Unless a provision explicitly states otherwise, the following terms and phrases, as used in this Ordinance, shall have the meanings hereinafter designated.
(a) "Act" or "the Act." The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act, as amended, 33 USC 1251 et seq.
(b) "Applicable County Health Department." Ionia County Health Department.
(c) "Authority." The Ionia Regional Utilities Authority, or IRUA.
(d) "Available public sanitary sewer system." City's collection system located within 200 feet of the nearest property line of a property.
(e) "Biochemical oxygen demand" or "BOD." The quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure, five days at 20° Centigrade expressed in terms of mass and concentration (milligrams per liter (mg/l)).
(f) "Building sewer." The sewer pipe that connects the building or structure in which sewage originates to the collection system and conveys the sewage from the building or structure to the collection system.
(g) "Capital costs." All costs associated with the design and construction of improvements, extensions, expansions or changes to the sewage disposal system, permitted by applicable laws, including but not limited to all amounts paid to contractors and subcontractors, construction materials, engineering fees, construction management fees, costs of acquiring real property or interests therein, capitalized interest, and legal and financing costs with respect to indebtedness to pay for all or any part of the cost of the sewage disposal system.
(h) "City." The City of Ionia.
(i) "City Manager." The person designated by the City to supervise the operation of the collection system, or his or her duly authorized representative, and who is charged with certain duties and responsibilities by this chapter, or the Contract.
(j) "Collection system." The sewer collection system owned and controlled by the City.
(k) "Color." The optical density at the visual wave length of maximum absorption, relative to distilled water. One hundred percent transmittance is equivalent to zero optical density.
(l) "Contract." The Ionia Regional Utilities Authority Contract of December 2010 by and between the IRUA and the Constituent Municipalities.
(m) "Constituent Municipalities." The incorporating municipalities that created the IRUA, including City of Ionia, Berlin Township, Easton Township, Ionia Township and Orange Township.
(n) "Cost of operation and maintenance." The sum of the City's share of the Authority's operation and maintenance costs, which, for any period, consist of the costs associated with the City's share of operation, maintenance, administration and management of the sewage disposal system (including reasonable reserves) necessary to keep all system facilities in proper repair and working order and, to the extent deemed necessary, reasonable reserves for replacement, including any equipment necessary; reduced by any other revenue collected, including (without limitation): surcharges collected for treatment of high-strength wastewater, charges for service to customers outside of the Constituent Municipalities, charges for acceptance and treatment of septage, remediation water or dewatering water discharged directly to the system, and proceeds from the sale of assets, and all costs, direct or indirect, inclusive of all expenditures attributable to the City's ownership, operation and maintenance of its own collection system.
(o) "Discharge." Any direct or indirect discharge of waste, waste effluent, wastewater, pollutant, or any combination into any of the waters of the state or upon the ground or to the collection system.
(p) "Discharge permit." Permit issued by the MDEQ for the discharge of treated sewage from the sewage disposal system.
(q) "Environmental Protection Agency" or "EPA." The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or, where appropriate, the term may also be used as a designation for the Regional Water Management Division Director or other duly authorized official of said agency.
(r) "Facilities maintenance charge." The costs associated with retiring all or a portion of the debt of the sewage collection and disposal system as applicable to the City (consists of all costs associated with the collection system and prorated portion of the sewage disposal system's capital costs and operation and maintenance costs as those terms are used and defined in the Contract and adopted herein).
(s) "Industrial user." An industry, commercial establishment, or other entity that discharges wastewater to the collection system, other than, or in addition to, sanitary sewage.
(t) "MDEQ." Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
(u) "Medical waste." Isolation waste, infectious agents, human blood and blood byproducts, pathological wastes, sharps, body parts, fomites, etiologic agents, contaminated bedding, surgical wastes, potentially contaminated laboratory wastes and dialysis wastes.
(v) "Natural outlet." Any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface or groundwater.
(w) "Operation and maintenance costs." See "cost of operation and maintenance."
(x) "Person." Any individual, partnership, co-partnership, firm, company, corporation, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, governmental entity or any other legal entity, or their legal representatives, agents or assigns. This definition includes all Federal, State or local governmental entities.
(y) "pH." A measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a substance, expressed in standard units.
(z) "Pollutant."
(1) Substances regulated by categorical standards;
(2) Substances discharged to the collection system that are required to be monitored, are limited in IRUA's discharge permit, or are identified in IRUA's permit application;
(3) Substances for which control measures on industrial users are necessary to avoid restricting IRUA's approved residuals management program;
(4) Substances for which control measures on industrial users are necessary to avoid operational problems at the sewage collection and disposal system;
(5) Substances for which control measures on nondomestic sources are necessary to avoid worker health and safety problems in the sewage collection and disposal system; or
(6) Dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, filter backwash, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, medical wastes, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, municipal, agricultural and industrial wastes, and certain characteristics of wastewater (e.g., pH, temperature, TSS, turbidity, color, BOD, COD, toxicity, or odor).
(aa) "Pretreatment." The reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination of pollutants or the alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater prior to or in lieu of introducing such pollutants into the sewage collection and disposal system. This reduction or alteration can be obtained by physical, chemical or biological processes, by process changes or by other means, except by diluting the concentration of the pollutants, unless allowed by an applicable pretreatment standard.
(bb) "Pretreatment requirements." Any substantive or procedural requirement related to pretreatment imposed on an industrial user, other than a pretreatment standard.
(cc) "Pretreatment standard(s)" or "standards." Shall mean prohibitive discharge standards, categorical pretreatment standards and local limits.
(dd) "Private sewage disposal system." Any septic tank, lagoon, cesspool, or other facilities intended or used for the disposal of sanitary sewage other than through the City's collection system.
(ee) "Prohibited discharge standards" or "prohibited discharges." Absolute prohibitions against the discharge of certain substances; these prohibitions appear in the IRUA Rules and Regulations.
(ff) "Publicly owned treatment works" or "POTW." Also known as the "sewage disposal system," this term is used in the IRUA Rules and Regulations, and covers the treatment works, as defined by applicable provisions of the CFR and the Act, that is owned and or operated by IRUA, including any devices or systems used in the collection, storage, treatment, recycling and reclamation of sewage or industrial wastes and any conveyances which convey wastewater to IRUA's treatment plant.
(gg) "Replacement." Obtaining and installing of any equipment, accessories, and appurtenances which are necessary during the service life of the system to maintain the system's capacity and performance and to preserve its financial integrity.
(hh) "Residential equivalent unit." The estimated sewage generated by a single family residential user. Also shown as "REU."
(ii) "Sanitary sewage." The liquid or water-carried waste discharge from dwellings, (including apartment houses, motels and hotels), office buildings, factories, or institutions.
(jj) "Sanitary sewer." The conveyance which carries sanitary sewage and into which storm water, surface and groundwaters are not intentionally admitted.
(kk) "Sewage." Human excrement and gray water (household showers, dishwashing operations, etc.)
(ll) "Sewage collection and disposal system." Also called the "system." The collective system of the sewage disposal system owned by IRUA and the collection system owned by the City.
(mm) "Sewer." A pipe or conduit and appurtenances for transmitting or carrying sewage including any devices necessary for pumping, lifting, or collecting such sewage.
(nn) "Sewer service lateral line." The sewer line extending from the sewer main to a building.
(oo) "Structure in which sanitary sewage originates." A building in which a toilet, kitchen, laundry, bathing or other facilities which generate water-carried sanitary sewage are used or are available for use for household, commercial, industrial, or other purposes.
(pp) "Suspended solids." The total suspended matter that floats on the surface of, or is suspended in, water, wastewater or other liquid, and which is removable by laboratory filtering.
(qq) "System." See "sewage collection and disposal system."
(rr) "Tap-in fee." The charge imposed by the City to connect a building sewer, either directly, or indirectly, to the sewage collection and disposal system.
(ss) "User." A recipient of services provided by the sewage collection and disposal system including premises which are connected to and discharge sewage into the same.
(tt) "Wastewater." Liquid and water-carried industrial wastes, and sewage from residential dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial and manufacturing facilities, and institutions, whether treated or untreated, which are contributed to the sewage collection and disposal system.
(uu) "Wastewater treatment plant" or "treatment plant." That portion of the sewage collection and disposal system designed to provide treatment of sewage and industrial waste.
"Shall" is mandatory; "may" is permissive or discretionary. The use of the singular shall be construed to include the plural, and the plural shall include the singular as indicated by the context of its use.
(Ord. 499. Passed 4-9-13.)