(a) Definitions. As used in this chapter, unless the context specifically indicates otherwise:
(1) "Act" or "the Act" means Sections 3101 to 3119 of Act No. 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, as amended, being Sections 324.3101 to 324.3119 of the Michigan Compiled Laws and any rules promulgated therein by the approval authority.
(2) "Approval authority" means the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
(3) "Approved program" or "approved pretreatment program" or "publicly owned treatment works' pretreatment program" means a program administered by a publicly owned treatment works which meets the criteria established in R 323.2306 and which has been approved by the approval authority in accordance with R 323.2308.
(4) "Authorized representative of nondomestic user" means those persons authorized to certify reports and other documents specified in this chapter:
A. A responsible corporate officer. As used in this chapter, “responsible corporate officer” means an officer of a corporation and means a president, secretary, treasurer, or 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 means the principal manager of one or more manufacturing, production or operation facilities employing more than 250 persons or having gross annual sales or expenditures of more than twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000), in second quarter 1980 dollars, if authority to sign the documents has been assigned or delegated to the manager in accordance with corporate procedures.
B. A general partner or proprietor if the nondomestic user submitting the reports is a partnership or sole proprietorship, respectively.
C. A duly authorized representative if:
1. The authorization is made in writing by the individual;
2. The authorization specifies either an individual or a position having responsibility for the overall operation of the facility from which the industrial discharge originates; and
3. The written authorization is submitted to the Superintendent.
If an authorization is no longer accurate due to changes of individuals or positions, a new authorization must be submitted to the Superintendent prior to or together with any reports required by this chapter to be signed by an authorized representative, officer, partner, or proprietor.
(5) "Average daily flow" means a reasonable measure of the average daily flow for a thirty-day period.
(6) "B.O.D." (biochemical oxygen demand) means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure in five days at twenty degrees Centigrade, expressed in parts per million by weight.
(7) "Bypass" means the intentional diversion of waste streams from any portion of a nondomestic user's treatment facility needed for compliance with pretreatment standards.
(8) "Categorical nondomestic user" means all nondomestic users subject to categorical pretreatment standards.
(9) "Categorical pretreatment standard" or "categorical standard" means any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in accordance with sections 307(b) and (c) of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. 1317, which apply to a specific category of nondomestic users and which appear in 40 C.F.R. Chapter I, subchapter N (1990), parts 405-471.
(10) "Chemical oxygen demands" (C.O.D.) means a measure of the oxygen consuming capacity of inorganic and organic matter present in water or wastewater. It is expressed as the amount of oxygen consumed from a chemical oxidant in a specified test. It does not necessarily correlate with biochemical oxygen demand. It is also known as OC and DOC, oxygen consumed and dichromate oxygen consumed, respectively.
(11) "City Health Officer" means the local health officer (City or County) having jurisdiction over public health in the City, or his or her authorized representative.
(12) "City Manager" means the City Manager of the City of Howell, Michigan, and such authorized representative as he or she may designate.
(13) "Clean Water Act" means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq., as amended.
(14) Compatible pollutant" means a substance amenable to treatment in the wastewater treatment plant, such as biochemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, pH and fecal coliform bacteria, plus additional pollutants identified in the NPDES permit if the publicly owned treatment works was designed to treat such pollutants, and in fact does remove such pollutants, which may include chemical oxygen demand, total organic carbon, phosphorus and phosphorus compounds, nitrogen compounds, and fats, oils and greases of animal or vegetable origin.
(15) "Composite sample" means a collection of individual samples which are obtained at regular intervals, collected on a time-proportional or flow-proportional basis, over a specific time period and which provide a representative sample of the average stream during the sampling period.
(16) "Control Authority" means the publicly owned treatment works if it has an approved program or means the approval authority until the publicly owned treatment works program is approved.
(17) "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.
(18) "Department" means the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality"
(19) "Discharge" means any direct or indirect discharge of any waste, waste effluent, wastewater, pollutant, or any combination into any of the waters of the State or upon the ground.
(20) "Domestic waste" means waste coming from domestic household sources that meets the definition of compatible pollutants.
(21) "Environmental Protection Agency" (EPA) means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Administrator thereof or another duly authorized official.
(22) "Grab sample" means a sample taken from a wastestream on a one-time basis over a period of time of not more than fifteen minutes without regard to the flow in the wastestream.
(23) "Hazardous waste" means any substance discharged or proposed to be discharged into the POTW which, if otherwise disposed of, would be a hazardous waste under 40 CFR Part 261.
(24) "Incompatible pollutant" means any pollutant which is not a compatible pollutant.
(25) "Indirect discharge" means the discharge or the introduction of nondomestic pollutants into the POTW (including holding tank waste discharged into the system).
(26) "Industrial waste" means the liquid, solid or semisolid waste from industrial processes, as distinct from sanitary sewage.
(27) "Interference" means a discharge, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, to which both of the following provisions apply:
A. The discharge inhibits or disrupts the publicly owned treatment works, its treatment processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use, or disposal; and
B. Pursuant to paragraph (a)(27)A. hereof, the discharge is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the publicly owned treatment works' 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 the following statutory provisions and regulations or permits issued thereunder, or more stringent State or local regulations:
1. Section 405 of the Clean Water Act.
2. The Solid Waste Disposal Act, 42 U.S.C. 6901 et seq., including Title II, more commonly referred to as the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act, and including State regulations contained in any State sludge management plan prepared.
3. The Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.
4. The Toxic Substances Control Act, 15 U.S.C 2601 et seq.
5. The Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act, 33 U.S.C. 1401 et seq.
(28) "Laboratory determination" means the measurements, tests and analyses of the characteristics of waters and wastes in accordance with the methods outlined in 40 CFR Part 136, as amended October 8, 1991, or EPA approved test techniques, which, in most cases, are outlined in the 17th Edition of Standard Methods for Examination of Water and Waste Water, a joint publication of the American Public Health Association, the American Waterworks Association and the Water Pollution Control Federation, or in accordance with any other method described by the rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to this chapter.
(29) "Local limit" means a specific prohibition or limit set by a publicly owned treatment works on discharges by a nondomestic user.
(30) "National categorical pretreatment standard" or "pretreatment standard" means any Federal regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the EPA, which regulation applies to a specific category of nondomestic users.
(31) "National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit" or "NPDES permit" means a permit issued pursuant to Section 402 of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1342).
(32) "National prohibitive discharge standard" or "prohibitive discharge standard" means any regulation developed under the authority of Section 307(b) of the Act and 40 C.F.R. 403.5.
(33) "Natural outlet" means an outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake or other body of water, either surface water or ground water.
(34) "New source" means any building, structure, facility, or installation from which there is or may be a discharge and for which construction commenced after the publication of proposed pretreatment standards under Section 307(c) of the Clean Water Act will be applicable to the source if the standards are thereafter promulgated in accordance with Section 307(c), and if any of the following provisions apply:
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.
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. The extent to which the new facility is engaged in the same general type of activity as the existing source and the extent of integration of the new facility with the existing plant should be considered in determining whether the process is substantially independent.
D. Any other modification which significantly changes discharge or as specified in 40 C.F.R. 403.3 (k)(2).
E. Construction on 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 paragraph (a)(34)C. or D. hereof, but otherwise alters, replaces or adds to the existing process or production equipment.
F. Construction of a new source as defined under this paragraph has commenced if the owner or operator has:
1. Begun, or caused to begin as part of a continuous on site construction program:
a. Any placement, assembly or installation of facilities or equipment; or
b. Significant site preservation 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
2. 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.
(35) "Nondomestic user" means an industry, commercial establishment, or other entity that discharges wastewater to a publicly owned treatment works other than, or in addition to, sanitary sewage.
(36) "Pass-through" means a discharge which exits the POTW into State waters 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 Act.
(37) "Permit" means an authorization, license, or equivalent control document and includes any of the following:
A. A nondomestic user permit, which is a control document issued by the publicly owned treatment works that controls the wastewater discharges from nondomestic users into the publicly owned treatment works.
B. A national pollutant discharge elimination system permit, which is a permit issued pursuant to Section 3112(1) of the Act to control wastewater discharges to the surface waters.
C. A State permit, which is a permit issued pursuant to Section 3112(1) of the Act to control wastewater discharges of publicly owned treatment works to the groundwaters.
(38) "Person" means any individual, partnership, copartnership, firm, company, corporation, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, governmental entity or any other legal entity, or his or her or its legal representatives, agents or assigns.
(39) "pH" means the logarithm of the reciprocal of the weight of hydrogen ions in grams per liter of solution.
(40) "Pollutant" means any of the following:
A. Substances regulated by categorical standards.
B. Substances discharged to publicly owned treatment works that are required to be monitored, are limited in the publicly owned treatment works' permit, or are to be identified in the publicly owned treatment works' permit application.
C. Substances for which control measures on nondomestic users are necessary to avoid restricting the publicly owned treatment works' approved residuals management program.
D. Substances for which control measures on nondomestic users are necessary to avoid operational problems at the publicly owned treatment works.
E. Substances for which control measures on nondomestic sources are necessary to avoid worker health and safety problems in publicly owned treatment works.
(41) "Pollution" means the man-induced alteration of the chemical, physical, biological and radiological integrity of water.
(42) "POTW" treatment plant" means that portion of the POTW designed to provide treatment of Municipal sewage and industrial waste.
(43) "Pretreatment" or "treatment" means the reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination of pollutants, or the alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater before or instead of discharging or otherwise introducing such pollutants into a POTW. The reduction or alteration can be obtained by physical, chemical or biological processes, process changes, or other means except for the use of dilution, unless expressly authorized by an applicable pretreatment standard or requirement.
(44) "Pretreatment program" means a nondomestic user waste control program which is required in a publicly owned treatment works wastewater discharge permit or order of the Department and which is developed in accordance with R 323.2306 of the Act.
(45) "Pretreatment requirement" means any substantive or procedural requirement related to pretreatment, other than a pretreatment standard, imposed on a nondomestic user.
(46) "Pretreatment standard" means any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated in accordance with Section 307(b) and (c) of the Clean Water Act and the Act. This term includes prohibited discharges and local limits as defined in R 323.2303 of the Act and categorical standards.
(47) "Publicly Owned Treatment Works" (POTW) means a treatment works that is owned by a municipality and includes any devices and systems used in the storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of municipal sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature. This term also includes sewers, pipes, and other conveyances if they convey wastewater to a publicly owned treatment works. The term also means the municipality that has jurisdiction over the indirect discharges to, and the discharges from, a treatment works.
(48) "Sanitary sewage" means a combination of water-carried wastes from toilet, kitchen, laundry, bathing or other facilities used for household purposes; business buildings, institutions and industrial establishments, together with such ground, surface and storm waters as may be present.
(49) "Severe property damage" means substantial physical damage to property, damage to the treatment facilities which causes them to become inoperable, or substantial and permanent loss of natural resources, which can be reasonably expected to occur in the absence of a bypass. Severe property damage does not mean economic loss caused by delays in production.
(50) "Sewage treatment plant" means an arrangement of devices and structures used for treating sewage.
(51) "Sewage works" means all facilities for collecting, pumping, treating and disposing of sewage.
(52) "Sewer" means a pipe, tile, tube or conduit for carrying sewage. Specifically:
A. "Combination sewer" or "combined sewer" means a sewer receiving both surface run-off and sewage.
B. "Public sewer" means a sewer in which all owners of abutting property have equal rights and which is controlled by a public authority.
C. "Sanitary sewer" means a sewer which carries sewage and to which storm, surface and ground waters are not intentionally admitted.
D. "Storm sewer" or "storm drain" means a sewer which carries storm and surface waters and drainage, but which does not carry sewage and polluted industrial wastes.
(53) "Significant noncompliance" means any of the following:
A. Chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined herein as those in which sixty-six percent or more of 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 herein as those in which thirty-three percent or more of all of 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. (The TRC equals 1.4 for conventional pollutants; for all other pollutants except pH, the TRC shall equal 1.2.)
C. Any other violation of a pretreatment effluent limit (daily maximum or longer term average) that the Superintendent determines has caused, alone or in combination with other discharges, interference, or pass-through (including endangering the health of treatment plant personnel or the general public);
D. Any discharge of a pollutant that has caused imminent endangerment to human health, welfare, or to the environment or has resulted in the treatment plant's exercise of its emergency authority under R 323.2306(a)(vi) of the Act 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 local control mechanism 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; and
H. Any other violation or group of violations which the Control Authority determines will adversely affect the operation or implementation of the local pretreatment program.
(54) "Significant nondomestic user" means either of the following:
A. A nondomestic user subject to categorical pretreatment standards under 40 C.F.R. 403 (1992) and 40 C.F.R. Chapter I, subchapter N (1990).
B. A nondomestic user to which one of the following provisions applies:
1. The user discharges an average of 25,000 gallons per day or more of process wastewater to the publicly owned treatment works, excluding sanitary, noncontract cooling, and boiler blowdown wastewater.
2. The user contributes a process wastestream that makes up five percent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the publicly owned treatment works.
3. The user is designated as a significant nondomestic user by the control authority on the basis that the user has a reasonable potential for adversely affecting the publicly owned treatment works' operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement.
C. Upon a finding that a nondomestic user meeting the criteria in paragraph (a)(54)B. hereof has no reasonable potential for adversely affecting the publicly owned treatment works' operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement, the control authority may, at any time, on its own initiative or in response to a petition received from a nondomestic user or publicly owned treatment works, determine that a nondomestic user is not a significant nondomestic user.
(55) "Slug discharge" means any discharge of a nonroutine, episodic nature, including an accidental spill or noncustomary batch discharge.
(56) "Slug load" means any substance released in a discharge at a rate and/or concentration which causes interference to a POTW.
(57) "Standard Industrial Classification" (SIC) means a classification pursuant to the Standard Industrial Classification Manual issued by the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, 1972.
(58) "Storm water" means any flow occurring during or following any form of natural precipitation and resulting therefrom.
(59) "Superintendent" means the person designated by the City to supervise the operation of the publicly owned treatment works, who is charged with certain duties and responsibilities by this chapter, or his or her duly authorized representative.
(60) "Suspended solids" means solids that either float on the surface of or are suspended in water, sewage or other liquids and which are removable by laboratory filtering.
(61) "SWRC" means the State Water Resources Commission or any of its affiliates, the State Public Health Department, the State Department of Natural Resources or the State Highway Department.
(62) "Toxic pollutant" means any pollutant or combination of pollutants which is or can potentially be harmful to public health or the environment, including those listed as toxic in regulations promulgated by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under the provisions of Section 307(A) of the Act or other acts.
(63) "Trade secret" means the whole or any portion or phase of any manufacturing proprietary process or method which is not patented, which is secret, which is useful in compounding an article of trade having a commercial value, and the secrecy of which the owner has taken reasonable measure to prevent from becoming available to persons other than those selected by the owner to have access for limited purposes. “Trade secret” shall not be construed, for purposes of these rules, to include any information regarding the quantum or character of waste products or their constituents discharged, or sought to be discharged, into the publicly owned treatment works.
(64) "Upset" means an exceptional incident in which there is an unintentional and temporary noncompliance with categorical pretreatment standards because of factors beyond the reasonable control of the nondomestic 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.
(65) "User" means any person who contributes or causes or permits the contribution of wastewater into the POTW.
(66) "Wastewater" means water resulting from industrial and commercial processes and municipal operations, including liquid or water-carried process waste, cooling and condensing waters, and sanitary sewage.
(67) "Watercourse" means a channel in which the flow of water occurs, either continuously or intermittently.
(68) "Waters of the State" means all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, reservoirs, aquifers, irrigation systems, drainage systems and other bodies or accumulations of water, surface or underground, natural or artificial, public or private, which are contained within, flow through or border upon the State or any portion thereof.
(b) Abbreviations. The following abbreviations shall have the designated meanings:
(1) BOD - Biochemical Oxygen Demand
(2) CFR - Code of Federal Regulations
(3) COD - Chemical Oxygen Demand
(4) EPA - Environmental Protection Agency
(5) L - Liter
(6) Mg - Milligrams
(7) Mg/l - Milligrams per liter
(8) NPDES - National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(9) POTW - Publicly Owned Treatment Works
(10) RCRA - Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(11) SIC - Standard Industrial Classification
(12) SWDA - Solid Waste Disposal Act
(13) TSS - Total Suspended Solids
(14) O&M - Operation and Maintenance
(15) CWA - Clean Water Act
(Ord. 656. Passed 9-15-97.)