Burlington, NC Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

Chapter 32, the City of Burlington Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control Ordinance, regulates land-disturbing activity to keep accelerated erosion from polluting the city's lakes and watercourses, including its own Lake Mackintosh and Lake Cammack reservoirs. Section 32-4 requires a plan approval before starting any land-disturbing activity, with an exception for disturbances under 43,560 square feet, roughly one acre. Section 32-9 targets what happens after construction: stream banks and channels downstream from a land-disturbing site must be protected from accelerated erosion caused by increased runoff velocity.

The performance standard requires that the velocity of the ten-year storm's runoff at the discharge point, after construction, not exceed the greater of two benchmarks: the maximum permissible velocity listed in the code's table for the receiving soil or channel material, or the ten-year storm velocity that existed before development. If a site cannot meet either benchmark, the receiving watercourse down to the discharge point must be engineered to withstand the higher expected velocity. Section 32-9(c) lists acceptable ways to hit that standard: promoting infiltration to offset new impervious surface, using vegetated or roughened swales instead of high-velocity paved channels, installing energy dissipaters at pipe outlets, improving channel cross-sections or lining, or upgrading the receiving structure so it can handle the increased flow.

Section 32-9(d) exempts a project if the applicant can show to the city that its discharge velocities will not create an erosion problem downstream. Plans are filed with the city and simultaneously with the Alamance or Guilford County Soil and Water Conservation District, and the city has thirty days to approve, modify, or deny a complete plan.