(A) For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ACT. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act, as amended, 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251, et seq.
ANIMAL WASTE. Includes the following waste regardless of whether the waste has been exposed to pathogens: carcasses of animals; body parts of animals; blood and blood products, serum, plasma, and other blood components from animals; or bedding of animals.
APPROVING AUTHORITY. The City Manager.
AUTOMOTIVE OIL. Any lubricating oils or greases intended for use in an internal combustion engine, crankcase, transmission, gear box, or differential for an automobile, bus, lawnmower, tractor, trailer, motorcycle, boat, truck, airplane, water craft, four-wheeler or other machine with such components. The term includes oil or grease that is not labeled specifically for that use but is suitable for that use according to generally accepted industry specifications, including those of synthetic composition.
BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (BOD). The quantity of biochemical oxidation of organic matter over five days at a temperature of 20°C under standard laboratory procedures, expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/l), as determined by standard methods.
BLOOD AND BLOOD PRODUCTS. Human blood, serum, plasma and other blood components.
BUILDING SEWER. The extension from the building drain to the public sewer or other place of disposal (also called the house lateral and house connection).
BYPASS. The intentional diversion of waste or wastewater from any portion of a user’s facility.
CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (COD). Measure of the oxygen consuming capacity of inorganic and organic matter present in the water or wastewater expressed in mg/l as the amount of oxygen consumed from a chemical oxidant in a specific test, but not differentiating between stable and unstable organic matter and thus not necessarily correlating with biochemical oxygen demand as determined by standard methods.
COMPOSITE SAMPLE. The sample resulting from the combination of individual samples taken at selected intervals based on an increment of either flow or time.
CONTROL MANHOLE. A manhole giving access to a building sewer at some point before the building sewer discharge mixes with other discharges in the public sewer.
CONTROL POINT. Point of access to a course of discharge before the discharge mixes with other discharges in the public sewer.
COOLING WATER. The water discharged from any system of condensation, such as air conditioning, cooling, and refrigeration systems.
DIRECT DISCHARGE. The discharge of treated or untreated wastewater directly into the waters of the state under a permit issued by the TCEQ or EPA.
DIRECTOR. The Water, Wastewater and Stormwater Official of the city.
DISCHARGE. To deposit, conduct, drain, emit, throw, run, allow seeping, or otherwise release or dispose of any wastewater, waste, or any other substance into the wastewater system, or to allow, permit, or suffer any of these acts or omissions to occur, without regard to intent.
FATS, OILS AND GREASES (FOG). Organic polar compounds derived from animal and/or plant sources that contain multiple carbon chain triglyceride molecules detectable and measurable using analytical test procedures specified in the standard methods, and sometimes referred to herein as “grease” or “greases.”
FOOD SERVICE ESTABLISHMENT. All commercial, institutional or industrial restaurants, food courts, food packagers, grocery and convenience stores, bakeries, lounges, bars, schools, food manufacturers, food processors, hospitals, hotels, motels and nursing homes that (1) prepare, serve, process, manufacture or conduct any food service type activity involving food or beverage products of any kind and (2) generate industrial wastewater.
GARBAGE. Animal and vegetable wastes and residue from preparation, cooking, and dispensing of food, and from the handling, processing, storage, and sale of food products and produce.
GENERATOR. Any person who owns or operates a grease trap/grease interceptor or grit trap or whose act or process produces a grease or grit trap waste.
GRAB SAMPLE. An individual sample collected without regard to flow over a period of time not exceeding 15 minutes.
GREASE TRAP OR GREASE INTERCEPTOR. A device designed to use differences in specific gravities to separate and retain light density liquids, waterborne fats, oils, and greases prior to the wastewater entering the sanitary sewer collection system. These devices also serve to collect settleable solids, generated by and from food preparation activities, prior to the water exiting the trap and entering the sanitary sewer collection system. Grease traps and interceptors are also referred to herein as “grease traps/interceptors.”
GREASE TRAP WASTE. Material collected in and from a grease trap/interceptor in the sanitary sewer service line of a commercial, institutional, or industrial food service or processing establishment, including the solids resulting from de-watering processes.
GRIT TRAP OR GRIT INTERCEPTOR. A receptacle, structure, or mechanical device used by a generator to intercept, collect, separate, and restrict the passage of petroleum based oil and grease waste, and inorganic or other solids or semi-solids from wastewater prior to discharge to the wastewater system.
GRIT TRAP WASTE. Petroleum based oil and grease waste, and inorganic or other solids and semi-solids collected by and removed from a grit trap.
HAZARDOUS METAL. Each of the following metals in its elemental state and any of its compounds expressed as that metal: arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, cyanide, lead, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, silver and zinc.
INDUSTRIAL WASTE CHARGE. The charge made on those persons who discharge industrial wastes into the city’s sewer system.
INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER. Waste or wastewater resulting from any process of industry, manufacturing, trade, or business from the development of any natural resource, or any mixture of the waste with water or normal wastewater, or distinct from normal wastewater.
MILLIGRAMS PER LITER, (mg/l). The same as parts per million and is a weight-to-volume ratio; the milligram-per-liter value multiplied by the factor 8.34 shall be equivalent to pounds per million gallons of water.
NATURAL OUTLET. Any outlet into a water-course, ditch, lake, or other body of surface water of groundwater.
NORMAL DOMESTIC WASTEWATER. Wastewater excluding industrial wastewater discharged by a person into sanitary sewers and in which the average concentration of TSS is not more than 250 mg/l and in which the average concentration of BOD is not more than 250 mg/l.
OVERLOAD. The imposition of organic or hydraulic loading on a treatment facility in excess of its engineering design capacity.
PERSON. Any individual and includes any corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership association, or other legal entity.
pH. The logarithm (Base 10) of the reciprocal of the hydrogen ion concentration.
POTW or PUBLICLY OWNED TREATMENT WORKS. A treatment works which is owned by a state or municipality as defined by section 502(4) of the Clean Water 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 all sewers, pipes and other conveyances that convey wastewater to a POTW treatment plant. The term also means the municipality, as defined in section 502(4) of the Act, which has jurisdiction over the indirect discharges to and the discharges from such a treatment works. For purposes of this chapter, the terms “sanitary sewer system” and “POTW” may be used interchangeably.
PUBLIC SEWER. A public sewer that conveys domestic waste water or industrial wastes or a combination of both, and into which stormwater, surface water, groundwater, and other unpolluted wastes are not intentionally passed.
RESIDENTIAL USER. A person discharging normal domestic wastewater from a single family dwelling, duplex, or other dwelling unit that has complete independent living facilities and that is used solely for residential use and is not used in conjunction with a home occupation.
SLUG. Any discharge of water, wastewater, or industrial waste which in concentration of any given constituent or in quantity of flow, exceeds for any period of duration longer than 15 minutes more than five times the average 24-hour concentration or flows during normal operation.
STANDARD METHODS. The examination and analytical procedures set forth in the latest edition, at the time of analysis, of “Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater” as prepared, approved, and published jointly by the American Public Health Association, the American Water Works Association, and the Water Pollution Control Federation, or through the use of approved test procedures found in 40 C.F.R. 136 or 30 Texas Administrative Code § 319.11.
STORM SEWER. A conveyance or system of conveyances (including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, inlets, gutters, ditches, natural and human-made or altered drainage channels, or storm drains) owned or operated by the city and designed or used for collecting or conveying storm water, and which is not used for collecting or conveying sewage and which is not part of the wastewater system.
STORM WATER. Rainfall runoff, snow melt runoff, and surface runoff and drainage.
SUSPENDED SOLIDS (S.S.). Solids measured in mg/l that either float on the surface of, or
are in suspension in, water, wastewater, or other liquids, and which are largely removable by a laboratory filtration device.
TOTAL SUSPENDED SOLIDS (TSS). The value of the test for total suspended solids, as described in the latest edition of “Standard Methods for the Examination of Water & Wastewater.”
TRANSPORTER. A person who is registered with and authorized by the TCEQ to transport sewage sludge, water treatment sludge, domestic septage, chemical toilet waste, grit trap waste, or grease trap waste in accordance with 30 Texas Administrative Code § 312.142.
TRAP. A device designed to skim, settle, or otherwise remove grease, oil, sand, flammable wastes, or other harmful substances.
UNPOLLUTED WASTEWATER. Water containing no free or emulsified grease or oil; no acids or alkalis; no phenols or other substances producing taste or odor in receiving water; no toxic or poisonous substances in suspension, colloidal state, or solution; no noxious or otherwise obnoxious or odorous gases; not more than an insignificant amount in mg/l each of suspended solids and BOD, as determined by the TCEQ; and color not exceeding 50 units as measured by the platinum-cobalt method of determination as specified in standard methods.
USER. Any person, including those located outside the corporate limits of the city, which by any means contributes, causes, or permits the contribution or discharge of waste, wastewater, or other substances into the wastewater system.
WASTE. Rejected, unutilized, or superfluous substances in liquid, gaseous, or solid form resulting from domestic, agricultural, or industrial activities.
WASTEWATER. A combination of the water-carried waste from residences, business buildings, institutions, and industrial establishments,
together with any ground water, surface water, and storm water that may be present.
WASTEWATER SERVICE CHARGE. The charge on all users of the public sewer system whose wastes do not exceed in strength the concentration values established as representative of normal wastewater.
WATERCOURSE. A natural or man-made channel in which a flow of water occurs, cither continuously or intermittently.
WATERS IN THE STATE. Groundwater, percolating or otherwise, lakes, bays, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers streams, creeks, estuaries, marshes, inlets, canals, the Gulf of Mexico inside the territorial limits of the state, and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, navigable or non-navigable, and including the beds and banks of all watercourses and bodies of surface water, that are wholly or partially inside or bordering the state or inside the jurisdiction of the state.
(B) The abbreviations below shall have the following meanings:
BOD: Biochemical Oxygen Demand
CFR: Code of Federal Regulations
COD: Chemical Oxygen Demand
EPA: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
FOG: Fats Oils and Greases
Gpd: Gallons per day
l: Liter
mg: Milligrams
mg/l: Milligrams per liter
NPDES: National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
POTW: System Publicly Owned Treatment Works
RCRA: Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
SWDA: Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 6901 et seq.)
TAC: Texas Administrative Code
TCEQ: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
TPDES: Texas Pollution Discharge Elimination System
TSS: Total Suspended Solids
USC: United States Code
(Ord. 2011-01, passed 1-25-11)