Township of Limerick, PA General Provisions

Short title. This chapter shall be known as the "Limerick Township Stormwater Management Ordinance."

The governing body of the municipality finds that:

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 the identified floodplain areas management and flood reduction efforts in upstream and downstream communities, reduces groundwater recharge, and threatens public health and safety.

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 streambeds and streambanks, 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.

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.

Stormwater can be an important water resource by providing groundwater recharge for water supplies and base flow of streams, which also protects and maintains surface water quality.

Impacts from stormwater runoff can be minimized by using project designs that maintain the natural hydrologic regime and sustain high water quality, groundwater recharge, stream base flow, 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, identified floodplain areas steep slopes), and considers topography and soils to maintain the natural hydrologic regime.

Public education on the control of pollution from stormwater is an essential component in successfully addressing stormwater.

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).

Nonstormwater discharges to municipal separate storm sewer systems can contribute to pollution of waters of the commonwealth by the municipality.

The use of green infrastructure and low-impact development (LID) are intended to address the root cause of water quality impairment by using systems and practices which use or mimic natural processes to: 1) infiltrate and recharge, 2) evapotranspire, and/or 3) harvest and use precipitation near where it falls to earth. Green infrastructure practices and LID contribute to the restoration or maintenance of predevelopment hydrology.

§ 151-3 Purpose.

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 through provisions designed to:

Promote alternative project designs and layouts that minimize the impacts on surface water and groundwater.

Promote nonstructural best management practices (BMPs).

Minimize increases in runoff stormwater volume.

Minimize impervious surfaces.

Manage accelerated stormwater runoff and erosion and sedimentation problems and stormwater runoff impacts at their source by regulating activities that cause these problems.

Provide review procedures and performance standards for stormwater planning and management.

Utilize and preserve existing natural drainage systems as much as possible.

Manage stormwater impacts close to the runoff source, requiring a minimum of structures and relying on natural processes.

Focus on infiltration of stormwater to maintain groundwater recharge, to prevent degradation of surface and groundwater quality, and to otherwise protect water resources.

Maintain existing base flows and quality of streams and watercourses, where possible.

Meet legal water quality requirements under state law, including regulations at Chapter 93.4a of Title 25 of the Pennsylvania Code 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.

Address the quality and quantity of stormwater discharges from the development site.

Provide a mechanism to identify stormwater controls necessary to meet NPDES permit requirements.

Implement an illegal discharge detection and elimination program that addresses nonstormwater discharges into the municipality's separate storm sewer system.

Preserve the flood-carrying capacity of streams.

Prevent scour and erosion of streambanks and streambeds.

Provide performance standards and design criteria for watershed-wide stormwater management and planning.

Provide proper operation and maintenance of all permanent stormwater management facilities and BMPs that are implemented in the municipality.

§ 151-4 Statutory authority.

The municipality is empowered to regulate land use activities that affect runoff and surface and groundwater quality and quantity by the authority of:

Act of October 4, 1978, P.L. 864 (Act 167), 32 P.S. § 680.1 et seq., as amended, the "Storm Water Management Act" (hereinafter referred to as "the Act").

Water Resources Management Act of 2002, as amended.

First Class Township Code, 53 P.S. § 55101 et seq.; Second Class Township Code, 53 P.S. § 66501 et seq. and 53 P.S. § 66601 et seq.; and the Borough Code, 53 P.S. § 46201 et seq.

Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code, Act 247, as amended.[1]

[1]

Editor's Note: See 53 P.S. § 10101 et seq.

§ 151-5 Applicability; regulated activities for stormwater management on project sites within the Swamp Creek Watershed.

This chapter shall apply to all areas within the Swamp Creek Watershed.

The following activities are defined as "regulated activities" and shall be regulated by this chapter unless exempted by § 151-7:

(1)

Land development.

(2)

Subdivisions.

(3)

Alteration of the natural hydrologic regime.

(4)

Construction or reconstruction of or addition of new impervious or semipervious surfaces (i.e., driveways, parking lots, roads, etc.).

(5)

Construction of new buildings or additions to existing buildings.

(6)

Redevelopment.

(7)

Diversion piping or encroachments in any natural or man-made channel. Constructing, erecting or installing any drainage dam, ditch, culvert, drainpipe or bridge or any other structure or obstruction affecting the drainage of any project site.

(8)

Nonstructural and structural stormwater management BMPs or appurtenances thereto.

(9)

Earth disturbance activities of greater than 5,000 square feet. Note: This chapter applies to any earth disturbance activity greater than or equal to 5,000 square feet that is associated with a development or redevelopment project. Earth disturbance activities of less than one acre that are associated with redevelopment projects are exempt from the § 151-23 streambank erosion requirements. Earth disturbance activities and associated stormwater management controls are also regulated under existing state law and implementing regulations. This chapter shall operate in coordination with those parallel requirements; the requirements of this chapter shall be no less restrictive in meeting the purposes of this chapter than state law.

(10)

Any of the above regulated activities that were approved more than five years prior to the effective date of this chapter and resubmitted for municipal approval.

(11)

Prohibited or polluted discharges.

(12)

Any other activities that may affect stormwater runoff. Modifying, disturbing, blocking, diverting or otherwise adversely affecting the natural overland or subsurface flow of stormwater.

Table 151-5 summarizes the applicability requirements of the chapter for project sites located within the Swamp Creek watershed. See table at the end of this chapter, Appendix H.[1]

[1]

Editor's Note: Appendix H is included as an attachment to this chapter.

§ 151-6 Applicability; regulated activities for stormwater management on project sites outside the Swamp Creek Watershed.

This chapter shall apply to all areas outside the Swamp Creek watershed.

The following activities are defined as "regulated activities" and shall be regulated by this chapter unless exempted by § 151-7:

(1)

Land development.

(2)

Subdivisions.

(3)

Alteration of the natural hydrologic regime.

(4)

Construction of or addition of new impervious or semipervious surfaces (i.e., driveways, parking lots, roads, etc.).

(5)

Construction of new buildings or additions to existing buildings.

(6)

(7)

Nonstructural and structural stormwater management BMPs or appurtenances thereto.

(8)

(9)

Any of the above regulated activities that were approved more than five years prior to the effective date of this chapter and resubmitted for municipal approval.

(10)

Prohibited or polluted discharges.

(11)

Any other activities that may affect stormwater runoff. Modifying, disturbing, blocking, diverting or otherwise adversely affecting the natural overland or subsurface flow of stormwater.

Table 151-6 summarizes the applicability requirements of the chapter for project sites located outside the Swamp Creek watershed. See table at the end of this chapter, Appendix I.[1]

[1]

Editor's Note: Appendix I is included as an attachment to this chapter.

§ 151-7 Exemptions for stormwater management.

Exemptions for land use activities. The following land use activities are exempt from the drainage plan submission requirements of this chapter:

(1)

Use of land for gardening for 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, the tilling of soil, and grazing animals. 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 earth disturbance of greater than 5,000 square feet shall be subject to the provisions of this chapter.

(3)

Forest management operations that are following the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP's) management practices contained in its publication "Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control Guidelines for Forestry" and are operating under an approved erosion and sedimentation plan and must comply with the stream buffer requirements in § 151-22G.

(4)

Road replacement, development, or redevelopment that has less than 1,000 square feet of new, additional, or replaced impervious surface/cover or, in the case of earth disturbance only, less than 5,000 square feet of disturbance, is exempt from this chapter for project sites within the Swamp Creek watershed but will be required to adhere to the requirements within § 151-51.

(5)

Road development that has less than 2,000 square feet of new or additional impervious surface/cover or, in the case of earth disturbance only, less than 5,000 square feet of disturbance, is exempt from this chapter for project sites outside the Swamp Creek watershed but will be required to adhere to the requirements within § 151-51.

Exemptions for land development activities.

(1)

The following land development and earthmoving activities are exempt from the drainage plan submission requirements of this chapter for project sites within the Swamp Creek watershed:

(a)

A maximum of 1,000 square feet of new, additional, or replacement proposed impervious surface or, in the case of earth disturbance, resulting in less than 5,000 square feet of earth disturbance (as noted above).

(b)

Up to a maximum of 5,000 square feet of disturbed earth. These criteria shall apply to the total development even if the development is to take place in phases. The date of the municipal ordinance adoption shall be the starting point from which to consider tracts as "parent tracts" upon which future subdivisions and respective earth disturbance computations shall be cumulatively considered.

(2)

The following land development and earthmoving are exempt from the drainage plan submission requirements of this chapter for projects outside the Swamp Creek watershed:

(a)

A maximum of 2,000 square feet of new, additional or replacement proposed impervious surface or, in the case of earth disturbance, resulting in less than 5,000 square feet of earth disturbance;

(b)

Up to a maximum of 5,000 square feet if disturbed earth. These criteria shall apply to the total development even if the development is to take place in phases. The date of the municipal ordinance adoption shall be the starting point from which to consider tracts as "parent tracts" upon which future subdivisions and respective earth disturbance computations shall be cumulatively considered.

(3)

The activities exempted above are still encouraged to implement the voluntary stormwater management practices as indicated in Appendix B.[1]

[1]

Editor's Note: Appendix B is included as an attachment to this chapter.

Additional exemption criteria.

(1)

Exemption responsibilities. An exemption shall not relieve the applicant from implementing such measures as are necessary to protect public health, safety, and property.

(2)

HQ and EV streams. An exemption shall not relieve the applicant from meeting the special requirements for watersheds draining to identified high-quality (HQ) or exceptional-value (EV) waters and source water protection areas (SWPA) and requirements for nonstructural project design sequencing (§ 151-20).

(3)

Drainage problems. If a drainage problem is documented or known to exist downstream of or is expected from the proposed activity, then the municipality may require the applicant to comply with this chapter.

(4)

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 Limerick Township within two calendar days of the commencement of the activity. If the Limerick Township finds that the work is not an emergency, then the work shall cease immediately, and the requirements of this chapter shall be addressed as applicable.

(5)

Maintenance exemption: any maintenance to an existing stormwater management system made in accordance with plans and specifications approved by the Municipal Engineer or Limerick Township.

(6)

Even though the developer is exempt, he is not relieved from complying with other regulations.

(7)

Refer to § 151-51 for activities not requiring an erosion and sedimentation control review.

(8)

The municipality may deny or revoke any exemption pursuant to this section at any time for any project that the municipality believes may pose a threat to public health and safety or the environment.

§ 151-8 Compatibility with other ordinances or legal requirements.

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.

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.

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, etc.). Conflicting provisions in other municipal ordinances or regulations shall be construed to retain the requirements of this chapter addressing state water quality requirements.

Repealer. Any other ordinance provision(s) or regulation of the municipality inconsistent with any of the provisions of this chapter is hereby repealed to the extent of the inconsistency only.

Severability. In the event that a court of competent jurisdiction declares any section or provision of this chapter invalid, such decision shall not affect the validity of any of the remaining provisions of this chapter.