Part VIII. APPENDIX B: Definitions

A. “Agency” or “Agency members” means the Commissioner and the eight persons appointed to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 116.02, subd. 1.

B. “Best Management Practices” or “BMP” means:

1. schedules of activities;

2. prohibitions of practices;

3. maintenance procedures; and

4. other management practices to prevent or reduce the pollution of waters of the state.

BMPs also include:

5. treatment requirements;

6.operating procedures, and

7. practices to control:

a. plant site runoff;

b. spillage or leaks,

c. sludge or waste disposal, or

d. drainage from raw material storage.

C. “Commissioner” means the Commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency or the Commissioner's designee.

D. “Common plan of development or sale” means a contiguous area where multiple separate and distinct construction activities are planned to occur at different times on different schedules under one plan, e.g., a housing development of five one-quarter-acre lots (40 CFR § 122.26(b)(15)(i)).

E. “Discharge” means “Discharge of a pollutant” as defined in Minn. R. 7001.1020, subp 12.

F. “EPA” or “USEPA” means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

G. “Expanded discharge” means a discharge that changes in volume, quality, location, or any other manner after January 1, 1988 or the effective date an outstanding resource value water was designated as described in Minn. R. 7050.0460 and 7050.0470, such that an increased loading of one or more pollutants results. In determining whether an increased loading of one or more pollutants would result from the proposed change in the discharge, the Agency shall compare the loading that would result from the proposed discharge with the loading allowed by the Agency as of January 1, 1988, or the effective date of outstanding resource value water designation. This definition does not apply to the discharge of bioaccumulative chemicals of concern, as defined in Minn. R. 7052.0010, subp. 4, to outstanding resource value waters in the Lake Superior Basin. For purposes of Minn. R. 7050.0180, an expanded discharge of a bioaccumulative chemical of concern to an outstanding resource value water in the Lake Superior Basin is defined in Minn. R. 7052.0010, subp. 18.

H. “Long-term goals” means those goals established in the Permittee’s Stormwater Management Program to be accomplished by the municipal separate storm sewer system. These goals may have various time frame and durations including durations greater than one NPDES permit cycle. For example, Long-term goals may include, but are not limited to, compliance with all TMDLs by January 1, 2025, fifty percent reduction of the annual frequency of street flooding by January 1, 2015; and/or reduction of impervious cover by two percent within two years of the effective date of the Stormwater Management Program.

I. “Maximum Extent Practicable” or “MEP” is the statutory standard (33 U.S.C. § 1342(p)(3)(B)(iii)) that establishes the level of pollutant reductions that an Owner or Operator of regulated municipal separate storm sewer system must achieve. The USEPA has intentionally not provided a precise definition of MEP to allow maximum flexibility in municipal separate storm sewer system permitting. The pollutant reductions that represent MEP may be different for each municipal separate storm sewer system, given the unique local hydrologic and geologic concerns that may exist and the differing possible pollutant control strategies. Therefore, the Permittee will determine appropriate BMPs to satisfy each of the Minimum Control Measures through an evaluative process. The USEPA envisions application of the MEP standard as an iterative process.

J. “MPCA” means the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

K. “MS4” means a municipal separate storm sewer system.

L. “Municipal separate storm sewer system” means a conveyance or system of conveyances (including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels, or storm drains) that is:

1. owned or operated by a state, city, town, borough, county, parish, district, association, or other public body (created by or pursuant to state law) having jurisdiction over disposal of sewage, industrial wastes, stormwater, or other wastes, including special districts under state law such as a sewer district, flood control district or drainage district, or similar entity, or an Indian tribe or an authorized Indian tribal organization, or a designated and approved management Agency under section 208 of the CWA ((33 U.S.C. § 1288) that discharges to waters of the United States;

2. designed or used for collecting or conveying stormwater;

3. not a combined sewer; and

4. not part of a Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW) as defined at 40 CFR § 122.2.

M. “New discharge” means, for all waters that are not outstanding resource value waters, a discharge that was not in existence before January 1, 1988. For outstanding resource value waters new discharge means a discharge that was not in existence on the effective date the outstanding resource value water was designated as described in Minn. R. 7050.0460 and 7050.0470.

N. “Newspaper” means a publication containing news of general interest (in the vicinity of the municipal separate storm sewer system). Newspaper can include other publications if the distribution includes the general population of potentially interested parties.

O. “Other regulatory mechanism” means any legally enforceable document, such as a contract or other agreement that has penalties such as withholding payments, fines, or other measures to prevent noncompliance.

P. “Operator” means the person with primary operational control and legal responsibility for the municipal separate storm sewer system.

Q. “Outfall” means the point where a municipal separate storm sewer system discharges from a pipe, ditch, or other discrete conveyance to waters of the state, or other municipal separate storm sewer system. It does not include diffuse runoff or conveyances which connect segments of the same stream or other water systems.

R. “Owner” means the person that owns the municipal separate storm sewer system.

S. “Person” means the state or any agency or institution thereof, any municipality, governmental subdivision, public or private corporation, individual, partnership, or other entity, including, but not limited to, association, commission, or any interstate body, and includes any officer or governing or managing body of any municipality, governmental subdivision, or public or private corporation, or other entity.

T. “Physical alteration” means the dredging, filling, draining, or permanent inundating of a wetland. Restoring a degraded wetland by reestablishing its hydrology is not a physical alteration.

U. “Reduce” means reduce to the “Maximum Extent Practicable” unless otherwise defined in the context in which it is used.

V. “Stormwater” means stormwater runoff, snowmelt runoff, surface runoff, and drainage.

W. “Stormwater hotspot” means any land use or activity that may generate a higher concentration of hydrocarbons, trace metals, or toxic pollutants than are found in typical stormwater runoff.

X. “Structural Pollution Control Device” for purposes of this permit means any stationary, permanent, facility or apparatus that is intended to manage and/or treat stormwater runoff.

Y. “Total Maximum Daily Load” or “TMDL” is the process established by the USEPA for the allocation of pollutant loads, including stormwater, to a particular water body or reach of a water body.

Z. “Waters of the state” means all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, reservoirs, aquifers, irrigation systems, drainage systems, and all other bodies or accumulations of water, surface or underground, natural or artificial, public or private, which are contained within, flow through, or border upon the state or any portion thereof.

AA. “Wetlands” are those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. Constructed wetlands designed for wastewater treatment are not waters of the state. Wetlands shall have the following attributes:

1. a predominance of hydric soils;

2. inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support a prevalence of hydrophytic vegetation typically adapted for life in a saturated soil condition; and

3. under normal circumstances, support a prevalence of such vegetation.