Whenever in this chapter and the Manual, or in any resolution or standard adopted by the city council pursuant to this chapter, the following terms are used, they shall have the meaning ascribed to them in this section, unless it is apparent that some other meaning is intended:
"Authorized inspector"
means the city engineer and all persons designated by him or her and under his or her instruction and supervision, who are assigned to investigate compliance with, detect violations of, and/or take actions pursuant to this chapter.
"Best management practices" or "BMPs"
mean, as defined in 40 CFR Section 122.2, schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to prevent or reduce the pollution of waters of the United States BMPs also include treatment requirements, operating procedures and practices to control plant site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw material storage.
"City engineer"
means the director of public works/city engineer of the city of Temecula, or designee.
"Compliance schedule"
means the time period allowed by the city for a discharger to achieve compliance with the requirements of this chapter. The compliance schedule shall contain specific dates by which adequate treatment facilities, devices, or any other related equipment and/or procedures shall be installed or implemented.
"Construction activity"
means any activity used in the process of developing, redeveloping, enhancing, or maintaining land, including, but not limited to, land disturbance, building construction, paving and surfacing, storage or disposal of construction related materials.
"Construction site"
means any project requiring a local grading or building permit, including projects requiring coverage under the construction general permit (CGP) that involves soil disturbing activities. Soil disturbing activities include clearing, grading, excavation and any other disturbances to ground. This definition includes stockpiling.
"Contamination"
means, as defined in the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, an impairment of the quality of waters of the state by waste to a degree which creates a hazard to the public health through poisoning or through the spread of disease. "Contamination" includes any equivalent effect resulting from the disposal of waste whether waters of the state are affected.
"Co-permittee"
means the county of Riverside, the Riverside County flood control and water conservation district and the city of Murrieta which are responsible for compliance with the terms of the permit.
"CWA"
means the Clean Water Act.
"DAMP"
means the Riverside County Drainage Area Management Plan, as the same may be amended from time to time.
"Discharge"
means any release, spill, leak, flow, escape, leaching (including subsurface migration or deposition to groundwater), dumping or disposal of any liquid, semi-solid or solid substance.
"Discharge exception"
means those activities not restricted or prohibited by this chapter or exempted under Section A of the permit or a subsequent permit.
"Discharger"
means any person, any property owner, any business owner or operator, or any occupant of any unit, building, premises or lot within the city, who either discharges or causes to be discharged any of the substances listed under "discharge," above, either directly or indirectly, into the city's storm drain system.
In any action taken to enforce this chapter, the burden shall be on the person who is the subject of such action to establish that a discharge was within the scope of this discharge exception.
"Enforcing attorney"
means the city attorney, or the district attorney acting as counsel to the city of Temecula, and designee, which counsel is authorized to take enforcement action as described herein. For purposes of criminal prosecution, only the district attorney and/or city attorney, or designee, shall act as the enforcing attorney.
"EPA"
means Environmental Protection Agency, which is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with developing, implementing and enforcing environmental protection laws that ensure clean air, clean water, clean soil, safe pesticides and waste recycling and reduction.
"ESA"
means environmentally sensitive areas in which plant or animal life or their habitats are either rare or especially valuable because of their special nature or role in an ecosystem and which would easily be disturbed or degraded by human activities and developments (California Public Resources Code Section 30107.5). ESAs subject to urban runoff requirements include, but are not limited to, all CWA Section 303(d) impaired water bodies, areas designated as Areas of Special Biological Significance by the SWRCB (basin plan); water bodies designated with the RARE beneficial use by the SWRCB (basin plan); areas within the Western Riverside County Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan (MSHCP) plan areas that contain rare or especially valuable plant or animal life or their habitat; and any other equivalent environmentally sensitive areas which the permittees have identified.
"Hearing officer"
means the city engineer or designee, who shall preside at any administrative hearings authorized by this chapter, and who is authorized to issue final decisions on the matters raised therein.
"Hydromodification"
means alteration of the hydrologic characteristics of coastal and noncoastal waters, which in turn could cause degradation of water resources.
"Illicit connection"
means any connection to the MS4 that conveys an illicit discharge.
"Illicit discharge"
means any discharge to the MS4 that is not composed entirely of stormwater except discharges pursuant to a NPDES permit or discharges exempt pursuant to Section 8.28.210 of this chapter.
"Invoice for costs"
means the actual costs and expenses of the city, including, but not limited to, administrative overhead, salaries and other expenses recoverable under California law, incurred during any inspection conducted pursuant to Article IV of this chapter or where a notice of noncompliance, administrative compliance order or other enforcement option under Article V of this chapter is utilized to ensure compliance with this chapter.
"Low impact development (LID)"
is a land planning and engineering design approach to managing stormwater runoff and emphasizes conservation and use of on-site natural features to protect water quality. This approach implements engineered small-scale hydrologic controls to replicate the pre-development hydrologic regime of watersheds through infiltration, filtration, storing, evaporating, and detaining runoff close to its source.
"Maximum extent practicable (MEP),"
as defined in the city's MS4 permit, means the technology-based standard established by Congress in CWA Section 402(p)(3)(B)(iii) for stormwater that operators of MS4s must meet. Technology-based standards establish the level of pollutant reductions that dischargers must achieve, typically by treatment or by a combination of source control and treatment control BMPs. MEP generally emphasizes pollution prevention and source control BMPs primarily (as the first line of defense) in combination with treatment methods serving as a backup (additional line of defense). MEP considers economics and is generally, but not necessarily, less stringent than BAT (best available technology). The definition of MEP is dynamic and will be defined by the following process over time; municipalities propose their definition of MEP by way of the SSMP. Their total collective and individual activities conducted pursuant to the SSMP becomes their proposal for MEP as it applies both to their overall effort, as well as to specific activities (e.g., MEP for street sweeping, or MEP for MS4 maintenance).
"Modifications to existing development"
means the creation or addition of impervious surfaces or the making of improvements to an existing structure on an already developed site; replacement of impervious surfaces that are not part of a routine maintenance activity; and land disturbing activities related to structural or impervious surfaces. This definition is consistent with the term "redevelopment" as referenced in the MS4 permit.
"Municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4),"
as defined in the city's MS4 permit, means a conveyance or system of conveyances (including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels, or storm drains): (1) owned or operated by a state, city, town, borough, county, parish, district, association, or other public body (created by or pursuant to state law) having jurisdiction over disposal of sewage, industrial wastes, stormwater, or other wastes, including special districts under state law such as sewer district, flood control district or drainage district, or similar entity, or an Indian tribe or an authorized Indian tribal organization, or designated and approved management agency under Section 208 of the CWA that discharges to waters of the United States; (2) designated or used for collecting or conveying stormwater; (3) which is not a combined sewer; (4) which is not part of the publicly owned treatment works (POTW) as defined at 40 CFR Section 122.26.
"New development"
means all public and private residential (whether single family, multi-unit or planned unit development), industrial, commercial, retail, and other non-residential construction projects, or grading for future construction, for which a land use approval, grading permit, building permit or street improvement permit is required.
"Nonstormwater runoff"
means all discharges to and from a MS4 that do not originate from precipitation events.
"NPDES" or "National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System"
means the national program for issuing, modifying, revoking and reissuing, terminating, monitoring and enforcing permits, and imposing and enforcing pretreatment requirements, under Sections 307, 318, 402, and 405 of the CWA.
"One-acre threshold project"
means all public and private post-construction pollutant-generating projects that result in the disturbance of one acre or more of land.
"Owner or operator"
means the owner or operator of any facility or activity subject to regulation under the NPDES program.
"Permit"
means the current NPDES permit issued by the Regional Board, State Board, or EPA under the authority of the Federal Clean Water Act or California's Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, or any succeeding NPDES permit, and any other currently applicable municipal discharge permit[s], which establishes waste discharge requirements applicable to stormwater and urban runoff within the city.
"Permittee"
means any person, property owner, contractor, or authorized agent to whom a permit is issued pursuant to this chapter.
"Person"
means an individual, association, partnership, corporation, municipality, state or federal agency, or any agent or employee thereof (40 CFR Section 122.2).
"Pollutant"
means any agent that may cause or contribute to the degradation of water quality such that a condition of pollution or contamination is created or aggravated.
"Pollution"
as defined in the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act is the alteration of the quality of the waters of the state by waste, to degree that unreasonably affects either of the following: (1) the waters for beneficial uses; or (2) facilities that serve these beneficial uses. Pollution may include contamination.
"Post-construction BMPs"
mean a subset of BMPs including structural and non-structural controls which detain, retain, filter, or educate to prevent the release of pollutants to surface waters during the final functional life of developments.
"Prohibited discharge"
means any discharge which contains any pollutant, from public or private property to: (1) the storm drain system; (2) any upstream flow, which is tributary to the storm drain system; (3) any groundwater, river, stream, creek, wash or dry weather arroyo, wetlands area, or marsh; or (4) which is otherwise prohibited by the permit. The term "prohibited discharge" shall not include discharges allowable under the discharge exception.
"Receiving waters"
mean the federal and state waters. This applies to natural drainage channels, active or not, including all tributaries leading to streams, creeks, rivers, and other waterbodies.
"Redevelopment"
means all public and private projects that create, add, or replace at least five thousand square feet of impervious surfaces on an already developed site.
"Regional board" or "SDRWQCB"
refers to the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board which has jurisdiction over the city.
"Site"
means the real property on which activities subject to this chapter may occur.
"SSMP/WQMP"
means a standard stormwater mitigation plan, also known as a water quality management plan.
"State board" or "SWRCB"
means the State Water Resources Control Board.
"State general permit"
means a state general permit regulating the discharge of pollutants from industrial activities, construction activities, or any other type of activity, as the same may be amended from time to time, and the terms and requirements of either or both permits. In the event the EPA revokes the in-lieu permitting authority of the State Board, then the term state general permit shall also refer to any EPA-administered stormwater control program for industrial activities, construction activities, or any other type of activity that is subsequently regulated through a state general permit.
"Storm drain system"
means street gutter, channel, storm drain, constructed drain, lined diversion structure, wash area, inlet, outlet, stream, creek, river, or other facility within the city limits, which is a part of or tributary to the county-wide stormwater runoff system and owned, operated, maintained or controlled by the city, the county of Riverside, the Riverside County water conservation and flood control district or any copermittee, and used for the purpose of collecting, storing, transporting, or disposing of stormwater.
"Stormwater manual"
means the city of Temecula Administrative and Technical Procedures Manual for Stormwater and Urban Runoff Management and Discharge Control.
"Stormwater runoff"
means that part of precipitation (rainfall) which travels via flow across a surface to the MS4 or receiving waters from impervious, semi-pervious or pervious surfaces.
"Urban runoff"
means surface water flow produced by nonstormwater resulting from active construction sites and existing residential, commercial and industrial activities involving the use of potable and nonpotable water.
(Ord. 05-12 § 20; Ord. 05-13 § 20; Ord. 12-05 § 2)