(A) All industrial users who discharge or propose to discharge wastewaters to the wastewater treatment system shall maintain such records of production and related factors, effluent flows, and pollutant amounts of concentration as are necessary to demonstrate compliance with the requirements of this chapter and any applicable state or federal pretreatment standards or requirements.
(B) Such records shall be made available upon request by the wastewater treatment plant superintendent. All such records relating to compliance with pretreatment standards shall be made available to officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency upon demand.
(C) If so ordered by the wastewater treatment plant superintendent, the owner or operator of any premises or facility discharging industrial wastes into the system shall install at his or her own cost and expense suitable monitoring equipment to facilitate the accurate observation, sampling, and measurement of wastes. Such equipment shall be maintained in proper working order and kept safe and accessible at all times.
(D) The monitoring equipment shall be located and maintained on the industrial user’s premises outside of the building. When such a location would be impractical or cause undue hardship on the user, the wastewater treatment plant superintendent may allow such facility to be constructed in the public right-of-way, with the approval of the public agency having jurisdiction over such right-of-way, and located so that it will not be obstructed by public utilities, landscaping or parked vehicles.
(E) When more than one user can discharge into a common sewer, the wastewater treatment plant superintendent may require installation of separate monitoring equipment for each user. When there is a significant difference in wastewater constituents and characteristics produced by different operations of a single user, the wastewater treatment plant superintendent may require that separate monitoring facilities be installed for each separate discharge.
(F) Whether constructed on public or private property, the monitoring facilities shall be constructed in accordance with the city’s requirements and all applicable construction standards and specifications.
(G) (1) Compliance determinations with respect to the prohibitions and limitations of this chapter may be made on the basis of either instantaneous grab samples or composite samples of wastewater. Composite samples may be taken over a 24-hour period, or over a longer or shorter time span, as determined necessary by the wastewater treatment plant superintendent to meet the needs of specific circumstances.
(2) Sample splitting. The city will offer split samples with any industrial user that requests a sample split. The city will split the wastewater sample with the industrial user at the industrial user’s facility in accordance with chain-of-custody protocol. The industrial user’s sample split must be analyzed and analytical results submitted to the city’s industrial pretreatment program no later than the last business day, close of business, of the month following the month of sample collection. Failure to do so will result in loss of sample split privileges with the city. Analytical results from the city’s lab or subcontractor of the city and the industrial user lab will be compared, only in instances where the same approved laboratory analytical methods found in 40 C.F.R. pt. 136 and applicable QA/QC (Quality Assurance/Quality Control) was used. If both data are found valid, results may be averaged. When widely divergent results occur, the data can be investigated in a timely manner by the respective laboratories. If one of the results is found invalid, resampling may occur, and the sample splitting procedure again followed. When data reconciliation is not possible, results from the city’s split will determine compliance with pollutant discharge limits. The sample split policy does not apply to demand or samples that are used for purposes of determining extra-strength charges. Demand samples can be split. The results of the split will not be used in the city’s determination of a user’s extra-strength charges.
(H) Laboratory analysis of industrial wastewater samples shall be performed in accordance with the current edition of Standard Methods, Methods for Chemical Analysis of Water and Waste published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Analysis of those pollutants not covered by these publications shall be performed in accordance with procedures established by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
(I) Sampling of industrial wastewater for the purpose of compliance determination with respect to the prohibitions and limitations of this chapter will be done at such intervals as designated by the wastewater treatment plant superintendent. Significant industrial users will be sampled at least once per year.
(J) The wastewater treatment plant superintendent and other duly authorized employees of the city bearing proper credentials and identification shall be permitted to enter all properties for the purposes of inspection, observation, measurement, sampling, and testing pertinent to discharge to the community system in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
(1) Any temporary or permanent obstruction to safe and easy access to the facility to be inspected and/or sampled shall be promptly removed by the user at the written or verbal request of the wastewater treatment plant superintendent and shall not be replaced. The costs of clearing such access shall be borne by the user.
(2) Unreasonable delays in allowing the wastewater treatment plant superintendent access to the user’s premises shall be a violation of this chapter.
(3) If the wastewater treatment plant superintendent or his or her duly authorized representative has been refused access to a building, structure, or property, or any part thereof, and is able to demonstrate probable cause to believe that there may be a violation of this chapter, or that there is a need to inspect and/or sample as part of a routine inspection and sampling program of the city designed to verify compliance with this chapter or any permit or order issued hereunder, or to protect the overall public health, safety, and welfare of the community, the Utilities Director and city attorney may seek issuance of a search warrant from the Court of Common Pleas of this county.
(K) The wastewater treatment plant superintendent or other duly authorized employees are authorized to obtain information concerning industrial processes which have a direct bearing on the kind and source of discharge to the wastewater collection system. The industry may withhold information considered confidential. The industry must establish that the revelation to the public of the information in question might result in an advantage to competitors.
(L) While performing the necessary work on private properties referred to in division (J) above, the wastewater treatment plant superintendent or duly authorized employees of the city shall observe all safety rules applicable to the premises as established by the company, and the company shall be held harmless for injury or death to the city employees, and the city shall indemnify the company against loss or damage to its property by city employees and against liability claims and demands for personal injury or property damage asserted against the company and growing out of the gauging and sampling operation, except as such may be caused by negligence or failure of the company to maintain safe conditions as required in § 50.99(C).
(M) The wastewater treatment plant superintendent and other duly authorized employees of the city bearing proper credentials and identification shall be permitted to enter all private properties through which the city holds a duly negotiated easement for the purposes of, but not limited to, inspection, observation, measurement, sampling, repair, and maintenance of any portion of the wastewater facilities lying within the easement. All entry and subsequent work, if any, on the easement, shall be done in full accordance with the terms of the duly negotiated easement pertaining to the private property involved.
(1980 Code, § 50.21) (Ord. 3928, passed 12-17-1979; Am. Ord. 7520, passed 2-6-2006; Am. Ord. 8840, passed 4-20-2020)