(A) General discharge prohibitions. No user shall contribute or cause to be contributed, directly or indirectly, any pollutant or wastewater which will interfere with the operation and performance of the POTW. These general prohibitions apply to all the users of the POTW whether or not the user is subject to national categorical pretreatment standards or any other national, state or local pretreatment standards or requirements. A user may not contribute the following substances to any POTW:
(1) Any liquids, solids or gases which, by reason of their nature or quantity, are, or may be, sufficient, either alone or by interaction with other substances, to cause fire or explosion or be injurious in any other way to the POTW or to the operation of the POTW, including, but not limited to, waste streams with a closed cup flash point of less than 140°F or 60°C using the test methods specified in 40 C.F.R. § 261.21. At no time shall two successive readings on an explosion hazard meter, at the point of discharge into the system (or at any point in the system), be more than 5% nor any single reading over 20% of the lower explosive limit (LEL) of the meter. Prohibited materials include, but are not limited to, gasoline, kerosene, naphtha, benzene, toluene, xylene, ethers, alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, peroxides, chlorates, perchlorates, bromate, carbides, hydrides and sulfides and any other substances which the city, the state or EPA has notified the user is a fire hazard or a hazard to the system;
(2) Solid or viscous substances which may cause obstruction to the flow in a sewer or other interference with the operation of the wastewater treatment facilities the as, but not limited to, grease, garbage with particles greater than one-half inch in any dimension, paunch manure, bones, hair, hides or fleshings, entrails, whole blood, feathers, ashes, cinders, sand, spent lime, stone or marble dust, metal, glass, straw, shavings, grass clippings, rags, spent grains, spent hops, waste paper, wood, plastics, gas, tar, asphalt residues, residues from refining or processing or fuel or lubricating oil, mud or glass grinding or polishing wastes;
(3) Any wastewater having a pH less than 6.0 or higher than 9.0 or wastewater having any other corrosive property capable of causing damage or hazard to structures, equipment and/or personnel of the POTW;
(4) Any wastewater containing any toxic pollutants, chemical elements or compounds in sufficient quantity, either singly or by interaction with other pollutants, to injure or interfere with any wastewater treatment process, constitute a hazard to humans or animals, create a toxic effect in the receiving waters of the POTW, or to exceed the limitation set forth in a categorical pretreatment standard. A toxic pollutant shall include, but not be limited to, any pollutant identified pursuant to § 307(a) of the Act;
(5) Any noxious or malodorous liquids, gases or solids which, either singly or by interaction with other wastes, are sufficient to create a public nuisance or hazard to life or are sufficient to prevent entry into the sewers for maintenance and repair;
(6) Any substance which may cause the POTW's effluent or any other product of the POTW, the as residues, sludges or scums, to be unsuitable, for reclamation and reuse or to interfere with the reclamation process. In no case, shall a substance discharged to the POTW cause the POTW to be in non-compliance with sludge use or disposal criteria, guidelines or regulations developed under § 405 of the Act; any criteria, guidelines, or regulations affecting sludge use or disposal developed pursuant to the Solid Waste Disposal Act, the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act or state criteria applicable to the sludge management method being used;
(7) Any substance which will cause the POTW to violate its NPDES permit or the receiving water quality standards;
(8) Any wastewater causing discoloration of the wastewater treatment plant effluent to the extent that the receiving stream water quality requirements would be violated, the as, but not limited to, dye wastes and vegetable tanning solutions;
(9) Any wastewater having a temperature which will inhibit biological activity in the POTW treatment plant resulting in interference, but in no case wastewater with a temperature at the introduction into the POTW which exceeds 40°C (104°F);
(10) Any pollutants, including oxygen demanding pollutants (BOD and the like) released at a flow rate and/or pollutant concentration which a user knows or has reason to know will cause interference to the POTW;
(11) Any waters or wastes causing an unusual volume of flow or concentration of waste constituting "slug", as defined herein;
(12) Any wastewater containing any radioactive wastes or isotopes of the half life or concentration as may exceed limits established by the City Manager in compliance with applicable state or federal regulations;
(13) Any wastewater which causes a hazard to human life or creates a public nuisance;
(14) Any waters or wastes containing fats, gas, grease or oil, whether emulsified or not, in excess of 100 mg/l or containing substances which may solidify or become viscous at temperatures between 32° or 150°F (0° and 65°C);
(15) Any storm water, surface water, groundwater, roof runoff, subsurface drainage, uncontaminated cooling water or unpolluted industrial process waters to any sanitary sewer. Storm water and all other unpolluted drainage shall be discharged to the sewers as are specifically designated as storm sewers, or to a natural outlet approved by the City Manager and the State Department of Environment and Conservation. Industrial cooling water or unpolluted process water may be discharged on approval of the City Manager and the State Department of Environment and Conservation to a storm sewer or natural outlet;
(16) Petroleum oil, non-biodegradable cutting oil, or products of mineral oil origin in amounts that will cause interference or pass-through;
(17) Pollutants which result in the presence of toxic gases, vapors or fumes within the POTW in a quantity that may cause acute worker health and safety problems; and
(18) Any trucked or hauled pollutants, except at discharged points designated by the city.
(B) Regulation of industrial user spills and batch discharges. The city shall randomly sample and analyze the effluent from industrial users and conduct surveillance activities in order to identify, independent of information supplied by industrial users, of occasional and continuing non-compliance with pretreatment standards by inspecting and sampling the effluent from each significant industrial user at least once a year and evaluating, at least once every two years, whether each the significant IU needs a plan to control slug discharges (spills and/or batch discharges). For purposes of this division, a slug discharge includes, but is not limited to, an accidental spill or a non-customary batch discharge. The results of the activities shall be available to the city upon request. If the city decides that a slug control plan is needed, the plan shall contain, at a minimum, the following elements:
(1) Description of discharge practices, including non-routine batch discharges;
(2) Description of stored chemicals;
(3) Procedures for immediately notifying the City Manager of slug discharge, including any discharges that would violate a prohibition under 40 C.R.F. § 403.5(b), with procedures for follow-up written notification within five days.
(4) If necessary, procedures to prevent adverse impact from accidental spills, including inspection and maintenance of storage areas, handling and transfer of materials, loading and unloading operation, control of plant site run-off, worker training, building of containment structures of equipment, measures for containing toxic organic pollutants (including solvents) and/or measures and equipment for emergency responses.
(C) Hazardous waste notification requirements.
(1) The industrial user shall notify the City Manager, the EPA Regional Waste Management
Division Director, and state hazardous waste authorities in writing of any discharge in the city wastewater system of a substance, which, if otherwise disposed of, would be a hazardous waste under 40 C.F.R. part 261. The notification must include the name of the hazardous waste as set forth in 40 C.F.R. part 261, the EPA hazardous waste number, and the type of discharge (continuous, batch, or other). If the IU discharges more than 100 kilograms of the waste per calendar month to the city wastewater system, the notification shall also contain the following information to the extent the information is known and readily available to the IU: an identification of the hazardous constituents contained in the waste, an estimation of the mass and concentration of the constituents in the wastestream discharged during the calendar month, and an estimation of the mass of constituents in the wastestream expected to be discharged during the following 12 months. All notifications must take place within 180 days of the effective date of this rule. IUs who commence discharging after the effective date of this rule shall provide the notification no later than 180 days after the discharge of the listed or characteristic hazardous waste. Any notification under this paragraph need be submitted only once for each hazardous waste discharged. However, notifications of changed discharges must be submitted under 40 C.F.R. § 403.12(j). The notification requirement in this section does not apply to pollutants already reported under the self-monitoring requirements of 40 C.F.R. § 403.12 (b), (d) and (e).
(2) Dischargers are exempt from the requirements of division (C)(1) above during a calendar month in which they discharge no more than 15 kilograms of hazardous waste, unless the waste is acute hazardous waste as specified in 40 C.F.R. §§ 261.30(d) and 261.33(e). Discharge of more than fifteen kilograms of non-acute hazardous waste in a calendar month or of any quantity of acute hazardous waste as specified in 40 C.F.R. §§ 261.30(d) and 261.33(e), requires a one-time notification. Subsequent months during which the IU discharges more than the quantities of any hazardous waste do not require additional notification.
(3) In the case of any new regulations under § 3001 of RCRA identifying additional characteristics of hazardous waste or listing any additional substance as a hazardous waste, the IU must notify the City Manager, the EPA Regional Waste Management Division Director and state hazardous waste authorities of the discharge of the substance within 90 days of the effective date of the regulations.
(4) In the case of any notification made under any part of this section, the IU shall certify that it has a program in place to reduce the volume and toxicity of hazardous waste generated to the degree it has determined to be economically practical.
(D) Limitations on discharge strength, Table 1. No person or user shall discharge wastewater which exceeds the following set of standards (Table 1 - Limitations on Discharge Strength) unless an exception is permitted as provided in this chapter. Dilution of any wastewater discharge for the purpose of satisfying these requirements shall be considered in violation of this chapter.
(E) Protection of treatment plant influent. The City Manager shall monitor the treatment works influent for each parameter in the following table. (Table 2 - Plant Protection Criteria.) Industrial users shall be subject to report and monitoring requirements regarding these parameters as set forth in this chapter. In the event that the influent at the POTW reaches or exceeds the levels established by this table, the City Manager shall initiate technical studies to determine the cause of the influent violation and shall recommend to the city the necessary remedial measures, including, but not limited to, recommending the establishment of new or revised pretreatment levels for these parameters. The City Manager shall also recommend changes to any of these criteria in the event that: the POTW effluent standards are changed, there are changes in any applicable law or regulation affecting same or changes are needed for more effective operation of the POTW.
(F) Federal categorical pretreatment standards. Upon the promulgation of the federal categorical pretreatment standards for a particular industrial subcategory, the federal standard, if more stringent than limitations imposed under the chapter for sources in that subcategory, shall immediately supersede the limitations imposed under this chapter. The City Manager shall notify all affected users of the applicable reporting requirements under 40 C.F.R. § 403.12.
(G) Right to establish more restrictive criteria. No statement in this chapter is intended or may be construed to prohibit the City Manager from establishing specific wastewater discharge criteria more restrictive where wastes are determined to be harmful or destructive to the facilities of the POTW or to create a public nuisance, or to cause the discharge of the POTW to violate effluent or stream quality standards, or to interfere with the use of handling of sludge, or to pass through the POTW resulting in a violation of the NPDES permit, or to exceed industrial pretreatment standards for discharge to municipal wastewater treatment systems as imposed or as may be imposed by the State Department of Environment and Conservation and/or the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
(H) Exceptions to discharge criteria.
(1) Application for exception.
(a) Non-residential users of the POTW may apply for a temporary exception to the prohibited and restricted wastewater discharge criteria listed in divisions (A) and (B) above. Exceptions can be granted according to the following guidelines.
(b) The City Manager shall allow applications for temporary exceptions at any time. However, the City Manager shall not accept an application if the applicant has submitted the same or substantially similar application within the preceding year and the same has been denied by the city.
(c) All applications for an exception shall be in writing, and shall contain sufficient information for evaluation of each of the factors to be considered by the city in its review of the application.
(2) Conditions.
(a) All exceptions granted under this division shall be temporary and subject to revocation at any time by the City Manager upon reasonable notice.
(b) The user requesting the exception must demonstrate to the City Manager that he or she is making a concentrated and serious effort to maintain high standards of operation control and housekeeping levels and the like, so that discharges to the POTW are being minimized. If negligence is found, permits will be subject to termination. The user requesting the exception must demonstrate that compliance with stated concentration and quantity standards is technically or economically infeasible and the discharge, if expected, will not:
1. Interfere with the normal collection and operation of the wastewater treatment system;
2. Limit the sludge management alternatives available and increase the cost of providing adequate sludge management; and
3. Pass through the POTW in quantities and/or concentrations that would cause the POTW to violate its NPDES permit.
(c) The user must show that the exception, if granted, will not cause the discharger to violate its in-force federal pretreatment standards unless the exception is granted under the provisions of the applicable pretreatment regulations.
(d) A surcharge shall be applied to any exception granted under this division (H)(2). These surcharges shall be applied for that concentration of the pollutant for which the variance has been granted in excess of the concentration stipulated in this chapter based on the average daily flow of the user.
(3) Review of application by the City Manager. All applications for an exception shall be reviewed by the City Manager. If the application does not contain sufficient information for complete evaluation, the City Manager shall notify the applicant of the deficiencies and request additional information. The applicant shall have 30 days following notification by the City Manager to correct the deficiencies. This 30-day period may be extended by the city upon application and for just cause shown. Upon receipt of a complete application, the City Manager shall evaluate same within 30 days and shall submit his or her recommendations to the city at its next regularly scheduled meeting.
(4) Review of application by the city. The city shall review and evaluate all applications for exceptions and shall take into account the following factors:
(a) Whether or not the applicant is subject to a national pretreatment standard containing discharge limitations more stringent than those in this section and grant an exception only if the exception may be granted within limitations of applicable federal regulations;
(b) Whether or not the exception would apply to discharge of a substance classified as a toxic substance under regulations promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency under the provisions of § 307(a) of the Act (33 U.S.C. § 1317) and then grant an exception only if the exception may be granted within the limitations of applicable federal regulations.
(c) Whether or not the granting of an exception would create conditions that would reduce the effectiveness of the treatment works taking into consideration the concentration of the pollutant in the treatment works influent and the design capability of the treatment works.
(d) The cost of pretreatment or other types of control techniques which would be necessary for the user to achieve effluent reduction, but prohibitive costs alone shall not be the basis for granting an exception;
(e) The age of equipment and industrial facilities involved to the extent that the factors affect the quality or quantity of wastewater discharge;
(f) The process employed by the user and process changes available which would affect the quality or quantity of wastewater discharge;
(g) The engineering aspects of various types of pretreatment or other control techniques available to the user to improve the quality or quantity of wastewater discharge;
(h) Accidental discharge.
1. Protection from accidental discharge.
a. All industrial users shall provide the facilities and institute the procedures as are reasonably necessary to prevent or minimize the potential for accidental discharge into the POTW of waste regulated by this chapter from liquid or raw material storage areas, from truck and rail car loading and unloading areas, from in-plant transfer or processing and materials handling areas, and from diked areas or holding ponds of any waste regulated by this section. The wastewater discharge permit of any user who has a history of significant leaks, spills or other accidental discharge or waste regulated by this chapter shall be subject on a case by case basis to a special permit condition or requirement for the construction of facilities, establishment of procedures which will prevent or minimize the potential for the accidental discharge. Facilities to prevent accidental discharge of prohibited materials shall be provided and maintained at the user's expense. Detailed plans showing the facilities and operating procedures shall be submitted to the City Manager before the facility is constructed.
b. The review and approval of the plans and operating procedures will in no way relieve the user from the responsibility of modifying the facility to provide the protection necessary to meet the requirements of this chapter.
2. Notification of accidental discharge.
a. Any person causing or suffering from any accidental discharge shall immediately notify the City Manager (or his or her designated official) by telephone to enable counter-measures to be taken by the City Manager to minimize damage to the POTW, the health and welfare of the public and the environment.
b. This notification shall be followed, within five days of the date of occurrence, by a detailed written statement describing the cause of the accidental discharge and the measures being taken to prevent future occurrence.
c. The notification will not relieve the user of liability for any expense, loss or damage to the POTW, fish kills or any other damage to person or property; not shall the notification relieve the user of any fines, civil penalties or other liability which may be imposed by this chapter or state or federal law.
3. Notice to employees. A notice shall be permanently posted on the user's bulletin board or other prominent place advising employees whom to call in the event of a dangerous discharge. Employers shall ensure that all employees who may cause or suffer the a dangerous discharge to occur are advised of the emergency notification procedure.
(1989 Code, § 18-206)