(a) No discharger shall violate any provision, regulation or requirement of the Codified Ordinances.
(b) Whenever the Service Director finds a discharger in violation of the Codified Ordinances, he may serve written notice upon the violator stating a brief and concise description of the violation and direct compliance with the Codified Ordinances within ten days.
Service of the notice shall be made personally or by certified mail upon the discharger or authorized representative of the industrial user.
(c) When the violation has not been corrected as directed by the Service Director, the Service Director may issue a written citation to the discharger. The citation shall contain a brief and concise description of the particulars of the violation, the proposed enforcement action, as well as the time and place of a hearing. The date of the hearing shall be no earlier than thirty days nor later than sixty days from the date of service. Service of the citation shall be made personally or by certified mail upon the discharger or authorized representative of the industrial user. Service is complete on date of mailing.
(1) The City Service Director shall be the officer before which the hearing shall be conducted. He shall determine the order in which the hearing shall proceed.
(2) At the hearing the discharger or its representative or attorney shall be permitted to present its position, arguments and contentions. Evidence may be admitted and witnesses may be examined and cross-examined to either support the discharger's position or to refute evidence and testimony offered by the City Engineer. Further, the right to proffer evidence into the record shall be recognized. All witnesses shall be placed under oath and the City Service Director shall permit subpoenas to be issued upon written request. If neither the discharger nor its authorized representative appear at the hearing, the City Service Director shall proceed with the hearing.
(3) Within thirty days from the date of the hearing, the City Service Director shall render his decision in writing, supported by conclusions of fact supporting his decision, to all parties. The City Service Director may order any appropriate relief including dismissal of the City Engineer's citation or termination of wastewater treatment services to the discharger. The decision of the City Service Director shall be a final administrative order and any discharger adversely affected by such decision may appeal to the common pleas court according to law.
(d) Emergency Suspension of Service. The City may for good cause shown suspend the wastewater treatment service to a discharger when it appears to the City that an actual or threatened discharge presents or threatens an imminent or substantial danger to the health or welfare of persons, substantial danger to the environment, interference with the operation of the POTW, or violation of any pretreatment limits imposed by this chapter. Any discharger notified of the suspension of the City's wastewater treatment service shall within a reasonable period of time, as determined by the City, cease all discharges. In the event of failure of the discharger to comply voluntarily with the suspension order within the specified time, the City shall commence judicial proceedings immediately thereafter to compel the discharger's compliance with such order. The City shall reinstate the wastewater treatment service and terminate judicial proceedings pending proof by the discharger of the elimination of the noncomplying discharge or conditions creating the threat of imminent or substantial danger as set forth above.
(e) Revocation of Treatment Services. The City may seek to terminate the wastewater treatment services to any discharger which fails to: factually report the wastewater constituents and characteristics of its discharge; report significant changes in wastewater constituents or characteristics; give reasonable access to the discharger's premises by representatives of the City for the purpose of inspection or monitoring; or comply with the conditions of this chapter, or any final judicial order entered with respect thereto.
(f) At least annually, the Service Director or authorized representative shall publish a list of all industrial users which at any time during the previous twelve months were in significant noncompliance with applicable pretreatment requirements. For the purpose of this provision, an industrial user is in significant noncompliance if its violations meet one or more of the following criteria:
(1) Chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined here as those in which sixty-six percent (66%) or more of all of the measurements taken during a six-month period exceed (by any magnitude) the daily maximum limit or the average limit for the same pollutant parameter;
(2) Technical Review Criteria (TRC) violations, defined here as those in which thirty-three percent (33%) or more of all of the measurements for each pollutant parameter taken during a six-month period equal or exceed the product of the daily maximum limit or the average limit multiplied by the applicable TRC (TRC=1.4 for BOD, TSS, fats, oil and grease, and 1.2 for all other pollutants except pH);
(3) Any other violation of a pretreatment effluent limit (daily maximum or longer term average) that the Service Director 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);
(4) Any discharge of a pollutant that has caused imminent endangerment of human health, welfare or to the environment or has resulted in the POTW's exercise of emergency authority to halt or prevent such a discharge;
(5) Failure to meet, within ninety days after the schedule date, a compliance schedule milestone contained in a wastewater discharge permit or enforcement order for starting construction, completing construction or attaining final compliance;
(6) Failure to provide, within thirty days forty-five days after the due date, required reports such as baseline monitoring reports, ninety-day compliance reports, periodic self-monitoring reports and reports on compliance with compliance schedules;
(7) Failure to accurately report noncompliance;
(8) Any other violation or group of violations which the Service Director determines will or has adversely affected the operation or implementation of the City's pretreatment program.
(g) Operating Upsets. Any discharger which experiences an upset in operations which places the discharger in a temporary state of noncompliance with the Codified Ordinances shall inform the City within twenty-four hours of first awareness of the commencement of the upset. Where such information is given orally, a written followup report thereof shall be filed by the discharger with the City within five days. The report shall specify:
(1) Description of the upset, the cause thereof and the upset's impact on the discharger's compliance status;
(2) Duration of noncompliance, including exact dates and times of noncompliance, and if the noncompliance continues, the time by which the compliance is reasonably expected to occur;
(3) All steps taken or to be taken to reduce, eliminate and prevent recurrence of such an upset for other conditions of noncompliance.
A documented and verified bona fide operating upset shall be an affirmative defense to any enforcement action brought by the City against a discharger for any noncompliance with the chapter which arises out of violations alleged to have occurred during the period of the upset.
When it can be demonstrated that circumstances exist which would create an unreasonable burden on the person to comply with the time schedule imposed by the Codified Ordinances, a written request for extension of time may be presented for consideration by the City.
(h) Right of Appeal. Any discharger or any interested party shall have the right to request in writing an interpretation or ruling by the City on any matter covered by this chapter and shall be entitled to a prompt written reply. In the event that such inquiry is by a discharger and deals with matters of performance or compliance with this chapter for which enforcement activity relating to an alleged violation is the subject, receipt of a discharger's request, shall stay all enforcement proceedings pending receipt of the aforesaid written reply. Appeal of any final judicial order entered pursuant to this chapter may be taken in accordance with local and State law.
(i) Other Remedies. Notwithstanding any other enforcement procedure listed in the Codified Ordinances, whenever it is determined there is a substantial danger to the public health or welfare or a substantial danger to the environment or of interfering with the POTW due to the acts or omissions of any discharger, the City may, through its appropriate officials, seek a temporary restraining order, temporary or permanent injunction or abatement in the Court of Common Pleas and shall not be required under these conditions to exhaust the administrative procedures within the Codified Ordinances as a condition precedent to the commencement of such action.
(Ord. 2017-83. Passed 12-19-17.)
(Ord. 2017-83. Passed 12-19-17.)