§ 2106. Definitions.

Accidental discharge: A discharge prohibited by this article which occurs by chance and without planning or thought prior to occurrence.

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

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 such of 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.

Discharge: The direct or indirect release of water, fluid, materials or other matter to a conveyance or surface that drains to a conveyance.

Illicit discharge: Any direct or indirect non-stormwater discharge to the county's separate storm sewer systems, except as exempted in this article.

Illegal connection: Any of the following:

1.

Any pipe, open channel, drain or other conduit, whether natural or man-made, which is used exclusively to drain a non-stormwater discharge to the county's separate storm sewer system; or

2.

Any pipe, open channel, drain or other conduit, whether natural or man-made, that was designed, installed or redirected for the purpose of draining a non-stormwater discharge into the county's separate storm sewer system; or

3.

Any pipe, open channel, drain or other conduit, whether natural or man-made, which is connected to the county separate storm sewer system and which has not been documented in plans, maps, or equivalent records and approved by the county regardless of whether such pipe, open channel, drain or other conduit, whether natural or man-made, was permissible under law or practices applicable or prevailing at the time the connection was made, or has been previously allowed, permitted, or approved by the county or any other authorized enforcement agency.

"Illegal connection" expressly includes, without limitation, those connections made in the past.

Industrial activity: Activities subject to NPDES Industrial Permits as defined in 40 CFR, section 122.26(b)(14).

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) storm water 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.

Non-stormwater discharge: Any discharge to the storm drain system that is not composed entirely of stormwater.

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 which 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; 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 contamination or other alteration of any water's physical, chemical or biological properties by the addition of any constituent and includes but is not limited to, a change in temperature, taste, color, turbidity, or odor of such waters, or the discharge of any liquid, gaseous, solid, radioactive, or other substance into any such waters as will or is likely to create a nuisance or render such waters harmful, detrimental or injurious to the public health, safety, welfare, or environment, or to domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, recreational, or other legitimate beneficial uses, or to livestock, wild animals, birds, fish or other aquatic life.

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

Separate storm sewer system: Any facility designed or used for collecting and/or conveying stormwater, including but not limited to any roads with drainage systems, highways, county streets, curbs, gutters, inlets, catch basins, piped storm drains, pumping facilities, structural stormwater controls, ditches, swales, natural and man-made or altered drainage channels, reservoirs, and other drainage structures, and which is: owned or maintained by Jackson County; not a combined sewer; and not part of a publicly-owned treatment works.

State waters: Any and all rivers, streams, creeks, branches, lakes, reservoirs, ponds, drainage systems, springs, wells, and other bodies of surface and subsurface water, natural or artificial, lying within or forming a part of the boundaries of the State of Georgia which are not entirely confined and retained completely upon the property of a single person.

Stormwater runoff or stormwater: Any surface flow, runoff, and drainage consisting entirely of water from any form of natural precipitation, and resulting from such 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.

(Ord. No. 17-003 , § 1, 10-2-2017)