporting
of land or for any combination thereof or for any other land-disturbing
activity.
20. NATURAL CHANNEL DESIGN CONCEPTS
The utilization of engineering analysis and fluvial geomorphic
processes to create, rehabilitate, restore, or stabilize an open conveyance
system for the purpose of creating or recreating a stream that conveys
its bankfull storm event within its banks and allows larger flows
to access its bankfull bench and its floodplain.
21. OWNER
The owner or owners of the freehold of the premises or lesser
estate therein, mortgagee or vendee in possession, assignee of rents,
receiver, executor, trustee, lessee, or other person, firm, or corporation
in control of a property.
22. PEAK FLOW RATE
The maximum instantaneous flow from a given storm condition
at a particular location.
23. PERMITTEE
The person to whom the land-disturbing approval is issued
or the person who certifies that the approved erosion and sediment
control plan will be followed.
24. PERSON
Any individual, partnership, firm, association, joint venture,
public or private corporation, trust, estate, commission, board, public
or private institution, utility, cooperative, county, city, town or
other political subdivision of the Commonwealth, governmental body,
including a federal or state entity as applicable, any interstate
body, or any other legal entity.
25. RESPONSIBLE LAND DISTURBER OR RLD
An individual holding a certificate issued by the department
who is responsible for carrying out the land-disturbing activity in
accordance with the approved ESC plan. The RLD may be the owner, applicant,
permittee, designer, superintendent, project manager, contractor,
or any other project or development team member. The RLD must be designated
on the ESC plan or permit as a prerequisite for engaging in land disturbance.
26. RUNOFF VOLUME
The volume of water that runs off the land development project
from a prescribed storm event.
28. STATE PERMIT
An approval to conduct a land-disturbing activity issued
by the Board in the form of a state stormwater individual permit or
coverage issued under a state general permit.
29. STATE WATERS
All waters on the surface and under the ground wholly or
partially within or bordering the Commonwealth or within its jurisdiction.
31. TRANSPORTING
Any moving of earth materials from one place to another place
other than such movement incidental to grading, when such movement
results in destroying the vegetative ground cover either by tracking
or the buildup of earth materials to the extent that erosion and sedimentation
will result from the soil or earth materials over which such transporting
occurs.
33. VESCP PLAN-APPROVING AUTHORITY
The Buchanan County Administrator or its agent is responsible
for determining the adequacy of a plan submitted for land-disturbing
activities on a unit or units of lands and for approving plans.
34. VIRGINIA EROSION AND SEDIMENT CONTROL PROGRAM or VESCP
A program approved by the Board that has been established
by a VESCP authority for the effective control of soil erosion, sediment
deposition, and non-agricultural runoff associated with a land-disturbing
activity to prevent the unreasonable degradation of properties, stream
channels, waters, and other natural resources and shall include such
items where applicable as local ordinances, rules, permit requirements,
annual standards and specifications, policies and guidelines, technical
materials, and requirements for plan review, inspection, enforcement
where authorized in this article, and evaluation consistent with the
requirements of this article and its associated regulations.
35. WATER QUALITY VOLUME
The volume equal to the first one-half inch of runoff multiplied
by the impervious surface of the land development project.
Pursuant to § 62.1-44.15:54 of the Code of Virginia,
Buchanan County hereby establishes a VESCP program and adopts the
regulations promulgated by the Board for the effective control of
soil erosion and sediment deposition to prevent the unreasonable degradation
of properties, stream channels, waters and other natural resources
and the Virginian Erosion & Sediment Control Handbook, third edition.
In accordance with § 62.1-44.15:52 of the Code of Virginia,
any plan approved prior to July 1, 2014, that provides for stormwater
management that addresses any flow rate capacity and velocity requirements
for natural or man-made channels shall satisfy the flow rate capacity
and velocity requirements for natural or man-made channels if the
practices are designed to (i) detain the water quality volume and
to release it over 48 hours; (ii) detain and release over a twenty-four-hour
period the expected rainfall resulting from the one year, twenty-four-hour
storm; and (iii) reduce the allowable peak flow rate resulting from
the 1.5, 2, and ten-year, twenty-four-hour storms to a level that
is less than or equal to the peak flow rate from the site assuming
it was in a good forested condition, achieved through multiplication
of the forested peak flow rate by a reduction factor that is equal
to the runoff volume from the site when it was in a good forested
condition divided by the runoff volume from the site in its proposed
condition, and shall be exempt from any flow rate capacity and velocity
requirements for natural or man-made channels.
A. For plans approved on and after July 1, 2014, the flow rate capacity
and velocity requirements for natural and man-made channels shall
be satisfied by compliance with water quantity requirements specified
in § 62.1-44.15:28 of the Stormwater Management Act and
9VAC25-870-66 of the Virginia Stormwater Management Program (VSMP)
regulations, unless land-disturbing activities are in accordance with
the grandfathering provisions of the Virginia Stormwater Management
Program (VSMP) Regulations.
B. Pursuant to § 62.1-44.15:53 of the Code of Virginia, an
erosion control plan shall not be approved until it is reviewed by
a certified plan reviewer. Inspections of land-disturbing activities
shall be conducted by a certified inspector. The Erosion Control Program
of Buchanan County shall contain a certified program administrator,
a certified plan reviewer, and a certified inspector (who may be the
same person.)
C. Buchanan County hereby designates County Administrator or its agent
as the plan-approving authority.
D. The program and regulations provided for in this chapter shall be
made available for public inspection at the office of the County Administrator
and the Office of the Big Sandy Soil and Water Conservation District.