Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the meaning of terms in these regulations shall be as follows:
(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., as well as any regulations, guidelines, limitations and standards issued thereunder.
(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 NPDES state without an approved state pretreatment program.
(3) “ASTM” means the most recent standards published by the American Society for Testing and Materials
(4) “Authorized or duly authorized representative of the user.”
A. If the user is a corporation:
1. The president, secretary, treasurer, or a vice-president of the corporation in charge of a principal business function, or any other person who performs similar policy or decision-making functions for the corporation; or
2. The manager of one or more manufacturing, production, or operating facilities, provided the manager is authorized to make management decisions that govern the operation of the regulated facility including having the explicit or implicit duty of making major capital investment recommendations, and initiate and direct other comprehensive measures to assure long-term environmental compliance with environmental laws and regulations; can ensure that the necessary systems are established or actions taken to gather complete and accurate information for individual wastewater discharge permit requirements; and where authority to sign documents has been assigned or delegated to the manager in accordance with corporate procedures.
B. If the user is a partnership or sole proprietorship: a general partner or proprietor, respectively.
C. If the user is a federal, state, or local governmental facility: a director or highest official appointed or designated to oversee the operation and performance of the activities of the government facility, or their designee.
D. The individuals described in paragraphs A. through C., above, may designate a duly authorized representative if the authorization is in writing, the authorization specifies the individual or position responsible for the overall operation of the facility from which the discharge originates or having overall responsibility for environmental matters for the company, and the written authorization is submitted to the City Pretreatment Coordinator.
E. If a designated authorization under this paragraph of this rule is no longer accurate because a different individual or position has responsibility for the overall operation of the facility, or overall responsibility for environmental matters for the company, new authorization satisfying the requirements of paragraph of this rule shall be submitted to the control authority prior to or together with any reports to be signed by an authorized representative.
(5) “Best Management Practices (BMPs)” means schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to implement the prohibitions listed in OAC 3745-3-04. 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 materials storage.
(6) “Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)” means the quantity of oxygen used in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure in five days at twenty degrees Centigrade, expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/l).
(7) “Building drain” means that part of the lowest horizontal piping of a sanitary system which receives the discharge from waste drainage pipes inside the walls of the building and conveys it to the lateral, beginning three feet outside the inner face of the building wall.
(8) “Bypass” means the intentional diversion of waste streams from any portion of an industrial user's treatment facility.
(9) “Categorical standards” means National Categorical Pretreatment Standards as defined herein below.
(10) “Combined sewer” means a sewer intended to receive both wastewater and storm or surface water.
(11) “Commercial and public authority customers” means customers who discharge primarily wastes from sanitary conveniences. This class includes all customers who generally provide a service or a product for public use. It does not include manufacturing establishments which require process water and discharge manufacturing wastes to the sewer system.
(12) “Compatible pollutant” means biochemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, pH and fecal coliform bacteria, plus additional pollutants identified in the District's national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit, provided the District's wastewater treatment plant is designed to treat such pollutants and in fact does remove such pollutants to a substantial degree.
(13) “Cooling water” or “industrial cooling water” means water discharging from any system of condensation, air-conditioning cooling, refrigeration or similar use, which shall be free from odor or oil. It shall not contain any polluting substance which will produce BOD or suspended solids in excess of ten mg/l by weight of each.
(14) “Debt retirement charge” means the charge to sewer users for the debt service.
(15) “Debt service” means the payment requirements to retire the sewerage works from debt through cash generated during the period of time that the debt is outstanding.
(16) “District Director” means the City Service Director or his or her duly authorized agent
(17) “District sewer” means a District-owned sewer to which all adjoining property owners have equal rights.
(18) “Domestic customers” means customers who discharge only sanitary waste from primarily habitable dwellings. This includes single-, multiple-family and all other connections that are residential in nature except such commercial establishments as hotels, motels or mobile home parks primarily used for in-transit parking.
(19) “Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)” means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or, where appropriate, the term may also be used as a designation for the administrator or other duly authorized official of said Agency.
(20) “Federal Act” means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.) and Amendments of 1972 (Public Law 95-217 and Public Law 93-243) and any other amendments thereto, as well as any guidelines, limitations and standards promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to the Act
(21) “Garbage” means any solid wastes from the preparation cooking and dispensing of food from the handling, storage and sale of products.
(22) “Grinder pump” means a pumping station used for pumping sewage. The District shall own and maintain grinder pump stations.
(23) “Incompatible pollutant” means all pollutants other than compatible pollutants defined hereinabove, for which the City's wastewater treatment works was not designed to treat and in fact does not remove to any substantial degree.
(24) “Indirect discharge” means the discharge or the introduction of nondomestic pollutants from any source regulated under Section 307(b) or (c) of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1317) into the POTW (including holding tank waste discharged into the system).
(25) “Industrial user” or “user” means a source of indirect discharge.
(26) “Industrial waste” means the liquid wastes from industrial processes as distinct from sanitary sewage.
(27) “Interference” means a discharge, that alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, results in either of the following:
A. Inhibits or disrupts the POTW, the POTW's treatment processes or operations, or the POTW's sludge processes, use or disposal.
B. Causes 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 in compliance with all of the following statutory provisions and regulations or permits issued thereunder (or more stringent state or local regulations):
1. Section 405 of the Act.
2. The Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) 42 U.S.C. sections 6901 to 6992 (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).
3. The standards for the use and disposal of sewage sludge (40 C.F.R. 503, and Chapter 3745-40 of the Administrative Code).
4. The Clean Air Act (CAA) 42 U.S.C. sections 7401 to 7671.
5. The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) 15 U.S.C. sections 2601 to 2692.
(28) “Lateral” means the extension from the building drain to the District sewer, grinder pump unit or other place of disposal.
(29) “National categorical standard” means 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) and amendment thereto which apply to a specific category of industrial users.
(30) “National prohibitive discharge standard or prohibitive discharge standard” means any regulation developed under authority of 307(b) of the Act and 40 CFR, Section 403.5, and amendments thereto.
(31) “Natural outlet” means any outlet into a water course, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface or ground water.
(32) “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 standard 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 any existing 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.
D. In determining whether these substantially independent factors such as the extent in 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.
(33) “Nonsignificant industrial user” means an industrial user that discharges domestic wastewater or industrial wastewater containing compatible pollutants in acceptable amounts.
(34) “Normal strength sewage or wastes,” for the purpose of determining surcharge, means sewage having an average daily suspended solids concentration of not more than 250 mg/l and an average daily BOD concentration of not more than 250 mg/l and does not contain any of the characteristics prohibited by Section 1045.05(e).
(35) “NPDES permit” means the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit issued to the District.
(36) “Ohio EPA” means the State of Ohio Environmental Protection Agency or successor agencies.
(37) “Operation and maintenance costs” means all expense of collection, pumping, testing and disposing of wastewater, including the replacement of equipment.
(38) “Owner” means the person or persons owning title to houses, buildings or property used for human occupancy, or used by humans for shelter, recreation or other purposes. In the event that said premises as above described are used by persons who are not the holders of legal title to said premises, the “owner” shall also mean such persons.
(39) “Pass through” means a discharge which 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).
(40) “pH” means the negative logarithm of the reciprocal of the weight of hydrogen ions in moles per liter of solution.
(41) “Pretreatment” means the treatment of wastewaters from sources before introduction into the District sewer.
(42) “Pretreatment requirements” are substantive or procedural requirements other than a pretreatment standard applied to the industrial users.
(43) “Pretreatment standards” means the standards for compatible and incompatible pollutants introduced into the publicly owned wastewater treatment works as set forth in regulations issued pursuant to the Federal Act. This term includes prohibitive discharge limits established pursuant to 40 CFR 403.5 in accordance to 40 CFR chapter 1, subpart N. Parts 405-471, prohibited discharges established pursuant to rule 3745-3-04 of the Ohio Administrative Code, local limits developed by the POTW and approved by Ohio EPA, state and local law, and any enforceable schedule designed to achieve compliance with such limits.
(44) “Private sewer” means a sewer which is not District owned and to which all adjoining property owners do not have equal rights.
(45) “Properly shredded garbage” means the wastes from the preparations, 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 three-eighths of an inch in any dimension.
(46) “Replacement costs” means expenditures for obtaining and installing equipment, accessories or appurtenances which are necessary during the useful life of the treatment works to maintain the capacity and performance for which such works were designed and constructed. Unless specifically excluded, the term operation and maintenance shall include replacement
(47) “Sanitary sewer” means a pipe or conduit for carrying sanitary sewage.
(48) “Service connection” means the point of connection of a lateral to a District sewer.
(49) “Sewage” means a combination of any of the water-carried wastes from residences, business buildings, institutions and industrial establishments.
(50) “Sewer service charge.” (See “user charge” definition).
(51) “Sewerage works” means the facilities for collection, pumping, treating and disposing of sanitary sewage and industrial waste.
(52) “Shall” is mandatory; “may” is permissive.
(53) “Significant industrial user” means:
A. Except as provided in paragraph (53)B. hereof, significant industrial user includes:
1. All industrial users subject to categorical pretreatment standards; and
2. Any other industrial user that discharges an average of 25,000 gallons per day or more of process wastewater to the POTW; contributes a process waste stream which makes up to 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 Service Director, to adversely affect the POTW's operation or to violate any pretreatment standard or requirement.
B. The Service Director may at any time, on his or her own initiative or in response to a petition received from an industrial user, determine that a noncategorical industrial user is not a significant industrial user if the industrial user has no reasonable potential to adversely affect the POTW's operation or to violate any pretreatment standard or requirement.
(54) “Slug” or “slugload” 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.
(55) “Storm sewer” or “storm rain” means a sewer or drain which carries storm and surface waters and drainage, but excludes sewage and polluted industrial wastes.
(56) “Superintendent” means the Superintendent of the system or his or her duly authorized deputy, agent or representative.
(57) “Surcharge” shall mean the user charge levied on a user for discharging wastes with strengths exceeding normal sewage or wastes.
(58) “Suspended solids” means solids that either float on the surface of, or are in suspension in, water, sewage or other liquids, and which are removable by laboratory filtering.
(59) “Unpolluted water” means water not containing any pollutants limited or prohibited by the effluent standards in effect or whose discharge will not cause any violation of receiving water quality standards and would not be benefited by discharge to the sanitary sewer.
(60) “Upset” means an exceptional incident in which there is unintentional and temporary noncompliance with categorical pretreatment standards because of factors beyond the reasonable control of the industrial user. An upset does not include noncompliance to the extent caused by operational error, improperly designed treatment facilities, inadequate treatment facilities, lack of preventive maintenance, or careless or improper operation.
(61) “USEPA” means the United States Environmental Protection Agency, sometimes referred to as "Federal Agency."
(62) “User” means any individual, customer, firm, company, association, society, corporation or group discharging wastewater to District sewers.
(63) “User charge” means the charge to each recipient of waste treatment service within the District's service area representing a proportionate share of the costs of operation, maintenance, improvement, replacement, and other authorized costs of all waste treatment services provided.
(64) “User class” means the division of users within the District's service area, by the origin of the wastewater discharged and by the similarity of the function of such users.
(65) “Wastewater treatment plant” means any arrangement of devices and structures used for treating sewage.
(66) “Watercourse” means a channel in which a flow of water occurs, either continuously or intermittently.
(Ord. 91-130. Passed 11-5-91; Ord. 09-27. Passed 3-3-09; Ord. 23-145. Passed 12-19-23.)