The purpose of this Aquifer Protection District is to:
A.
Promote the health, safety, and general welfare of the community
by ensuring an adequate quality and quantity of drinking water for
the residents, institutions, and businesses of the Town of Swansea;
B.
Preserve and protect existing and potential sources of drinking water
supplies;
C.
Conserve the natural resources of the Town of Swansea; and
D.
Prevent temporary and permanent contamination of the environment.
The Aquifer Protection District is an overlay district superimposed
on the zoning districts. This overlay district shall apply to all
new construction, reconstruction, or expansion of existing buildings
and new or expanded uses. Applicable activities/uses in a portion
of one of the underlying zoning districts which fall within the Aquifer
Protection District must additionally comply with the requirements
of this district. Uses prohibited in the underlying zoning districts
shall not be permitted in the Aquifer Protection District.
For the purposes of this article, the following terms are defined
below:
Geologic formation composed of rock, sand or gravel that
contains significant amounts of potentially recoverable water.
The zoning district defined to overlay other zoning districts
in the Town of Swansea. The Aquifer protection district may include
specifically designated recharge areas.
The quantities of sanitary sewage, expressed in gallons per
day (gpd), for which a system must be designed in accordance with
310 CMR 15.203.
See on site system.
Water found in cracks, fissures and pore spaces in the saturated
zone below the ground surfaces, including but not limited to perched
ground water.
Material having a percolation rate greater than 60 minutes
per inch for reasons including, but not limited to, the presence of
bedrock, schist, peat, ledge, unconsolidated material, organic matter
or topsoil or subsoil.
Material or structure on, above, or below the ground that
does not allow precipitation or surface water to penetrate directly
into the soil.
Any water-carried or liquid waste resulting from any process
or industry, manufacture, trade, business, or activity list in 310
CMR 15.004.
For the purposes of this article, a buildable lot is described
as parcel of land at least 60,000 square feet in area as shown in
the Table of Standard Dimensional Regulations,[1] but subject to the provisions of § 265-4.4, Open Space Residential Design subdivisions. If a lot is not entirely within the Aquifer Protection District, this area requirement is applicable if the house or septic system lies within the Aquifer Protection District.
The removal or relocation of geologic materials such as topsoil,
sand, gravel, metallic ores, or bedrock.
A system or series of systems for the treatment and disposal
of sanitary sewage below the ground surface of a facility.
The standard components of a system are: a building sewer, a
septic tank to retain solids and scum: a distribution box; a soil
absorption system containing effluent distribution line to distribute
and treat septic tank effluent prior to discharge to appropriate subsurface
soils; and a reserve area.
These terms also include tight tank, shared systems and alternative
systems. Unless the text of 310 CMR 15.000 indicates otherwise, these
terms also include nonconforming systems.
Areas which could provide significant potable water in the
future.
Areas that collect precipitation or surface water and carry
it to aquifers. Recharge areas may include areas designated as Zone
I, Zone II, or Zone III.
Greywater and blackwater from domestic commercial and other
non-industrial sources.
Any substance or mixture of physical, chemical, or infectious
characteristics posing a significant, actual, or potential hazard
to water supplies or other hazards to human health if such substance
or mixture were discharged to land or water in the Town of Swansea.
Toxic or hazardous materials include, without limitation; synthetic
organic chemicals, petroleum products, heavy metals, radioactive or
infectious wastes, acids and alkalis, and all substances defined as
Toxic or Hazardous under Massachusetts General Laws (MGL) Chapter
(c.) 21C and 21E and 310 CMR 30.00, and also include such products
as solvents and thinners in quantities greater than normal household
use.
Any and all devices, processes and properties real or personal,
used in the collection, pumping transmission, storage, treatment,
disposal, recycling, reclamation or reuse of waterborne pollutants,
including septage receiving facilities but not including any works
receiving a hazardous waste from off the site of the works for the
purpose of treatment, storage or disposal. Treatment works must be
permitted by the Department of Environmental Protection pursuant to
the authority of MGL c. 21, §§ 27 through 52 and regulation
thereunder.
Business which services or repairs commercial trucks which
are not owned by the business.
The modification of one or more components of an on-site
system which is intended to bring a non-conforming system into conformance
with 310 CMR 15.000 to the maximum feasible extent. An emergency repair
is not an upgrade.
Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and
regulation ranging from local community-based groups to statewide
government and are essential for basic services to the public. The
term utilities refers to the set of services provided by these organizations,
and/or the government directly, utilized by the public: electricity,
communications, natural gas, water, stormwater and sewage.
Lands lying adjacent to water courses and surface water bodies
which create the catchment or drainage areas of such water courses
and bodies.
For the purposes of this district, there are hereby established
within the Town of Swansea certain aquifer protection areas, consisting
of aquifers or recharge areas which are delineated on a map. This
map is at a scale of one inch to 1,000 feet and is entitled "Aquifer
Protection District, Town of Swansea," dated May 18, 1998, as revised
by the January 8, 2001, Special Town Meeting. This map is hereby made
a part of the Town of Swansea zoning bylaw and is on file in the Office
of the Town Clerk.
The burden of proof shall be upon the owner(s) of the land to
show where the bounds should be located. At the request of the owner(s),
the Town may engage a professional engineer, hydrologist or soil scientist
to determine more accurately the boundaries of the district with respect
to individual parcels of land, and may charge the owner(s) for the
cost of the investigation.
310 CMR 22.21(2) Wellhead Protection
A.
Wellhead protection zoning and non-zoning controls submitted to the
Department in accordance with 310 CMR 22.21(1), shall collectively
prohibit the siting of the following land uses within the Zone II,
or Zone III if the criteria of 310 CMR 22.21(1)(f) have been met,
of the proposed wellfield, whichever is applicable:
(1)
Landfills and open dumps, as defined in 310 CMR 19.006;
(2)
Landfills receiving only wastewater residuals and/or septage
(wastewater residuals "monofills");
(3)
Automobile graveyards and junkyards, as defined in MGL c. 140B,
§ 1;
(4)
Stockpiling and disposal of snow or ice removed from highways
and streets located outside of Zone II that contains sodium chloride,
chemically treated abrasives or other chemicals used for snow and
ice removal;
(5)
Petroleum, fuel oil, and heating oil bulk stations and terminals,
including, but not limited to those listed under Standard Industrial
Classification (SIC) Codes 5171 and 5983, not including liquefied
petroleum gas. SIC Codes are established by the U.S. Office of Management
and Budget and may be determined by referring to the publication,
Standard Industrial Classification Manual and any subsequent amendments
thereto;
(6)
Treatment or disposal works subject to 314 CMR 5.00, for wastewater
other than sanitary sewage. This prohibition includes, but is not
limited to, treatment or disposal works related to activities under
the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Codes set forth in 310
CMR 15.004(6) (Title 5), except the following:
(a)
The replacement or repair of an existing system(s) that will
not result in a design capacity greater than the design capacity of
the existing system(s);
(b)
Treatment works approved by the Department designed for the
treatment of contaminated ground or surface waters and operated in
compliance with 314 CMR 5.05(3) or 5.05(13); and
(c)
Publicly owned treatment works, or POTW;
(7)
Facilities that generate, treat, store or dispose of hazardous
waste that are subject to MGL c. 21C and 310 CMR 30.000 except for
the following:
(a)
Very small quantity generators, as defined by 310 CMR 30.000;
(b)
Household hazardous waste collection centers or events operated
pursuant to 310 CMR 30.390;
(c)
Waste oil retention facilities required by MGL. c. 21, § 52A;
and
(d)
Treatment works approved by the Department designed in accordance
with 314 CMR 5.00 for the treatment of contaminated ground or surface
waters
B.
Wellhead protection zoning and non-zoning controls submitted to the
Department in accordance with 310 CMR 22.21(1), shall collectively
prohibit the siting of the following land uses within the Zone II,
or Zone II, or Zone III if the criteria of 310 CMR 22.21(1)(f) have
been met, of the proposed well or wellfield, whichever is applicable,
unless designed in accordance with the specified performance standards:
(1)
Storage of sludge and septage, unless such storage is in compliance
with 310 CMR 32.30 and 310 CMR 32.31;
(2)
Storage of sodium chloride, chemically treated abrasives or
other chemicals used for the removal of ice and snow on roads, unless
such storage is within a structure designed to prevent the generation
and escape of contaminated runoff or leachate;
(3)
Storage of commercial fertilizers; unless such storage is within
a structure designed to prevent the generation and escape of contaminated
runoff or leachate;
(4)
Storage of animal manures, unless such storage is within a structure
designed to prevent the generation and escape of contaminated runoff
or leachate.
(5)
Storage of liquid hazardous materials, as defined in MGL c.
21E, and/or liquid petroleum products unless such storage is above
ground level AND on an impervious surface in container(s) AND either;
(a)
In above ground tank(s) within a building on an impervious surface
OR;
(b)
Outdoors in covered container(s) or above ground tank(s) in
an area that has a containment system designed and operated to hold
either 10% of the total possible storage capacity of all containers,
or 110% of the largest container's storage capacity, whichever is
greater;
(6)
The removal of soil, loam, sand, gravel or any other mineral
substances within four feet of the historical high groundwater table
elevation (as determined from monitoring wells and historical water
table fluctuation data compiled by the United States Geological Survey),
unless the substances removed are re-deposited within 45 days of removal
on site to achieve a final grading greater than four feet above the
historical high water mark, and except for excavations for the construction
of building foundations, the installation of utility works, or wetland
restoration work conducted in accordance with a valid Order of Condition
issued pursuant to MGL c. 131, § 40, including storm water
mitigation measures consistent with the most recent version of the
MassDEP's Stormwater Handbook.
(7)
Land uses that result in the rendering impervious any lot or
parcel more than 15% or 2,500 square feet, whichever is greater, unless
a system for artificial recharge of precipitation is provided that
will not result in the degradation of groundwater quality.
A determination that any portion or provision of this overlay
protection district is invalid shall not invalidate any other portion
or provision thereof, nor shall it invalidate any special permit previously
issued thereunder.
Whoever violates any of the provisions of this bylaw shall be
subject to a fine of not more than $200 per day for each offense.
