The Town Engineer and/or Building Inspector for regulated
activities requiring an administrative permit that are limited in scope and
limited in potential impacts, as defined by this chapter.
BOUNDARY OF A WETLAND
The outer limit of the soils and/or vegetation as defined under "wetland/freshwater
wetland."
CLEAR-CUTTING
Any cutting of more than 30% of trees four inches or more in diameter
at breast height (4.5 feet) in an area 10,000 square feet or more over a period
of two consecutive years within a specified area.
DAMS AND WATER CONTROL MEASURES
Barriers used or intended to or which, even though not intended,
in fact do obstruct the flow of water or raise, lower or maintain the level
of water.
DATE OF RECEIPT OF APPLICATION BY APPROVAL AUTHORITY
An application shall be deemed received by the approval authority
on the date of the first regular meeting of the approval authority following
the filing of the application and supporting plans pursuant to the provisions
of this chapter.
DEPOSIT
To fill, grade, discharge, emit, dump or place any material or the
act thereof.
DRAIN
To deplete or empty of water by drawing off by degrees or in increments.
DREDGE
To excavate or remove sediment, soil, mud, sand, shells, gravel or
other aggregate.
ECOLOGIST/BOTANIST/WETLAND SPECIALIST
A person having special knowledge of the physical, chemical and biological
sciences related to the physiology, identification and distribution of native
plants, vegetative associations and hydric soils in wetland and upland systems
and of methods to describe, classify and delineate vegetative species and
associations and hydric soils.
EXCAVATE
To dig out and remove any material from a wetland or wetland buffer.
FACULTATIVE WETLAND SPECIES
Vegetative species that can occur in wetland systems as listed in
the "National List of Plant Species that Occurs in Wetlands: Northeast (Region
1), 1988, published by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in cooperation
with the National and Regional Interagency Review Panels and as updated from
time to time.
FLOODPLAIN
The area adjacent to a water body which is subjected to periodic
inundation during a one-hundred-year storm event, as shown on the Flood Insurance
Rate Maps.
GRADING
To adjust the degree of inclination of the natural contours of the
land, including leveling, smoothing and other modification of the natural
land surface.
HYDRIC SOIL
A soil that is saturated, flooded or ponded long enough during the
growing season to develop anaerobic conditions in the upper part and as further
defined under "wetland."
HYDROPHYTIC VEGETATION
Macrophytic plant life growing in water that is at least periodically
deficient in oxygen as a result of excessive water content and as further
defined under "wetland."
MATERIAL
Liquid, solid or gaseous substances, including but not limited to
soil, silt, gravel, rock, sand, clay, peat, mud, debris and refuse; any organic
or inorganic compound, chemical agent or matter; sewage sludge or effluent;
or industrial or municipal solid waste.
MICROSITE
A small site supporting facultative or obligate vegetation anomalous
within the context of the larger vegetative unit. "Microsites" may be drier
or wetter than surrounding areas as a result of altered drainage, incidental
topographic variation or a related characteristic.
OBLIGATE UPLAND SPECIES
Plant species that, under natural conditions, always occur in uplands
(i.e., greater than 99% of the time).
OBLIGATE WETLAND SPECIES
Plant species that, under natural conditions, always occur in wetlands
(i.e., greater than 99% of the time). "Obligate wetland species" for New York
State are listed in the National List of Plant Species that Occurs in Wetlands:
Northeast (Region 1), 1988, published by the United States Fish and Wildlife
Service in cooperation with the National and Regional Interagency Review Panels
and as updated from time to time.
PERMIT
That form of written approval required by this chapter for the conduct
of a regulated activity within a wetland or wetland buffer.
POLLUTION
Any harmful effect or the contamination or rendering unclean or impure
of any wetland or waters by reason of erosion or by any water or other materials
discharged or deposited therein.
PROJECT
Any proposed or ongoing action which may result in direct or indirect
physical or chemical impact on a wetlands including but not limited to any
regulated activity.
REMOVE
To dig, dredge, suck, bulldoze, dragline, blast or otherwise excavate
or grade, or the act thereof.
SELECTIVE CUTTING
Any cutting of trees within the boundaries of a wetland or wetland
buffer that is not clear-cutting as defined in this section.
SOIL SCIENTIST
A person having special knowledge of the physical, chemical and biological
sciences applicable to the genesis and morphology of soils as natural bodies
and of the methods to describe, classify and map soil units.
STATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY REVIEW ACT (SEQR)
The law pursuant to Article 8 of the New York Environmental Conservation
Law providing for environmental quality review of actions which might have
a significant effect on the environment.
STRUCTURES
Anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires location
on or in the ground or attachment to something having location on the ground,
including but not limited to buildings, tennis courts, docks, jetties and
swimming pools.
WATER TABLE
The zone of saturation at the highest average depth during the wettest
season.
WETLAND BUFFER
An area surrounding a wetland that is intended to provide some degree
of protection to the wetland from human activity and other encroachment associated
with development. The "wetland buffer" shall be subject to the regulations
for wetlands as defined in this chapter as it relates to the need to protect
wetlands and not to protect the "wetland buffer" itself. The "wetland buffer"
shall be determined to be the area generally extending 100 feet horizontally
away from and paralleling the wetland boundary but can be greater or less
than 100 feet where designated by the approval authority based upon site-specific
conditions relating to topography, slopes, soils, etc.
WETLAND/FRESHWATER WETLAND
Areas and waters of the Town of Monroe that are comprised of hydric soils and/or are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of hydrophytic vegetation. Finite boundaries of wetlands are to be determined by a qualified ecologist/botanist/wetlands specialist or soil scientist as any area which provides one or more of the wetland functions as recited in §
56-3 of this chapter due to the presence of one or more of the following:
(1)
Hydrophytic vegetation: plants which are dependent upon seasonal or
permanent flooding or sufficiently waterlogged soils to give them a competitive
advantage over other species. These plants may belong to any of the following
vegetative types: wetland trees, wetland shrubs, emergent vegetation, submergent
and rooted floating-leaved vegetation, free-floating vegetation, wet-meadow
vegetation and bog mat vegetation. The following indicators of hydrophytic
vegetation may be used in conjunction with hydric soils and/or wetland hydrology:
(a)
The dominance of obligate and facultative wetland vegetative species.
Obligate upland species cannot be present on other than microsites. Obligate
and facultative wetland vegetative species are listed in the National List
of Plant Species that Occurs in Wetlands: Northeast (Region 1), 1988, published
by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in cooperation with the National
and Regional Interagency Review Panels and as updated from time to time.
(b)
Plants with adaptations to inundation and/or saturated soil conditions.
Such adaptations include but are not limited to buttressed tree trunks, floating
stems, floating leaves, multiple trunks and inflated leaves, stems or roots.
(2)
Hydric soils: areas with somewhat poorly drained, poorly drained and
very poorly drained soils as determined by a soil scientist, consistent with
either of the following:
(a)
The United States Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service
(SCS), including but not limited to the following classification of soils
identified in Orange County, as may be updated or amended by the SCS:
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Soils List
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Ab
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Alden silt loam
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Ac
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Alden extremely stony soils
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Be
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Basher fine sandy loam
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Ca
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Canandaigua silt loam
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Cd
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Carlisle muck
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Ce
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Carlisle muck, very deep
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Cf
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Carlisle muck, ponded
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Fd
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Fredon loam
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Ha
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Halsey silt loam
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Hh
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Histic humaquepts, ponded
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Ma
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Madalin silt loam
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Pa
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Palms muck
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Pb
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Palms muck, ponded
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RA
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Raynham silt loam
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Sb
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Scarboro mucky sandy loam
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Uf
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Udifluvents-fluvaquents complex, frequently flooded
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Wa
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Wallkill silt loam
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Wd
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Wayland silt loam
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(b)
The technical criteria for determining hydric soils as presented in
the Federal Manual for Identifying and Delineating Jurisdictional Wetlands
(Federal Interagency Committee for Wetland Delineation), January 1989.
(3)
Hydrologic indicators. The following water bodies and watercourses are
regulated under this chapter:
(a)
Ponds, lakes, reservoirs, marshes, swamps, bogs or other areas of permanent
water retention, regardless of origin.
(b)
Natural drainage systems, including rivers, streams and brooks which
contain water at least six months of the year, and the associated floodplains
of such water sources. Regulated area surrounding such natural drainage systems
shall include all adjacent surfaces for 100 feet as measured from both sides
of the bank of the watercourse or adjacent surface which has an elevation
of less than five feet above the normal (mean) waterline, whichever is more.
WETLAND HYDROLOGY
The sum total of wetness characteristics in areas that are inundated
or have saturated soils for sufficient duration to support hydrophytic vegetation.