<div class="chunk-title">Sec. 31-3. - Definitions.</div>
<div class="chunk-content">
            <p class="p0">
               As used in this chapter, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the following
               definitions apply:
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Accelerated erosion</span> means any increase over the rate of natural erosion as a result of land-disturbing
               activity.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Act</span> means the North Carolina Sedimentation Pollution Control Act of 1973 as it may be
               amended and all rules and orders adopted pursuant to it.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Adequate erosion control measure, structure, or device</span> means one which controls the soil material within the land area under responsible
               control of the person conducting the land-disturbing activity.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Affiliate</span> means a person that directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries controls,
               is controlled by, or is under common control of another person.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Approving authority</span> means the division or other state or a local government agency that has been delegated
               erosion and sedimentation plan review responsibilities in accordance with the provisions
               of the Act.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Being conducted</span> means a land-disturbing activity has been initiated and has not been deemed completed
               by the approving authority.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Borrow</span> means fill material that is required for on-site construction that is obtained from
               other locations.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Buffer zone</span> means the strip of land adjacent to a lake or natural watercourse.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Catawba County</span> or <span class="ital">the county</span> means the staff members of the Catawba County Utilities and Engineering Department
               or any agents, officials or other qualified personnel of the county who are authorized
               to enforce the provisions of this chapter.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Coastal counties</span> mean the following counties: Beaufort, Bertie, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Chowan,
               Craven, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hertford, Hyde, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank,
               Pender, Perquimans, Tyrell, and Washington.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Commission</span> means the North Carolina Sedimentation Control Commission.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Completion of construction or development</span> means that no further land-disturbing activity is required on a phase of a project
               except that which is necessary for establishing a permanent ground cover.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Department</span> means the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Development</span> means any manmade change to improved or unimproved real estate, including but not
               limited to buildings or other structures, mining, dredging, filling grading, paving,
               excavation, or drilling operations or storage of equipment or materials.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Director</span> means the director of the division of energy mineral and land resources of the department
               of environmental quality.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Discharge point</span> or <span class="ital">point of discharge</span> means that point where runoff leaves a tract of land where a land-disturbing activity
               has occurred or enters a lake or natural watercourse.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">District</span> means the 2nd Soil and Water Conservation District created pursuant to G.S. ch. 139.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Energy dissipater</span> means a structure or shaped channel section with mechanical armoring placed at the
               outlet of pipes or conduits to receive and break down the energy from high velocity
               flow.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Erosion</span> means the wearing away of land surfaces by the action of wind, water, gravity, or
               any combination thereof.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Financially responsible owner (FRO)</span> means the person financially responsible for the land-disturbing activity being conducted.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Governing body of the county</span> means the Catawba County Board of Commissioners.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Ground cover</span> means any natural vegetative growth of other material which renders the soil surface
               stable against accelerated erosion.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Ground-level improvements</span> means ground-level loading areas, parking areas, patios and other similar ground
               level uses that will not occupy additional volume of the floodplain during times of
               flooding.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">High-quality waters</span> means those classified as such in 15A NCAC 02B .0224, which is herein incorporated
               by reference including subsequent amendments and additions.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">High-quality water (HQW) zones</span> means, for the coastal counties, areas within 575 feet of high-quality waters; and
               for the remainder of the state, areas within one mile and draining to HQWs.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Impervious surface</span> means any material that significantly reduces and prevents natural infiltration of
               water into the soil. Impervious surfaces include, but are not limited to, roofs, patios,
               balconies, decks, streets, parking areas, driveways, sidewalks, and any concrete,
               stone, brick, asphalt, or compacted gravel surface. For purposes of this chapter,
               the effective impervious coverage of certain surfaces listed below is:
               
               <p class="incr1">
                  (1)
                  </p>
               		
               <p class="content2">
                  Asphalt, concrete, crush-and-run gravel, masonry, marl, wood, and other impermeable
                  surfaces which prevent land area from infiltrating stormwater are 100 percent impervious.
                  </p>
               		
               
               <p class="incr1">
                  (2)
                  </p>
               		
               <p class="content2">
                  Porous surfaces which permit direct infiltration of unconcentrated stormwater into
                  ground areas so that the first one-half inch of stormwater infiltrates into the ground
                  are 70 percent impervious.
                  </p>
               		
               
               <p class="incr1">
                  (3)
                  </p>
               		
               <p class="content2">
                  Slatted wood decks that allow the drainage of water through the slats to an unpaved
                  surface below are 50 percent impervious.
                  </p>
               		
               
               <p class="incr1">
                  (4)
                  </p>
               		
               <p class="content2">
                  Ungraveled natural footpaths, water surfaces of swimming pools, and drain fields are
                  zero percent impervious.
                  </p>
               		
               
            <p class="b0">
               All other necessary determinations about impervious surfaces will be based on hydrological
               tests considering existing subgrade soils, slope, rainfall intensity, and rainfall
               duration.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Lake</span> or <span class="ital">natural watercourse</span> means any stream, river, brook, swamp, sound, bay, creek, run, branch, canal, waterway,
               estuary, and any reservoir, lake or pond.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Land-disturbing activity</span> means any use of the land by any person in residential, industrial, educational,
               institutional, or commercial development, highway and road construction maintenance
               that results in a change in the natural cover or topography and that may cause or
               contribute to sedimentation.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Local government</span> means any county, incorporated village, town or city, or any combination of counties,
               incorporated villages, towns, and cities, acting through a joint program pursuant
               to the provisions of the Act.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Natural erosion</span> means the wearing away of the earth surface by water, wind, or other natural agents
               under natural environmental conditions undisturbed by man.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Parent</span> means an affiliate that directly, or indirectly through one or more intermediaries,
               controls another person.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Person</span> means any individual, partnership, firm, association, joint venture, public or private
               corporation, trust, estate, commission, board, public or private institution, utility,
               cooperative, interstate body, or other legal entity.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Person conducting land-disturbing activity</span> means any person who may be held responsible for violation unless expressly provided
               otherwise by this chapter, the Act, or any order adopted pursuant to this chapter
               or the Act.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Person who violates</span> or <span class="ital">violator</span> as used in G.S. 113A-64, means any landowner or other person who has financial or
               operational control over the land-disturbing activity; or who has directly or indirectly
               allowed the activity, and who has failed to comply with any provision of the Act,
               the rules of this chapter or any order or local ordinance adopted pursuant to the
               Act as it imposes a duty upon that person.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Plan</span> means an erosion and sedimentation control plan.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Sediment</span> means solid particulate matter, both mineral and organic, that has been or is being
               transported by water air, gravity, or ice from its site of origin.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Sedimentation</span> means the process by which sediment resulting from acceleration erosion has been
               or is being transported off the site of the land-disturbing activity or into a lake
               or natural watercourse.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Siltation</span> means sediment resulting from accelerated erosion which is settleable or removable
               by properly designed, constructed, and maintained control measures; and which has
               been transported from its point of origin within the site of a land-disturbing activity;
               and which has been deposited, or is in suspension in water.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Storm drainage facilities</span> means the system of inlets, conduits, channels, ditches and appurtenances which serve
               to collect and convey storm water through and from a given drainage area.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Stormwater runoff</span> means the surface flow of water resulting from precipitation in any form.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Subsidiary</span> means an affiliate that is directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries
               controlled by another person.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Sewershed</span> means a drainage area in which sources of sewerage flow by either gravity or pumping
               to reach a common collection point.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Sherrills Ford District</span> includes all lands which carry precipitation in the form of stormwater, via natural
               or manmade conveyances, down slope to the Sherrills Ford sewer line as defined in
               Exhibit 1.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Ten-year storm</span> means a rainfall of an intensity that, based on historical data, is predicted by
               a method acceptable to the approving authority to be equaled or exceeded, on the average,
               once in ten years, and of a duration that will produce the maximum peak rate of runoff
               for the watershed of interest under average antecedent wetness conditions.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Top of bank</span> means, for the purposes of the sewershed district(s), the point on a stream's cross
               section defined by the bank-full elevation or the highest point in elevation immediately
               adjacent to the stream channel, whichever is greater.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Tract</span> means all contiguous land and bodies of water being disturbed or to be disturbed
               as a unit, regardless of ownership.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Twenty-five-year storm</span> means a rainfall of an intensity that, based on historical data, is predicted by
               a method acceptable to the approving authority to be equaled or exceeded on the average
               once in 25 years, and of a duration that which will produce the maximum peak rate
               of runoff for the watershed of interest under average antecedent wetness conditions.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Two-year storm</span> means a rainfall of an intensity that, based on historical data, is predicted by
               a method acceptable to the approving authority to be equaled or exceeded on the average
               once in two years, and of a duration that which will produce the maximum peak rate
               of runoff for the watershed of interest under average antecedent wetness conditions.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Uncovered</span> means the removal of ground cover from, on, or above the soil surface.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Undertaken</span> means the initiating of any activity, or phase of activity, which results or will
               result in a change in the ground cover or topography of a tract of land.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Velocity</span> means the speed of flow through the cross section perpendicular to the direction
               of the main channel at the peak flow of the storm of interest but not exceeding bank
               full flows.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Waste</span> means surplus materials resulting from on-site land-disturbing activities and being
               disposed of at other locations.
               </p>
            <p class="p0">
               <span class="ital">Working days</span> means days exclusive of Saturday and Sunday and state or federal holidays during
               which weather conditions or soil conditions permit land-disturbing activity to be
               undertaken.
               </p>
            <p class="historynote0">
               (Ord. No. 2008-18, 11-17-2008; Ord. No. 2021-10, 10-18-2021)
               </p></div>