EDITOR'S NOTE: This chapter, previously a codification of Ordinance 73-18, passed February 5, 1973, was re-enacted in its entirety by Ordinance 85-31, passed February 4, 1985. This chapter was subsequently re-enacted in its entirety by Ordinance 93-293, passed December 20, 1993.
All references to "City Solicitor" in this chapter have been changed to "City Law Director" and all references to "Law Director" in this chapter have been changed to "Administrative Legal Counsel" to reflect the Charter Amendments passed by the electors on May 8, 2001, and upon the adoption of Ordinance 2001-96, passed June 4, 2001, and Ordinance 2001-97, passed June 4, 2001.
932.01 Definitions.
932.02 Building sewers and connections.
932.025 City policy re provision of service to residents of the City. (Repealed)
932.03 General discharge prohibitions.
932.04 Specific pollutant limitations; grease, oil and sand traps.
932.05 Compliance with Federal Categorical Pretreatment Standards; disclosure statements.
932.06 Modification of Federal Categorical Pretreatment Standards.
932.07 State requirements; conflicts.
932.08 Accidental discharges.
932.09 Operating upsets; reports.
932.10 Retention of records.
932.11 Wastewater discharge permits.
932.12 Reporting requirements.
932.13 Monitoring requirements.
932.14 Inspections and sampling.
932.15 Pretreatment facilities.
932.16 Water Pollution Control Board.
932.17 Confidential information.
932.18 Damaging system; manholes.
932.19 Building sewer violations; notice; corrections.
932.20 Private sewage disposal systems.
932.21 Falsifying information.
932.22 Notification of violation.
932.23 Notification of complaint.
932.24 Publication of names of users in significant noncompliance.
932.25 Suspension of services and permits.
932.26 Emergency suspension of services and permits.
932.27 Administrative fines.
932.28 Administrative review; appeals.
932.29 Restraining orders; injunctions; abatement.
932.30 Deteriorated private lateral sewers as nuisance; rehabilitation and reconstruction; Sewer Lateral Rehabilitation Loan Program.
932.31 Sanitary Sewer and Storm Sewer Lateral Rehabilitation Loan Program Regulations.
932.99 Penalty; other remedies; rewards.
CROSS REFERENCES
Service connections - see Ohio R.C. 729.06
Management and control of sewerage system - see Ohio R.C. 729.50, 729.51
Untreated sewage - see Ohio R.C. 3701.59
Interference with sewage flow - see Ohio R.C. 4933.24
Removal of putrid substances - see GEN. OFF. 521.05
Drainage - see S. & P.S. Ch. 932
Sewer charges - see S. & P.S. Ch. 937
As used in this chapter, unless the context specifically indicates otherwise:
(1) “Act” or “the Act” means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act, as amended, 33 U.S.C. 1251, et seq.
(2) “Approval authority” means the director in an NPDES state with an approved state pretreatment program and the Administrator of the EPA in a non-NPDES state or an NPDES state without an approved state pretreatment program.
(3) “Best management practices (BMPs)” means schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to prevent or reduce pollution. BMPs also include treatment requirements, operating procedures, and practices to control plant site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw material or waste storage.
(4) “Biochemical oxygen demand” (BOD) means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure, five days at twenty degrees Celsius, expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/l).
(5) “Building drain” means 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 five feet outside the inner face of the building wall.
(6) “Building sewer” means the branch beginning at the connecting point to the wye or tee in the public sewer and ending at the building drain. The building sewer may be located on private property and the public street right-of-way or a public easement, and includes any sloping or vertical riser pipe.
(7) “Categorical Standard” means a Federal Categorical Pretreatment Standard or Pretreatment Standard.
(8) “Centralized waste treatment (CWT) facility” means any facility that accepts and/or treats (for disposal, recycling or recovery of material) any hazardous or non-hazardous industrial wastes, hazardous or nonhazardous industrial wastewater, and/or used materials received from off-site. “CWT facility” includes both a facility that treats wastes received exclusively from off-site and a facility treats wastes generated on-site as well as wastes received from off-site.
(9) “City” means the City of Elyria.
(10) “Combined sewer” means a sewer receiving both surface run-off and sewage.
(11) “Composite sample” means a minimum of eight discrete samples taken at equal time intervals over the compositing period or proportional to the flow rate over the compositing period. More than the minimum number of discrete samples is required where the wastewater loading is highly variable.
(12) “Cooling water” means the water discharged from any use, such as air conditioning, cooling or refrigeration, or to which the only pollutant added is heat.
(13) “Direct discharge” means the discharge of treated or untreated wastewater directly to the waters of the State.
(14) “Environmental Protection Agency” or “EPA” means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or, where appropriate, a designation for the Administrator or other duly authorized official of such Agency.
(15) “Federal Categorical Pretreatment Standard” and “Pretreatment Standard” mean any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the EPA in accordance with Section 307(b) and (c) of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1347) which applies to a specific category of industrial users.
(16) “Garbage” means solid wastes from the domestic and commercial preparation, cooking and dispensing of food and from the handling, storage and sale of produce.
(17) “Grab sample” means a sample which is taken from a wastewater discharge on a one-time basis with no regard to the flow in the wastewater discharge and without consideration of time.
(18) “Indirect discharge” and “discharge” mean the introduction of pollutants into a POTW from any nondomestic source regulated under Section 307(b), (c) or (d) of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1317).
(19) “Industrial user” and “user” mean a source of indirect discharge
(20) “Industrial wastes” means the liquid waste from an industrial manufacturing pro cess, trade or business, as distinct from sewage.
(21) “Interference” means a discharge which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, both:
A. Inhibits or disrupts the Wastewater Pollution Control Plant, its treatment processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use or disposal; and
B. Is therefore a cause of a violation of any requirement of the City’s NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation) or otherwise prevents sewage sludge use or disposal in compliance with the following statutory provisions and regulations or permits issued thereunder (or more stringent State or local regulations): Section 405 of the Clean Water Act, the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SDA) (including Title II, more commonly referred to as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and including State regulations contained in any State sludge management plan prepared pursuant to Subtitle D of the SWDA), the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act.
(22) “Maintenance of building sewer” means the cleaning, removal of tree roots, upkeep and repair required to provide for the proper operation of the building sewer and to prohibit the inflow or infiltration of ground or storm water into the building sewer.
A. “Maintenance of storm sewer” means the cleaning, removal of tree roots, upkeep and repair to provide for the proper operation of the storm sewer.
(23) “National pollution discharge elimination system permit” and “NPDES permit” mean a permit issued pursuant to Section 402 of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1342).
(24) “Natural outlet” means any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface water or ground water.
(25) “New source” means 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, provided that:
A. The building, structure, facility or installation is constructed at a site at which no other source is located;
B. The building, structure, facility or installation totally replaces the process or production equipment that causes the discharge of pollutants at an existing source;
The production of wastewater generating processes of the building, structure, facility or installation is substantially independent of an existing source at the same site. In determining whether such production is substantially independent, factors such as the extent to which the new facility is integrated with the existing plant and the extent to which the new facility is engaged in the same general type of activity as the existing source, shall be considered.
Construction on a site at which an existing source is located results in a modification rather than a new source if the construction does not create a new building, structure, facility or installation meeting the criteria of paragraphs (24)B. or C. hereof, but otherwise alters, replaces or adds to existing process or production equipment.
Construction of a new source, as defined in this paragraph, has commenced if the owner or operator has begun, or caused to begin as part of a continuous on-site construction, any placement, assembly or installation of facilities or equipment, or any significant site preparation work, including clearing, excavation or removal of existing buildings, structures or facilities which is necessary for the placement, assembly or installation of new source facilities or equipment, or has entered into a binding contractual obligation for the purchase of facilities or equipment which are intended to be used in its operation within a reasonable time. Options to purchase or contracts which can be terminated or modified without substantial loss, and contracts for feasibility, engineering and design studies, do not constitute a contractual obligation under this paragraph.
(26) “Normal sewage” means sewage which, when analyzed, shows by weight a daily average of not more than 2,337 pounds (280 parts per million) of nonfilterable residue, not more than 2,000 pounds (240 parts per million) of BOD, and not more than 417 pounds (fifty parts per million) of freon soluble oil, each per million gallons of daily flow.
(27) “Pass through” means a discharge which exits the Wastewater Pollution Control Plant into waters of the United States in quantities or concentrations which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the City’s NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation).
(28) “Person,” “enterprise,” “establishment” and “owner” mean any individual, firm, company, association, society, corporation or group using the Wastewater Pollution Control Plant or sewage system.
(29) “pH” means the logarithm of the reciprocal of the concentration of hydrogen ions in grams per liter of solution.
(30) “Pollutant” means any dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munition, chemical waste, biological material, radioactive material, heat, wrecked or discharged equipment, rock, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal and agricultural waste discharged into water.
(31) “Pretreatment” and “treatment” mean the reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination of pollutants or the alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater to a less harmful state prior to or in lieu of discharging or otherwise introducing such pollutants into the Wastewater Pollution Control Plant. The reduction or alteration can be obtained by physical, chemical or biological processes or process changes by other means, except as prohibited by 40 CFR 403.6(d).
(32) “Properly shredded garbage” means 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 sewers, with no particle greater than one-half inch (1.27 centimeters) in any dimension.
(33) “Public sewer” means a sewer in which all owners of abutting properties have equal rights and which is controlled by a public authority.
(34) “Publicly owned treatment works” and “POTW” mean the Treatment Works, as defined by Section 212 of the Act, which are owned by the City, as defined by Section 502(4) of the Act. This definition includes any devices and systems used in the storage, treatment, recycling and reclamation of Municipal sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature. It also includes sewers, pipes and other conveyances only if they convey wastewater to the City’s POTW Treatment Plant. The term also means the City, as defined in Section 502(4) of the Act, which has jurisdiction over the indirect discharges to and the discharges from such treatment Works.
(35) “Safety-Service Director” and “Director” mean the Safety-Service Director of the City or his or her duly authorized agent.
(36) “Sanitary sewer” means a sewer which carries sewage and industrial waste and to which storm, surface and ground waters are not intentionally admitted.
(37) “Sewage” means water-carried human wastes or a combination of water-carried wastes from residences, business buildings, institutions and industrial establishments, together with such ground, surface and storm waters as may be present.
(38) “Sewer” means a pipe or conduit for carrying sewage.
(39) “Significant industrial user” and “SIU” mean, except as provided in the following paragraph, all industrial users subject to Categorical Pretreatment Standards, and any other industrial user who or which: discharges 25,000 gallons per calendar day or more of process wastewater to the POTW; contributes a process waste stream which makes up five percent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the POTW Treatment Plant; or has a reasonable potential, in the opinion of the Wastewater Pollution Control Board, to adversely affect the POTW’s operation or to violate any pretreatment standard or requirement.
The Board may at any time, on its own initiative or in response to a petition received from any industrial user, determine that a noncategorical industrial user is not a significant industrial user if the industrial user has no reasonable potential, in the opinion of the Board, to adversely affect the POTW’s operation or to violate any Pretreatment Standard or requirement.
(40) “Significant noncompliance” means industrial user violations which meet one or more of the following criteria:
A. Chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined as those in which sixty-six percent or more of all 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 as those in which thirty-three 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 or the average limit multiplied by the applicable TRC (TRC=1.4 for BOD, TSS, fats, oil and grease, and 1.2 for all other pollutants, except pH);
C. Any other violation of a pretreatment effluent limit (daily maximum or longer term average) that the Director 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 of human health, welfare or the environment or has resulted in the POTW’s exercise of its emergency authority to halt or prevent such a discharge;
E. Failure to meet, within ninety days after the schedule date, a compliance schedule milestone contained in a wastewater discharge permit or enforcement order for starting construction, completing construction or attaining final compliance;
F. Failure to provide, within thirty days after the due date, required reports, such as baseline monitoring reports, ninety-day compliance reports, periodic self-monitoring reports and reports on compliance with compliance schedules;
G. Failure to accurately report noncompliance;
H. Any other violation or group of violations which the Director determines will or has adversely affected the operation or implementation of the City’s pretreatment program.
(41) “Sludge” means any solid, semisolid or liquid waste generated by a municipal, commercial or industrial wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility, or any other waste having similar characteristics and effects as defined in standards issued under Sections 2001, 3004 and 4004 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act (PL 94-580).
(42) “Slug” means the discharge of any pollutant, including oxygen demanding pollutants (BOD, etc.), released in a discharge at a flow rate and/or pollutant concentration which will cause interference with the POTW.
(43) “Storm drain” and “storm sewer” mean a pipe or conduit which carries storm and surface waters and drainage, but excludes sewage and industrial wastes. However, it may carry cooling water.
(44) “Storm water” means any flow occurring during or following any form of natural precipitation and resulting therefrom.
(45) “Superintendent” means the Superintendent of the Wastewater Pollution Control Plant of the City or his or her authorized deputy, agent or representative.
(46) “Toxic pollutant” means any pollutant or combination of pollutants listed as toxic in regulations promulgated by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under Section 307(a) of the Act.
(47) “Upset” means an exceptional incident in which a user unintentionally and tempo rarily is in a state of noncompliance with the standards set forth in this chapter due to factors beyond the reasonable control of the user, excluding noncompliance caused by operational error, improperly designed treatment facilities, inadequate treatment facilities, lack of preventive maintenance or careless or improper operation of such facilities.
(48) “User” means any person who contributes or causes or permits the contribution of wastewater into the Wastewater Pollution Control Plant.
(49) “Wastewater” means the liquid and water-carried industrial or domestic wastes from dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities and institutions, together with any ground water, surface water and storm water that may be present, whether treated or untreated, which is contributed into or permitted to enter the Wastewater Pollution Control Plant.
(50) “Wastewater Pollution Control Plant” or “publicly owned treatment works” means any arrangement of devices and structures used for treating sewage or industrial wastes.
(51) “Water Pollution Control Board” means the Board described in Section 932.16.
(52) “Watercourse” means a channel in which a flow of water occurs, either continu ously or intermittently.
(53) “Waters of the State” means all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, irrigation systems, drainage systems and other bodies or accumulations of water, surface and underground, natural or artificial, which are situated wholly or partly within, or border upon, this State, or are within its jurisdiction, except those private waters which do not combine or affect a junction with natural surface or underground waters. The term also includes those waters which drain to or effect a junction with other waters draining to the Black River.
(Ord. 2023-79. Passed 5-15-23.)
(a) Except as hereinafter provided, no person shall construct or maintain any privy, privy vault, septic tank, cesspool or other facility intended or used for the disposal of waste.
(b) The owner of all houses, building or properties used for human occupancy, employment, recreation or other purposes, situated within the City and abutting on any street, alley or right-of-way in which there is now located or may in the future be located a public sanitary sewer, or combined sewer, or storm sewer of the City, is hereby required, at his or her expense, to install suitable sanitary and/or storm sewer facilities therein and to connect such facilities directly with the proper public sanitary or storm sewer in accordance with this chapter, within sixty days after the date of official notice to do so, provided that the foundation wall of the structure from which sewage or other waste originates, or at the location(s) where the storm water is collected and/or discharged, is not more than 200 feet from the nearest boundary of the right-of-way within which the sanitary sewer, or storm sewer is located. The Board of Health may order a connection period of less than sixty days if the Board of Health deems necessary to maintain proper control of health hazard conditions. A connection at a distance greater than 200 feet may be ordered by the Safety Service Director or the Board of Health if it is deemed necessary to maintain proper control of health hazard conditions or to protect natural water from pollution. The Board of Health may afford a period of time for the connection of up to three years, or the maximum period of time permitted by State law or regulations, whichever is less.
(c) No unauthorized person shall uncover, make any connection with or opening into, or use, alter or disturb, any public sewer or appurtenance thereof without first obtaining a written permit therefor from the Director.
(d) No person shall construct, connect or repair any sanitary sewer, construct, connect or repair any storm sewer drain connecting with a City storm sewer or inlet, or do any work in connection therewith, unless he or she obtains a permit therefor from the City Engineer.
(e) All costs and expenses incident to or incurred in connection with the installation, connection and maintenance of the building sewer, and/or storm sewer shall be borne by the owner. The owner shall indemnify the City for any loss, damage or claims that may, directly or indirectly, be occasioned by or result from the installation, connection and maintenance of the building sewer, and/or storm sewer.
(f) A separate and independent building sewer shall be provided for every building, except that where one building stands at the rear of another on an interior lot and no private sewer is available or can be constructed to the rear building through an adjoining alley, courtyard or driveway, the building sewer from the front building may be extended to the rear building and the whole considered as one building sewer.
A building sewer within five feet of any building shall be constructed and tested as prescribed for the building drain. The building sewer shall not be less than two feet below the finish grade.
(g) Existing building sewers, or storm sewers may be used in connection with new buildings only when they are found, on examination and test by the City Engineer, to meet all requirements of this chapter.
(h) The size, slope, alignment and materials of construction of a building sewer, and/or storm sewer and the methods to be used in excavating, placing of the pipe, jointing, testing and backfilling the trench, shall all conform to the requirements of the Building and Plumbing Codes or other applicable rules and regulations of the City. In the absence of code provisions or in amplification thereof, the materials and procedures set forth in appropriate specifications of the American Society for Testing and Materials and the Water Pollution Control Federation Manual of Practice No. 9 shall apply.
(i) Whenever possible, every building drainage system shall drain by gravity to a public sewer system. Only that section, branch of drain located below the elevation of the public sewer or sewer system shall be permitted to be drained into a sealed and vented sump pursuant to OAC 4101:2-5-154. Gravity drainage must be accomplished wherever possible.
(j) No person shall connect roof downspouts, exterior foundation drains, areaway drains or other sources of surface run-off or ground water to a building drain which in turn is connected directly or indirectly to a sanitary sewer or combined sewer.
(k) The connection of a building sewer or storm sewer into the public sewer shall conform to the requirements of the Building and Plumbing Codes other applicable rules and regulations of the City or the procedures set forth in appropriate specifications of the American Society for Testing and Materials and the Water Pollution Control Federation Manuel of Practice No. 9. All such building sewers and connections shall be made gastight and watertight. Any deviation from the prescribed procedures and materials shall be approved by the Safety-Service Director or the City Engineer or his or her representative.
(l) The applicant for a building sewer or storm sewer permit shall notify the Director and the City Engineer or their representatives when the building sewer is ready for inspection and connection to the public sewer. The connection shall be made under the supervision of the Director or the City Engineer or his or her representative.
(m) All excavations for building sewer, or storm sewer installation shall be adequately guarded with barricades and lights so as to protect the public from any attendant hazards. Streets, sidewalks, parkways and other public property disturbed in the course of the work shall be restored in a manner satisfactory to the City Engineer.
(n) Any owner of houses, buildings or properties used for human occupancy, employment, recreation or any other purpose, serviced by a combined sanitary/storm sewer or septic tank, shall connect to a sanitary sewer, if one is available, within sixty days of receipt of a written order to do so by Lorain County Public Health, the Building Inspector, the City Engineer or the Safety-Service Director of the City.
(o) (1) The property is located within the City corporation limits and the property receives water service only, in which case the sanitary waste disposal facilities shall be inspected by Lorain County Public Health to determine that the system is functioning properly.
(2) The property is located within the City corporation limits and also within the combined sewer area of the City, as shown on a map on file in the Council Clerk's Office, in which case the sanitary lateral serving the property shall be dye tested by the Division of Engineering to determine that the building sewer is connected to the proper public sewer (separate sanitary sewer where available) and functioning at the time of inspection.
The owner or occupant who has applied for the change in billing shall be required to pay a fee as determined from time to time by Lorain County Public Health for such inspections.
The owner of the property shall make any necessary corrections to his or her private waste disposal system, or repairs to the sanitary lateral, or construct a proper connection to the public sanitary sewer, at his or her expense, as may be ordered under authority provided by any rules of Lorain County Public Health, ordinances of the City or laws of the State.
(Ord. 93-293. Passed 12-20-93; Ord. 2009-69. Passed 2-17-09; Ord. 2018-75. Passed 5-21-18; Ord. 2018-183. Passed 11-19-18.)
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