23-3.01   Definitions.
As used in this Subchapter:
   “Act” shall mean the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, P.L. 92-500 (33 USC & 1251, et seq.).
   “Accidental Discharge” shall mean any discharge of a non-routine, episodic nature, including but not limited to an accidental spill non-customary batch discharge and/or any discharge of water or wastewater in which the concentration of any given constituent or the quantity of flow exceeds for any period of duration longer than fifteen (15) minutes more than five (5) times the average twenty-four (24) hour concentration or flow rate during normal operation.
   “Best Management Practices” (BMP’s) shall mean schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to implement the prohibitions listed in 23-3.05: Prohibitions and Limitations on the use of the Public Sanitary Sewers. BMP’s may include treatment requirements, operating procedures, and practices to control plant site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw materials storage.
   “BGMU” shall mean the Bowling Green Municipal Utilities of Bowling Green, Kentucky.
   “Biochemical Oxygen Demand” (BOD) shall mean the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure in five (5) days at 20 degrees Celsius, expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/l).
   “Building” shall mean a structure having walls and a roof designed and used for the housing, shelter, enclosure or support of persons, animals or property.
   “Building Drain” shall mean 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 the building and conveys it to the building sewer, beginning two (2’) feet outside the inner face of the building wall.
   “Building Sewer” shall mean the extension from the building drain to the public sanitary sewer or other place of disposal, also called the house connection.
   “Building Sewer Permit” shall mean the permit required by Kentucky State Plumbing Law for the installation of building sewers.
   “Bypass” shall mean the intentional diversion of waste streams from any portion of an Industrial User’s treatment facility.
   “City” shall mean the City of Bowling Green, Kentucky.
   “Chemical Oxygen Demand” (COD) shall mean the quantity of oxygen required for the chemical oxidation of organic material in wastewater under standard laboratory procedure, expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/l).
   “Domestic Wastewater” shall mean liquid wastes:
      a.   from the noncommercial preparation, cooking, and handling of food; or
      b.   containing human excrement and similar matter from the sanitary conveniences of dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities and institutions.
   “Easement” shall mean an acquired legal right for the specific use of land owned by others.
   “Fats, Oils and Grease” (FOG) shall mean organic polar compounds derived from animal and/or plant sources. FOG may be referred to as “grease” or “greases”.
   “Floatable Oil” is oil, fat, or grease in a physical state such that it will separate by gravity from wastewater by treatment in an approved pretreatment facility. A wastewater shall be considered free of floatable oil if it is properly pretreated and the wastewater does not interfere with the wastewater system.
   “Food Service Establishment” (FSE) shall mean any property, establishment, business or facility engaged in preparing, serving, packaging, or making food or beverages available for sale or consumption. FSE’s include, but are not limited to bakeries, cafeterias, cafes, restaurants, hotels, retirement centers, nursing homes, lounges, churches, correctional facilities, schools, hospitals, prisons, grocery stores, markets, mobile food units, or other food preparation or packaging establishments or facilities. Single family residences are not a FSE; however, multi-residential facilities may be considered a FSE at the discretion of BGMU.
   “Garbage” shall mean the animal and vegetable waste resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking, and serving of foods.
   “General Manager” shall mean the General Manager of the Bowling Green Municipal Utilities (BGMU) of Bowling Green, Kentucky, or authorized deputy, agent, or representative.
   “Health Officer” shall mean any duly authorized agent of the Bowling Green-Warren County Health Department.
   “Industrial Wastewater” shall mean the liquid wastes resulting from the processes employed in industrial, manufacturing, trade, or business establishments, as distinguished from domestic wastewater.
   “Instantaneous Limits” shall mean the maximum allowable concentration of a pollutant determined from the analysis of any discrete or composite sample collected, independent of the flow rate and the duration of the sampling event.
   “Interference” shall mean an inhibition or disruption of the wastewater system, 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 BGMU’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 BGMU.
   “May” is permissive (see “Shall”, this Subchapter).
   “National Categorical Pretreatment Standards” (Standards) shall mean any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in accordance with Section 307(b) and (c) of the Act which applies to a specific category of significant industrial users.
   “National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System” (NPDES) shall mean the program for issuing, conditioning, and denying permits for the discharge of pollutants from point sources into the navigable waters, the contiguous zone and the oceans pursuant to Section 402 of the Act to include KPDES regulations and conditions.
   “Natural Outlet” shall mean any outlet, including storm sewers, into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface or groundwater.
   “New Source” shall mean any building, structure, facility or installation from which there is or may be a discharge of pollutants, the construction of which commenced after the publication of proposed Pretreatment Standards under section 307(c) of the Act which will be applicable to such source if such Standards are thereafter promulgated in accordance with that section in accordance with provisions in 40 CFR 403.3(k), as adopted by the U.S. EPA on October 17, 1988.
   “Pass-through” shall mean the discharge of pollutants through the wastewater system into navigation waters in quantities or concentrations which are a cause of or significantly contribute to a violation of any requirement of BGMU’s NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation).
   “Person” shall mean any individual, firm, company, association, society, corporation, or group.
   “pH” shall mean the logarithm of the reciprocal of the hydrogen ion concentration. The concentration is the weight of hydrogen ions, in grams, per liter of solution. Neutral water, for example, has a pH value of seven (7).
   “Plumbing Inspector” shall mean the individual assigned by the Commonwealth of Kentucky to enforce the plumbing laws and codes of the Commonwealth of Kentucky within the service territory of BGMU.
   “POTW” shall mean Publicly Owned Treatment Works.
   “Pretreatment” shall mean the application of physical, chemical, and biological processes to reduce the amount of pollutants in or alter the nature of the pollutant properties in a wastewater prior to discharging such wastewater into the wastewater system.
   “Pretreatment Standards” shall mean the standards required under applicable Federal Regulations implementing Section 307 of the Act (33 USC, Sec. 1317), as well as any non-conflicting State standards or BGMU standards set forth in Section 23-3.05 and 23-3.07 of this Subchapter. In case of conflicting standards, the more stringent thereof shall apply.
   “Properly Shredded Garbage” shall mean 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 sanitary sewers, with no particle greater than one-half (1/2”) inch in any dimension.
   “Public Sanitary Sewer” (Sewer) shall mean a sewer owned or controlled by BGMU or any public or private utility that carries liquid and water-carried wastes from residences, commercial buildings, industrial plants, and institutions together with minor quantities of ground, storm, and surface waters that are not admitted intentionally.
   “Regulations” shall mean Part 403 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, entitled “General Pretreatment Regulations for Existing and New Sources of Pollution”, in effect as of July 1, 1986.
   “Sewage” shall mean the spent water of a community. The preferred term is “wastewater” in this Subchapter.
   “Shall” is mandatory.
   “Significant Industrial User” shall mean any user of the public sanitary sewer who:
      a.   Has a discharge flow of twenty-five thousand (25,000) gallons or more of wastewater per average work day, excluding domestic wastewater; or
      b.   Has a flow or pollutant loading greater than five (5%) percent of the design capacity of the wastewater treatment plant; or
      c.   Has waste toxic pollutants requiring pretreatment standards prescribed in Section 23-3.05 and 23-3.07 of this Subchapter; or
      d.   Is found by the General Manager to have significant impact, either singly or in combination with other contributing users, on the wastewater system, the quality of sludge, the quality of effluent from the wastewater treatment plant or the quality of air emissions from the wastewater treatment plant; or
      e.   Is subject to a categorical pretreatment standard(s) under 40 CFR 403.6 and 40 KAR Chapter 1, Subchapter N.
   “Significant Non-Compliance” shall mean:
      a.   Chronic violation of wastewater discharge limits, defined here as those in which sixty-six (66%) percent or more of all of the measurements taken during a six-month period exceed (by any magnitude) the daily maximum limit or the average limit for the same pollutant parameter;
      b.   Technical Review Criteria (TRC) - violations, defined here as those in which thirty-three (33%) percent or more of all the measurements for each pollutant parameter taken during a six-month period equal or exceed the product of the daily maximum limit of the average limit multiplied by the applicable TRC (TRC = 1.2 for all pollutants except pH);
      c.   Any other violation of a pretreatment effluent limit (daily maximum or longer-term average) that the General Manager determines has caused alone or in combination with other discharges, interference or pass-through (including endangering the health of POTW personnel or the general public);
      d.   Any discharge of a pollutant that has caused imminent endangerment to human health, welfare or to the environment or has resulted in BGMU’s exercise of its emergency authority to halt or prevent such a discharge;
      e.    Failure to meet, within ninety (90) days after the schedule date, a compliance schedule milestone contained in a wastewater discharge permit or other order issued herein for starting construction, completing construction, or attaining final compliance;
      f.   Failure to provide, within thirty (30) days after the due date, required reports such as baseline monitoring reports, 90-day compliance reports, periodic self-monitoring reports, and reports on compliance with compliance schedule;
      g.   Failure to accurately report non-compliance;
      h.   Any other violation or group of violations which the General Manager determines will adversely affect the operation or implementation of the local pretreatment program.
   “Sludge” shall mean the accumulated solids separated from wastewater by unit processes at the wastewater treatment plant.
   “Suspended Solids” shall mean total suspended matter that either floats on the surface of, or is in suspension in, water, wastewater, or other liquids, and that is removable by standard methods of laboratory filtering.
   “TTO” shall mean Total Toxic Organics.
   “Total Solids” shall mean solids in water, wastewater, or other liquids; includes suspended and dissolved solids; all material remaining as residue after water has been evaporated.
   “Unpolluted Water” is water of quality equal to or better than the effluent criteria in effect or water that would not cause violation of receiving water quality standards and would not be benefitted by discharge to the public sanitary sewers and wastewater treatment plant provided.
   “User” shall mean any person who discharges or causes or permits the discharge of wastewater into the wastewater system.
   “Wastewater” shall mean the spent water of a community. For purposes of this Subchapter, wastewater is either domestic wastewater, as defined in this Section, or industrial wastewater, as defined in this Section, or a combination of both. From the standpoint of source, it may be a combination of the liquid and water-carried wastes from residences, commercial buildings, industrial plants, and institutions, together with any groundwater, surface water, and stormwater that may be present.
   “Wastewater System” shall mean the structures, equipment and processes owned and maintained by BGMU, or any public or private utility that discharges to BGMU systems, that are required to collect, carry away, and treat domestic wastewater or industrial wastewater and dispose of the effluent.
   “Wastewater Treatment Plant” shall mean an arrangement of devices and structures for treatment, recycling and reclamation of domestic wastewater or industrial wastes of a liquid nature. Sometimes used as synonymous with “waste treatment plant” or “wastewater treatment works” or “water pollution control plant.”
   “Watercourse” shall mean a natural or artificial channel for the passage of water either continuously or intermittently.
(Ord. BG86-60, 12/16/86; Ord. BG91-44, 9/3/91; Ord. BG2001-5, 2/20/2001; Ord. BG2013-32, 9/17/2013; Ord. BG2014-11, 6/3/2014; Ord. BG2017-22, 6/6/2017)