A. 
Purpose. The purpose of this Non-Stormwater Discharge Ordinance (the Ordinance) is to provide for the health, safety, and general welfare of the citizens of the Town of Gorham through the regulation of non-stormwater discharges to the Municipality's storm drainage system as required by federal and state law. This article establishes methods for controlling the introduction of pollutants into the Town of Gorham's storm drainage system in order to comply with requirements of the federal Clean Water Act[1] and state law.
[1]
Editor's Note: See 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq.
B. 
Objectives. The objectives of this article are:
(1) 
To prohibit unpermitted or unallowed non-stormwater discharges to the storm drainage system; and
(2) 
To set forth the legal authority and procedures to carry out all inspection, monitoring and enforcement activities necessary to ensure compliance with this article.
[Amended 8-5-2025 by Ord. No. 25-82]
For the purposes of this article, the terms listed below are defined as follows:
CLEAN WATER ACT
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq., also known as the "Clean Water Act"), and any subsequent amendments thereto.
DISCHARGE
Any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emptying, dumping, disposing or other addition of pollutants to waters of the state. Direct discharge or point source means any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including, but not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation or vessel or other floating craft, from which pollutants are or may be discharged.
ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY
The person(s) or department authorized under § 250-4 of this article to administer and enforce this article.
EXEMPT PERSON OR DISCHARGE
Any person who is subject to a multi-sector general permit for industrial activities, a general permit for construction activity, a general permit for the discharge of stormwater from the Maine Department of Transportation and the Maine Turnpike Authority Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems, or a general permit for the discharge of stormwater from state or federally owned authority municipal separate storm sewer system facilities; and any non-stormwater discharge permitted under a NPDES permit, waiver, or waste discharge license or order issued to the discharger and administered under the authority of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") or the Maine Department of Environmental Protection ("DEP").
INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY
Activity or activities subject to NPDES Industrial Permits as defined in 40 CFR 122.26(b)(14).
MUNICIPAL SEPARATE STORM SEWER SYSTEM or MS4
Conveyances for stormwater, including, but not limited to, roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, human-made channels or storm drains (other than publicly owned treatment works and combined sewers) owned or operated by any municipality, sewer or sewage district, fire district, state agency or federal agency or other public entity that discharges directly to surface waters of the state.
MUNICIPALITY
The Town of Gorham.
NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES) STORMWATER DISCHARGE PERMIT
A permit issued by the EPA or by the DEP that authorizes the discharge of pollutants to waters of the United States, whether the permit is applicable on an individual, group, or general area-wide basis.
NON-STORMWATER DISCHARGE
Any discharge to an MS4 that is not composed entirely of stormwater.
PERSON
Any individual, firm, corporation, municipality, quasi-municipal corporation, state agency or federal agency or other legal entity which creates, initiates, originates or maintains a discharge of stormwater or a non-stormwater discharge.
POLLUTANT
Dredged spoil, solid waste, junk, incinerator residue, sewage, refuse, effluent, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemicals, biological or radiological materials, oil, petroleum products or by-products, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, dirt and industrial, municipal, domestic, commercial or agricultural wastes of any kind.
PREMISES
Any building, lot, parcel of land, or portion of land, whether improved or unimproved, including adjacent sidewalks and parking strips, located within the Municipality from which Discharges in storm drainage system are or may be created, initiated, originated or maintained.
REGULATED SMALL MS4
Any small MS4 regulated by the State of Maine General Permit for the Discharge of Stormwater from Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems dated June 3, 2003 (general permit), including all those located partially or entirely within an urbanized area (UA) and those additional small MS4 located outside a UA that as of the issuance of the general permit have been designated by the DEP as regulated small MS4s.
SMALL MUNICIPAL SEPARATE STORM SEWER SYSTEM or SMALL MS4
Any MS4 that is not already covered by the Phase I MS4 Stormwater program including municipally owned or operated storm sewer systems, state or federally owned systems, such as colleges, universities, prisons, Maine Department of Transportation and Maine Turnpike Authority road systems and facilities, and military bases and facilities.
STORM DRAINAGE SYSTEM
The Municipality's regulated small MS4.
STORMWATER
Any stormwater runoff, snowmelt runoff, and surface runoff and drainage.
URBANIZED AREA (UA)
The areas of the State of Maine so defined by the latest decennial census by the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
This article shall apply to all persons discharging stormwater and/or non-stormwater discharges from any p remises into the storm drainage system.
The Code Enforcement Officer, Assistant Code Enforcement Officer, and any employee designated by the Town Manager is the Enforcement Authority who shall administer, implement, and enforce the provisions of this article.
A. 
General prohibition. Except as allowed or exempted herein, no Person shall create, initiate, originate or maintain a non-stormwater discharge to the storm drainage system. Such non-stormwater discharges are prohibited notwithstanding the fact that the Municipality may have approved the connections, drains or conveyances by which a person discharges unallowed non-stormwater discharges to the storm drainage system.
B. 
Allowed non-stormwater discharges. The creation, initiation, origination and maintenance of the following non-stormwater discharges to the storm drainage system is allowed:
(1) 
Landscape irrigation; diverted stream flows; rising ground waters; uncontaminated ground water infiltration [as defined at 40 CFR 35.2005(20)]; uncontaminated pumped ground water; uncontaminated flows from foundation drains: air conditioning and compressor condensate; irrigation water; flows from uncontaminated springs; uncontaminated water from crawl space pumps; uncontaminated flows from footing drains; lawn watering runoff; flows from riparian habitats and wetlands; residual street wash water (where spills/leaks of toxic or hazardous materials have not occurred, unless all spilled material has been removed and detergents are not used); hydrant flushing and fire fighting activity runoff: water line flushing and discharges from potable water sources; and individual residential car washing;
(2) 
Discharges specified in writing by the Enforcement Authority as being necessary to protect public health and safety; and
(3) 
Dye testing, with verbal notification to the Enforcement Authority prior to the time of the test.
C. 
Exempt person or discharge. This article shall not apply to an exempt person or discharge, except that the Enforcement Authority may request from exempt persons and persons with exempt discharges copies of permits, notices of intent, licenses and orders from the EPA or DEP that authorize the discharge(s).
The Enforcement Authority may, without prior notice, physically suspend discharge access to the storm drainage system to a person when such suspension is necessary to stop an actual or threatened non-stormwater discharge to the storm drainage system which presents or may present imminent and substantial danger to the environment, or to the health or welfare of persons, or to the storm drainage system, or which may cause the Municipality to violate the terms of its environmental permits. Such suspension may include, but is not limited to, blocking pipes, constructing dams or taking other measures, on public ways or public property, to physically block the discharge to prevent or minimize a non-stormwater discharges to the storm drainage system. If the person fails to comply with a suspension order issued in an emergency, the Enforcement Authority may take such steps as deemed necessary to prevent or minimize damage to the storm drainage system, or to minimize danger to persons, provided, however, that in taking such steps the Enforcement Authority may enter upon the premises that are the source of the actual or threatened non-stormwater discharge to the storm drainage system only with the consent of the premises' owner, occupant or agent.
In order to determine compliance with this article, the Enforcement Authority may enter upon and inspect premises subject to this article at reasonable hours with the consent of the premises' owner, occupant or agent: to inspect the premises and connections thereon to the storm drainage system; and to conduct monitoring, sampling and testing of the discharge to the storm drainage system.
[Amended 9-5-2023 by Ord. No. 23-129]
A. 
It shall be unlawful for any person to violate any provision of or to fail to comply with any of the requirements of this article. Whenever the Enforcement Authority believes that a person has violated this article, the Enforcement Authority may enforce this article in accordance with 30-A M.R.S.A. § 4452.
B. 
Notice of violation.
(1) 
Whenever the Enforcement Authority believes that a person has violated this article, the Enforcement Authority may order compliance with this article by written notice of violation to that person indicating the nature of the violation and ordering the action necessary to correct it, including, without limitation:
(a) 
The elimination of non-stormwater discharges to the storm drainage system, including, but not limited to, disconnection of the premises from the MS4;
(b) 
The cessation of discharges, practices, or operations in violation of this article;
(c) 
At the person's expense, the abatement or remediation (in accordance with best management practices in DEP rules and regulations) of non-stormwater discharges to the storm drainage system and the restoration of any affected property; and/or
(d) 
The payment of fines, of the Municipality's remediation costs and of the Municipality's reasonable administrative costs and attorneys' fees and costs.
(2) 
If abatement of a violation and/or restoration of affected property is required, the notice shall set forth a deadline of not more than 60 days from when the non-stormwater discharge was detected, within which such abatement or restoration must be completed. Where elimination of an illicit discharge within 60 calendar days of its identification and verification is not possible, the Municipality must establish an expeditious schedule for its elimination and report the dates of identification and schedules for removal in the permittee's annual MS4 reports.
C. 
Penalties/fines/injunctive relief. Any person who violates this article shall be subject to fines, penalties and orders for injunctive relief and shall be responsible for the Municipality's attorney's fees and costs, all in accordance with 30-A M.R.S.A. § 4452. Each day such violation continues shall constitute a separate violation. Moreover, any person who violates this article also shall be responsible for any and all fines, penalties, damages and costs, including, but not limited to attorneys' fees and costs, incurred by the Municipality for violation of federal and state environmental laws and regulations caused by or related to that person's violation of this article; this responsibility shall be in addition to any penalties, fines or injunctive relief imposed under this section.
D. 
Consent agreement. The Enforcement Authority may, with the approval of the Town Council, enter into a written consent agreement with the violator to address timely abatement of the violation(s) of this article for the purposes of eliminating violations of this article and of recovering fines, costs and fees without court action.
E. 
Appeal of notice of violation. Any person receiving a notice of violation or suspension notice may appeal the determination of the Enforcement Authority to the Board of Appeals. The notice of appeal must be received The notice of appeal must be received "within 30 days from the date of receipt of the notice of violation. The Board of Appeals shall hold a de novo hearing on the appeal" within 30 days from the date of receipt of the notice of appeal. The Board of Appeals may affirm, reverse or modify the decision of the Enforcement Authority. A suspension under § 250-6 of this article remains in place unless or until lifted by the Board of Appeals or by a reviewing court. A party aggrieved by the decision of the Board of Appeals may appeal that decision to the Maine Superior Court within 45 days of the date of the Board of Appeals decision pursuant to Rule 80B of the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure.
F. 
Enforcement measures. If the violation has not been corrected pursuant to the requirements set forth in the notice of violation, or, in the event of an appeal to the Board of Appeals, within 45 days of a decision of the Board of Appeals affirming the Enforcement Authority's decision, then the Enforcement Authority may recommend to the Town Council that the Municipality's attorney file an enforcement action in a Maine court of competent jurisdiction under Rule 80K of the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure. Notwithstanding these requirements, in the event of an emergency situation that presents an immediate threat to public health, safety or welfare or that may result in damage to the Town's storm drainage system, the Town may seek injunctive relief at any time after learning of such emergency situation.
G. 
Ultimate responsibility of discharger. The standards set forth herein are minimum standards; therefore this article does not intend nor imply that compliance by any person will ensure that there will be no contamination, pollution, nor unauthorized discharge of pollutants into waters of the U.S. caused by said person. This article shall not create liability on the part of the Municipality, or any officer agent or employee thereof for any damages that result from any person's reliance on this article or any administrative decision lawfully made hereunder.
The Town of Gorham enacts this Non-Stormwater Discharge Ordinance (the Ordinance) pursuant to 30-A M.R.S.A. § 3001 (municipal home rule ordinance authority), 38 M.R.S.A. § 413 (the Wastewater Discharge Law), 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq. (the Clean Water Act), and 40 CFR Part 122 (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regulations governing the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). The Maine Department of Environmental Protection, through its promulgation of the General Permit for the Discharge of Stormwater from Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems dated June 3, 2003, has listed the Town of Gorham as having a regulated municipal separate storm sewer system (small MS4); under this general permit, listing as a regulated small MS4 necessitates enactment of this article as part of the Municipality's Stormwater Management Program.