(a) General Discharge Prohibitions.
(1) No discharger shall contribute or cause to be discharged, directly or indirectly, any of the following described discharges into the wastewater disposal system or otherwise to the facilities of the City:
A. Any liquids, solids or gases which by reason of their nature or quantity are, or may be, sufficient either alone or by interaction to cause fire or explosion or be injurious in any other way to the operation of the sewer system or wastewater treatment facilities. But in no case, wastestreams with a closed cup flashpoint of less than 140 degrees Fahrenheit or sixty degrees Centigrade using the method specified in 40 CFR 261.21;
B. Solid or viscous discharges which shall or may cause obstruction to the flow in a sewer or other interference with the operation of the wastewater system;
C. Any wastewater having pH less than 6.5 or higher than 11.0 or having any other corrosive property capable of causing damage or hazard to structures, equipment or personnel of the system;
D. Any noxious or malodorous liquids, gases or solids which either singly or by interaction are capable of creating a public nuisance or hazard to life or are sufficient to prevent entry into sewers for their maintenance and repair;
E. Any discharge which may cause the sewage treatment plant's treatment residues, sludges or scums to be unsuitable for reclamation and reuse or disposal or to interfere with the reclamation or disposal process in use or contemplated for use;
F. Any discharge which shall cause the City's facilities to violate its NPDES and/or other disposal system permits;
G. Any discharge with objectionable color not removed in the treatment process, such as, but not limited to, dye wastes and vegetable tanning solutions;
H. Any wastewater having a temperature which shall inhibit biological activity in the City's treatment plant resulting in interference; but in no case wastewater with a temperature at the introduction into the POTW which exceeds forty degrees Centigrade (104 degrees Fahrenheit);
I. Any slugload;
J. Any unpolluted water including, but not limited to noncontact cooling water in areas of the City serviced by separate storm and sanitary sewers;
K. Any wastewater containing any radioactive wastes or isotopes of such half-life or concentration as exceed limits established in compliance with applicable State or federal regulations;
L. Any wastewater which causes a hazard to human life or creates a public nuisance; or
M. Any discharge that causes or contributes to interference or pass through of the treatment plant.
N. Any discharge that contains petroleum oil, non-biodegradable cutting oil, or products of mineral oil origin, in amounts that will cause interference or Pass Through;
O. Trucked or hauled pollutants, except at discharge points designated by the Superintendent in accordance with Section 933.17 of this ordinance.
(2) Unacceptable discharges shall include those which have been determined by the Superintendent to:
A. Contain materials or discharges which would constitute a hazard to life and limb of personnel engaged in inspection, maintenance and operation of the system;
B. Contain any toxic substance unless specifically allowed in an industrial pretreatment permit;
C. Contain materials or discharges which are in any way deleterious to any part of the system;
D. Contain concentrations of any toxic or deleterious materials or discharges in excess of any limits set thereon in accordance with this Code;
E. Cause the City to incur additional operating expenses in the handling or treatment thereof, unless specifically allowed in an industrial pretreatment permit;
F. Be incompatible with the treatment process or inhibit the performance of the treatment process at a City treatment facility;
G. Be of such volume or contain such BOD, suspended solids or other material load which would cause the treatment facility to exceed its design capabilities;
H. Cause a treatment facility of the City to fail to meet effluent requirements set by State and federal regulatory agencies or cause such effluent to have a degrading effect on the receiving body of water;
I. Contain viable pathogenic organisms in such quantities as to be a hazard to public health;
J. Cause a treatment facility of the City to fail to meet effluent requirements as established under the City's NPDES permit.
(b) Categorical Pretreatment Standards. Categorical Pretreatment Standards shall be met by all dischargers of the regulated industrial categories. All Categorical Pretreatment Standards presently in effect or hereafter added or amended and found in 40 CFR Chapter 1, Subchapter N, Parts 405-471 are hereby adopted by reference by the City as part of this Ordinance.
(c) Right of Revision. The City reserves the right to amend this Ordinance to provide for more stringent limitations or requirements on discharges to the City's facilities where deemed necessary to comply with the objectives set forth in Section 933.14
or to assure compliance by the City with applicable laws and regulations.
(d) Dilution. No discharger shall increase the use of potable or process water in any way, nor mix separate waste streams for the purpose of diluting a discharge as a partial or complete substitute for adequate treatment to achieve compliance with the standards set forth in this Ordinance.
(e) Supplementary Limitation.
(1) No person shall discharge or cause or allow to be discharged into the system wastes which contain any pollutants unless the person is issued a wastewater discharge permit which allows the discharge of such pollutants. Specific limitations are listed in individual wastewater discharge permits. In the absence of such specific wastewater discharge permit conditions, no person shall discharge any pollutants in concentrations that exceed domestic background concentrations.
(f) Mass Limitations. The Superintendent may impose mass limitations on dischargers which are suspected of using dilution to meet the pretreatment standards or requirements of this Ordinance or in other cases where the imposition of mass limitations is deemed appropriate by the Superintendent.
(1) Per 40 C.F.R. 403.6(c)(5), when the limits in a categorical Pretreatment Standard are expressed only in terms of pollutant concentrations, an Industrial User may request that the Control Authority convert the limits to equivalent mass limits. The determination to convert concentration limits to mass limits is within the discretion of the Control Authority. The Control Authority may establish equivalent mass limits only if the Industrial User meets all the following conditions in paragraph (c)(5)(i)(A) through (c)(5)(i)(E) of this section.
(2) To be eligible for equivalent mass limits, the Industrial User must:
A. Employ, or demonstrate that it will employ, water conservation methods and technologies that substantially reduce water use during the term of its control mechanism;
B. Currently use control and treatment technologies adequate to achieve compliance with the applicable categorical Pretreatment Standard, and not have used dilution as a substitute for treatment;
C. Provide sufficient information to establish the facility's actual average daily flow rate for all wastestreams, based on data from a continuous effluent flow monitoring device, as well as the facility's long-term average production rate. Both the actual average daily flow rate and long-term average production rate must be representative of current operating conditions;
D. Not have daily flow rates, production levels, or pollutant levels that vary so significantly that equivalent mass limits are not appropriate to control the Discharge; and
E. Have consistently complied with all applicable categorical Pretreatment Standards during the period prior to the Industrial User's request for equivalent mass limits.
(g) Local Limits.
(1) Local limits are allowable concentrations established for pollutants present in the collection system having a reasonable potential to cause NPDES permit violations, treatment system upsets, pass through, interference, sludge contamination, threats to workers health and safety, or other problems within the collection system or at any treatment facility. Said pollutants include, but are not necessarily limited to, arsenic, cadmium, carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (CBOD5), chromium (total and dissolved hexavalent), chlorine, copper, free cyanide, E-coli, lead, molybdenum, nickel, oil and grease, phosphorus, silver, selenium, suspended solids, zinc and mercury. The local limits for the City are defined in the most recent Technical Justification of Local Industrial Wastewater Discharge Limitations, a summary of which shall be available for inspection during regular business hours in the offices of the City of Ashtabula Division of Water Pollution Control.
(2) No person shall discharge or cause or allow to be discharged into the system wastes which contain any pollutant in any concentration in excess of the local limits as defined above.
(Ord. 2016-50. Passed 3-21-2016.)