§ 7.5-243. Definitions.

The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

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

City means the City of Cartersville, Georgia, a municipal corporation of the State of Georgia.

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

Construction activity means 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.

Illicit discharge means any direct or indirect non-stormwater discharge to the municipal separate storm sewer system, except as exempted in section 7.5-244(a)(1)—(3) of this article.

Illegal connection means either of the following:

(a)

Any pipe, open channel, drain or conveyance, whether on the surface or subsurface, which allows an illicit discharge to enter the storm drain system including but not limited to any conveyances which allow any non-stormwater discharge including sewage, process wastewater, and wash water to enter the storm drain system, regardless of whether such pipe, open channel, drain or conveyance has been previously allowed, permitted, or approved by an authorized enforcement agency; or

(b)

Any pipe, open channel, drain or conveyance connected to the municipal separate storm sewer system which has not been documented in plans, maps, or equivalent records and approved by an authorized enforcement agency.

Industrial activity means activities subject to NPDES Industrial Permits as defined in 40 CFR, Section 122.26 (b)(14).

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Stormwater Discharge Permit means 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.

Municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) means any facility designed or used for collecting and/or conveying stormwater, including but not limited to any roads with drainage systems, highways, municipal streets, curbs, gutters, inlets, catch basins, piped storm drains, pumping facilities, structural stormwater controls, ditches, swales, natural and manmade or altered drainage channels, reservoirs, and other drainage structures, and which is:

(a)

Owned or maintained by the City of Cartersville;

(b)

Not a combined sewer; and

(c)

Not part of a publicly-owned treatment works.

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

Person means, 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 means 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 means 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 mean any building, lot, parcel of land, or portion of land whether improved or unimproved including adjacent sidewalks and parking strips.

State waters means 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 means any surface flow, runoff, and drainage consisting entirely of water from any form of natural precipitation, and resulting from such precipitation.

Structural stormwater control means 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. 51-06, § 1, 8-3-06)