In this Article, the following words and phrases have the following meanings:
(a) Agriculture means the business, science and art of cultivating and managing the soil, growing, harvesting, and selling sod, crops and livestock, and the products of forestry, horticulture and hydroponics; breeding or raising livestock, poultry, fish, game, and fur-bearing animals; dairying, beekeeping and similar activities.
(b) Aquatic life means a diverse macroinvertebrate amphibian and fish population consistent with the State-designated water use classification or the support potential of the existing stream flow, water quality, and habitat quality.
(c) Balanced indigenous community means a biotic community typically characterized by diversity, the capacity to sustain itself through cyclic seasonal changes, presence of necessary food chain species, and a lack of domination by pollutant-tolerant species. This community may include historically non-native species introduced in connection with a program of wildlife management and species whose presence or abundance results from substantial, irreversible environmental modifications. Normally, however, this community does not include species whose presence or abundance is attributable to:
(1) the introduction of pollutants that will be eliminated by compliance by all sources with effluent limitations; and
(2) alternate effluent limitations imposed under state regulations.
(d) Best management practices means sediment and erosion control and stormwater management practices approved by the Department of Permitting Services or agricultural runoff control practices approved by the Soil Conservation District to mitigate adverse effects of land use activities, runoff, sedimentation, and nonpoint source pollution on stream bank erosion, stream hydrology, surface and groundwater water quality, stream habitat, aquatic life, and groundwater replenishment.
(e) County means Montgomery County.
(f) Department means the County Department of Environmental Protection.
(g) Director means the Director of the Department of Environmental Protection or an authorized designee or agent.
(h) Discharge means adding, introducing, releasing, leaking, spilling, casting, throwing or emitting any pollutant, or placing any pollutant in a location where it is likely to pollute waters of the state in the County.
(i) Erosion means the process by which ground surface is worn away by the action of wind, water, ice, or gravity.
(j) Groundwater means underground water in a zone of saturation or water contained or moving among soils and sands or held within geologic formations under the ground surface.
(k) Industrial waste means any liquid, gaseous, solid, slurry, or other waste substance, or any combination of these, resulting from any process or industry, manufacturing, trade or business.
(l) Nonpoint source means a diffuse source of pollution that does not result from a pollutant discharge at a specific, single location (such as a single pipe) but generally results from human or human-induced activities which introduce pollutants into waters of the state in the County through land runoff, precipitation, atmospheric deposition, or percolation.
(m) Person means any individual, corporation, partnership, joint venture, agency, unincorporated association, municipality, County, state or federal agency, or any combination of them.
(n) Plan for compliance a plan submitted to the Director by a person who causes or permits a violation of this Article which establishes specific corrective actions to be taken and dates by which each action must be completed to abate or mitigate the impacts of the violation.
(o) Point source means any discernable 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, or vessel or other floating craft, from which any pollutant is or may be discharged.
(p) Pollutant means any liquid, gaseous, solid, radioactive, hazardous, or other substance which, when discharged directly or indirectly into waters of the state in the County as a point source or nonpoint source, or when applied to or stored on natural or man-made land surfaces, subsurfaces, or other surfaces connected to these surfaces in a manner other than as authorized by applicable permits, regulations, or manufacturer's instructions, has potential to or does:
(1) interfere with state or County designated water uses;
(2) obstruct or cause damage to waters of the state in the County;
(3) change water color, odor, or useability as a drinking water source through causes not attributable to natural stream processes affecting surface water or subsurface processes affecting groundwater;
(4) add an unnatural surface film on the water;
(5) adversely change other chemical, biological, thermal, or physical conditions in any surface water or stream channel;
(6) degrade the quality of ground water; or
(7) harm human life, aquatic life, or terrestrial plant and wildlife.
Pollutant includes dredged soil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, wastewater, wastewater sludge, chemical waste, biological materials, radioactive materials, rock, sand, dust, industrial waste, medical waste, sediment, nutrient, toxic substance, pesticide, herbicide, trace metal, automotive fluid, petroleum-based substance, and oxygen-demanding material.
(q) Pollute means to discharge pollutants into waters of the state in the County.
(r) Pollution means the direct or indirect distribution of pollutants into waters of this state in the County.
(s) Restore means to recreate, where feasible, stable and well-shaded riffle, run, stream meander, and pool structures and aquatic habitat conditions with the goal of supporting more balanced indigenous communities in surface waters that have been damaged by excessive or inadequately controlled stormwater flows and nonpoint source pollution discharges from upland watershed development.
(t) Sediment means soils or other particulate materials eroded or otherwise separated by parent materials and transported or deposited by the action of wind, water, ice, or gravity or by illegal dumping.
(u) Sedimentation means the action or process of forming or depositing sediment in a manner which adversely impacts, or has the potential to adversely impact the physical and biological diversity of wetlands and waters of the state in the County.
(v) Soil Conservation and Water Quality Plan means a land use plan for a farm approved by the Soil Conservation District in accordance with Department of Agriculture (USDA) Soil Conservation Service standards and specifications to make the best possible use of soil and water resources in carrying out agriculture while minimizing the movement of sediment, animal wastes, nutrients, or agricultural chemicals into waters of the state in the County.
(w) Soil Conservation District means the Montgomery Soil Conservation District, which prepares and approves soil conservation and water quality plans.
(x) Stream channel means a part of a water course either naturally or artificially created which contains an intermittent or perennial base flow of groundwater origin.
(y) State designated water uses means uses specified in state water quality standards.
(z) Surface Waters means all waters of the state other than ground waters, which include ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, tidal and nontidal wetlands, public ditches, tax ditches, and public drainage systems except those designed and used to collect, convey, or dispose of sanitary sewage.
(aa) Toxic substance means any liquid, gaseous, or solid substance in a concentration which, when applied to, discharged to, or deposited in waters of the state in the County, may, in the judgment of the Department, exert a detrimental effect on humans or on the propagation, cultivation, or conservation of terrestrial or aquatic life.
(bb) Waters of the state means both surface waters and ground waters within the boundaries of the State of Maryland and subject to its jurisdiction. (1994 L.M.C., ch. 31, § 1; 1996 L.M.C., ch. 20, § 1; 1998 L.M.C., ch. 12, § 1; , § 1; , § 2.)
Editor’s note—See County Attorney Opinion dated explaining theat the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority, Housing Opportunities Commission, and the fire corporations must comply with County permit requirements and mandatory referral.
