Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the meaning of terms used in this chapter shall be as follows:
(1) "Act" means the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq), as amended, Public Law 92-500, and any amendments thereto; as well as any guidelines, limitations and standards promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to the Act.
(2) "BOD", denoting biochemical oxygen demand, means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure as outlined in the Environmental Protection Agency, "Guidelines Establishing Test Procedures for Analysis of Pollutants" (Ref. FR 10-16-73, Vol. 38, No. 199, Part 11), in five days at twenty degrees centigrade, expressed in parts per million by weight.
(3) "Building drain" means that part of the horizontal piping of a building drainage system which extends from a point three feet outside of the building wall and which receives rain water, surface water, ground water, subsurface water, condensate, cooling water or other similar discharge and conveys it to a public storm drain.
(4) "Building Sewer" means that part of the horizontal piping of a sanitary drainage system which extends from a point three feet outside of the building wall and which receives the discharge from sanitary conveniences, wastes and other drainage pipes inside the walls of the building and conveys it to a public sanitary sewer, private sewer, individual sewage disposal system or other point of disposal.
(5) "Categorical Pretreatment Standards" mean the National Pretreatment Standards specifying quantities or concentrations of pollutants or pollutant properties which may be discharged or introduced into the sewage disposal system by specific Industrial Users.
(6) "Chemical Oxygen Demand" (COD) means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the chemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedures expressed in milligrams per liter.
(7) "City" means the City of Galion, Ohio.
(8) "City Health Department" means the Health Department of the City of Galion.
(9) "Combined-Sewer" means a sewer intended to receive both sewage and storm or surface water.
(10) "Compatible Pollutant" includes biochemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, pH and fecal coliform bacteria, plus additional pollutants identified in the City's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit, providing the City's Wastewater Treatment Plant is designed to treat such pollutants, and in fact does remove such pollutants to a substantial degree.
(11) "Cooling Water" or "Industrial Cooling Water" means the unpolluted water discharge from any system of condensation, air-conditioning cooling, refrigeration or other similar use which meet the criteria established by the OEPA for effluents discharged to water courses at Galion, Ohio.
(12) "Debt Service" means the payment requirements to retire the Sewage Disposal System debt through cash generated during the period of time that the debt is outstanding. Any incremental charge for the recovery of "Debt Service" may be included in the sewer service charge.
(13) "Debt Service Fund" means a fund to which monies are deposited which are collected for the purpose of Debt Service as defined in subsection (12) above. Unless the collection of such monies complies with User Charge requirements, the monies in this fund shall not be used for any cost or expense of providing waste treatment services.
(14) "Director" means the Mayor of the City of Galion or his authorized deputy, agent or representative.
(15) "Floatable Oil" means oil, fat, or grease in a physical state such that it will separate by gravity from wastewater by treatment in an approved pretreatment facility.
(16) "Garbage" means solid waste from the preparation, cooking and/or dispensing of food, and from the handling, storage and sale of produce.
(17) "Incompatible pollutant" means any pollutant which is not a compatible pollutant as defined in subsection (10) hereof.
(18) "Indirect discharge" means the discharge or the introduction of non-domestic pollutants from a source regulated under the Act into the sewerage disposal system.
(19) "Individual or private sewage disposal system" means an independent sewage disposal system found to be adequate and approved by the City Health Department.
(20) "Industrial wastes" means the liquid wastes resulting from commercial manufacturing or industrial operations or processes as distinct from sanitary sewage or wastes.
(21) "Interceptor" means a device designed and installed so as to separate and/or retain deleterious, hazardous or undesirable matter from normal wastes, and permits normal wastewater to discharge into the disposal terminal by gravity.
(22) "Interference" means a discharge which alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, both:
A. Inhibits or disrupts the POTW, its treatment process, use or disposal.
B. Therefore is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the POTW's NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation or of the prevention of sewage sludge use or disposal.)
(23) "Natural outlet" means any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface water.
(24) "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 sources 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; or
B. The building, structure, facility or installation totally replaces the process or production equipment that causes the discharge of pollutants at an exiting source; or
C. The production or wastewater generating processes of the building, structure, facility or installation are substantially independent of an existing source at the same site. In determining whether these are 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 should be considered.
(25) "Normal strength sewage or wastes" as defined for the purpose of determining surcharge means sewage having an average daily suspended solids concentration of not more than 300 mg/l, an average daily BOD concentration of not more than 250 mg/l, and not containing any of the characteristics in excess of the limitations as prohibited and established by Section 925.31 and 925.32.
(26) "NPDES Permit" means the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit issued to the City of Galion's Wastewater Treatment Plant by the OEPA.
(27) "OEPA" means the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
(28) "Operation and maintenance costs" means all expense of collecting, pumping, treating and disposing of wastewater including equipment replacement costs.
(29) "Pass through" means a discharge exits the POTW 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 POTW's NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation.)
(30) "Person" means any individual, firm, company, association, society, corporation or group.
(31) "pH" means the logarithm of other reciprocal of the weight of hydrogen ions in grams per liter of solution.
(32) "Pollutant" means dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, wastewater, garbage, wastewater sludge, munition, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water.
(33) "Plumbing Inspector" means the Inspector of the City.
(34) "ppm" means parts per million by weight and/or milligrams per liter (mg/l).
(35) "Pretreatment" means 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 sewage disposal system.
(35) "Properly shredded garbage" means the wastes from the preparation, cooking and dispensing of food that have been shredded to such 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 inch in any dimension.
(37) "Public sewer" means a sewer in which all owners of abutting properties have equal rights, and is controlled by the City.
(38) "Replacement costs" means expenditures for obtaining and installing equipment, accessories, or appurtenances which are necessary during the useful life of the wastewater treatment plant to maintain or regain the capacity and performance for which it was designed and constructed. Unless specifically excluded, the term operation and maintenance shall include replacement.
(39) "Replacement fund" means a fund to which monies are deposited which are collected for the purpose of replacement as defined in subsection (8) above. The monies deposited in this fund and any interest earned thereon shall be used solely for the purpose of replacement.
(40) "Sanitary sewage" means the waste from water closets, urinals, lavatories, sinks, bathtubs, showers, household laundries, cellar floor drains, garage floor drains, bars, soda fountains, refrigerator drips, drinking fountains, storerooms and stable floor drains.
(41) "Sanitary sewer" means a sewer which carries sewage and waste and to which storm, surface and ground waters are not intentionally admitted.
(42) "Sanitary sewer fund" means a fund to which monies received from user charges are deposited and from which is paid all costs and expense incurred for operation and maintenance of the City of Galion's sewage disposal works.
(43) "Sewage" synonymous with "Wastewater" means the spent water of a community. 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 storm water that may be present.
(44) "Sewage disposal system" means all facilities for collecting, pumping, treating and disposing of sewage.
(45) "Sewer service charge" means the basic fee levied on all users of the City sewage disposal system whose wastes do not exceed in strength the concentration values established as representative of normal sewage. This charge to include the Users Charge as hereinafter defined and any other charge related to the construction and use of the City sewer system that may be permitted by law, including debt service.
(46) "Sewer tapping" means the construction of a building sewer or a building drain and connection to a sanitary sewer or a storm drain forming part of the public sewer system.
(47) "Shall" is mandatory; "may" is permissive.
(48) "SIC Manual" means the Standard Industrial Classification Manual, 1972, Office of Management and Budget, as amended and supplemented.
(49) "Significant Industrial User" means:
A. All dischargers subject to categorical pretreatment standards under section 403.6 and 40 CFR chapter 1 sub chapter "N" and
B. All noncategorical dischargers that, in the opinion of the Control Authority, have a reasonable potential to adversely affect the POTW's operation, or that contribute a process wastestream which makes up five percent (5%) or more of the average dry weather flow of the POTW plant, or that discharges an average of 25,000 gallons per day or more of process wastewater to the POTW.
C. Industrial users may be exempted from this classification with the consent of the Ohio EPA.
(50) "Slug" means 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.
(51) "Specifications for materials" means standards of specification identified by the following abbreviations:
A. ANSI: American standards approved by the American National Standards Institute, Inc., 1430 Broadway, New York, New York 10018.
B. ASTM: Standards and tentative standards published by the American Society for Testing and Materials, P.O. Box 7510, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19101.
C. CS: Commercial standards representing recorded voluntary recommendations of the trade, issued by the United States Department of Commerce and obtainable from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20234.
(52) "Storm drain" synonymous with "storm sewer" means a drain or sewer for conveying water, groundwater, subsurface water, or unpolluted water from any source, but excludes sewage.
(53) "Stormwater runoff" means that portion of the rainfall that is drained into the sewer.
(54) "Superintendent" means the Director of Water/Sewer Operations, an operator licensed by the appropriate regulatory agency.
(55) "Surcharge" means the fee in addition to the service charge which is levied on those persons whose waste are greater in strength than the concentration values established as representative of normal sewage.
(56) "Suspended solids" means total suspended matter that either floats on the surface of, or is in suspension in, water, waste-water, or other liquids, and that is removable by laboratory filtering as prescribed in "Standards Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater" and referred to as nonfilterable residue.
(57) "Toxic pollutants" includes but not necessarily be limited to aldrim-dieldrin, benzidine, cadmium, cyanide, DDT-endrin, mercury, polychlorinated byphenyls (PCB's) and toxaphene. Pollutants included as "toxic" shall be those promulgated as such by the USEPA.
(58) "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 benefited by discharge to the sanitary sewers and wastewater treatment facilities provided.
(59) "Upset" means an exceptional incident in which a User unintentionally and temporarily is in a state of non-compliance with the standards set forth in this chapter due to factors beyond the reasonable control of the User and excluding noncompliance to the extent caused by operational error, improperly designed treatment facilities, inadequate treatment facilities, lack of preventive maintenance, or careless or improper operation thereof.
(60) "USEPA" means the United State Environmental Protection Agency.
(61) "User charge" means the charge to each recipient of waste treatment services within the City's service area, representing a proportionate share of the costs of operation and maintenance including replacement of all waste treatment service provided.
(62) "User class" means the division of users within the City's service area, by the origin of the sewage discharged and by the similarity of the function of such users. Stated in four general classes, they are:
A. "Commercial User" a commercial business discharging wastewater; users not categorized as residential or industrial.
B. "Industrial User" a person who discharges to the City's sewage disposal system liquid wastes resulting from processes employed in industrial or manufacturing, or from the development of any natural resource.
C. "Other Public Authority User," means a special Class of user who usually contributes a primarily segregated domestic waste or waste from sanitary conveniences. This class usually includes hospitals, sanitariums, prisons, or charitable institutions, schools and all other governmental users (Federal, State and Local).
D. "Residential User," means single family or equivalent residences which discharge only wastes from sanitary conveniences.
E. "Significant industrial user" means all dischargers subject to Categorical Pretreatment Standards under section 403.6 and 40 CFR Chapter 1, sub chapter "N"
F. "Nonsignificant industrial user" means those industrial users who discharge into the sanitary sewer system a process waste that is not regulated under section 403.6 and 40 CFR Chapter 1 sub chapter "N".
G. "Dry industrial user" means those industrial users that discharge nothing more than normal sanitary convenience wastes.
(63) "USPH" means the United State Public Health Service.
(64) "Wastewater treatment plant" or "WWTP" means an arrangement of devices and structures for treating and disposing of sewage and sludge.
(65) "Watercourse" means a channel in which a flow of water occurs, either continuously or intermittently.
(Ord. 90-5835. Passed 8-14-90.)