§ 1104. Definitions.

Applicant: A person submitting a stormwater management plan for approval.

As-built survey drawings: Drawings specifying the dimensions, location, fixtures, elements, sizes, capacities and operational capabilities of streets and stormwater structures and facilities, and water and sewer systems, as they have been constructed.

Bioretention: A practice to manage and treat stormwater runoff by using a conditioned planting soil bed and planting materials to filter runoff stored within a shallow depression. The method combines physical filtering and adsorption with biological processes.

Channel: A natural or artificial watercourse with a definite bed and banks that conducts continuously or periodically flowing water.

Clean Water Act: The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq.), and any subsequent amendments thereto.

Conservation easement: An agreement between a land owner and the local jurisdiction or other government agency or land trust that permanently protects open space or greenspace on the owner's land by limiting the amount and type of development that can take place, but continues to leave the remainder of the fee interest in private ownership.

Construction activity: Activities subject to the Georgia Erosion and Sedimentation Control Act or NPDES general construction permits. These include construction projects resulting in land disturbance. Such activities include but are not limited to clearing and grubbing, grading, excavating, and demolition.

Conveyance: An aboveground or underground natural or man-made drainage feature, that provides for the collection and movement of stormwater, and shall include but not be limited to concrete or metal pipes, ditches, depressions, swales, roads with drainage systems, highways, county streets, curbs, gutters, inlets, catch basins, piped storm drains, pumping facilities, structural stormwater controls, drainage channels, reservoirs, rights-of-way, storm drains, culverts, street gutters, oil/water separators, modular pavements and other similar drainage structures.

County: Jackson County and its departments, employees and agents as may have duties and responsibilities for administering and enforcing all stormwater management activities and implementation of the provisions of this article.

County separate storm sewer system: Any conveyance of system of conveyances which is: owned or operated by the county; not a combined sewer; and not part of a publicly owned treatment works.

Detention: The temporary storage of stormwater runoff in a stormwater management facility for the purpose of controlling peak discharge.

Detention facility: A retention basin or structure designed for temporary storage of stormwater runoff and gradual release of stored water at controlled rates.

Developer: A person who undertakes land development activities.

Development: A land development or land development project; the term "development" also encompasses "redevelopment."

Drainage: A general term applied to the removal of surface or subsurface water from a given area either by gravity or by pumping; most commonly applied to surface water.

Drainage easement: An easement appurtenant or attached to a tract or parcel of land allowing the owner of adjacent tracts or other persons to discharge stormwater runoff onto the tract or parcel of land subject to the terms of the drainage easement.

Drainage structure: A device composed of a virtually non-erodible material such as concrete, steel, plastic or other such material that conveys water from one place to another by intercepting the flow and carrying it to a release point for stormwater management, drainage control or flood control purposes.

Drainage system: The surface and subsurface system for the removal of water from the land, including both the natural elements of streams, marshes, swales and ponds, whether of an intermittent or continuous nature, and the man-made element which includes culverts, ditches, channels, detention facilities and the storm sewer system.

Dry well: A small excavated pit backfilled with aggregate, usually pea gravel or stone. Dry wells function as infiltration systems used to control runoff from building rooftops. Another special application of dry wells is modified catch basins, where inflow is a form of direct surface runoff. Dry wells provide the majority of treatment by processes related to soil infiltration, including absorption, trapping, filtering, and bacterial degradation.

Erosion and sedimentation control plan: A plan designed to minimize the accelerated erosion and sediment runoff at a site during land disturbance activities.

Extended detention: The detention of stormwater runoff for an extended period, typically 24 hours or greater.

Extreme flood protection: Measures employed to prevent adverse impacts from large low-frequency storm events with a return frequency of 100 years or more.

Filter strip: Typically, a band of close-growing vegetation, usually grass, planted between pollutant source areas and a downstream receiving waterbody. Vegetation can filter sediment from runoff. Thus grass strips can be used to remove sediment from surface runoff. Vegetation also slows the velocity of runoff and helps maintain the infiltration capacity of a soil.

Flooding: A volume of surface water that is too great to be confined within the banks or walls of a conveyance or stream channel and that overflows onto adjacent lands.

Georgia Stormwater Management Manual: A three-volume set which provides policy and technical details to implement this article. The manual may be revised from time to time but at the time this article is adopted includes: Volume 1: Local Government Guide (2016 Editions); Volume 2: Technical Handbook (2016 Edition); and Volume 3; Pollution Prevention Guidebook (2012).

Greenspace or open space: Permanently protected areas of a site that are preserved in a natural, undisturbed state. Greenspace encompasses "open space."

Hotspot: Any area where the use of the land has the potential to generate highly contaminated runoff characterized by concentrations of pollutants in excess of those typically found in stormwater.

Hydrologic soil group (HSG): A natural resource conservation service classification system in which soils are categorized into four runoff potential groups. The groups range from "group a" soils, with high permeability and little runoff produced, to "group d" soils, which have low permeability rates and produce significantly more runoff.

Impervious cover: A surface composed of any material that significantly impedes or prevents the natural infiltration of water into soil. Impervious surfaces include, but are not limited to, rooftops, buildings, streets and roads, and any concrete or asphalt surface.

Industrial stormwater permit: A National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit issued to an industry or group of industries that regulates the pollutant levels associated with industrial stormwater discharges or specifies on-site pollution control strategies.

Infiltration: The process by which stormwater runoff percolates into the subsoil.

Infiltration trench: An excavated trench that has been back-filled with stone to form a subsurface basin. Stormwater runoff is diverted into the trench and is stored until it can be infiltrated into the soil, usually over a period of several days. An infiltration trench may include pretreatment such as vegetated filter strips or grassed swales.

Inspection and maintenance agreement: A written agreement providing for the long-term inspection and maintenance of stormwater management facilities and practices on a site or, with respect to a land development project, which when properly recorded in the deed records constitutes a restriction on the title to a site or other land involved in a land development project.

Jurisdictional wetland: 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.

Land development: Any alteration to the land including, but not limited to, clearing, cutting, digging, grubbing, stripping, removal of vegetation, dredging, grading, excavating, transporting and filling of land, construction, paving and any installation of impervious cover.

Land development activities: Those actions or activities that comprise, facilitate or result in land development.

Land development project: A specific land development undertaking.

Level spreader: Typically, an outlet designed to convert concentrated runoff to sheet flow and disperse it uniformly across a slope to prevent erosion. Level spreaders can be used to convey sheet flow runoff from lawn areas within graded areas to bioretention facilities and transition areas.

Low-impact development (LID): The integration of site ecological and environmental goals and requirements into all phases of urban planning and design from the individual lot level to the entire watershed. In the context of this article, low-impact development is a set of stormwater design practices that are non-structural stormwater controls, specifically stormwater better site design practices.

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) stormwater discharge permit: A permit issued by the Georgia EPD under authority delegated pursuant to 33 USC § 1342(b) that authorizes the discharge of pollutants to waters of the United States, whether the permit is applicable on an individual, group, or general area-wide basis.

Natural, undisturbed conditions: For redevelopment projects or where there are no flooding concerns, this term shall mean the condition of the site immediately prior to the implementation of the proposed project.

New development: A land development activity on a previously undisturbed site that has been maintained in a natural state.

Nonpoint source pollution: A form of water pollution that does not originate from a discrete point such as a sewage treatment plant or industrial plant discharge, but involves the transport of pollutants such as sediment, fertilizers, pesticides, heavy metals, oil, grease, bacteria, organic materials and other contaminants from land to surface water and groundwater via mechanisms such as precipitation, stormwater runoff and leaching. Nonpoint source pollution is a by-product of land use practices such as agricultural, silvicultural, mining, construction and subsurface disposal as well as from urban runoff sources.

Nonstructural stormwater management practice or nonstructural practice: Any natural or planted vegetation or other nonstructural component of the stormwater management plan that enhances stormwater quantity and/or quality control or other stormwater management benefits and includes, but is not limited to, riparian buffers, greenspace areas, overland flow filtration areas, natural basins and vegetated channels.

Off-site facility: A stormwater management facility located outside the boundaries of a development site.

On-site facility: A stormwater management facility located within the boundaries of a development site.

Overbank flood protection: Measures employed to prevent an increase in the frequency and magnitude of out-of-bank flooding, that is, flow events that exceed the capacity of the channel and enter the floodplain. Such measures are intended to protect downstream properties from flooding during a two-year through 25-year frequency storm events.

Owner: The legal or beneficial owner of a site including, but not limited to, a mortgagee or vendee in possession, receiver, executor, trustee, lessee or other person, firm or corporation in control of the site.

Permeable: Soil or other material that allows the infiltration or passage of water or other liquids.

Permit: The permit issued by Jackson County to an applicant that is required for conducting any land development activity.

Person: Except to the extent exempted from this article, any individual, partnership, firm, association, joint venture, public or private corporation, trust, estate, commission, board, public or private institution, utility, cooperative, city, county or other political subdivision of the state, any interstate body or any other legal entity.

Pollutant: Anything that causes or contributes to pollution. Pollutants may include, but are not limited to: paints, varnishes, and solvents; petroleum hydrocarbons; automotive fluids; cooking grease; detergents (biodegradable or otherwise); degreasers; cleaning chemicals; non-hazardous liquid and solid wastes and yard wastes; refuse, rubbish, garbage, litter, or other discarded or abandoned objects and accumulations, so that same may cause or contribute to pollution; floatables; pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers; liquid and solid wastes; process waste water and wash water; sewage, fecal coliform and pathogens; dissolved and particulate metals; animal wastes; wastes and residues that result from constructing a building or structure; concrete and cement; and noxious or offensive matter of any kind.

Pollution: The man-made or man-induced alteration of the chemical, physical, biological, thermal and radiological integrity of water.

Post-development: The period, or conditions that may reasonably be expected to exist, following completion of land development activity on a site as the context may require.

Pre-development: The period, or conditions that exist on a site, prior to commencement of a land development project and at the time that plans for development of a site are approved by Jackson County. Where phased development or plan approval occurs, for example, preliminary grading and installation of roads and utilities, the existing site conditions at the time prior to commencement of any development activity shall establish pre-development conditions.

Premises: Any building, lot, parcel of and/or portion of land whether improved or unimproved, including adjacent sidewalks and parking strips.

Project: A land development project.

Redevelopment: A land development project on a previously developed site, but excluding ordinary maintenance, remodeling of existing buildings, resurfacing of paved areas, and exterior alterations or improvements that do not materially increase or concentrate stormwater runoff or cause additional nonpoint source pollution.

Regional stormwater management facility or regional facility: Stormwater management facilities designed to control stormwater runoff from multiple properties where the owners or developers of the individual properties may assist in financing the facility and the requirement for on-site stormwater management facilities is either eliminated or reduced.

Runoff: Stormwater runoff.

Site: A parcel of land being developed or the portion thereof on which a land development project is located.

Stormwater better site design: Nonstructural site design approaches and techniques that can reduce the impact of a site on the watershed and can provide for nonstructural stormwater management. Stormwater better site design includes conserving and protecting natural areas and greenspace, reducing impervious cover and using natural features for stormwater management.

Stormwater credits for better site design: A set of stormwater "credits" can be used to provide developers and site designers an incentive to implement better site design practices that can reduce the volume of stormwater runoff and minimize the pollutant loads from a site. The credit system directly translates into cost savings to the developer by reducing the size of structural stormwater control and conveyance facilities.

Stormwater management: The collection, conveyance, storage, treatment and disposal of stormwater runoff in a manner intended to prevent increased flood damage, stream bank channel erosion and habitat and water quality degradation, and to enhance and promote public health, safety and general welfare.

Stormwater management facility: Any infrastructure that controls or conveys stormwater runoff.

Stormwater management measure: Any stormwater management facility or nonstructural stormwater practice.

Stormwater management plan: A document describing the manner in which existing runoff characteristics will be affected by a land development project and containing measures for complying with the provisions of this article.

Stormwater management system: The full array of structural and nonstructural stormwater management facilities and practices used to capture, convey and control the quantity and quality of the stormwater runoff from a site.

Stormwater retrofit: A stormwater management practice designed for a developed site that previously had either no stormwater management practice in place or a practice inadequate to meet the stormwater management requirements of the site.

Stormwater runoff: The flow of surface water resulting from precipitation.

Structural stormwater control: A structural stormwater management facility or device that controls stormwater runoff and changes the characteristics of that runoff including, but not limited to, the quantity and quality, the period of release or the velocity of flow of such runoff.

Subdivision: The division of a tract or parcel of land resulting in one or more new lots or building sites for the purpose, whether immediately or in the future, of sale, other transfer of ownership or land development, and includes divisions of land resulting from or made in connection with the layout or development of a new street or roadway or a change in an existing street or roadway.

Swale: An open drainage channel designed to detain or infiltrate stormwater runoff. Grassed swales consist of two types: the dry swale, which provides both quantity (volume) and quality control by facilitating stormwater infiltration; and the wet swale, which uses residence time and natural growth to reduce peak discharge and provide water quality treatment before discharge to a downstream location.

(Ord. No. 17-003 , § 1, 10-2-2017)