[Ord. 763, passed 9-10-2012]
This chapter shall be known as the "Brookhaven Borough Stormwater
Management Ordinance."
[Ord. 763, passed 9-10-2012]
The governing body of the municipality finds the following.
(A)
Inadequate management of accelerated stormwater runoff resulting
from development throughout a watershed increases flood flows and
velocities, contributes to erosion and sedimentation, overtaxes the
carrying capacity of existing streams and storm sewers, greatly increases
the cost of public facilities to convey and manage stormwater, undermines
flood plain management and flood reduction efforts in upstream and
downstream communities, reduces infiltration, and threatens public
health and safety.
(B)
Inadequate planning and management of stormwater runoff resulting
from land development throughout a watershed can also harm surface
water resources by changing the natural hydrologic patterns, accelerating
stream flows (which increase scour and erosion of stream beds and
stream banks, thereby elevating sedimentation), destroying aquatic
habitat, and elevating aquatic pollutant concentrations and loadings
such as sediments, nutrients, heavy metals and pathogens. Groundwater
resources are also impacted through loss of recharge.
(C)
A comprehensive program of stormwater management, including
minimization of impacts of development, redevelopment and activities
causing accelerated erosion and loss of natural infiltration, is fundamental
to the public health, safety, welfare and the protection of the people
of the municipality and all of the people of the Commonwealth, their
resources and the environment.
(D)
Stormwater can be an important water resource by providing infiltration
for water supplies and baseflow of streams, which also protects and
maintains surface water quality.
(E)
Impacts from stormwater runoff can be minimized by using project
designs that maintain the natural hydrologic regime and sustain high
water quality, infiltration, stream baseflow and aquatic ecosystems.
The most cost-effective and environmentally advantageous way to manage
stormwater runoff is through nonstructural project design that minimizes
impervious surfaces and sprawl, avoids sensitive areas (i.e., stream
buffers, flood plains, steep slopes) and considers topography and
soils to maintain the natural hydrologic regime.
(F)
Public education on the control of pollution from stormwater
is an essential component in successfully addressing stormwater.
(G)
Federal and state regulations require certain municipalities
to implement a program of stormwater controls. These municipalities
are required to obtain a permit for stormwater discharges from their
separate storm sewer systems under the National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System (NPDES).
(H)
Nonstormwater discharges to municipal separate storm sewer systems
can contribute to pollution of waters of the Commonwealth by the municipality.
[Ord. 763, passed 9-10-2012]
The purpose of this chapter is to promote the public health,
safety and welfare within the municipality by maintaining the natural
hydrologic regime and minimizing the impacts described in § 1230.102
of this chapter through provisions designed to:
(A)
Promote alternative project designs and layouts that minimize
the impacts on surface and groundwater;
(B)
Promote nonstructural best management practices (BMPs);
(C)
Minimize increases in runoff stormwater volume;
(D)
Minimize impervious surfaces;
(E)
Manage accelerated stormwater runoff and erosion and sedimentation
problems and stormwater runoff impacts at their source by regulating
activities that cause these problems;
(F)
Provide review procedures and performance standards for stormwater
planning and management;
(G)
Utilize and preserve existing natural drainage systems as much
as possible;
(H)
Manage stormwater impacts close to the runoff source, requiring
a minimum of structures and relying on natural processes;
(I)
Focus on infiltration of stormwater to maintain base flow, to
prevent degradation of surface and groundwater quality, and to otherwise
protect water resources;
(J)
Protect base flows and quality of streams and watercourses,
where possible;
(K)
Meet legal water quality requirements under state law, including
regulations at 25 Pa. Code Chapter 93.4.a requiring protection and
maintenance of "existing uses" and maintenance of the level of water
quality to support those uses in all streams, and the protection and
maintenance of water quality in "special protection" streams;
(L)
Address the quality and quantity of stormwater discharges from
the development site;
(M)
Provide standards to meet certain NPDES MS4 permit requirements;
(N)
Implement an illicit discharge detection and elimination program
that addresses non-stormwater discharges into the municipality's
separate storm sewer system (MS4);
(O)
Preserve the flood-carrying capacity of streams;
(P)
Prevent accelerated scour, erosion and sedimentation of stream
channels;
(Q)
Provide performance standards and design criteria based on watershed-wide
stormwater management planning; and
(R)
Provide proper operation and maintenance of all permanent stormwater
management facilities and BMPs that are implemented within the municipality.
[Ord. 763, passed 9-10-2012]
The municipality is empowered or required to regulate land use
activities that affect runoff and surface and groundwater quality
and quantity by the authority of:
(A)
Act of October 4, 1978, 32 P.S. §§ 680.1 et seq.,
as amended, the "Stormwater Management Act" (hereinafter referred
to as "the Act");
(B)
Borough Code, 8 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 1201 et seq.;
(C)
First Class Township Code, 53 P.S. §§ 55101 et
seq;
(D)
Second Class Township Code, 53 P.S. §§ 66501
et seq., 66601 et seq.;
(E)
Act of July 31, 1968, P.L. 805, No. 247, Pennsylvania Municipalities
Planning Code, Act 247, being 53 P.S. §§ 10101 et seq.,
as amended.
[Ord. 763, passed 9-10-2012]
(A)
All regulated activities and all activities that may affect stormwater runoff, including, but not limited to, land development, redevelopment and earth disturbance activity located within the municipality, are subject to regulation by this chapter. Any and all activities within the Borough which may affect water quality are hereby subject to the regulation of Article
VIII herein below, relating to prohibited discharges.
(B)
This chapter contains the stormwater management performance
standards and design criteria that are necessary from a watershed-wide
perspective. Local stormwater management design criteria (e.g., inlet
spacing, inlet type, collection system design and details, outlet
structure design and the like) shall continue to be regulated by the
applicable municipal ordinances and applicable state regulations.
[Ord. 763, passed 9-10-2012]
(A)
Generally. An exemption shall not relieve the applicant from
implementing the requirements of the municipal ordinance or from implementing
such measures as are necessary to protect public health, safety and
property. An exemption shall not relieve the applicant from complying
with the special requirements for watersheds draining to identified
high quality (HQ) or exceptional value (EV) waters or any other current
or future state or municipal water quality protection requirements.
If a drainage problem is documented or known to exist downstream of,
or is expected from the proposed activity, then the municipality may
withdraw exemptions listed in Table 106.1 and require the applicant
to comply with all requirements of this chapter. Even though the applicant
is exempt, he or she is not relieved from complying with other municipal
ordinances or regulations.
(B)
General exemptions.
(1)
Table 106.1 summarizes the exemptions from certain provisions
of this chapter. Exemptions are for the items noted in Table 106.1
only, and shall not relieve the applicant from other applicable sections
of this chapter.
(2)
Any regulated activity that is exempt from some provisions of
the chapter is exempt only from those provisions. If development is
to take place in phases, the developer is responsible for implementing
the requirements of the chapter as the impervious cover/earth disturbance
threshold is met. The date of the municipal ordinance adoption shall
be the starting point from which to consider tracts as "parent tracts"
in which future subdivisions and respective impervious area and earth
disturbance computations shall be cumulatively considered. Exemption
shall not relieve the applicant from implementing such measures as
are necessary to protect health, safety and property. For example:
If a property owner proposes a one-hundred-fifty-square-foot
shed after adoption of the municipal stormwater management ordinance,
that property owner would be exempted from water quality and quantity
requirements of the ordinance as noted in Table 106.1 of the ordinance.
If, at a later date, the property owner proposes to construct a four-hundred-ninety-nine-square-foot
room addition, the applicant would be required to comply with the
requirements for the Simplified Method for the full 649 square feet
of impervious cover created since adoption of the municipal ordinance.
If an additional seven-hundred-square-foot swimming pool/patio is
proposed later, the property owner would be required to implement
the full stormwater quantity and quality control submission requirements
of this chapter for the total 1,349 square feet of additional impervious
surface added to the original property since adoption of the municipal
ordinance.
|
Table 106.1: Ordinance Exemptions
|
---|
|
|
Proposed Impervious Surface
|
Earth Disturbance
|
---|
Ordinance Article or Section
|
Type of Project
|
0 — 499 square feet
|
500 — 999 square feet
|
1,000 + square feet
|
0 — 4,999 square feet disturbance
|
5,000 square feet —<1 acre
|
1 acre
|
---|
Article IV SWM Site Plan Requirements
|
Development redevelopment
|
Exempt
|
Not exempt simplified approach
|
Not exempt
|
Exempt
|
Modified 1
|
Not exempt
|
§ 1230.304 Nonstructural Project Design
|
Development redevelopment
|
Exempt
|
Not exempt simplified approach
|
Not exempt
|
Exempt
|
Not exempt
|
Not exempt
|
§ 1230.305 Infiltration Volume Requirements
|
Development redevelopment
|
Exempt
|
Not exempt simplified approach
|
Not exempt
|
Exempt
|
Exempt
|
Not exempt
|
§ 1230.306 Water Quality Requirements
|
Development redevelopment
|
Exempt
|
Not exempt simplified approach
|
Not exempt
|
Modified 2
|
Modified 2
|
Not exempt
|
§ 1230.307 Stream Bank Erosion Requirements
|
Development redevelopment
|
Exempt
|
Not exempt simplified approach
|
Not exempt
|
Exempt
|
Exempt
|
Not exempt
|
§ 1230.308 Stormwater Peak Rate Control and Management
Districts
|
Development redevelopment
|
Exempt
|
Exempt
|
Not exempt
|
Exempt
|
Not exempt
|
Not exempt
|
Erosion and Sediment Pollution Control Requirements
|
Must comply with 25 Pa. Code 102 and other applicable state
and municipal codes, including the Clean Streams Law
|
Not exempt
|
Legend:
|
---|
•
|
"Proposed Impervious Surface" in Table 106.1 includes new, additional
or replacement impervious surface/cover as part of development or
redevelopment.
|
•
|
Exempt - Exempt from required section provision only - SWM site
plan submission may still be required if other section provisions
are applicable.
|
•
|
Modified 1 - Modified SWM site plan need only consist of items
in §§ 1230.402(A)(2) and (A)(4); 1230.402(B)(7), (B)(8),
(B) (11) and (B)(22); and 1230.402(D)(1) and (D)(3) and related supportive
material needed to determine compliance with §§ 1230.304
and 1230.308; modified SWM site plan is required that includes all
elements of § 1230.304, as applicable.
|
•
|
Modified 2 - Modified SWM site plan need only consist of items
and related material needed to determine compliance with § 1230.306(D).
|
•
|
Simplified approach - Must comply with provisions of Appendix
B of Ord. 763.
|
•
|
Redevelopment - See § 1230.308(I) for alternate stormwater
peak rate control criteria.
|
(C)
Exemptions for specific activities.
(1)
Use of land for gardening or home consumption;
(2)
Agriculture when operated in accordance with a conservation
plan, nutrient management plan, or erosion and sedimentation control
plan approved by the County Conservation District, including activities
such as growing crops, rotating crops, tilling soil and grazing animals.
For agriculture with an approved conservation plan, installation of
new or expansion of existing farmsteads, animal housing, waste storage
and production areas having impervious surfaces that result in a net
increase in impervious surface of between 500 to 999 square feet shall
apply the simplified approach, and net increases in impervious surface
of greater than or equal to 1,000 square feet shall be subject to
the provisions of this chapter;
(3)
Forest management operations which are following the Department
of Environmental Protection's (PADEP) management practices contained
in its publication "Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control Guidelines
for Forestry," are operating under an approved erosion and sedimentation
plan, and must comply with the stream buffer requirements in § 1230.306(D);
(4)
Repaving without reconstruction;
(5)
Emergency exemption: emergency maintenance work performed for
the protection of public health, safety and welfare. A written description
of the scope and extent of any emergency work performed shall be submitted
to the Borough within two calendar days of the commencement of the
activity. If the Borough finds that the work is not an emergency,
then the work shall cease immediately, until a stormwater site-plan
in accordance with this chapter is submitted and approved by the municipality;
and
(6)
Maintenance exemption: any maintenance to an existing stormwater
management system made in accordance with plans and specifications
approved by the Municipal Engineer or the Borough.
[Ord. 763, passed 9-10-2012]
Any ordinance or ordinance provision of the municipality inconsistent
with any of the provisions of this and other federal and state regulations
are hereby repealed to the extent of the inconsistency only.
[Ord. 763, passed 9-10-2012]
Should any section or provision of this chapter be declared
invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall
not affect the validity of any of the remaining provisions of this
chapter.
[Ord. 763, passed 9-10-2012]
(A)
Approvals issued pursuant to this chapter do not relieve the
applicant of the responsibility to secure required permits or approvals
for activities regulated by any other applicable code, rule, act or
ordinance.
(B)
To the extent that this chapter imposes more rigorous or stringent
requirements for stormwater management, the specific requirements
contained in this chapter shall be followed.
(C)
(1)
Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to affect any of
the municipality's requirements regarding stormwater matters
that do not conflict with the provisions of this chapter, such as
local stormwater management design criteria (e.g., inlet spacing,
inlet type, collection system design and details, outlet structure
design and the like).
(2)
Conflicting provisions in other municipal ordinances or regulations
shall be construed to retain.
(3)
The requirements of this chapter shall supersede any conflicting
requirements in other municipal ordinances or regulations.