(a) Unless the context indicates otherwise, the meaning of terms used herein shall be defined as follows:
(1) "Act" means the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et. seq. as amended).
(2) "Appeal Board" means that Board as designated in Section 913.950 of the Division of Water Pollution Control Rules and Regulations.
(3) "Applicable pretreatment standard" means any pretreatment limit or prohibitive standard (Federal, State and/or local) contained in these regulations deemed to be the most restrictive which industrial users will be required to comply with.
(4) "Authorized representative of industrial user" means:
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.
(5) "Average monthly discharge limitation" means the highest allowable average of "daily discharges" over a calendar month, calculated as the sum of all daily discharges, measured during the calendar month divided by the number of daily discharges measured during the month.
(6) "Beneficial uses" means, but shall not be limited to, domestic, municipal, agricultural and industrial use, power generation, recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, navigation, and the preservation and enhancement of fish, wildlife and other aquatic resources or preserves, and other users, both tangible or intangible as specified by State or Federal law.
(7) "Best Management Practices" or "BMPs" means schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to implement the prohibitions listed in rule 3745-3-04 of the Administrative Codein Section 915.100. 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.
(8) "Categorical pretreatment standard" means the standards and/or other requirements promulgated by the EPA in accordance with Section 307(b) and (c) of the Act (38 U.S.C. 1251 et. seq.) which applies to a specific category of industrial users specifying quantities or concentrations of pollutants or pollutant properties which may be discharged or introduced into the POTW by specific industrial discharges.
(9) "Chemist" means a person employed at the City Water Pollution Control with a degree in chemistry or microbiology from an accredited university.
(10) "City" means the City of Lorain, Ohio.
(11) "Composite sample" means a sample of wastewater which should contain a minimum of eight discrete samples taken at equal time intervals over the compositing period or proportional to the flow rate over the compositing period. More than the minimum number of discrete samples will be required, where the wastewater is highly variable.
(12) "Control Authority" means the City of Lorain, Ohio.
(13) "Daily discharge" means discharge of a pollutant measured during a calendar day or any twenty-four hour period that reasonably represents the calendar day for purposes of sampling.
(14) "Director" means the Director of Public Service and Safety or his du1y authorized representative.
(15) "Discharge" means any liquid, solids, or gas flowing out of any domestic, commercial, or industrial establishment.
(16) "Effluent" means sewage, water or other liquid after some degree of treatment, flowing out of any treatment device or facility.
(17) "Grab sample" means a sample which is taken from a waste stream on a one time basis over a period of time not to exceed fifteen (15) minutes with no regard to the flow in the waste stream.
(18) "Indirect discharge" means the discharge or the introduction of non-domestic pollutant from a source regulated under Section 307(b) or (c) of the Act.
(19) "Industrial user" means a source of indirect discharge.
(20) "Industrial waste" means any liquid, solid, or gaseous substance or form of energy, or combination thereof, resulting from any process of industrial, commercial, governmental, and institutional concerns, manufacturing, business, trades, or research, including the development, recovery, or processing of natural resources.
(21) "Influent" means water, together with any wastes that may be present, flowing into a drain, sewer, receptacle or outlet.
(22) "Instantaneous limit" means the maximum concentration of a pollutant allowed to be discharged at any time, determined from the analysis of any discrete or composited sample collected, independent of the industrial flow rate and the duration of the sampling event.
(23) "Interference" means a discharge which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, both:
A. Inhibits or disrupts the POTW, its treatment processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use or disposal; and
B. Therefore is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the City's NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation) or contributes to the prevention of sewage sludge use or disposal in accordance with the following statutory provisions and regulations or permits issued there under (or more stringent State or local regulations): Section 405 of the Clean Water Act, the Solid Waste Disposal ACT (SWDA) (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 plant prepared pursuant to Subtitle D of SWDA, the Clean Air Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act.
(24) "Laboratory determination" means the measurements, tests, and analyses of the characteristics of waters and wastes in accordance with the provisions of 40 CFR Part 136-Guidelines Establishing Test Procedures for the Analyses of Pollutants. These methods are contained in the latest edition of these publications:
A. Standard Methods for Examination of Water and Wastewater- a joint publication of the American Public Health;
B. ASTM- "Annual Book of Standards, Part 23, Water, Atmospheric Analyses, 1974", a publication of the American Society for Testing Materials;
C. EPA Methods- which means "Methods for Chemical Analyses of Water and Wastes", a publication of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; or in accordance with any other equivalent method prescribed by the Water Pollution Control Board.
(25) "Minor significant industrial user" means a commercial or industrial establishment that is not a Significant Industrial User or a Non-Significant Categorical Industrial User and that either:
A. Contributes a large share of industrial volume, organic loading or solids loading; or
B. Has the potential of contributing slugloads or a spill of hazardous materials or priority pollutants; or
C. Has flow greater than one percent (1%) of the design flow or design pollutant loading of the POTW.
(26) "Maximum daily concentration" means the arithmetic average of all discharge samples for a pollutant collected during a calendar day.
(27) "Maximum daily limitation" means the maximum allowable discharge limit of a pollutant during a calendar day.
(28) "May" indicates a discretionary condition.
(29) "mg/1" means milligrams per liter.
(30) "New source means:
A. 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 standards are thereafter promulgated in accordance with that Section, provided that:
1. The building, structure, facility, or installation is constructed at a site at which no other source is located; or
2. The building, structure, facility or installation totally replaces the process or production equipment that causes the discharge of pollutants at an existing source; or
3. The production or wastewater generating processes of the building, structure, facility or installation are substantially independent of an existing source at the same site.
B. Construction on a 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 Section (A)(2) or (3) above but otherwise alters, replaces, or adds to existing process or production equipment.
C. 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 onsite construction program (a) any placement, assembly, or installation of facilities or equipment; or (b) significant site preparation 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 is intended to be used in its operation within a reasonable time. Options to purchase or contracts which can be terminated or modified without substantial loss, and contracts for feasibility, engineering, and design studies do not constitute a contractual obligation under this paragraph.
(31) "Normal sewage" means sewage, which when analyzed shows by weight a daily average of not more than 280 parts per million of suspended solids, nor more than 240 parts per million of BOD and/or 500 parts per million of COD, nor more than eight parts per million phosphorus, and not more than eighty parts per million ether soluble matter (grease and oil). These concentrations will be used for determining surcharges.
(32) "NPDES permit" means the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit which sets forth conditions for the discharge of any pollutant or combination of pollutants to the navigable waters of the United States pursuant to Section 402 of PL 92-500.
(33) "Passthrough" means a discharge which exits the POTW into the 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.
(34) "Person" means any or all persons, natural or artificial, including any individual, firm, company, municipal or private corporation, partnership, copartnership, joint stock company, trust, estate, association, society, institution, enterprise, governmental agency, the State of Ohio, the United States of America, or other legal entity, or their legal representatives, agents or assigns. The masculine gender shall include the plural and female as indicated by the context.
(35) "Pollution" means an alteration of the waters of the State by waste to a degree which unreasonably affects such waters for beneficial uses or facilities which serve such beneficial uses. The man made or man induced alteration of the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological integrity of water.
(36) "Pollution parameters" includes but shall not be limited to:
A. "Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)" means the quantity of dissolved oxygen in milligrams per liter required during stabilization of the decomposable organic matter by aerobic biochemical action under standard laboratory procedures for five days at twenty degrees Centigrade (20oC.). The laboratory determination shall be made in accordance with procedures set forth in "Standard Methods".
B. "Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)" means a measure of the oxygen required to oxidize all compounds, both organic and inorganic, in water. The laboratory determination shall be in accordance with procedures set forth in "Standard Methods".
C. "Fecal coliform" means any of a number of organisms common to the intestinal tract of man and animals, whose presence in sanitary sewage is an indicator of pollution.
D. "Floatable oil" means oil, fat or grease in a physical state, such that will separate by gravity from wastewater by treatment in an approved pretreatment facility.
E. "Grease and oil" means a group of substances including hydrocarbons, fatty acids, soups, fats, waxes, oils or any other material that it extracted by an approved solvent from an acidified sample and that is not volatilized during the laboratory test procedures. Greases and oils are defined by the method of their determination in accordance with procedures set forth in "Standard Methods" and approved in 40CFR136.
F. "pH" means the logarithm (to the base 10) of the reciprocal of the hydrogen ion concentration of a solution expressed in gram atoms per liter of solution.
G. "Phosphorus" means a constituent in wastewater as identified in "Standard Methods" for the examination of water and wastewater.
H. "Suspended solids" means solids which either float on the surface of or are in suspension in water, sewage, or other liquid and which are removable by laboratory filtration. Their concentration shall be expressed in milligrams per liter. Quantitative determination shall be made in accordance with procedures set forth in "Standard Methods".
L "Total solids" means the sum of suspended and dissolved solids.
J. "Volatile organic matter" means the material in the sewage solids transforms to gases or vapors when heated at 550 degrees Centigrade (550°C.) for fifteen to twenty minutes.
K. Any pollutant on the Ohio EPA Priority Pollutant Scan as contained in the NPDES permit.
(37) "POTW" (Publicly Owned Treatment Works) means the City wastewater sewerage system including all treatment and disposal facilities and interceptor sewers owned and operated by the City and all sewerage collection systems and all other appurtenances connected thereto.
(38) "Pretreatment". means the reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination of pollutants, or the alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater to a less harmful state prior to or in lieu of discharging or otherwise introducing such pollutants to the POTW. This reduction or alteration can be obtained by physical processes; by process changes; or by other means except by diluting the concentration of the pollutants unless allowed by an applicable Pretreatment Standard.
(39) "Pretreatment facility" means structures, devices or equipment for the purpose of removing deleterious waste from sewage generated from a premises prior to its discharge into the POTW.
(40) "Receiving stream" means the watercourse, stream, or body of water receiving the waters finally discharged from the POTW.
(41) "Sewage" means human excrement and gray water (household showers, dishwashing operations, etc.).
(42) "Sewer" means any pipe, conduit, ditch or other device used to collect and transport sewage or storm water from the generating source.
(43) "Shall" is mandatory; "may" is permissive. .
(44) "Significant Industrial User (SIU)", except as provided in paragraphs (C) and (D) of this Section, the term shall mean:
A. An Industrial User subject to categorical Pretreatment Standards; or
B. An Industrial User that:
1. Discharges an average of twenty-five thousand (25,000) gallons per day (gpd) or more of process wastewater to the POTW (excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling and boiler blow down wastewater);
2. Contributes a process waste stream which makes up five (5) percent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the POTW treatment plant; or
3. Is designated as such by the Director on the basis that it has a reasonable potential for adversely affecting the POTW's operation or for violating any Pretreatment Standard or Requirement.
C. The Director may determine that an Industrial User subject to categorical Pretreatment Standards is a Non-Significant Categorical Industrial User rather than a Significant Industrial User on a finding that the Industrial User never discharges more than 100 gpd of total categorical wastewater (excluding sanitary, non-contact cooling and boiler blow down wastewater, unless specifically included in the Pretreatment Standard) and the following conditions are met:
1. The Industrial User, prior to the Director's finding, has consistently complied with all applicable categorical Pretreatment Standards and Requirements;
2. The Industrial User annually submits the certification statement required in Section 915.307(b) [see 40 CFR 403.12(q)], together with any additional information necessary to support the certification statement; and
3. The Industrial User never discharges any untreated concentrated wastewater.
4. The Industrial User is not located upstream of a combined sewer overflow or a sanitary sewer overflow, unless the following conditions are met:
i. The Industrial User does not discharge wastewater regulated by categorical pretreatment standards at any time; or
ii. The Industrial User has not been in significant noncompliance, as defined in Section 915.405 of these rules, for any time in the past two (2) years.
D. Upon a finding that a User meeting the criteria in Subsection (B) of this part has no reasonable potential for adversely affecting the POTW's operation or for violating any Pretreatment Standard or Requirement, the Director may at any time, on his own initiative or in response to a petition received from an Industrial User, and in accordance with procedures in 40 CFR 403.8(f) (6), determine that such User should not be considered a Significant Industrial User.
(45) "Sludge" means any solid, semi-solid or liquid waste generated from a municipal, commercial, or industrial wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility or any other waste having similar characteristics and effects as defined in the standards issued under Sections 402, 405 of the Federal Act and in the applicable requirements under Sections 3001, 3004 and 4004 or the Solid Waste Disposal Act PL-94-580.
(46) "Slug Load" or "Slug Discharge" means any discharge at a flow rate or concentration, which could cause a violation of the prohibited discharge standards in Section 915.100 of these rules and regulations. A Slug Discharge is any discharge of a non-routine, episodic nature, including but not limited to an accidental spill or a non-customary batch discharge, which has a reasonable potential to cause interference or pass through, or in any other way violate the POTW's regulations, local limits or permit conditions.
(47) "Superintendent" means the Superintendents of Water Pollution Control of the City of Lorain and Duly Authorized Representatives of the Superintendents.
(48) "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.
(49) "Toxic substance" means any substance whether gaseous, liquid or solid, which when discharged to the POTW in sufficient quantities that may tend to interfere with any sewage treatment process, or to constitute a hazard to human beings or animals, or to inhibit aquatic life or create a hazard to recreation in receiving waters of the effluent from the sewage treatment plant, or substances listed in the Federal Regu1ations promu1gated pursuant to Section 307 of the Clean Water Act.
(50) "ug/1" means micrograms per liter.
(51) "Unpolluted water" means water discharged in its original state or water discharged after use for any purpose, is at least equal chemically, physically, and biologically, to the water from its original source, such as potable water, ground water, river and stream water.
(52) “Upset" means an exceptional incident in which an industrial user unintentionally and temporarily is in a state of noncompliance with the standards set forth in the applicable pretreatment requirements due to factors beyond the reasonable control of the industrial user, and excluding noncompliance to the extent caused by operational error, improperly designed treatment facilities, inadequate treatment facilities, lack of preventative maintenance, or careless or improper operation thereof.
(53) "User" means any person that discharges, causes, or permits the discharge of wastewater into the POTW.
(54) "Wastewater constituents and characteristics" means the individual chemical, physical, bacteriological, and radiological parameters, including volume, flow rate, and such other parameters that serve to define, classify, or measure the contents, quality, quantity and strength of wastewater.
(55) "Wastewater discharge permits" means the permit required by Section 915.301.
(56) "Water Pollution Control Board" means the review board established in Section 913.900 of the Division of Water Pollution Control Rules and Regulations.
(Ord. 30-14. Passed 3-3-14.)
REGULATIONS