Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the following terms, as used in this title, shall have the meanings hereinafter designated:
ACT: | The federal water pollution control act also known as the clean water act, as amended, 33 USC 1251 et seq. |
APPROVAL AUTHORITY: | The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). |
AUTHORIZED OR DULY AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE OF THE USER: | 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 operation facilities, provided, the manager is authorized to make management decisions which govern the operation of the regulated facility including having the explicit or implicit duty of making major capital investment recommendations and initiating and directing 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 control mechanism 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 his/her 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. | |
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPs): | Schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to implement the prohibitions listed in section 7-2-4 (40 CFR 403.5(a)(1) and (b)). BMPs 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. |
BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (BOD5): | The quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedures in five (5) days at twenty degrees centigrade (20°C) expressed in terms of weight and concentration (milligrams per liter (mg/l)). |
BUILDING DRAIN: | That part of the lowest horizontal piping of a drainage system which receives the discharge from soil, waste and other drainage pipes inside the walls of the building and conveys it to the building sewer, beginning five feet (5') (1.5 meters) outside the inner face of the building wall. |
BUILDING SEWER: | That extension from the building drain to the public sewer or other place of disposal. |
CARBONACEOUS BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (CBOD5): | The quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter, in the presence of a nitrification inhibitor, under standard laboratory procedures in five (5) days at twenty degrees Centigrade (20°C) expressed in terms of weight and concentration (milligrams per liter (mg/L)). |
CATEGORICAL INDUSTRIAL USER: | An industrial user subject to a categorical pretreatment standard or categorical standard. |
CATEGORICAL PRETREATMENT STANDARD OR CATEGORICAL STANDARD: | Any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by EPA in accordance with sections 307(b) and (c) of the act (33 U.S.C. section 1317) that apply to a specific category of users and that appear in 40 CFR Chapter I, Subchapter N, Parts 405-471. |
CFR: | The Code of Federal Regulations, which is the codification of general and permanent rules of departments and agencies of the federal government. |
CITY: | The city of Moorhead. |
CONTROL AUTHORITY: | The city of Moorhead Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF). |
COUNCIL: | City council of the city of Moorhead. |
EPA: | The United States environmental protection agency. |
EXCESSIVE INFILTRATION/ INFLOW: | The quantities of infiltration/inflow which can be economically eliminated from a sewerage system by rehabilitation, as determined in a cost-effectiveness analysis that compares the costs for correcting the infiltration/inflow conditions to the total costs for transportation and treatment of the infiltration/inflow. |
GARBAGE: | Solid wastes from the domestic and commercial preparation, cooking and dispensing of food, and from the handling, storage and sale of produce. |
INDIRECT DISCHARGE OR DISCHARGE: | The introduction of pollutants into the POTW from any nondomestic source. |
INDUSTRIAL USER: | A person who discharges to city's wastewater disposal system liquid wastes resulting from the processes employed in industrial, manufacturing, trade or business establishments, or from the development of any natural resource. |
INDUSTRIAL WASTES: | Liquid waste substance resulting from any process of industry, manufacturing trade, or business, or from the development of any natural resource. |
INFILTRATION: | Water other than wastewater that enters a sewerage system (including sewer service connections) from the ground through such means as defective pipes, pipe joints, connections or manholes. Infiltration does not include and is distinguished from inflow. |
INFILTRATION/ INFLOW: | The total quantity of water from both infiltration and inflow without distinguishing the source. |
INFLOW: | Water other than wastewater that enters a sewerage system (including sewer service connections) from sources such as roof leaders, cellar drains, yard drains, area drains, foundation drains, sump pumps, drains from springs and swampy areas, manhole covers, cross connections between storm sewers and sanitary sewers, catch basins, cooling towers, storm waters surface runoff, street wash waters or drainage. Inflow does not include, and is distinguished from, infiltration. |
INTERCEPTOR SEWER: | A sewer whose primary purpose is to transport wastewaters from collector sewers to a treatment facility. |
INTERFERENCE: | The inhibition or disruption of the city's wastewater disposal system processes or operations or its sludge processes, use or disposal which causes or significantly contributes to a violation of any requirement of the city's NPDES or state disposal system permit. The term includes prevention of sewerage sludge use or disposal by the city in accordance with published regulations providing guidelines under section 405 of the act (33 USC 1251 et seq.) or any regulations developed pursuant to the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA), including Title II commonly referred to as the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the clean air act, the toxic substances control act, or more stringent state criteria applicable to the method of disposal or use employed by the city. |
INTERSTATE AGENCY: | An agency of two (2) or more states established under an agreement or compact approved by the congress, or any other agency of two (2) or more states, having substantial powers or duties pertaining to the control of water pollution. |
MPCA: | Minnesota pollution control agency. |
NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES) PERMIT: | Any permit or requirements issued by the Minnesota pollution control agency (MPCA) pursuant to the federal water pollution control act, as amended (33 USC 1251 et seq.); for the purpose of regulating the discharge of sewage, industrial wastes or other wastes under the authority of section 402 of the act. |
NATURAL OUTLET: | Any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface or ground water. |
NEW SOURCE: | 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 that will be applicable to such source if such pretreatment 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. In determining whether these are substantially independent, factors such as the extent to which the new facility is integrated with the existing plant, and the extent to which the new facility is engaged in the same general type of activity as the existing source, should be considered. |
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 A2 or A3 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 are 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. | |
NON-CONTACT COOLING WATER: | Water used for cooling that does not come into direct contact with any chemical additive, raw material, intermediate product, waste product, or finished product. |
OPERABLE TREATMENT WORKS: | An operable treatment works is a treatment works that: A. Upon completion of construction will treat wastewater, transport wastewater to or from treatment, or transport and dispose of wastewater in a manner which will significantly improve an objectionable water quality situation or health hazard, and B. Is a component part of a complete waste treatment system which, upon completion of construction for the complete waste treatment system (or completion of construction of other treatment works in the system in accordance with a schedule approved by the EPA regional administrator) will comply with all applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. |
OTHER WASTE: | Garbage, municipal refuse, decayed wood, sawdust, shavings, bark, lime, sand, ashes, offal, oil, tar, chemicals and all other substances not sewage or industrial wastes. |
PASS THROUGH: | A discharge which exits the POTW into 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 city's NPDES permit, including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation. |
pH: | The logarithm of the reciprocal of the concentration of hydrogen ions in grams per liter of solution. |
PERSON: | The state or any agency or institution thereof, any municipality, governmental subdivision, public or private corporation, individual, partnership, or other entity, including, but not limited to, association, commission or any interstate body, and including any officer or governing or managing body of any municipality, governmental subdivision or public or private corporation or other entity. |
PRETREATMENT: | The process of reducing the amount of pollutants, eliminating pollutants, or altering the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater to a less harmful state prior to or in lieu of discharging or otherwise introducing such pollutants into the city's wastewater disposal system. The reduction, elimination and alteration may be obtained by physical, chemical or biological processes, process changes or other means, except as prohibited by section 7-2-4 of this title. |
PRETREATMENT REQUIREMENTS: | Any substantive or procedural requirement related to pretreatment imposed on a user, other than a pretreatment standard. |
PRETREATMENT STANDARDS or STANDARDS: | Pretreatment standards shall mean prohibited discharge standards, categorical pretreatment standards, and local limits. |
PROJECT: | The scope of work for which a grant or grant amendment may or may not be awarded under this title. The scope of work is defined as the planning, design and/or construction of treatment works or segments (see definition of "treatment works segment"). |
PROPERLY SHREDDED GARBAGE: | Wastes from the preparation, cooking and dispensing of food that has 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 (1/2") (1.27 centimeters) in any dimension. |
PUBLIC SEWER: | A sewer in which all owners of abutting properties have equal rights, and is controlled by public authority. |
PUBLICLY OWNED TREATMENT WORKS (POTW): | A treatment works, as defined by section 212 of the act (33 USC 1292), which is owned by the city. This definition includes any devices or systems used in the collection, storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature and any conveyances, which convey wastewater to a treatment plant. |
REPLACEMENT: | Expenditures for obtaining and installing equipment, accessories or appurtenances which are necessary during the useful life of the treatment works to maintain the capacity and performance for which such works were designed and constructed. The term "operation and maintenance" includes replacement. |
SANITARY SEWER: | A sewer intended to carry only sanitary or sanitary and industrial wastewaters from residences, commercial buildings, industrial plants and institutions. |
SEPTIC TANK WASTE: | Any sewage from holding tanks such as vessels, chemical toilets, campers, trailers, and septic tanks. |
SEWAGE: | A combination of the water-carried wastes from residences, business buildings, institutions and industrial establishments, together with such ground, surface and storm waters as may be present. |
SEWAGE COLLECTION SYSTEM: | Each and all of the common lateral sewers, within a publicly owned treatment system which are primarily installed to receive wastewaters directly from facilities which convey wastewater from individual structures or from private property, and which include service connection "wye" fittings designed for connection with these facilities. The facilities which convey wastewater from individual structures, or from private property to the public lateral sewer, or its equivalent are specifically excluded from the definition, with the exception of pumping units, and pressurized lines, for individual structures or groups of structures when such units are cost effective and are owned and maintained by the city. |
SEWER: | A pipe or conduit for carrying sewage. |
SHALL/MAY: | Shall is mandatory; may is permissive. |
SIGNIFICANT INDUSTRIAL USER (SIU): | 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) gpd or more of process wastewater to the POTW (excluding sanitary, non-contact cooling and boiler blowdown wastewater); 2. Contributes a process waste stream which makes up five percent (5%) or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the POTW treatment plant; or 3. Is designated as such by the city on the basis that it has a reasonable potential for adversely affecting the POTW's operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement. |
SIGNIFICANT NONCOMPLIANCE: | An industrial user is in significant noncompliance if its violation meets one or more of the following criteria: A. Chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined in this part as those in which sixty-six percent (66%) or more of all of the measurements taken during a six (6) month period exceed, by any magnitude, a numeric pretreatment standard or requirement; B. Technical review criteria (TRC) violations, defined in this part as those in which thirty-three percent (33%) or more of all of the measurements for each pollutant parameter taken during a six (6) month period equal or exceed the product of a numeric pretreatment standard or requirement multiplied by the applicable TRC (TRC = 1.4 for BOD, TSS, fats, oil, and grease, and 1.2 for all other pollutants except pH); C. Any other violation of a pretreatment standard or requirement that the POTW determines has caused, alone or in combination with other discharges, interference or pass-through, including endangering the health of POTW personnel or the general public; D. Any discharge of a pollutant that has caused imminent endangerment to human health, welfare, or the environment or has resulted in the receiving POTW authority's exercise of its emergency authority to halt or prevent such a discharge; E. Failure to meet, within ninety (90) days after the scheduled 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 forty-five (45) days after the due date, required reports such as baseline monitoring reports, ninety (90) day compliance reports, periodic self-monitoring reports, and reports on compliance with compliance schedules; G. Failure to accurately report noncompliance; or H. Any other violation or group of violations, which may include a violation of best management practices, that the POTW authority determines will adversely affect the operation or implementation of the local pretreatment program. | |
SLUG LOAD OR SLUG DISCHARGE: | Any discharge at a flow rate or concentration, which could cause a violation of the prohibited discharge standards in section 7-2-4 of this title. 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. |
STATE: | State of Minnesota. |
STATE AGENCY: | The state pollution control agency designated by the governor having responsibility for enforcing state laws relating to the abatement of pollution. |
STATE DISPOSAL SYSTEM PERMIT: | Any permit (including any terms, conditions and requirements thereof), issued by the MPCA pursuant to Minnesota statutes, 115-07 for disposal system, as defined by Minnesota statutes, 115-01, subdivision 8. |
STORM SEWER: | A sewer intended to carry only storm waters, surface runoff, street wash waters and drainage. |
STORM WATER: | Any flow occurring during or following any form of natural precipitation and resulting therefrom. |
SUPERINTENDENT: | The superintendent of wastewater disposal system/or water pollution control of public works of this city or the person's duly authorized representative. |
SUSPENDED SOLIDS: | The total suspended matter that floats on the surface of, or is suspended in, water, wastewater or other liquids, and which is removable by a standard glass fiber filter. |
TREATMENT WORKS: | Any devices and systems for the storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of municipal sewage, domestic sewage or liquid industrial wastes used to implement section 201 of the act, or necessary to recycle or reuse water at the most economical cost over the useful life of the works. These include intercepting sewers, outfall sewers, sewage collection systems, individual systems, pumping, power and other equipment and their appurtenances; extensions, improvement, remodeling, additions, and alterations thereof; elements essential to provide a reliable recycled supply such as standby treatment units and clear well facilities; and any works, including site acquisition of the land that will be an integral part of the treatment process or is used for ultimate disposal of residues resulting from such treatment (including land for composting sludge, temporary storage of such compost, and land used for the storage of treated wastewater in land treatment systems before land application); or any other method or system for preventing, abating, reducing, storing, treating, separating, or disposing of municipal waste or industrial waste, including waste in combined storm water and sanitary sewer systems. |
TREATMENT WORKS SEGMENT: | A treatment works segment may be any portion of an operable treatment works described in an approved facilities plan, which can be identified as a contract or discrete subitem or subcontract for the planning, design and/or construction of treatment works. Completion of construction of a treatment works segment may, but need not, result in an operable treatment works. |
USEFUL LIFE: | Estimated period during which a treatment works will satisfy operations requirements. |
USER: | Any person who discharges, causes or permits the discharge of wastewater into the city's wastewater disposal system. |
USER CHARGE: | A charge levied on users of a treatment works for the user's proportionate share of the cost of operation and maintenance (including replacement and debt) of such works under sections 204(b)(1)(A) and 201(h)(2) of the act and this title. |
WASTEWATER: | The liquid and water-carried industrial or domestic wastes from dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities and institutions, together with any ground water, surface water and storm water that may be present, whether treated or untreated, which is discharged into or permitted to enter the city's wastewater disposal system. |
WASTEWATER DISPOSAL SYSTEM OR SYSTEM: | Any devices, facilities, structures, equipment or works owned or used by the city for the purpose of the transmission, storage, treatment, recycling and reclamation of industrial and domestic wastewater or necessary to recycle or reuse water, including, intercepting sewers, outfall sewers, sewage collection system, pumping, power and other equipment, and their appurtenances; extensions, improvements, remodeling, additions and alterations thereof; elements essential to provide a reliable recycled water supply such as standby treatment units and clear well facilities; and any works, including land that will be an integral part of the treatment process or is used for ultimate disposal of residues resulting from such treatment. |
WATERCOURSE: | A channel in which a flow of water occurs, either continuously or intermittently. |
WATERS OF THE STATE: | All streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, reservoirs, aquifers, irrigation systems, drainage systems and all 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. |
Terms not otherwise defined herein shall be as given in Minnesota statutes, chapters 115 and 116, as such statutes may be from time to time amended, supplemented or replaced. (1987 Code; amd. Ord. 94-2, 2-22-1994; Ord. 2000-12, 9-5-2000; Ord. 2022-12, 5-23-2022)