For the purpose of this chapter the following definitions shall apply unless the context specifically indicates otherwise.
(1) "Act" means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended by the Clean Water Act and the Water Quality Act of 1987 (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.).
(2) "Applicable pretreatment standard" means any pretreatment standard or requirement (Federal, State and/or local) with which users are required to comply.
(3) "Biochemical oxygen demand" or "BOD" means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure in five days at twenty degrees Centigrade expressed in terms of weight and concentration. The oxygen demand measured is the sum of carbonaceous and nitrogenous demands. Laboratory procedures shall be in accordance with the latest edition of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, as defined in this section.
(4) "Bypass" means the intentional diversion of wastestreams from any portion of the pretreatment treatment facility.
(5) "Carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand" or "CBOD" means a BOD that has a nitrification inhibitor present so that the ammonia in the sample will not use oxygen that is present.
(6) "City of Oberlin Water Environment Pollution Facility (WEPF)" means the sewage treatment works, including all appurtenances thereto, which are owned and operated by the City of Oberlin.
(7) "Discharge permit" means a written authorization to industrial users to discharge to the sanitary sewers of the City of Oberlin as issued by the City. The user shall be subject to all standard conditions of the permit as incorporated in this chapter under Section 915.21(a) and to the specific discharge limits and monitoring requirements of the particular user.
(8) "Indirect discharge" means the introduction of pollutants into the City of Oberlin WEPF from a nondomestic source regulated under Section 307(b), (c) or (d) of the Act.
(9) "Industrial user" means a source of indirect discharge.
(10) "Industrial waste" means any substance resulting from any process of industrial, commercial, governmental and institutional concerns, manufacturing, business, trade, or research, including the development, recovery or processing of natural resources, or from sources other than those generating waste defined as normal domestic sewage herein.
(11) “Interference" means a discharge which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, inhibits or disrupts the City of Oberlin WEPF, its treatment processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use or disposal, and is therefore is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the City of Oberlin's NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation) or of the prevention of sewage sludge use or disposal.
(12) "National categorical pretreatment standard" or "categorical pretreatment standard" means any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) in accordance with Section 307(b) and (c) of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1347) and which applies to a specific category of industrial users.
(13) "National pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permit" means a permit issued by the State of Ohio EPA or the USEPA pursuant to the Act for the purpose of regulating the discharge of sewage, industrial wastes and other wastes, under the authority of Section 402 of the Act, into the navigable waters of the United States.
(14) “New source" means 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 the building, structure, facility or installation is constructed at a site at which no other source is located; the building, structure, facility or installation totally replaces the process or production equipment that causes the discharge of pollutants at an existing source; or the production or wastewater generating processes of the building, structure, facility or installation are substantially independent of an existing source at the same site.
(15) "Normal sewage" means sewage having an average concentration of not more than the following:
Ammonia | 15 |
BOD | 200 |
CBOD | 180 |
Suspended solids | 250 |
Total phosphorus, as P | 10 |
COD shall be substituted for BOD where the nature of the wastewater does not permit BOD determination. The relationship of BOD to COD shall be:
BOD = 0.5 COD.
(16) "Pass through" means an indirect discharge which exits the WEPF 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 of Oberlin's NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation).
(17) "Person" means any and all persons, natural or artificial, including any individual, firm, company, private corporation, partnership, co-partnership, joint stock company, trust, association, institution, enterprise or other legal entity, or their representatives, agents or assigns. The masculine gender shall include the feminine. The singular shall include the plural where indicated by the context.
(18) "pH" means the logarithm, base ten, of the reciprocal of the hydrogen concentration expressed in moles per liter.
(19) "Pretreatment" means the process of reducing the amount of pollutants, eliminating pollutants, or altering the nature of pollutant properties, in wastewater prior to introducing such pollutants into the City WEPF. The reduction, elimination or alteration may be obtained by physical, chemical or biological processes, process changes or other means, except as prohibited by this chapter.
(20) "Properly shredded garbage" means the waste from the handling, preparing, cooking and serving of food that has been shredded to such a degree that all particles shall be carried freely under the flow conditions normally prevailing in public sewers, with no particle greater than one-half inch (1.27 centimeters) in any dimension.
(21) "Sanitary sewer" means any pipe, conduit, ditch or other device used to collect and transport sewage from the generating source, including combined sewers.
(22) "Sewage works" means all facilities for collecting, pumping, transporting, treating and disposing of sanitary sewage and industrial wastes.
(23) "Sewer" means any pipe, conduit, ditch or other device used to collect and/or transport sewage.
(24) "Sewer service charges" means monetary rates used for obtaining the revenue to construct, operate and maintain the sewer system.
(25) "Significant industrial user" or "SIU" includes all industrial users subject to categorical pretreatment standards, and any other industrial user that discharges an average of 25,000 gallons per day or more of process wastewater to the City of Oberlin WEPF, contributes a process wastestream which makes up five percent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the City of Oberlin treatment facilities, or has a reasonable potential, in the opinion of the City, to adversely affect the WEPF's operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement.
(26) "Sludge" means any solid, semisolid or liquid waste generated by 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.
(27) "Slugload" means any pollutant, including oxygen demanding pollutants (BOD, etc.), released in a discharge at a flow rate and/or pollutant concentration which will cause interference with, or pass through in, the WEPF.
(28) "Suspended solids" means solids that either float on the surface of, or are in suspension or will settle in, water, sewage or industrial waste, and which are removable by a laboratory filtration device. Quantitative determination of suspended solids shall be made in accordance with procedures set forth in Standard Methods.
(29) "Upset" means an exceptional incident in which an industrial user unintentionally and temporarily is in a state of noncompliance with pretreatment standards due to factors beyond the reasonable control of the industrial user, excluding noncompliance to an extent caused by operational error, improperly designed treatment facilities, inadequate treatment facilities, lack of preventive maintenance or careless or improper operation thereof.
(30) "USEPA" means the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
(31) "Toxic pollutants" means any pollutant or combination of pollutants which is or can potentially be harmful to public health or the environment, including those listed as toxic in regulations promulgated by the Administrator of the USEPA under the provisions of Section 307(a) of the Clean Water Act or other Acts.
(32) "Treatment plant" means that portion of the WEPF which is designed to provide treatment, including recycling and reclamation, of municipal sewage and industrial waste.
(33) "Wastewater discharge permit" or "industrial discharge permit" means a formal permit to discharge industrial waste into the WEPF, as issued by the City.
(Ord. 95-20AC. Passed 4-3-95.)