For the purposes of this chapter, certain terms
and words used herein shall be interpreted as follows:
A.Â
Words used in the present tense include the future
tense; the singular number includes the plural, and the plural number
includes the singular; words of masculine gender include feminine
gender; and words of feminine gender include masculine gender.
B.Â
The word “includes” or “including”
shall not limit the term to the specific example but is intended to
extend its meaning to all other instances of like kind and character.
C.Â
The word “person” includes an individual,
firm, association, organization, partnership, trust, company, corporation,
or any other similar entity.
D.Â
The words “shall” and “must”
are mandatory; the words “may” and “should”
are permissive.
E.Â
The words “used or occupied” include the
words “intended, designed, maintained, or arranged to be used,
occupied or maintained.”
As used in this chapter, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
The removal of the surface of the land through the combined
action of human activities and the natural processes, at a rate greater
than would occur because of the natural process alone.
The Stormwater Management Act, Act of October 4, 1978, P.L.
864, No. 167, as amended by the Act of May 24, 1984, No. 63, 32 P.S.
§ 680.1 et seq. The municipality is empowered to regulate land
use activities that affect runoff and surface water and groundwater
quality and quantity by the authority of the Act, the Stormwater Management
Act.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
As applied to land, a change in topography as a result of
the moving of soil and rock from one location or position to another;
the changing of surface conditions by causing the surface to be more
or less impervious; or earth disturbance.
A landowner, developer or other person who has filed an application for approval, including a project plan under § 164-23, to engage in any land development involving earth disturbance 5,000 square feet or greater at a project site in the municipality.
Activities, facilities, measures or procedures used to manage
stormwater impacts from land development, to protect and maintain
water quality and groundwater recharge and to otherwise meet the purposes
of this chapter, including, but not limited to, infiltration, filter
strips, low-impact design, bioretention, wet ponds, permeable paving,
grassed swales, forested buffers, sand filters and detention basins.
An independent and detached structure having a roof supported
by columns or walls or resting on its own foundation, including, but
not limited to, mobile homes, garages, greenhouses and other accessory
buildings and utilized for housing, shelter or enclosure of person,
animals, chattels or activity sites.
[1]A natural or artificial watercourse with a definite bed and
banks that conducts continuously or periodically flowing water.
The widening, deepening, and head ward cutting of small channels
and waterways due to erosion caused by increased rate or volume of
stormwater runoff.
Title 25 Pa. Code Chapter 102, Erosion and Sedimentation
Control.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
Title 25 Pa. Code Chapter 105, Dam Safety and Waterway Management.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
A sewer system designed to serve as both sanitary sewer and
storm sewer.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
A development plan that has been approved, with a stormwater
management plan that has sufficient space for further development.
Any further development other than that already approved for stormwater
management must have a revised stormwater management plan submitted
if it creates more than 1,000 square feet of impervious area.
The Westmoreland County Conservation District (WCD), as defined
in Section 3(c) of the Conservation District Law [3 P.S. § 851(
c)] that has the authority under a delegation agreement executed with
DEP to administer and enforce all or a portion of the regulations
promulgated under 25 Pa. Code 102.
[Amended 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
An intermittent flow or other untreated discharge from a
municipal combined sewer system (including domestic, industrial, and
commercial wastewater and stormwater) which results from a flow in
excess of the dry-weather carrying capacity of the system.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
A closed conduit for the free passage of surface drainage
under a highway, railroad, canal, or other embankment.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
The deliberate appropriation of property by its owner for
general public use.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
The magnitude and temporal distribution of precipitation
from a storm event measured in probability of occurrence (e.g., a
two-year storm) and duration (e.g., 24 hours), used in the design
and evaluation of stormwater BMPs.
The temporary storage of storm runoff in a stormwater management
practice with the goals of controlling peak discharge rates and providing
gravity settling of pollutants.
A detention basin or alternative structure designed for the
purpose of temporary storage of stream flow or surface runoff and
gradual release of stored water at controlled rates.
A person that seeks to undertake any land development at
a project site in the municipality.
The specific tract of land where any land development is
planned, conducted or maintained.
A legal right granted by a landowner to a grantee allowing
the use of private land for stormwater management purposes.
A construction or other human activity which disturbs the
surface of the land, including, but not limited to, clearing and grubbing,
grading, excavations, embankments, land development, road maintenance,
building construction, oil and gas activities, well drilling, mineral
extraction, and the moving, depositing, stockpiling, or storing of
soil, rock or earth materials.
[Amended 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
Any structure or activity which in any manner changes, expands
or diminishes the course, current or cross-section of any watercourse,
floodway, or body of water.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
The process by which the surface of the land, including channels,
is worn away by water, wind, or chemical action.
A site-specific plan identifying BMPs to minimize accelerated
erosion and sedimentation, pursuant to 25 Pa. Code Chapter 102.
A payment of money in place of meeting all or part of the
stormwater performance standards required by this chapter.
Federal Emergency Management Agency.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
The initial or early stages of stormwater runoff from a storm
event which commonly delivers a disproportionately large amount of
previously accumulated pollutants due to the rapid rate of runoff.
The “first flush” is defined as the first 1/2 inch of
direct runoff from the contributing drainage basin.
For a given flood event, that area of land temporarily covered
by water which adjoins a watercourse.
Replenishment of existing natural underground water supplies.
An area where land use or activities generate highly contaminated
runoff, with concentrations of pollutants in excess of those typically
found in stormwater.
A graphical comparison of runoff being discharged from any
particular site (measured in cubic feet per second) on the vertical
axis, versus time (measured as time into the storm event such as hour
1, 2, 3 etc.) on the horizontal axis.
A Natural Resource Conservation Service classification system
in which soils are categorized into four runoff potential groups.
The groups range from A soils, with high permeability and little runoff
production, to D soils, which have low permeability rates and produce
much more runoff.
A surface that prevents the percolation of water into the
ground. Impervious surface includes, but is not limited to, any roof,
parking or driveway areas, and any new streets and sidewalks. Any
surface areas designed to initially be gravel or crushed stone shall
be assumed to be impervious surfaces: pavement, sidewalks, driveways,
etc.
A National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit
issued to a commercial industry or group of industries which regulates
the pollutant level associated with industrial stormwater discharges
or specifies on-site pollution control strategies.
The process of percolating stormwater into the subsoil.
Any structure or device designed to infiltrate retained water
to the subsurface. These facilities may be above grade or below grade.
An area that is inundated or saturated by surface water or
groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support a prevalence
of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions,
commonly known as “hydrophytic vegetation.”
The improvement of one lot or two or more contiguous lots,
tracts or parcels of land for any purpose involving a group of two
or more residential or nonresidential buildings, whether proposed
initially or cumulatively, or a single nonresidential building on
a lot or lots regardless of the number of occupants or tenure, or
the division or allocation of land or space, whether initially or
cumulatively, between or among two or more existing or prospective
occupants by means of or for the purpose of streets, common areas,
leaseholds, condominiums, building groups or other features; or a
subdivision of land; excluding the conversion of an existing single-family
detached dwelling or single-family semidetached dwelling into not
more than three residential units, unless such units are intended
to be a condominium; and the addition of an accessory building, including
farm buildings on a lot or lots subordinate to an existing principal
building.
Any activity which changes the volume or peak flow discharge
rate of rainfall runoff from the land surface. This may include the
building construction, grading, digging, cutting, scraping, or excavating
of soil, placement of fill materials, paving, construction, substantial
removal of vegetation, or any activity which bares soil or rock or
involves the diversion or piping of any natural or man-made watercourse.
The legal or beneficial owner of land, including those holding
the right to purchase or lease the land, or any other person holding
proprietary rights in the land.
Site-design approaches and small-scale stormwater management
practices that promote the use of natural systems for infiltration,
evapotranspiration, and reuse of rainwater. LID can be applied to
new development, urban retrofits, and revitalization projects. LID
utilizes design techniques that infiltrate, filter, evaporate, and
store runoff close to its source. Rather than rely on costly large-scale
conveyance and treatment systems, LID addresses stormwater through
a variety of small, cost-effective landscape features located on-site.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
A legally recorded document that acts as a property deed
restriction, and which provides for long-term maintenance of stormwater
management practices.
A conveyance or system of conveyances, including roads with
drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters,
ditches, man-made channels, or storm drains:
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
Owned or operated by a state, city, town, borough, county, parish,
district, association, or other public body (created by or pursuant
to state law), including special districts under state law such as
a sewer district, flood-control district or drainage district, or
similar entity, or an Indian tribe or an authorized Indian tribal
organization, or a designated and approved management agency under
Section 208 of the Clean Water Act that discharges into waters of
the United States.
Designed or used for collecting or conveying stormwater;
Which is not a combined sewer; and
Which is not part of a publicly owned treatment works (POTW)
as defined at 40 CFR 122.2.
Act 247 of 1968, as amended by Act 170 of 1988, 53 P.S. 10101
et seq.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
Rostraver Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, the federal
government's system for issuance of permits under the Clean Water
Act[2], which is delegated to DEP in Pennsylvania.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
Natural Resources Conservation Service (previously Soil Conservation
Service).
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
A monetary compensation paid to a local government for failure
to meet pollutant load reduction targets.
A stormwater management measure located outside the subject
property boundary described in the permit application for land development
activity.
A stormwater management measure located within the subject
property boundary described in the permit application for land development
activity.
A drainage element in which stormwater flows with an open
surface. Open channels include, but shall not be limited to, natural
and man-made drainageways, swales, streams, ditches, canals, and pipes
flowing partly full (for computational purposes).
"Point source" as described in 40 CFR § 122.2 at the
point where the municipality storm sewer system discharges to surface
waters of the commonwealth. Also, the point, location, or structure
where drainage discharges from a sewer, drain or other conduit as
well as the conduit leading to the ultimate discharge point.
[Amended 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
The means of controlling the relationship between the head-water
elevation and the discharge, placed at the outlet or downstream end
of any structure through which water may flow.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
Flooding that occurs for a variety of reasons all stemming
from excessive stormwater runoff, including too much rain in too little
time, added impervious development, change in land use, malfunction
or clogging of existing stormwater systems.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
The maximum rate of stormwater runoff from a specific storm
event.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
Maximum flow.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
An individual, partnership, association, corporation or other
entity.
Any material or surface that allows water to pass through
at a rate equal to or greater than natural ground cover.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
Any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including,
but not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, or conduit from
which stormwater is or may be discharged, as defined in state regulations
at 25 Pa. Code § 92.1.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
A plan required by the MS4 permit to calculate existing pollutants
of concern and the minimum reduction in loading from stormwater discharges,
and to select the best management practices to achieve the minimum
reductions.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
The specific tract of land where any land development in
the municipality is planned, conducted or maintained.
The replenishment of underground water reserves.
Any construction, alteration or improvement exceeding 1,000
square feet in areas where existing land use is high-density commercial,
industrial, institutional or multifamily residential, such as building
additions, or increased impervious surface areas.
The percentage of existing conditions' peak rate of runoff
from a site or subarea to which the proposed conditions' peak rate
of runoff must be reduced to protect downstream areas.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
The watershed factor determined by comparing the maximum
rate of runoff from a subbasin to the contributing rate of runoff
to the watershed peak rate at specific points of interest.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
Any activity that involves withdrawing materials from the
natural environment.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
A practice designed to store stormwater runoff by collection
as a permanent pool of water without release except by means of evaporation,
infiltration, or attenuated release when runoff volume exceeds storage
capacity of the permanent pool.
A pond basin, usually enclosed by artificial dikes, that
is used to retard stormwater runoff by temporarily storing the runoff
and releasing it at a predetermined rate.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
The volume of runoff that is captured and not released directly
into the surface waters of this commonwealth during or immediately
after a storm event.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
The average interval in years over which an event of a given
magnitude can be expected to recur.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
A permanent area of native vegetation, including herbaceous
material, shrubs and/or trees located adjacent to streams, lakes,
ponds, and wetlands.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
A combination of large stone, cobbles and boulders used to
line channels, stabilize stream banks, and reduce runoff velocities.
Earth-disturbance activities within the existing road cross-section,
such as grading and repairing existing unpaved road surfaces, cutting
road banks, cleaning, or clearing drainage ditches and other similar
activities.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
Any part of precipitation that flows over the land surface.
The surface components of any watershed which affect the
rate, amount, and direction of stormwater runoff. These may include,
but are not limited to, vegetation, soils, slopes, and man-made landscape
alterations.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
Mineral or organic solid material that is being transported
or has been moved from its site of origin by air, water or ice and
has come to rest.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
The placement, discharge or introduction of sediment into
the waters of the commonwealth.
The process by which mineral or organic matter is accumulated
or deposited by moving water, wind, or gravity.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
A conveyance or system of conveyances (including roads with
drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters,
ditches, man-made channels, or storm drains) primarily used for collecting
and conveying stormwater runoff. Refer to the definition of "MS4."
[Amended 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
Runoff that flows over the ground surface as a thin, even
layer, not concentrated in a channel.
A method of runoff computation developed by SCS, and found
in its publication Urban Hydrology for Small Watersheds, Technical
Release No. 55, SCS, January 1975.
A classification of soils by the Soil Conservation Service
into four runoff categories. The groups range from A soils, which
are very permeable and produce little runoff, to D soils, which are
not very permeable and produce much more runoff.
As defined under state regulations, protection of designated and existing uses (See 25 Pa. Code, Chapters 93 and 96), including:
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
Each stream segment in Pennsylvania has a "designated use," such as "cold water fishery" or "potable water supply," which are listed in 25 Pa. Code Chapter 93. These uses must be protected and maintained, under state regulations.
"Existing uses" are those attained as of November 1975, regardless whether they have been designated in 25 Pa. Code Chapter 93. Regulated earth-disturbance activities must be designed to protect and maintain existing uses and maintain the level of water quality necessary to protect those uses in all streams, and to protect and maintain water quality in special-protection streams.
Water quality involves the chemical, biological and physical
characteristics of surface water bodies. After regulated earth-disturbance
activities are complete, these characteristics can be impacted by
addition of pollutants such as sediment, and changes in habitat through
increased flow volumes and/or rates as a result of changes in land
surface area from those activities. Therefore, permanent discharges
to surface waters must be managed to protect the stream bank, streambed,
and structural integrity of the waterway, to prevent these impacts.
An order issued which requires that all construction activity
on a site be stopped.
Any surface or subsurface facility that stores stormwater
runoff; see definitions of "detention basin" and "retention basin."
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
The average interval in years over which a storm event of
a given precipitation volume can be expected to occur. The magnitude
and temporal distribution of precipitation from a storm event measured
in probability of occurrence (e.g., a five-year storm) and duration
(e.g., 24 hours) used in the design and evaluation of stormwater management
systems. Also see definition of "return period."
[Amended 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
A sewer that carries intercepted surface runoff, street water
and other drainage but excludes domestic sewage and industrial waste.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
The total amount of precipitation reaching the ground surface.
The use of structural or nonstructural practices that are
designed to reduce stormwater runoff pollutant loads, discharge volumes,
and/or peak flow discharge rates.
A stormwater management practice designed for an existing
development site that previously had either no stormwater management
practice in place or a practice inadequate to meet the stormwater
management requirements of the site.
Flow on the surface of the ground, resulting from precipitation.
A stream of water; river; brook; creek; or a channel or ditch
for water, whether natural or man-made.
As defined under state regulations, protection of designated and existing uses (See 25 Pa. Code Chapters 93 and 96.):
Each stream segment in Pennsylvania has a designated use, such as cold-water fishery or potable water supply, which are listed in Chapter 93. These uses must be protected and maintained, under state regulations.
“Existing uses” are those attained as of November 1975, regardless whether they have been designated in Chapter 93. Land development must be designed to protect and maintain existing uses and maintain the level of water quality necessary to protect those uses in all streams, and to protect and maintain water quality in special protection streams.
Water quality involves the chemical, biological
and physical characteristics of surface water bodies. After land development,
these characteristics can be impacted by addition of pollutants such
as sediment, and changes in habitat through increased flow volumes
and/or rates. Therefore, discharges to surface waters must be designed
and managed to protect the stream bank, streambed and structural integrity
of the waterway, to prevent these impacts.
Region or area bounded peripherally by water parting and
draining to a particular watercourse or body of water.
The plan for managing stormwater runoff throughout a designated
watershed as required by the Pennsylvania Stormwater Management Act
( Act 167), 32 P.S. § 680.1 et seq.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
Any and all rivers, streams, creeks, rivulets, impoundments,
ditches, watercourses, storm sewers, lakes, dammed water, wetlands,
ponds, springs, and all other bodies or channels of conveyance of
surface and underground water, or parts thereof, whether natural or
artificial, within or on the boundaries of this commonwealth.
Areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or
groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and
that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation
typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions, including
swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.
[Added 12-2-2020 by Ord. No. 733]
A permit or other approval issued by Rostraver Township for
construction and/or earth disturbance.
[Added 7-7-2004 by Ord. No. 514]
