This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Schuylkill River Watershed Stormwater Management Ordinance."
The governing body of the municipality finds that:
A. 
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 floodplain management and flood reduction efforts in upstream and downstream communities, reduces groundwater recharge, and threatens public health and safety.
B. 
Inadequate planning and management of stormwater runoff resulting from land development and redevelopment 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 stream banks, 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.
C. 
A comprehensive program of stormwater management (SWM), including minimization of impacts of development, redevelopment and activities causing accelerated erosion, is fundamental to the public health, safety, welfare, and the protection of the people of the municipality and all the people of the commonwealth, their resources, and the environment.
D. 
Inadequate management of accelerated stormwater runoff resulting from development throughout a watershed poses a threat to surface and groundwater quality.
E. 
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.
F. 
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, minimizing impervious surfaces and sprawl, avoiding sensitive areas (i.e., stream buffers, floodplains, steep slopes), and designing to topography and soils to maintain the natural hydrologic regime.
G. 
Public education on the control of pollution from stormwater is an essential component in successfully addressing stormwater.
H. 
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).
I. 
Nonstormwater discharges to municipal separate storm sewer systems can contribute to pollution of waters of the commonwealth by the municipality.
The purpose of this chapter is to promote the public health, safety, and welfare within the Schuylkill River Watershed by maintaining the natural hydrologic regime by minimizing the impacts described in § 398-2 through provisions designed to:
A. 
Promote alternative project designs and layout that minimizes impacts to surface and groundwater.
B. 
Promote nonstructural best management practices (BMPs).
C. 
Minimize increases in stormwater volume.
D. 
Minimize impervious surfaces.
E. 
Manage accelerated runoff and erosion and sedimentation problems at their source by regulating activities that cause these problems.
F. 
Provide review procedures and performance standards for stormwater planning and management.
G. 
Utilize and preserve the existing natural drainage systems.
H. 
Manage stormwater impacts close to the runoff source, which requires a minimum of structures and relies on natural processes.
I. 
Focus on infiltration of stormwater, to maintain groundwater recharge, to prevent degradation of surface and groundwater quality and to otherwise protect water resources.
J. 
Maintain existing base flows and quality of streams and watercourses, where possible.
K. 
Meet legal water quality requirements under state law, including regulations at 25 Pa. Code § 93.4a to protect and maintain "existing uses" and maintain the level of water quality to support those uses in all streams, and to protect and maintain water quality in special protection streams.
L. 
Address the quality and quantity of stormwater discharges from the development site.
M. 
Provide a mechanism to identify controls necessary to meet the NPDES permit requirements.
N. 
Implement an illegal discharge detection and elimination program to address nonstormwater discharges into the municipality's separate storm sewer system.
O. 
Preserve and restore the flood-carrying capacity of streams.
P. 
Prevent scour and erosion of stream banks and streambeds.
Q. 
Provide performance standards and design criteria for watershed-wide stormwater management and planning.
R. 
Provide proper operation and maintenance of all permanent stormwater management facilities and BMPs that are implemented in the municipality.
The municipality is empowered to regulate land use activities that affect runoff, surface and groundwater quality and quantity by the authority of:
A. 
The 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").
B. 
The Water Resources Planning Act of 2002, 27 Pa.C.S.A. § 3101 et seq., as amended.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II).
C. 
The Borough Code, 8 Pa.C.S.A. § 1201 et seq., as amended.[2]
[2]
Editor's Note: Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II).
D. 
The Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC), Act 247, as amended.[3]
[3]
Editor's Note: See 53 P.S. § 10101 et seq.
A. 
This chapter shall apply to those areas of the municipality that are located within the Schuylkill River Watershed, as delineated in Appendix D which is hereby adopted as part of this chapter.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Appendix D is included as an attachment to this chapter.
B. 
This chapter shall only apply to permanent nonstructural and structural stormwater management best management practices (BMPs) constructed as part of any of the regulated activities listed in this section.
C. 
This chapter contains only the stormwater management performance standards and design criteria that are necessary or desirable from a watershed-wide perspective. Local stormwater management design criteria (e.g., inlet spacing, inlet type, collection system design and details, outlet structure design, etc.) shall continue to be regulated by the applicable municipal ordinances and applicable state regulations.
D. 
The following activities are defined as "regulated activities" and shall be regulated by this chapter:
(1) 
Land development.
(2) 
Subdivisions.
(3) 
Alteration of the natural hydrologic regime.
(4) 
Construction or reconstruction of, or additional impervious or semipervious surfaces (driveways, parking lots, roads, etc.).
(5) 
Construction of new buildings or additions to existing buildings.
(6) 
Redevelopment of a site, which will increase runoff or change a discharge point. Any redevelopment that does not increase the runoff must still comply with § 398-12, Nonstructural project design, § 398-13, Groundwater recharge, § 398-14, Water quality requirements, and § 398-15, Stream bank erosion requirements.
(7) 
Diversion piping or encroachments in any natural or man-made channel.
(8) 
Nonstructural and structural stormwater management BMPs or appurtenances thereto.
(9) 
Regulated earth disturbance.[2]
[2]
Editor's Note: 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 which were approved more than five years prior to the effective date of this chapter and resubmitted for municipal approval.
A. 
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.
B. 
Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to affect any of the municipality's requirements regarding stormwater matters which 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.