South Carolina Code of Regulations
Chapter 72 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL-LAND RESOURCES AND CONSERVATION DISTRICTS DIVISION
Article 3 - STANDARDS FOR STORMWATER MANAGEMENT AND SEDIMENT REDUCTION
Section 72-301 - Definitions

1. "Adverse Impact" means a significant negative impact to land, water and associated resources resulting from a land disturbing activity. The negative impact includes increased risk of flooding; degradation of water quality; increased sedimentation; reduced groundwater recharge; negative impacts on aquatic organisms; negative impacts on wildlife and other resources; and threatened public health.

2. "Applicant" means a person, firm, or governmental agency who executes the necessary forms to obtain approval or a permit for a land disturbing activity.

3. "Appropriate Plan Approval Agency" means the Commission, Local Government, or Conservation District that is responsible in a jurisdiction for review and approval of stormwater management and sediment control plans.

4. "As-Built Plans or Record Documents" means a set of engineering or site drawings that delineate the specific permitted stormwater management facility as actually constructed.

5. "Best Management Practices" means a wide range of management procedures, schedules of activities, prohibitions on practices and other management practices which have been demonstrated to effectively control the quality and/or quantity of stormwater runoff and which are compatible with the planned land use.

6. "Certified Construction Inspector" means a person with the responsibility for conducting inspections during construction and maintenance inspections after the land disturbing activity is completed as certified by the Commission.

7. "Certified Plan Reviewer" means a person with the responsibility for reviewing stormwater management and sediment control plans for an appropriate plan approval agency as certified by the Commission.

8. "Commission" means the South Carolina Land Resources Conservation Commission.

9. "Delegation" means the acceptance of responsibility by a Local Government or Conservation District for the implementation of one or more elements of the statewide stormwater management and sediment control program.

10. "Designated Watershed" means a watershed designated by a local government and approved by the Commission, Department of Health and Environmental Control and the South Carolina Water Resources Commission and identified as having an existing or potential stormwater, sediment control, or nonpoint source pollution problem.

11. "Detention Structure" means a permanent stormwater management structure whose primary purpose is to temporarily store stormwater runoff and release the stored runoff at controlled rates.

12. "Develop Land" means to change the runoff characteristics of a parcel of land in conjunction with residential, commercial, industrial, or institutional construction or alteration.

13. "Developer" means a person undertaking, or for whose benefit, activities covered by these regulations are commenced and/or carried out.

14. "District" means any soil and water conservation district created pursuant to Chapter 9, Title 48, S.C. Code of Laws.

15. "Drainage Area" means that area contributing runoff to a single point.

16. "Easement" means a grant or reservation by the owner of land for the use of such land by others for a specific purpose or purposes, and which must be included in the conveyance of land affected by such easement.

17. "Erosion" means the wearing away of land surface by the action of wind, water, gravity, ice, or any combination of those forces.

18. "Erosion and Sediment Control" means the control of solid material, both mineral and organic, during a land disturbing activity to prevent its transport out of the disturbed area by means of air, water, gravity, or ice.

19. "Exemption" means those land disturbing activities that are not subject to the sediment and stormwater requirements contained in these regulations.

20. "Grading" means excavating, filling (including hydraulic fill) or stockpiling of earth material, or any combination thereof, including the land in its excavated or filled condition.

21. "Implementing Agency" means the Commission, local government, or conservation district with the responsibility for receiving stormwater management and sediment control plans for review and approval, reviewing plans, issuing permits for land disturbing activities, or conducting inspections and enforcement actions in a specified jurisdiction.

22. "Infiltration" means the passage or movement of water through the soil profile.

23. "Land Disturbing Activity" means any use of the land by any person that results in a change in the natural cover or topography that may cause erosion and contribute to sediment and alter the quality and quantity of stormwater runoff.

24. "Natural Waterways" means waterways that are part of the natural topography. They usually maintain a continuous or seasonal flow during the year and are characterized as being irregular in cross-section with a meandering course. Construction channels such as drainage ditches shall not be considered natural waterways.

25. "Nonerodible" means a material, e.g., natural rock, riprap, concrete, plastic, etc., that will not experience surface wear due to natural forces of wind, water, ice, gravity or a combination of those forces.

26. "Local Government" means any county, municipality, or any combination of counties or municipalities, acting through a joint program pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.

27. "Nonpoint Source Pollution" means pollution contained in stormwater runoff from ill-defined, diffuse sources.

28. "One Hundred Year Frequency Storm" means a storm that is capable of producing rainfall expected to be equaled or exceeded on the average of once in 100 years. It also may be expressed as an exceedence probability with a 1 percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.

29. "Person" means any State or federal agency, individual, partnership, firm, association, joint venture, public or private corporation, trust, estate, commission, board, public or private institution, utility, cooperative, municipality or other political subdivision of this State, any interstate body or any other legal entity.

30. "Person Responsible for the Land Disturbing Activity" means

31. "Post-Development" means the conditions which exist following the completion of the land disturbing activity in terms of topography, vegetation, land use and rate, volume or direction stormwater runoff.

32. "Pre-Development" means the conditions which existed prior to the initiation of the land disturbing activity in terms of topography, vegetation, land use and rate, volume or direction of stormwater runoff.

33. "Redevelopment" means a land disturbance activity that alters the current use of the land but does not necessarily alter the pre-development runoff characteristics.

34. "Responsible Personnel" means any foreman, superintendent, or similar individual who is the on-site person in charge of land disturbing activities.

35. "Retention Structure" means a permanent structure whose primary purpose is to permanently store a given volume of stormwater runoff. Release of the given volume is by infiltration and/or evaporation.

36. "Sediment" means solid particulate matter, both mineral and organic, that has been or is being transported by water, air, ice, or gravity from its site of origin.

37. "Single Family Residence-Separately Built" means a noncommercial dwelling that is occupied exclusively by one family and not part of a residential subdivision development.

38. "Stabilization" means the installation of vegetative or structural measures to establish a soil cover to reduce soil erosion by stormwater runoff, wind, ice and gravity.

39. "Stop Work Order" means an order directing the person responsible for the land disturbing activity to cease and desist all or any portion of the work which violates the provisions of this act.

40. "Stormwater Management" means, for:

41. "Stormwater Management and Sediment Control Plan" means a set of drawings, other documents, and supporting calculations submitted by a person as a prerequisite to obtaining a permit to undertake a land disturbing activity, which contains all of the information and specifications required by an implementing agency.

42. "Stormwater Runoff" means direct response of a watershed to precipitation and includes the surface and subsurface runoff that enters a ditch, stream, storm sewer or other concentrated flow during and following the precipitation.

43. "Stormwater Utility" means an administrative organization that has been created for the purposes of planning, designing, constructing, and maintaining stormwater management, sediment control and flood control programs and projects.

44. "Subdivision", unless otherwise defined in an ordinance adopted by a local government pursuant to Section 6-7-1010, means all divisions of a tract or parcel of land into two or more lots, building sites, or other divisions, or parcels less than five acres, for the purpose, whether immediate or future, of sale, legacy, or building development, or includes all division of land involving a new street or a change in existing streets, and includes resubdivision and, where appropriate, in the context, shall relate to the process of subdividing or to the land or area subdivided.

45. "Swale" means a structural measure with a lining of grass, riprap or other materials which can function as a detention structure and convey stormwater runoff without causing erosion.

46. "Ten-Year Frequency Storm" means a storm that is capable of producing rainfall expected to be equaled or exceeded on the average of once in 10 years. It may also be expressed as an exceedence probability with a 10 percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.

47. "Twenty-Five Year Frequency Storm" means a storm that is capable of producing rainfall expected to be equaled or exceeded on the average of once in 25 years. It also may be expressed as an exceedence probability with a 4 percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.

48. "Two-Year Frequency Storm" means a storm that is capable of producing rainfall expected to be equaled or exceeded on the average of once in two years. It may also be expressed as an exceedence probability with a 50 percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year.

49. "Variance" means the modification of the minimum sediment and stormwater management requirements for specific circumstances where strict adherence of the requirements would result in unnecessary hardship and not fulfill the intent of these regulations.

50. "Waiver" means the relinquishment from sediment and stormwater management requirements by the appropriate plan approval authority for a specific land disturbing activity on a case-by-case review basis.

51. "Water Quality" means those characteristics of stormwater runoff from a land disturbing activity that relate to the physical, chemical, biological, or radiological integrity of water.

52. "Water Quantity" means those characteristics of stormwater runoff that relate to the rate and volume of the stormwater runoff to downstream areas resulting from land disturbing activities.

53. "Watershed" means the drainage area contributing stormwater runoff to a single point.

54. "Watershed Master Plan" means a plan for a designated watershed that analyzes the impact of existing and future land uses and land disturbing activities in the entire watershed and includes strategies to reduce nonpoint source pollution, to manage stormwater runoff and control flooding. The plan must be developed for the entire watershed, regardless of political boundaries, and must include appropriate physical, institutional, economic and administrative data needed to justify the plan.