The ordinance codified in this chapter shall be known as the “City of Dublin Stormwater Management and Discharge Control Ordinance” and may be so cited.
(Ord. 9-92 § 2 (part); Ord. 7-24 § 2 (Exh. A))
A.
The purpose of this chapter is to establish minimum stormwater management requirements and controls to protect and safeguard the general health, safety, and general welfare of city of Dublin citizens by:
1.
Eliminating non-stormwater discharges to the municipal separate storm sewer system (hereinafter referred to as MS4);
2.
Controlling spills and prohibiting dumping or disposal of materials other than stormwater to the MS4;
3.
Reducing pollutants and wastes in stormwater discharges to the maximum extent practicable (hereinafter referred to as MEP);
4.
Establishing minimal acceptable requirements for the design of stream buffers and for the protection of the water quality of watercourses, water bodies, the San Francisco Bay, and other significant water resources; and
5.
Enabling the city to comply with the California Regional Water Quality Control Board San Francisco Bay Region Municipal Regional Stormwater National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit (hereinafter referred to as the MRP), or as amended or revised, NPDES Permit No. CAS612008, or any reissuance thereof, and applicable federal and state regulations. The MRP is on file with the City Clerk of the city of Dublin and available on the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board website.
B.
The intent of this chapter is to protect and enhance the water quality of watercourses, water bodies and wetlands, in a manner pursuant to and consistent with the Clean Water Act and California Water Code.
(Ord. 9-92 § 2 (part); Ord. 7-24 § 2 (Exh. A))
A.
The requirements of this chapter are minimum requirements. They do not replace, repeal, abrogate, supersede, or affect any other more stringent requirements, rules, regulations, covenants, standards, or restrictions. Where this chapter imposes requirements that are more protective of human health or the environment than those set forth elsewhere, the provisions of this chapter shall prevail.
B.
Approvals and permits granted under this chapter are not waivers of the requirements of any other laws, nor do they indicate compliance with any other laws. Compliance is still required with all applicable federal, state, regional and local laws and regulations, including rules promulgated under authority of this chapter.
(Ord. 7-24 § 2 (Exh. A))
A.
Any terms defined in the MRP or the Federal Clean Water Act, or the California Water Code and acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, and/or defined in the regulations for the stormwater discharge permitting program issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency on November 16, 1990 (as may from time to time be amended), as used in this chapter, shall have the same meaning as in that statute or regulations. Specifically, the definitions of the following terms included in that statute or regulations are hereby incorporated by reference, as now applicable or as may hereafter be amended:
1. “Applicant”
means any person applying to the city of Dublin for permitting or approval of a project.
2. “Authorized enforcement official”
means the following city officials and their designated associates, employed by the city or working under a contract with the city: Fire Chief, Public Works Director, City Engineer, and Building Official.
3. “Best management practice (BMP)”
means structural device, measures, facility, activity, schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, general good housekeeping practices, pollution-prevention practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to prevent or reduce the discharge of pollutants directly or indirectly to waters of the United States. BMPs also include treatment requirements, operating procedures, and practices to control plantsite runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw material storage.
4. “Biotreatment soil media (BSM)”
means a soil blend designed to meet the specifications approved by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board Executive Officer and incorporated into the C.3 Technical Guidance Manual.
5. “C.3 Technical Guidance Manual”
means the most recent version of the Alameda Countywide Clean Water Program manual that sets forth guidance, design standards and best management practices for low impact development.
7. “Construction activity”
means any activity that involves soil disturbing activities including, but not limited to, grubbing, clearing, filling, leveling, building, paving, grading, demolition, and ground disturbances such as stockpiling and excavation unless exempted by the municipal code.
8. “Development” or “development project”
means construction, rehabilitation, redevelopment, or reconstruction of any public or private residential project (whether single-family, multi-unit, or planned unit development); or industrial, commercial, or other nonresidential project, including public agency projects. Development projects as defined here and used in this chapter include redevelopment, which means land-disturbing activity that results in the creation, addition, or replacement of exterior impervious surface area on a site on which some past development has occurred. Development or development project includes, but is not limited to, a rezoning, tentative parcel map, conditional use permit, variance, site development permit, design review, or building permit.
9. “Development runoff requirements”
means the provisions in the MRP and any additional city standards that contain performance standards to address both the construction and post-construction phase of new and development projects on stormwater quality.
10. “Discharge”a. b.
means:
Any addition or discharge of any pollutant or combination of pollutants and waste directly or indirectly to the storm drain system or to waters of the United States or waters of the state from any activity or operation; or
Any addition of any pollutant, waste, or combination of pollutants and waste directly or indirectly to the storm drain system or to the waters of the contiguous zone or the ocean from any activity or operation other than a vessel or other floating craft being used as a means of transportation.
This includes additions of pollutants or waste to waters of the United States or waters of the state from: surface runoff which is anthropogenically collected or channeled; discharges through pipes, sewers, or other conveyances, including street surfaces and curb and gutters, owned by a state, municipality, or other person which do not lead to a treatment facility; and discharges through pipes, sewers, or other conveyances, leading to privately owned treatment works. |
11. “Discharger”
means a person or entity who or which, respectively, allows, causes, permits to occur, or performs a discharge. “Discharger” also means the owners of real property on which such activities, operations or facilities are located; provided, however, that a local government or public authority is not a discharger as to activities conducted by others in public rights-of-way.
12. “Full trash capture” or a “full trash capture system or device”
means any device or series of devices that traps all particles retained by a minimum five (5) millimeter mesh screen and has a design treatment capacity of not less than the peak flow rate resulting from a one (1) year, one (1) hour storm in the tributary drainage catchment area.
13. “Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI)”
means infrastructure that uses vegetation, soils, and natural processes to intercept stormwater or stormwater runoff for either infiltration into the ground, evaporation, slowed release into the MS4, or some combination thereof. GSI is a natural and environmentally sustainable approach to managing stormwater runoff using specially designed landscaped areas, pervious surfaces, and rainwater capture and use. As low impact development practices are often implemented with GSI, these concepts are together referred to as LID/GSI.
14. “Hydromodification”
means modification of a stream’s hydrograph, caused in general by increases in flows and durations that result when land is developed (e.g., made more impervious). The effects of hydromodification include but are not limited to increased bed and bank erosion, loss of habitat, increased sediment transport and deposition, and increased flooding.
15. “Hydromodification management (HM)”
means engineered systems designed to minimize changes to the hydrograph (hydromodification) resulting from development by matching the flow durations (long-term temporal patterns of volume and rate) of the pre-project runoff.
16. “Illicit connection”
means any device or method that conveys an illicit discharge to a MS4 or receiving water, or any conveyance that has not been documented in plans, maps, or equivalent records and approved by the city.
17. “Illicit discharge”
means any discharge to the MS4 that is prohibited under local, state, or federal statutes, ordinances, codes, or regulations. This includes all non-stormwater discharges not composed entirely of stormwater, except discharges allowed pursuant to an NPDES permit (other than the NPDES permit for discharges from the MS4).
18. “Local Agency Investment Fund (LAIF)”
means a voluntary program created by statute which began in 1977 as an investment alternative for California’s local governments and special districts. The LAIF program offers local agencies the opportunity to participate in a major portfolio, which invests hundreds of millions of dollars, using the investment expertise of the State Treasurer’s Office professional investment staff at no additional cost to the taxpayer.
19. “Low impact development (LID)”
uses site design and stormwater management to maintain the site’s pre-development run-off rates and volumes. The goal of LID is to mimic a site’s predevelopment hydrology by using design techniques that infiltrate, filter, store, evaporate, detain, and/or biotreat stormwater runoff on or near the site. At the site scale, GSI is a subset of LID. As LID practices are often implemented with GSI, these concepts are referred together as LID/GSI.
20. “Lot”
means a piece or parcel of land owned as a single unit in common ownership, occupied or intended to be occupied by a principal building or a group of such buildings and accessory buildings, or utilized for a principal use and uses accessory thereto, together with such open spaces as are required by this title, and having frontage on and access to an approved and accepted city street that meets the standards of width and improvements as specified in the regulations of the city contained in or adopted pursuant to Title 9, Subdivisions, and street improvement chapter (Chapter 9.16) as to the section and the frontage of the lot involved, or having frontage on and access to an approved private street.
21. “Maximum extent practicable (MEP)”
means a standard for implementation of stormwater management programs to reduce pollutants in stormwater to the maximum extent possible, taking into account equitable considerations and competing facts including but not limited to the seriousness of the problem, public health risks, environmental benefit, pollutant removal effectiveness, regulatory compliance, cost and technical feasibility.
22. “Municipal Regional Stormwater NPDES Permit (MRP)”
means the California Regional Water Quality Control Board San Francisco Bay Region Municipal Regional Stormwater NPDES permit issued to the city of Dublin, Permit No. CAS612008 and any subsequent amendment, reissuance, or successor to this NPDES permit.
23. “Municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4)”
means and includes, but is not limited to, those facilities within the city by which stormwater may be conveyed to waters of the United States, including any roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, manmade channels, or storm drains, which are not part of a publicly owned treatment works (POTW) as defined at 40 Code of Federal Regulations Section 122.2.
24. “Non-stormwater discharge”
means any discharge that is not entirely composed of stormwater.
26. “NPDES permit”
means a NPDES permit issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the State Water Resources Control Board, or a California Regional Water Quality Control Board pursuant to the Clean Water Act and the California Water Code that authorizes discharges to waters of the United States.
27. “Person”
means an individual, corporation, partnership, association, state, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a state, or any interstate body.
28. “Pollutant”
means dredged soil, solid waste, incinerator residue, filter backwash, sewage, pet wastes, manure, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes or byproducts, fuels, biological materials, radioactive materials (except those regulated under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.)), heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, sediment, contaminated waste discharged from hot tubs, pools or spas, dumped yard wastes, food related wastes, rock, sand, dirt, and industrial, municipal and agricultural waste discharged into water, or placed in an area or manner such that it could be swept away or carried by stormwater runoff.
29. “Premises”
means any building, lot, parcel, real estate, or land or portion of land, whether improved or unimproved, including adjacent sidewalks and parking strips.
30. “Regulated project”
means a development project, as defined in MRP Provision C.3. These projects are required to implement LID source control, site design, and LID/GSI stormwater treatment, on site or at a joint stormwater treatment facility, in accordance with the criteria for LID/GSI and numeric sizing for stormwater treatment systems and may be required to implement hydromodification management as put forth in the MRP.
31. “Responsible person”
means the owner, occupant, or entity responsible for any premises, or who engages in any activity, from which there is or may be a nonstormwater discharge or any person who releases pollutants or waste to the MS4.
32. “Source control”
means structural or operational BMPs that are intended to prevent pollutants from coming into contact with stormwater through the physical separation of areas or careful management of activities that are sources of pollutants.
34. “Stormwater”
means temporary surface water runoff and drainage generated by immediately preceding storms. This definition shall be interpreted consistent with the definition of “stormwater” in Section 122.26 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
35. “Stormwater treatment system”
means any engineered system designed to remove pollutants and waste from stormwater runoff by settling, filtration, biological degradation, plant uptake, media absorption/adsorption, or other physical, biological, or chemical process. This includes landscape-based systems such as grassy swales and bioretention areas as well as some proprietary treatment systems.
36. “Urban runoff requirement acknowledgement”
means the form regarding construction stormwater BMPs that must be completed by developers of projects not required to file a notice of intent with the State Water Resources Control Board.
37. “Waste”
means sewage and any and all other waste substances, liquid, solid, gaseous, or radioactive, associated with human habitation, or of human or animal origin, or from any producing, manufacturing, or processing operation, including waste placed within containers of whatever nature prior to, and for the purposes of, disposal.
38. “Watercourse”
means:
39. “Waters of the state”
means any surface water or groundwater, including saline waters, within the boundaries of the state.
40. “Waters of the United States”
shall have the same meaning as set forth in 40 Code of Federal Regulations Section 120.2 or any successor provisions.
(Ord. 9-92 § 2 (part). Formerly 7.74.030; Ord. 7-24 § 2 (Exh. A))
This chapter shall be administered for the city by the Public Works Director. Where storm drain facilities and/or watercourses have been accepted for maintenance by the Zone 7 Water Agency or other public agency legally responsible for certain watercourses, the responsibility for enforcing the provisions of this chapter may be assigned to such an agency (through contract or agreement executed by the city and such agency) with respect to those watercourses for which they have accepted maintenance.
The Public Works Director is authorized to promulgate administrative procedures and/or policies needed to implement this chapter without having to amend the ordinance codified in this chapter.
(Ord. 9-92 § 2 (part). Formerly 7.74.040; Ord. 7-24 § 2 (Exh. A))
This chapter shall be construed to assure consistency with the requirements of the Federal Clean Water Act and acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, the California Water Code and applicable implementing regulations, and the MRP and any amendment, revision, or reissuance thereof.
The standards established by this chapter are minimum standards. Therefore, this chapter does not intend nor imply that compliance by any discharger will ensure that the discharger will not cause contamination, pollution, or unauthorized discharge of pollutants or waste into waters of the United States or waters of the state. Ensuring that the discharger does not contaminate, pollute, or otherwise discharge pollutants or waste into the waters of the United States or waters of the state is the ultimate responsibility of the discharger. This chapter shall not create liability on the part of the city or any city agent or employee for any damages that result from the discharger’s reliance on this chapter or any lawful administrative decision made under this chapter.
(Ord. 9-92 § 2 (part). Formerly 7.74.050; Ord. 7-24 § 2 (Exh. A))
A.
This chapter shall apply to:
1.
Ministerial as well as discretionary approvals of development projects.
2.
Dischargers at or from parcels and premises within the city, which have been found to, or may be reasonably considered to, cause or contribute to pollution of stormwater runoff or illegal connections and other illicit discharges.
B.
Nothing in this chapter shall be interpreted to infringe any right or power guaranteed by the United States Constitution or the California Constitution, including any vested property right.
(Ord. 7-24 § 2 (Exh. A))
If any portion of the ordinance codified in this chapter is declared invalid, the remaining portions of such ordinance are to be considered valid.
(Ord. 9-92 § 2 (part). Formerly 7.74.060; Ord. 7-24 § 2 (Exh. A))