For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ACT or THE ACT. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act, as amended, 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251 et seq.
APPROVAL AUTHORITY. The Director in an NPDES state with an approved State Pretreatment Program and the Administrator of the EPA in a non-NPDES state or NPDES state without an Approved State Pretreatment Program.
AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE OF INDUSTRIAL USER. An authorized representative of an industrial user may be:
(1) A principal executive officer of at least the level of vice-president, if the industrial user is a corporation;
(2) A general partner or proprietor if the industrial user is a partnership or proprietorship, respectively; and/or
(3) A duly authorized representative of the individual designated above if the representative is responsible for the overall operation of the facilities from which the indirect discharge originates.
BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (BOD). The quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure, five days at 20°C expressed in terms of weight and concentration (milligrams per liter (mg/l)).
BUILDING DRAIN. The 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 (1.5 meters) outside the inner face of the building wall.
BUILDING SEWER. A sewer conveying wastewater from the premises of a user to the POTW.
CATEGORICAL STANDARDS. National Categorical Pretreatment Standards or Pretreatment Standard.
COMBINED SEWER. A sewer intended to receive both wastewater and storm or surface water.
CONTROL AUTHORITY. Shall refer to the APPROVAL AUTHORITY, defined in this section; or the appropriate authority if the town has an approved pretreatment program under the provisions of 40 C.F.R. pt. 403.11.
COOLING WATER. The water discharged from any use such as air conditioning, cooling, or refrigeration, or to which the only pollutant added is heat.
DIRECT DISCHARGE. The discharge of treated or untreated wastewater directly to the waters of the State of North Carolina.
EASEMENT. An acquired legal right for the specific use of land owned by others.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or where appropriate the term may also be used as a designation for the Administrator or other duly authorized official of the agency.
FLOATABLE OIL. Oil, fat, or grease in a physical state such that it will separate by gravity from wastewater by treatment in an approved pretreatment facility. A wastewater shall be considered free of floatable fat if it is properly pretreated and the wastewater does not interfere with the collection system.
GARBAGE. The animal and vegetable waste resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking, and serving of foods.
GRAB SAMPLE. A sample which is taken from a waste stream on a one-time basis with no regard to the waste stream and without consideration of time.
HOLDING TANK WASTE. Any waste from holding tanks such as vessels, chemical toilets, campers, trailers, septic tanks, and vacuum-pump tank trucks.
INDIRECT DISCHARGE. The discharge or the introduction of non-domestic pollutants from any source regulated under § 307(b) or (c) of the Act, (33 U.S.C. § 1317), into the POTW (including holding tank waste discharged into the system).
INDUSTRIAL USER. A source of indirect discharge which does not constitute a discharge of pollutants under regulations issued pursuant to § 402 of the Act (33 U.S.C. § 1342).
INDUSTRIAL WASTES. The wastewater from industrial processes, trade, or business as distinct from domestic or sanitary wastes.
INTERFERENCE. The inhibition or disruption of the POTW treatment processes or operations which contributes to a violation of any requirement of the town’s NPDES Permit. The term includes prevention of sewage sludge use or disposal by the POTW in accordance with § 405 of the Act (33 U.S.C. § 1345) or any criteria, guidelines, or regulations developed pursuant to the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) (42 U.S.C. §§ 7401 et seq.), the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. §§ 7401 et seq.), the Toxic Substances Control Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 2601 et seq.), or more stringent state criteria (including those contained in any state sludge management plan prepared pursuant to Title IV of SWDA) applicable to the method of disposal or use employed by the POTW.
NATIONAL CATEGORICAL PRETREATMENT STANDARD or PRETREATMENT STANDARD. Any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the EPA in accordance with § 307(b) and (c) of the Act (33 U.S.C. § 1317) which applies to a specific category of industrial users.
NATIONAL POLLUTION DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM or NPDES PERMIT. A permit issued pursuant to § 402 of the Act (33 U.S.C. § 1342).
NATIONAL PROHIBITIVE DISCHARGE STANDARD or PROHIBITIVE DISCHARGE STANDARD. Any regulation developed under the authority of § 307(b) of the Act (33 U.S.C. § 1317) and 40 C.F.R. pt. 403.5.
NATURAL OUTLET. Any outlet, including storm sewers and combined sewer overflows, into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake, or other body of surface or groundwater.
NEW SOURCE. Any source, the construction of which is commenced after the publication of proposed regulations prescribing a § 307(c) (33 U.S.C. § 1317) Categorical Pretreatment Standard which will be applicable to the source, if the standard is thereafter promulgated within 120 days of proposal in the Federal Register. Where the standard is promulgated later than 120 days after proposal, a new source means any source, the construction of which is commenced after the date of promulgation of the standard.
PERSON. Any individual, partnership, copartnership, firm, company, corporation, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, governmental entity or any other legal entity, or their legal representatives, agents or assigns. The masculine gender shall include the feminine, the singular shall include the plural where indicated by the context.
pH. The logarithm (base 10) of the reciprocal of the concentration of hydrogen ions expressed in grams per liter of solution.
POLLUTANT. 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.
POLLUTION. The human-made or human-induced alteration of the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological integrity of water.
POTW TREATMENT PLANT. The portion of the POTW designed to provide treatment to wastewater.
PRETREATMENT or TREATMENT. 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 the pollutants into a POTW. The reduction or alteration can be obtained by physical, chemical or biological processes, or process changes other means, except as prohibited by 40 C.F.R. pt. 403.6(d).
PRETREATMENT REQUIREMENTS. Any substantive or procedural requirement related to pretreatment, other than a National Pretreatment Standard imposed on an industrial user.
PROPERLY SHREDDED GARBAGE. The wastes from the preparation, cooking, and 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 1/2 inch (1.27 centimeters) in dimension.
PUBLIC SEWER. A common sewer controlled by a governmental agency or public utility.
PUBLICLY OWNED TREATMENT WORKS (POTW). A treatment works as defined by § 212 of the Act, (33 U.S.C. § 1292) which is owned in this instance by the town. This definition includes any sewers that convey wastewater to the POTW treatment plant, but does not include pipes, sewers, or other conveyances not connected to a facility providing treatment. For the purposes of this chapter, POTW shall also include any sewers that convey wastewaters to the POTW from persons outside the town who are, by contract or agreement with the town, users of the town’s POTW.
SANITARY SEWER. A sewer that carries liquid- and water-carried wastes from residences, commercial buildings, industrial plants, and institutions together with minor quantities of ground, storm, and surface waters that are not admitted intentionally.
SHALL. Is mandatory; MAY is permissive.
SIGNIFICANT INDUSTRIAL USER. Any industrial user of the town’s wastewater disposal system who:
(1) Has a discharge flow of 25,000 gallons or more per average work day;
(2) Has a flow greater than 5% of the flow in the town’s wastewater treatment system;
(3) Has in his or her wastes toxic pollutants as defined pursuant to § 307 of the Act (33 U.S.C. § 1317) or state statutes and rules; or
(4) Is found by the Town, Division of Environmental Management, or the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to have significant impact, either singly or in combination with other contributing industries, on the wastewater treatment system, the quality of sludge, the system’s effluent quality, or air emissions generated by the system.
SLUG. Any discharge of sewer or wastewater which in concentration of any given constituent or in quantity of flow exceeds for any period of duration longer than 15 minutes more than five times the average 24-hour concentration or flows during normal operation and shall adversely affect the collection system and/or performance of wastewater treatment works.
STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION (SIC). A classification pursuant to the Standard Industrial Classification Manual issued by the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, 1987.
STATE. State of North Carolina.
STORM DRAIN. Sometimes termed STORM SEWER, shall mean a drain or sewer for conveying sewer, groundwater, subsurface sewer, or unpolluted water from any source.
STORM WATER. Any flow occurring during or following any form of natural precipitation and resulting therefrom.
SUSPENDED SOLIDS. Total suspended matter that either floats on the surface of, or is in suspension in, water, wastewater or other liquids, and that is removable by laboratory filtering as prescribed in Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater (published by the American Public Health Association, 1999) and referred to as non-filterable residue.
TOWN. The Town of Murphy or the Board of Commissioners of Murphy.
TOXIC POLLUTANT. Any pollutant or combination of pollutants listed as toxic in regulations promulgated by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under the provision of CWA § 307(a) (33 U.S.C. § 1317) or other Acts.
USER. Any person who contributes, causes, or permits the contribution of wastewater into the town’s POTW.
WASTEWATER.
(1) The liquid- and water-carried industrial or domestic wastes from dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities, and institutions, together with may be present, whether treated or untreated, which is contributed into or permitted to enter the POTW.
(2) The spent sewer of a community. From the standpoint of source, it may be a combination of the liquid- and sewer-carried wastes from residences, commercial buildings, industrial plants, and institutions together with any groundwater, surfaces water, and storm water that may be present.
WASTEWATER FACILITIES. The structures, equipment, and processes required to collect, carry away, and treat domestic and industrial wastes and dispose of the effluent.
WASTEWATER TREATMENT WORKS. An arrangement of devices and structures for treating wastewater, industrial wastes, and sludge. Sometimes used as synonymous with WASTE TREATMENT PLANT or SEWER POLLUTION CONTROL PLANT.
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.
(Ord. passed 3-9-1987)