Lake Havasu City, AZ Environmental Rules: Erosion Control (2026)

Chapter 8.28, Stormwater, adopted by Ordinance 14-1105 in 2014, regulates erosion and sediment control on construction sites to protect the city's municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) and comply with the federal Clean Water Act and Arizona Pollutant Discharge Elimination System rules. Under § 8.28.100, anyone submitting a grading, building or other improvement plan must disclose whether an illicit discharge, stormwater or permitted non-stormwater discharge to the MS4 could occur, and the plan must include city-approved Best Management Practices (BMPs) to remove or prevent that discharge during and after construction.

Those BMPs must be maintained by the person initiating the project, and by their heirs and assigns, until the site reaches final stabilization; any change to an approved BMP must be reported to the city in writing. For construction projects covering one acre or more, § 8.28.100.F requires a site-specific Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan identifying the minimum BMPs to be used, and a Notice of Intent must be filed with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality; smaller sites may develop a site-specific plan voluntarily. Developers who continue work on parcels that were part of a larger prior development must keep using BMPs at least as protective as those in the original project's plan.

The city may suspend a site's MS4 access without prior notice if a discharge presents an imminent danger under § 8.28.110, and industrial or construction activity subject to an AZPDES or NPDES permit must prove compliance with that permit under § 8.28.120.