(a) Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the meaning of terms used in this chapter shall be as follows:
(1) "Act" or "The Acts" means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act, as amended, 33 U.S.C. 1251, et. seq.
(2) "Administrator" means the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, or any person authorized to act for him.
(3) "Appeal Board" means that Board as designated in Sub-Chapter 913.950.
(4) "A.S.T.M." means the American Society of Testing Materials.
(5) "BOD" (denoting 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 milligrams per liter.
(6) "Building drains" means that part of the lowest horizontal piping of a drainage system which receives discharge from soil, waste, and other drainage pipes inside the walls of the building and conveys it to the building wall.
A. "Building drain - combined" means a building drain which conveys sewage and storm water or other drainage.
B. "Building drain - sanitary" means a building drain which conveys sewage only.
C. "Building drain - storm" means a building drain which conveys storm water or other drainage, but no sewage.
(7) "Building sewer" means the extension from the building drain to the public sewer or other place of disposal.
A. "Building sewer - combined" means a building sewer which conveys both sewage and storm water or other drainage.
B. "Building sewer - sanitary" means a building sewer which conveys sewage only.
C. "Building sewer - storm" means a building sewer which conveys storm water or other drainage, but no sewage.
(8) "Chemist" means a person employed at the City Water Pollution Control with a degree in chemistry or microbiology from an accredited university.
(9) "City" means the City of Lorain, Ohio.
(10) "City Engineer" means a person employed by the City with a degree in civil, sanitary, or chemical engineering and who supervises the Engineering Department for the City of Lorain.
(11) "COD"(Chemical Oxygen Demand) means the quantity of oxygen required to satisfy the carbon in a waste as determined by chemical oxidation of the waste with a strong oxidation agent - acid solution.
(12) "Combined sewer" means a sewer receiving both surface drainage and runoff from roof downspouts, exterior foundation drains, street drains, etc., and also sanitary sewage.
(13) "Cooling water" means water discharged from any system of condensation, air conditioning, cooling, refrigeration, or any other systems and shall have the quality characteristics of an "unpolluted water."
(14) "Direct discharge" means the discharge of treated or untreated wastewater directly to the waters of the State of Ohio.
(15) "Director of Public Service and Safety" means the duly appointed Director of all the Service and Safety Departments in the City of Lorain as agent for the Mayor and as defined and designated by the Ohio Revised Code.
(16) "Director of Utilities" means the duly appointed supervisor of the Utilities Department for the City of Lorain.
(17) "District area storm drainage" means the stream or conduit transporting the major storm drainage within its natural water shed area or total catchment basin. This major storm drainage provision is in addition to providing the storm drainage facility for the initial storm run off, varying from an expected frequency of recurrence of once in two years, to once in five years, in the district subcatchment areas and discharged into a subcatchment tributary stream or conduit. Provisions shall be made to obviate major property damage and loss of life for that storm run off expected to occur once each twenty-five years Such provisions are known as major drainage systems in an area district.
(18) "Environmental Protection Agency" or "EPA" means the United States or Federal 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.
(19) "Federal Act" means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, 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.
(20) "Foreign accounts" means the water or sewerage accounts of any political subdivision, other than the City, which supplies or is supplied sewerage service.
(21) "Garbage" means solid wastes from the domestic and commercial preparation, cooking, or dispensing of food, or from the handling, storage, or sale of produce.
(22) "Grab sample" means a sample which is taken from a waste stream on a one-time basis with no regard to the flow in the waste stream and without consideration of time.
(23) "Holding tank waste" means any waste from holding tanks such as vessels, chemical toilets, campers, trailers, septic tanks, and vacuum pump tank trucks.
(24) "Incompatible pollutant" means a waste constituent which interferes with the operation and performance of the wastewater treatment works.
(25) "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).
(26) "Intercepting sewer" means a sewer intended to receive flows from both combined sewers and sanitary sewers; or a sewer whose primary purpose is to transport wastewater from collector (local) sewers to a Wastewater Treatment Plant.
(27) "Maintenance" means the upkeep and repair costs required to maintain the wastewater treatment works structures and equipment in efficient operating condition during the service life of such works.
(28) Natural outlet" means any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake, or other body of surface or groundwater.
(29) "NPDES" or "National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems permit" means any permit or equivalent document or requirements issued by the State water pollution control agency to regulate the discharge of pollutants from the wastewater treatment works.
(30) "Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA)" means the department of the State of Ohio assigned and designated as the legal authority of administration, supervision and regulation of wastewater (municipal, private, and industrial) treatment plants in Ohio, under amended State Bill 397, and any subsequent amendments.
(31) "0, M & R Contingency Fund" means a separate fund under the Capital Improvements section of the annual budget that must be kept at a certain percentage of the previous year's actual operation, maintenance and replacement cost.
(32) "O, M & R Cost" means the operation, maintenance and replacement cost to efficiently operate and maintain the City of Lorain's wastewater works as defined in this chapter.
(33) "Operation" means any physical and mechanical actions, processes or functions required to efficiently operate the wastewater treatment works as defined herein.
(34) "Person, enterprise, establishment, or owner" means any individual, partnership, firm, company, association, society, corporation or any other entity using the sewage works or sewerage system.
(35) "pH" means the logarithm of the reciprocal of the weight of hydrogen ions in grams per liter of solution.
(36) "Phosphorus" means a constituent in wastewater as identified in "Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater."
(37) "Pollutant" means any dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discharged equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water.
(38) "Pollution" means the man-made or man-induced alteration of the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological integrity of water.
(39) "POTW"(Publicly Owned Treatment Works) means a treatment works as defined by Section 212 of the Act, (33 U.S.C. 1292) which is owned in this instance by the City. This definition includes any sewers that convey wastewater to the POTW treatment plant, but does not include pipes, sewer, or other conveyances not connected to a facility providing treatment. For the purposes of this chapter, "POTW" also includes any sewers that convey wastewaters to the POTW from persons outside the City of Lorain who are, by contract or agreement with the City of Lorain, users of the City of Lorain's POTW
(40) "POTW treatment plant" means that portion of the POTW designed to provide treatment of wastewater.
(41) "Properly shredded garbage" means the wastes from the preparation, cooking, or 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 one-half inch (1.27 centimeters) in any dimension.
(42) "Public sewer" means a sewer in which all owners of abutting properties have equal rights and is controlled by public authority.
(43) "Replacement" means expenditures for obtaining and installing equipment, accessories or appurtenances necessary to retain design capacity and performance of the wastewater treatment works throughout the City's jurisdiction.
(44) "Sanitary sewer" means a sewer which carries sewage and industrial waste and to which storm, surface, or groundwaters are not intentionally admitted.
(45) "Sewage" means a combination of the water-carried wastes from residences, business buildings, institutions, and industrial establishments, together with such ground, surface or stormwaters as may be present.
(46) "Sewage service charge" means the fee required to maintain sewers and to cover the cost of treating "normal sewage" in the City of Lorain, at a rate passed by Council in ordinance.
(47) "Sewage treatment plant", "wastewater treatment plant", or "water pollution control plant" means any arrangement of devices and structures used for treating sewage.
(48) "Sewage works", "wastewater treatment works", or "sewerage system" means all facilities for collecting, pumping, treating or disposing of sewage.
(49) "Sewer" means a pipe or conduit for carrying sewage.
(50) "Shall" is mandatory; "May" is permissive.
(51) "S-Meter" means:
A. A meter or meters used on a water supply other than a municipal water supply, such as wells, private water company, etc., and/or surcharge.
B. A meter or meters used to supplement the meter or meters measuring a municipal water supply and considered necessary in the determination of the sewerage service charge and/or surcharge.
(52) "State" means the State of Ohio.
(53) "Storm drain" or "storm sewer" means a pipe or conduit which carries storm and/or surface waters and/or drainage, but excludes sewage and/or industrial wastes; it may, however, carry cooling waters and/or unpolluted waters.
(54) "Storm water" means any flow occurring during or following any form of natural precipitation and resulting therefrom.
(55) "Superintendent" means the Superintendent of Water Pollution Control of the City of Lorain.
(56) "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.
(57) "Unpolluted water or waste" means the minimum conditions applicable to all waters at all places and at all times.
(58) "User" means any person who contributes, causes or permits the contribution of wastewater into the City's POTW.
(59) "User charge" means a charge levied on users of the wastewater treatment works for the operation, maintenance and replacement costs of such works.
(60) "Volatile organic matter" means the material in the sewage solids transformed to gases or vapors when heated at 550 degrees Centigrade for fifteen to twenty minutes.
(61) "Wastewater" or "sewage" means the liquid and water-carried industrial or domestic wastes from dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities, and institutions, together with any groundwater, surface water, and storm water that may be present, whether treated or untreated, which is contributed into or permitted to enter the POTW.
(62) "Water distribution system" means all the facilities for treating, pumping, or distribution of potable water.
(63) "Water pollution control plant" means any arrangement of services or structures used for treating sewage.
(64) "Water supply meter" means any meter used on any water supply line supplying water to a premise from any source, whether municipal or private, such as meters on service branches from municipal water mains, meters on service branches from private water company water mains, meters on lines from wells or any other meters as shall be determined by the City of Lorain.
(65) "Watercourses" means a channel in which a flow of water occurs, either continuously or intermittently.
(66) "Waters of the State" as referred to under Ohio R.C. 6111.01(H), means all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, irrigation systems, drainage systems, and all other bodies or accumulations of water, surface or underground, natural or artificial, which are situated wholly or partly within, or border upon, this State, or are within its jurisdiction, except those private waters which do not combine or effect a junction with natural surface or underground waters. Also those waters which drain to or effect a junction with other waters draining to the Black River and Lake Erie from the territory within the Lake Erie watershed.
(67) "W.P.C.F." means the Water Pollution Control Federation.
(Ord. 19-91. Passed 3-18-91.)
SEWER INSTALLATION