The following definitions apply to this chapter:
(a) “Best Management Practices (BMP)” means the best available methods, activities, maintenance procedures, technologies, operating methods, or management practices for preventing or reducing the quantity of regulated substances entering groundwater and surface water from a particular land-use activity.
(b) “City” means the City of Battle Creek.
(c) “Department” means the City of Battle Creek Department of Public Works.
(d) “Director” means the City of Battle Creek Utilities Director or his or her designee.
(e) “Groundwater” means the water below the land surface in a zone of saturation, excluding those waters in underground piping for water, wastewater, or storm water distribution/collection systems.
(f) “Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ)” shall include its predecessors and successors.
(g) “Performance Standards” means those BMPs and engineering controls contained within the document "City of Battle Creek, Performance Standards for Groundwater Protection within the Wellhead Protection Area."
(h) “Person” includes a natural person, a corporation, a partnership, and any other legal entity, and including all agents thereof.
(i) “Regulated Substances”.
(1) “Regulated Substances” shall include:
A. Substances for which there is a material safety data sheet (here "MSDS"), as established by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the MSDS cites possible health hazards for said substance;
B. Hazardous waste as defined in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, as amended (hereafter "RCRA").
C. Hazardous substance as defined by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (hereafter "CERCLA").
D. Radiological materials and biohazards.
(2) “Regulated Substances” shall not, however, include:
A. Substances in an amount equal or less than 2,200 pounds (total onsite storage) that are in an area capable of fully containing a total release of said substance or an area that would drain the substance to a wastewater treatment system, excluding septic tanks systems, capable of treating the released substance(s);
B. Substances such as gasoline or oil in operable motor vehicles so long as used solely for the operation of the vehicle, but not the tanker portion of a tank truck;
C. Pressurized gases such as chlorine, propane, hydrogen, and nitrogen when in a chemical storage tank;
D. Refrigerants contained within equipment and used for on-site air cooling or in household appliances;
E. Substances contained within electrical utility transformers/switches; or
F. Substances used in construction for which all necessary permits have been obtained, and in accordance with the “Performance Standards.”
(j) “Release” means the spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing of one or more regulated substances upon or into any land or water within a WHPA. Release includes, without limitation, leakage of such materials from failed or discarded containers or storage systems and disposal of such materials into any on-site sewage disposal system, dry-well, catch basin, or landfill. The term “release” when used and applied herein does not include:
(1) Disposal, in accordance with all applicable legal requirements and in accordance with the requirements of the RCRA regulations, of hazardous wastes in a facility that has received and maintained all necessary legal approvals for that purpose;
(2) Disposal or release of any substance in compliance with applicable legal requirements, including without limitation, the terms and provisions of a valid municipal, state, or federal permit, if such permits are required by applicable environmental laws;
(3) Disposal, in accordance with all legal requirements, of any substance to a sanitary sewer system that has received and maintained all necessary legal approvals for that purpose;
(4) Disposal, in accordance with all legal requirements, of “sanitary sewage” to subsurface sewage disposal systems, as defined and permitted by the State of Michigan or the Calhoun County Environmental Health Department;
(5) A release for which there is no obligation to report under federal, state, or other local regulations that occurs on an impervious ground surface (e.g., building floor or concrete driveway) that is effectively cleaned up and documented; or
(6) The application of agricultural chemicals, fertilizers, mineral acids, organic sulfur compounds, etc., as used in routine agricultural operations and applied under the "Generally Accepted Agricultural Management Practices," and consistent with label directions approved by the U. S. EPA or the Michigan Department of Agriculture.
(k) “Responsible Person” includes the owner of the property, a person who has the right to possession of the property whether through land contract, lease, or otherwise, the person responsible for a spill, or a combination of any one or more of them depending upon the circumstances.
(l) “Spill contingency plan” means a written site-specific plan conforming to the specifications contained in the “performance standards,” including the documentation of general site operations, regulated substance storage areas, potential for releases of regulated substances, an analysis of the potential destination of such releases, and procedures to be followed in the event of a release.
(m) “Time of travel” means the time it will take a particle of water to travel through the wellhead protection area and into a well.
(n) “Well” means a deep vertical hole whether used to supply water, test water, inject brine, or for any other purpose, other than a well which is part of the city's water supply system.
(o) “Wellhead Protection Area (WHPA)” means that area through which water travels below the surface and reaches a city water supply system well or well field under specified conditions set by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality [MDEQ] within both a one-year and ten-year time-of-travel.
(p) “Wellhead Protection Zone Map” is the Map of the wellhead protection area and any well isolation distance related to a wellhead protection area which is made a part of this chapter, a copy of which will be available in the City Clerk's Office and the Planning Department.
(Ord. 12-2. Passed 6-19-12.)