Chapter 13.07 STORM AND SANITARY SEWER REGULATIONS


Section 13.07.020 Definitions.

  The following definitions shall apply to this chapter:  
    1. "BOD" (denoting biochemical oxygen demand) means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the bio-chemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure in five days at 20 degrees C, expressed in milligrams per liter.
    2. "Building drain" means that part of the lowest horizontal piping of a drainage system which receives the discharge from soil, waste and other drainage pipes inside the walls of a building and conveys it to the building sewer, the building sewer beginning outside the outer wall of the building.
    3. "Contributor" means any person, firm or corporation, except a major industrial user, as defined in subsection-8 of this section, owning, and includes the occupants of, any lot, parcel of real estate or buildings where liquid or solid waste, sewage, or industrial waste is produced which is discharged in the sewer system of the city.
    4. "Director" means the environmental services director of the city, or his authorized representative.
    5. "Garbage" means solid wastes from the domestic and commercial preparation, cooking and dispensing of food, and from the handling, storage and sale of produce.
    6. "Industrial wastes" means the liquid or other waste material entering the sanitary sewage system resulting from any commercial, manufacturing or industrial operations or processes.
    7. "Interference" means an inhibition or disruption of the city treatment works, its treatment processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use or disposal which is a cause of or significantly contributes to either a violation of any requirement of the city treatment work's NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation) or to the prevention of sewage sludge use or disposal by the city treatment works in accordance with the following statutory provisions and regulations or permits issued thereunder (or more stringent state or local regulations): Section 405 of the Clean Water Act, the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) (including Title II more commonly referred to as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and including state regulations contained in any state sludge management plan prepared pursuant to Subtitle D of the SWDA), the Clean Air Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act. An industrial user significantly contributes to such a permit violation or prevention of sludge use or disposal in accordance with above-cited authorities whenever such user:
        a. Discharges a daily pollutant loading in excess of that allowed by contract with the city or by federal, state or local law;
        b. Discharges wastewater which substantially differs in nature or constituents from the user's average discharge; or
        c. Knows or has reason to know that its discharge, alone or in conjunction  with discharges from other sources, would result in a city treatment works' permit violation or prevent sewage sludge use or disposal in accordance with the above-cited authorities as they apply to the city's selected method of sludge management.
    8. "Major industrial user" means any person, firm or corporation owning, and includes the occupants of, any lot, parcel of real estate or buildings where waste is produced which is discharged into the sewer system of the city and which:
        a. Has an industrial waste discharge of twenty-five thousand gallons of equivalent normal-strength domestic sewage or more per day; or
        b. Has an industrial waste discharge greater than five percent of the flow carried by the municipal system receiving the waste; or
        c. Has in its waste, a toxic pollutant in amounts as defined in standards issued under Section 307 (b) and (c) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972; or
        d. Is found by the city to have significant impact, either singly or in combination with other contributing industries, or their treatment works or upon the quality of effluent from that treatment works; or
        e. Is listed in the applicable Industrial Cost Recovery Standard Industrial Classification.
    Major industrial users shall provide a sampling station and shall be monitored as required so as to properly calculate appropriate user charges.
    9. "Natural outlet" means any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface or groundwater.
    10. "Pass through" means the discharge of pollutants through the city treatment works into navigable waters in quantities or concentrations which are a cause of or significantly contribute to a violation of any requirement of the city's NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation). An industrial user significantly contributes to such permit violation where it:
        a. Discharges a daily pollutant loading in excess of that allowed by contract with the city or by federal, state or local law;
        b. Discharges wastewater which substantially differs in nature and constituents from the user's average discharge;
        c. Knows or has reason to know that its discharge, alone or in conjunction with discharges from other sources, would result in a permit violation; or
        d. Knows or has reason to know that the city treatment works is, for any reason, violating its final effluent limitations in its permit and that such industrial user's discharge either alone or in conjunction with discharges from other sources, increases the magnitude of duration of the city treatment works' violations.
    11. "Person" means contributors and major industrial users.
    12. "pH" means the logarithm of the reciprocal of the weight of hydrogen ions in grams per liter of solution.
    13. "Properly shredded garbage" means the wastes from the preparation, cooking and dispensing of food that have been shredded to such a degree that all particles will be carried freely under the flow conditions normally prevailing in public sewers, with no particle greater than one-half inch (1.27 centimeters) in any dimension.
     14. “Private sewer” means a sewer which is controlled by the property owner.
    15. "Property" means any piece or portion of real estate, including all buildings and structures located thereon, having a sewer or drainage system which immediately or remotely discharge into a public sewer, natural outlet or both.
    16. "Public sewer" means a sewer which is controlled by public authority.
    17. "Sanitary sewage" means the waste from water closets, urinals, lavatories, sinks, bathtubs, household laundries, cellar floor drains, garage floor drains, bars, soda fountains, refrigerator drains, drinking fountains, swimming pools, stable floor drains and all other liquids not classified as industrial wastes that enter the sanitary sewer systems.
    18. "Sanitary sewer" means a public or private sewer which carries sewage and to which storm, surface and ground waters are not intentionally admitted.
    19. "Sewage" means a combination of the water-carried wastes from property, together with such ground, surface and storm waters as may be present.
    20. "Sewer" means a pipe or conduit for carrying sewage.
    21. "Sewer user charge" means any and all rates, charges, fees or rentals levied against and payable by contributors and major industrial users.
    22. "Shall" is mandatory. "May" is permissive.
    23. "Slug" means any discharge of water, sewage or industrial waste which in concentration of any given constituent or in quantity of flow, exceeds for any period of duration longer than fifteen minutes more than five times the average twenty-four hour concentration or flows during normal operation.
    24. "Storm sewer" means a public or private sewer which carries storm and surface waters and drainage, but excludes sewage and industrial wastes, other than unpolluted cooling water.
    25. "Suspended solids" means solids that either float on the surface of, or are in suspension in, water, sewage or other liquid, and which are removable by laboratory filtering.
    26. "Significant Noncompliance" means industrial user violations which meet one or more of the following criteria:
        a. Violations of wastewater discharge limits.
            (1) Chronic Violations.  66% or more of the measurements exceed the same daily maximum limit or the same average limit in a six month period.
            (2) Technical Review Criteria (TRC) Violations.  33% or more of the measurements equal or exceed the same daily maximum limit or the same average limit by more than the TRC in a six month period.
            There are two groups of TRCs:
            Group 1 - BOD, Suspended Solids, Fats, Oil, and grease, TRC = 1.4.
            Group 2 - for all other pollutants, TRC = 1.2.
            (3) Any permit violation, average or daily, that the control authority determines has caused, alone or in combination with other discharges, interference or pass through, which endangers the health of the sewage treatment personnel or the public, or impairs the efficient operation of the City's Wastewater Treatment Plant.
            (4) Any discharge of a pollutant that has caused imminent endangerment to human health/welfare or to the environment or has resulted in the POTW's exercise of its emergency authority to halt or prevent such a discharge.
            (5) Any violation which remains uncorrected forty-five days after notification of noncompliance.
            (6) Any violation which is part of a pattern of noncompliance over a twelve month period.  
        b. Violations of compliance schedule milestones, contained in the local control mechanism or enforcement order, for starting construction, completing construction, and attaining final compliance by 90 days or more after the scheduled date.
        c. Failure to provide reports for compliance schedules, self-monitoring data or categorical standards (base line monitoring reports, 90-day compliance reports, and periodic reports) within 30 days from the due date.
        d. Failure to accurately report noncompliance.
        e. Failure to notify the director of planned reduction in flow which produces an inadequate sample for pollutant analysis.
        f. Any noncompliance as defined at 40 CFR 403.8(f)(2)(vii).
        g. Any other violation or group of violations that the control authority determines to be significant.
    27. "Direct Discharge Industry" means industries that discharge directly to the headworks of the City's wastewater treatment plant and therefore do not utilize any of the lift stations and interceptor sewers and maintained by the City. (Ord. 2006-0835, 2000-9673; 98/U-6424; 90/T-9020; 83/T-2039)