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 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.
"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.
"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 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)