§ 86.523. Definitions.

Authorized enforcement agency— Employees or designees of the City Manager of the City of San Marcos or the Director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) or the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have authority to enforce this division and/or the TPDES regulations. Authorized individual(s) shall have the authority to enforce this division in its entirety and shall be designated as a stormwater systems manager and/or inspector.

Best Management Practices (BMPs)— Schedule of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, structural controls, local ordinances, and other management practices to prevent or reduce the discharge of pollutants. BMPs also include treatment practices, operating procedures, and practices to control runoff, spills or leaks, waste disposal, or drainage from raw materials storage areas.

Coal tar pavement product— A material that contains coal tar and is used on an asphalt or concrete surface, including driveway and parking areas.

Construction activity— Includes land disturbance activity, such as demolition, clearing, grading, and excavating; and does not include routine maintenance that is performed to maintain the original line and grade, hydraulic capacity, or original purpose of the site (e.g., the routine grading of existing dirt roads, asphalt overlays of existing roads, the routine clearing of existing right-of-ways, and similar maintenance activities).

Small construction activity is construction activity that results in land disturbance equal to or greater than one acre and less than five acres of land. Small construction activity also includes the disturbance of less than one acre of total land area that is part of a larger common plan of development or sale if the larger common plan will ultimately disturb equal to or greater than one and less than five acres of land.

Large construction activity is construction activity that results in land disturbance of equal to or greater than five acres of land. Large construction activity also includes the disturbance of less than five acres of total land area that is part of a larger common plan of development or sale if the larger common plan will ultimately disturb equal to or greater than five acres of land.

Conveyance— Curbs, gutters, man-made channels and ditches, drains, pipes, and other constructed features designed or used for flood control or to otherwise transport stormwater runoff.

Development— Initiation of any activities related to the subdivision or platting of land or construction of buildings or structures, the construction of impervious surfaces, the installation of utilities, roadways, drainage facilities or other infrastructure; the demolition of buildings or structures, the making of improvements or any disturbance of the surface or subsurface of the land in preparation for such construction activities, including without limitation removal of vegetation, grading, clearing, filling, or removal of soil.

EPA— The United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Final stabilization— The status when all soil disturbing activities at a site have been completed and a perennial vegetative cover with a density of 70 percent, evenly distributed, has been established on areas not covered by hardscape or permanent structures. Where vegetative controls are not feasible due to drought conditions, the operator shall immediately install non-vegetative erosion controls within 14 calendar days of a temporary or permanent cessation of work in any portion of the site.

Hazardous materials— Any item or agent (biological, chemical, physical) that has the potential to cause harm to humans, animals, or the environment, either by itself or through interaction with other factors.

Illicit connection— Any man-made conveyance connecting an illicit discharge directly to a municipal separate storm sewer.

Illicit discharge— Any discharge to a municipal separate storm sewer that is not entirely composed of stormwater, except discharges pursuant to a TPDES stormwater general permit or a separate authorization and discharges exempted in section 86.526, prohibition of illicit connections, of this division.

Land disturbance activity— Any activity which changes the volume or discharge rate of stormwater runoff from the land surface. This includes grading, digging, cutting, scraping, demolition, or excavating of soil, placement of fill materials, paving, construction, removal of vegetation, or any activity which bares soil or rock or involves the diversion or piping of any natural or man-made watercourse.

Maintenance agreement— A formal contract between a local government and a property owner to guarantee long-term maintenance of stormwater management practices.

Municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4)— A drainage conveyance or system of drainage conveyances (including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels, or storm drains):

(1)

That is owned or operated by the U.S., a state, city, town, borough, county, parish, district, association, or other public body (created by or pursuant to state law) having jurisdiction over the disposal of sewage, industrial wastes, stormwater, or other wastes, including special district, or similar entity, or an Indian tribal or an authorized Indian tribal organization, or a designated and approved management agency under the CWA § 208 that discharges to surface water in the state;

(2)

That is designed or used for collecting or conveying stormwater;

(3)

That is not a combined sewer; and

(4)

That is not part of a publicly owned treatment works (POTW) as defined in 40 CFR § 122.2.

Operator— The person or persons associated with a large or small construction activity that is either a primary or secondary operator as defined below:

(1)

Primary operator— The person or persons associated with a large or small construction activity that meets either of the following two criteria:

a.

The person or persons have on-site operational control over construction plans and specifications, including the ability to make modifications to those plans and specifications; or

b.

The person or persons have day-to-day operational control of those activities at a construction site that are necessary to ensure compliance with a storm water pollution prevention plan (SWP3) for the site or other permit conditions (for example, they are authorized to direct workers at a site to carry out activities required by the SWP3 or comply with other permit conditions).

(2)

Secondary operator— The person or entity, often the property owner, whose operational control is limited to:

a.

The employment of other operators, such as a general contractor, to perform or supervise construction activities; or

b.

The ability to approve or disapprove changes to construction plans and specifications, but who does not have day-to-day on-site operational control over construction activities at the site.

Secondary operators must either prepare their own SWP3 or participate in a shared SWP3 that covers the areas of the construction site where they have control over the plans and specifications. If there is not a primary operator at the construction site, then the secondary operator is defined as the primary operator and must comply with the requirements for primary operators.

Person— Any individual, association, organization, partnership, firm, corporation, or other entity recognized by law and acting as either the owner or as the owner's agent.

Pollutant— In accordance with the V.T.C.A. Water Code, § 26.001(13) a pollutant includes the following: Dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, filter backwash, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into any surface water in the state. The term "pollutant" does not include tail water or runoff water from irrigation or rainwater runoff from cultivated or uncultivated rangeland, pastureland, and farmland. For the purpose of this Division, the term "pollutant" also includes sediment.

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

Qualified personnel— Any person with credible certification or training or skills, such as certified erosion, sedimentation and storm water inspector (CESSWI) or certified inspector of sediment and erosion control (CISEC) or equal certification program or as approved by the MS4 operator, that demonstrates proficiency in evaluating, interpreting and implementing best management practices and elements of a storm water pollution prevention plan (SWPPP).

Stormwater and stormwater runoff— Rainfall runoff, snow-melt runoff, and surface runoff and drainage.

Stormwater management— The use of structural or non-structural control practices/BMPs designed to reduce stormwater pollutant runoff, discharge volumes, peak flow discharge rates, and detrimental changes in stream temperature that affect water quality.

Stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWPPP or SWP3)— A document that describes the best management practices and activities to be implemented by the permit holder to identify sources of pollution or contamination at a site and actions to eliminate or reduce pollutant discharges.

Stormwater control practices— Structural or nonstructural measures to minimize stormwater runoff to surface water in the state.

Surface water in the state— Lakes, bays, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, wetlands, marshes, inlets, canals, the Gulf of Mexico inside the territorial limits of the state (from the mean high water mark [MHWM] out 10.36 miles into the Gulf), and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, navigable or non-navigable, and including the beds and banks of all water-courses and bodies of surface water, that are wholly or partially inside or bordering the state or subject to the jurisdiction of the state; except that waters in treatment systems which are authorized by state or federal law, regulation, or permit, and which are created for the purpose of waste treatment are not considered to be water in the state.

TCEQ— Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Stormwater (TPDES) Discharge Permit— A permit issued by the TCEQ, under the authority of V.T.C.A. Water Code §§ 26.027 or 26.040 that authorizes the discharge of pollutants into or adjacent water in the state. The TPDES program is administered under the authority delegated pursuant to 33 United States Code Section 1342(b).

Unauthorized discharge— Any direct or indirect non-stormwater discharge to the storm drain system except as exempted in section 86.526 prohibition of illicit connections of this division.

Water pollution abatement plan (WPAP)— The state required plan that is described in 30 Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 213 for identifying and implementing appropriate measures to reduce pollutants in stormwater discharges into identified sensitive areas of the Edwards Aquifer. The TCEQ TPDES Construction General Permit TXR150000 identifies the requirement of protective measures of the Edwards Aquifer.

( Ord. No. 2016-12, § 4, 5-3-16 )