Purpose: This web site has been authorized by the Palm Beach County MS4 NPDES (PBC NPDES) Steering Committee as a resource for all co-permittees within the county. It is intended that this site will provide the user with helpful information on understanding and complying with the requirements of the NPDES permit.

PBC NPDES Definitions

The following definitions are from the Palm Beach County NPDES Permit as issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. All definitions contained in Section 502 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) apply to the permit and are incorporated herein by reference.

| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

B

Best Management Practices (BMPs) means schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to prevent or reduce the pollution of waters of the United States.  BMPs also include treatment requirements, operating procedures, and practices to control facility site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw material storage.

Bypass means the intentional diversion of waste streams from any portion of a treatment facility, which is not a designed or established operating mode for the facility.

C

CWA means Clean Water Act, also referred to as "the Act" (formerly referred to as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act or Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972) Pub.L. 92-500, as amended Pub. L. 95-217, Pub. L. 95-576, Pub. L. 6-483 and Pub. L. 97-117, 33 U.S.C. 1251 et.seq., as amended by the WQA of 1987, P.L. 100-4, the "Act."

D

Director means the EPA Regional Administrator or an authorized representative.

Discharge for the purpose of this permit, unless indicated otherwise, refers to discharges from the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4).

E

F

Flow-weighted composite sample means a composite sample consisting of a mixture of aliquots collected at a constant time interval, where the volume of each aliquot is proportional to the flow rate of the discharge at the time of sampling.

G

H

High risk facilities for the purpose of this permit, refers to any of the following:  a) operating and closed municipal landfills; b) hazardous waste treatment, storage, disposal or recovery facilities; c) facilities that have reported under the requirements of EPCRA Title III, Section 313 and d) any industrial or commercial facilities that the permittee(s) determine are contributing a substantial pollutant loading to the MS4.

I

Illicit connection means any man-made conveyance connecting a non-storm water discharge directly to a municipal separate storm sewer system.

Illicit discharge means any discharge to a municipal separate storm sewer that is not composed entirely of storm water except discharges pursuant to a NPDES permit (other than the NPDES permit for discharges from the municipal separate storm sewer) and other discharges as stipulated in individual permits.

Industrial Land Use means land utilized in connection with manufacturing, processing, or raw materials storage at facilities identified under 40 CFR 122.26(b)(14).

J

K

L

Landfill means an area of land or an excavation in which wastes are placed for permanent disposal, and which is not a land application unit, surface impoundment, injection well, or waste pile.

Large Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System means all municipal separate storm sewers that are either:

1. located in an incorporated place (city) with a population of 250,000 or more as determined by the latest Decennial Census by the Bureau of Census (these cities are listed in Appendices F and G of 40 CFR Part 122); or
2. located in the counties with unincorporated urbanized populations of 250,000 or more, except municipal separate storm sewers that are located in the incorporated places, townships or towns within such counties (these counties are listed in Appendices H and I of 40 CFR Part 122); or
3. owned or operated by a municipality other than those described in paragraph 1 or 2 and that are designated by the Director as part of the large municipal separate storm sewer system.

M

1. located in an incorporated place (city) with a population of 100,000 or more as determined by the latest Decennial Census by the Bureau of Census (these cities are listed in Appendices F and G of 40 CFR Part 122); or
2. located in the counties with unincorporated urbanized populations of 100,000 or more, except municipal separate storm sewers that are located in the incorporated places, townships or towns within such counties (these counties are listed in Appendices H and I of 40 CFR Part 122); or
3. owned or operated by a municipality other than those described in paragraph 1 or 2 and that are designated by the Director as part of the medium municipal separate storm sewer system.

MS4 is an acronym for "Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System" and is used to refer to either a Large or Medium Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (e.g. "the Atlanta MS4").

Municipal is defined to include cities, towns, villages, special districts and water control districts within Palm Beach County covered under this Permit and unincorporated Palm Beach County.

Municipal Separate Storm Sewer means a conveyance, or system of conveyances (including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels, and storm drains):

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, storm water, 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 that discharges to waters of the United States;
2. designed or used for collecting or conveying storm water;
3. which is not a combined sewer; and
4. which is not part of a Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW) as defined at 40 CFR 122.2.

N

O

P

Point Source means any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, landfill leachate collection system, vessel or other floating craft from which pollutants are or may be discharged.  This term does not include return flows from irrigated agriculture or agricultural storm water runoff.

Q

R

S

Severe property damage means substantial physical damage to property, damage to the treatment facility which causes them to become inoperable, or substantial and permanent loss of natural resources which can reasonably be expected to occur in the absence of a bypass.  Severe property damage does not mean economic loss caused by delays in production.

State Water Policy, is the implementing regulation Section 403.0891 of the Florida Statutes specifically under Chapter 62-40, Florida Administrative Code, for design criteria to meet minimum storm water performance treatment standards to address compliance with State water quality standards.

Storm Sewer, unless otherwise indicated, refers to a municipal separate storm sewer.

Storm Water means storm water runoff, snow melt runoff, surface runoff and drainage.

Storm Water Discharge Associated with Industrial Activity is defined at 40 CFR 122.26(b)(14).

Storm Water Management Program refers to a comprehensive program to manage the quality of storm water discharged from the municipal separate storm sewer system.  For the purposes of this permit, the Storm Water Management Program is considered a single document, but may actually consist of separate programs (e.g. "chapters") for each permittee.

Structural Control refers to any storm water device designed and/or used to control storm water flow in order to meet water quality and/or flood criteria including but not limited to levies, dikes, pump stations, spillways, locks, embankments, retention/detention basins, and ponds.

Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program refers to a comprehensive program implemented by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Water Facilities Regulation, which is designed to accomplish the following goals:

1. Identify and document the existing condition of the surface waters of the State,
2. Document potential problem areas,
3. Establish stream ecoregion reference sites for comparison purposes,
4. Collect biological data at ecoregion reference sites to establish preliminary biological integrity measurements techniques, and
5. Establish a Statewide ambient monitoring network which will eliminate duplication, share data, increase efficiency, and improve assessment and management capabilities.

• Ecoregion Subregionalization and the associated stream Community Bioassessment Protocols (CBP) developed for the nonpoint source program,
• Chemistry Trend Network to fulfill the need to evaluate the State's water quality over time,
• Chemistry Status Network with emphasis on water bodies with fair or poor water quality or areas which have not been recently sampled, and
• Lake Ecoregion and Community Bioassessment Projects.

T

Time-weighted composite means a composite sample consisting of a mixture of equal volume aliquots collected at a constant time interval.

U

V

W

Waters of the United States is defined at 40 CFR 122.2.

X

Y

Z