921.17 ENFORCEMENT.

   (a)   Notification of Violation; Administrative Adjustment. Whenever the City finds a Discharger has violated, or is violating provisions of this chapter or the Discharger's permit or has engaged in conduct which justifies termination of wastewater treatment services, pursuant to subsection (d) hereof, the City shall serve or cause to be served upon such Discharger, a written notice either personally or by certified or registered mail, return receipt requested, stating the nature of the alleged violation. Within ten days of the date of receipt of the notice, the Discharger shall respond personally or in writing to the City, advising its position with respect to the allegations. Thereafter, the parties shall meet to ascertain the veracity of the allegations and, where necessary, establish a plan for the satisfactory correction thereof.

   (b)   Orders. The Service Director may issue orders to any Industrial Users as deemed necessary to administer and enforce the provisions of this chapter. No Industrial User shall violate any order issued to the Industrial User. Orders shall be served upon the affected Industrial User directly or by certified mail. The Service Director may issue, but is not limited to the following type of orders.

      (1)   Consent order. The Service Director may enter into Consent Orders establishing an agreement with any Industrial User responsible for non-compliance. Such orders shall include specific action to be taken by the Industry to correct the non-compliance within a specified time period.

      (2)   Compliance orders. When the Service Director finds that an Industrial User has violated, or continues to violate this chapter, the Service Director may issue an order to that Industry, directing the Industry that following a specified time period, sewer service shall be discontinued unless adequate treatment facilities have been installed and properly operated. The order may also contain other requirements as deemed necessary and appropriate to address the noncompliance, including the installation of pretreatment technology, additional self-monitoring, and management practices.

      (3)   Cease and desist orders. When the Service Director finds that an Industrial User has violated, or continues to violate this chapter, the Service Director may issue an order to cease and desist such violations and direct those Industries in noncompliance to comply forthwith, take such appropriate remedial or preventive action as may be needed to properly address a continuing or threatened violation, including halting operations and terminating the discharge.

   (c)   Emergency Suspension of Service and Discharge Permits. The City may for good cause shown suspend 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 immediately 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 have such remedies to collect these fees as it has to collect other sewer service charges. The City shall reinstate wastewater treatment service and terminate any judicial proceedings upon proof by the discharger of the elimination of the noncomplying discharge or conditions creating the threat or imminent or substantial danger as set forth above.

   (d)   Revocation of Treatment Services. The City may terminate water and wastewater treatment services to any discharger who fails to:

      (1)   Factually report the wastewater constituents and characteristics of its discharge;

      (2)   Report significant changes in wastewater constituents or characteristics;

      (3)   Refuses reasonable access to the discharger's premises by representatives of the City for the purpose of inspection or monitoring;

      (4)   Violates the conditions of this chapter, permit, or any final judicial order entered with respect thereto; or

      (5)   Fails to make payment of sewer service charge(s) including any penalties or fines levied in accordance with this chapter.

   (e)   Show Cause Hearing.

      (1)   Any discharger who violates this chapter shall be ordered to appear and show cause why proposed enforcement action should not be taken against it.

      (2)   The Service Director is hereby designated to issue the order to show cause. The order shall contain the following:

         A.   An order directing the discharger to appear and show cause why proposed enforcement action should not be taken against it;

         B.   The reasons why the proposed enforcement action is to be taken;

         C.   The proposed enforcement action; and,

         D.   The date, time, and place of the hearing on the order to show cause.

      (3)   The Service Director shall cause the order to be served according to law on any agent or officer of the discharger at least ten calendar days before the hearing.

      (4)   The Service Director shall conduct the hearing and take evidence. At the hearing, all testimony shall be taken under oath and recorded stenographically. The transcript shall be made available to the public or any party to the hearing upon full payment of the costs of the transcript. Within ten days of the hearing, the Service Director shall transmit to Council his written recommendations for enforcement action against the discharger, together with his written report of the evidence and a complete transcript of the hearing.

      (5)   Within thirty days of receipt of the recommendations of the Service Director, Council shall impose whatever enforcement action it deems necessary and appropriate to accomplish the purpose and policy of this chapter.

         Council shall give written notice to the discharger of the date, time, and place of each meeting of Council at which the recommendation of the Service Director shall be considered.

      (6)   Notwithstanding any other provision in this chapter, the City, and the discharger may enter into an agreement to correct the violations and to accomplish the purpose and policy of this chapter, subject to the following:

         A.   The agreement shall be in writing and signed by the Service Director and the agent or officer of the discharger;

         B.   If the Service Director has transmitted his recommendations to the Council, the agreement must be approved by resolution of Council;

         C.   The agreement must provide that all violations of this chapter will be corrected;

         D.   All costs of the hearing to show cause and all costs incurred by the City must be paid in full by the discharger; and,

         E.   The discharger must agree to any additional reporting requirements that the Service Director deems necessary to protect the POTW from further misuse.

   (f)   Compliance Schedule. Where additional pretreatment and/or operation and maintenance activities will be required to comply with this chapter, the discharger shall provide a declaration of the shortest schedule by which the discharger will provide such additional pretreatment and/or implementation of additional operational and maintenance activities:

      (1)   The schedule shall contain milestone dates for the commencement and completion of major events leading to the construction and operation of additional pretreatment required for the discharger to comply with the requirements of this chapter including, but not limited to dates relating to hiring an engineer, hiring other appropriate personnel, completing preliminary plans, completing final plans, executing contract for major components, commencing construction, completing construction, and all other acts necessary to achieve compliance with this chapter.

      (2)   Under no circumstances shall the Service Director permit a time increment for any single step directed toward compliance which exceeds nine months.

      (3)   Not later than fourteen days following each milestone date in the schedule and the final date for compliance, the discharger shall submit a progress report to the Service Director, including no less than a statement as to whether or not it complied with the increment of progress represented by that milestone date and, if not, the date on which it expects to comply with this increment of progress, the reason for the delay, and the steps being taken by the discharger to return the construction to the approved schedule. In no event shall more than nine months elapse between such progress reports to the Service Director.

   (g)   Enforcement Actions; Annual Publication. At least annually, the Service Director shall publish a list of all industrial users which at any time during the previous twelve months were in significant noncompliance (SNC) with applicable pretreatment requirements. For the purposes 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 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.

   (h)   Operating Upsets. Any discharger who experiences an upset in operations which places the discharger in a temporary state of non-compliance with this chapter shall inform the authority thereof within twenty-four hours of the first awareness of the commencement of the upset. Where such information is given orally, a written follow-up 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 a discharger's compliance status.

      (2)   Duration of noncompliance, including exact dates and times of noncompliance and, if the noncompliance continues, the time by which compliance is reasonably expected to occur.

      (3)   All steps taken or to be taken to reduce, eliminate and prevent recurrence of such upset or other conditions of noncompliance.

   A documented and verified bonafide operating upset shall be an affirmative defense to any enforcement action by the City against a discharger for any noncompliance with this chapter which arises out of violations alleged to have occurred during the period of the upset.

(Ord. 91-110. Passed 10-1-91.)