(a) Purpose and Policy.
(1) This article sets forth the uniform requirements for the use of the Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW), a municipal wastewater collection and treatment system, operated by the Parkersburg Utility Board for the City of Parkersburg. This article enables the City and the POTW to comply with all applicable Federal and State laws required by the Clean Water Act of 1977 (P.L. 95-217); WV Code, Chapters 20 and 22; 40 CFR 403; 40 CFR 503; WV Legislative Rules, Titles 46 and 47.), as amended.
(2) The objectives of this article are:
A. To prevent the unlawful discharge of untreated pollution into the environment.
B. To describe the terms and purpose of the use of the POTW.
C. To protect the City, POTW personnel, and the general Public from undue exposure to nuisance, toxic or hazardous discharges into the POTW, to protect and maintain the water quality of local receiving streams, to comply with Federal, State, and Local water quality standards, and enable the City and the POTW to comply with the requirements of its NPDES permit;
D. To provide for the equitable distribution of the cost of operating the municipal wastewater system among the Users of the system.
(3) This article provides for the regulation of all “Users” of the POTW.
(4) This article shall apply to Users of the City’s POTW and sewer system. Except as otherwise provided herein, the Manager of the Parkersburg Utility Board shall administer, implement and enforce the provisions of this article.
(5) This article authorizes permitting, monitoring, compliance and enforcement activities, assumes that existing customer's capacity will not be preempted.
(6) The words "City", “Utility Board”, or "Board" as used herein shall be construed to empower either such entity to act in a manner consistent with the provisions of general law or any Ordinances, rules or regulations adopted by the City or the Board.
(b) Abbreviations. The following abbreviations shall have the designated meanings:
(1) CFR – Code of Federal Regulations
(2) CWA – Clean Water Act
(3) DEP/ WVDEP – West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
(4) EPA/ USEPA – United States Environmental Protection Agency
(5) NPDES – National Pollution Discharge Elimination System
(6) POTW – Publicly Owned Treatment Works
(7) PSC/WVPSC – West Virginia Public Service Commission
(8) PUB - Parkersburg Utility Board
(9) SIU – Significant Industrial User
(c) Definitions. Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the meaning of terms used herein shall be as follows:
(1) Act or "the Act": The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act, (CWA), as amended, 33 U.S.C. 1251, et. seq.
(2) Approval Authority: The Director of the West Virginia Division of Environmental Protection (WV-DEP).
(3) Board: The Utility Board - of the City of Parkersburg.
(4) Building drain: That part of the lowest 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 customer service line.
(5) City: The City of Parkersburg, Wood County, West Virginia, a municipal corporation incorporated under the laws of the State, or the City Council of Parkersburg.
(6) Combined sewer: A sewer receiving, by intent, both surface runoff and sewage.
(7) Control Authority: The Parkersburg Utility Board.
(8) Customer: an individual, person, tenant, property owner, corporation, partnership, association or group utilizing POTW services furnished by the Board to a property.
(9) Customer service line: The extension from the building drain of any structure to the lateral of a sanitary sewer controlled by the Parkersburg Utility Board.
(10) Director: chief administrative officer of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
(11) Domestic user: a “customer” of the POTW permitted to discharge, directly into the POTW system, untreated, domestically generated wastewater.
(12) Domestic (domestically generated) wastewater or sewage: sanitary sewage or wastewater discharge from households, residential, or improved properties having pollutant characteristics typical of normal toilet waste and ordinary domestic or residential use of water.
(13) Environmental Protection Agency, USEPA, or 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.
(14) Existing Source: Any source of discharge, the construction or operation of which commenced prior to the publication by the EPA of proposed categorical pretreatment standards, which will be applicable to such source if the standard is thereafter promulgated in accordance with Section 307 of the Act.
(15) Garbage: Solid wastes from the preparation, cooking and dispensing of food and from the handling, storage and sale of produce.
(16) Governing body: The Mayor and Council, together, who are charged with the responsibility of enacting ordinances and determining the public policy for the City.
(17) Improved property: Any property upon which there is erected a structure intended for continuous or periodic habitation, occupancy or use by human beings or animals and from which structure sanitary (domestic) sewage and/or industrial wastes are or may be discharged.
(18) Industrial waste: Any garbage, refuse or sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility and other discarded material including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations, and from community activities, but does not include solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage or solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows.
(19) Lateral: That part of the sewer system extending from a main sewer located in the street to the property line; or, to the edge of a sewer right-of-way in which the main sewer is located. If no such lateral shall be provided, then "Lateral" shall mean that portion of, or place in, a main sewer which is provided for connection of any customer service line.
(20) Manager - Utility Board: The person designated by the Utility Board to supervise the operation of the POTW, and who is charged with certain duties and responsibilities, acting in behalf of the Board, as the chief administrative officer of the POTW system, or his duly authorized representative.
(21) National Pollution Discharge Elimination System or NPDES Permit: A permit issued pursuant to Section 402 of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1342).
(22) Natural outlet: Any outlet, including storm sewers and combined sewers, which flows into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake, or other body of surface or groundwater.
(23) Non-domestic wastewater: sanitary sewage or wastewater discharge, discharged from any source, which has characteristics in flow or composition, or has pollutant content different from that which results from the typical, normal, or ordinary domestic use of water.
(24) Non-domestic User: a “customer” of the POTW permitted to discharge into the POTW system, either directly or indirectly, non-domestic wastewater.
(25) "Owner": Any person, corporation, partnership or association vested with ownership, legal or equitable, sole or partial, in any real property.
(26) Person: Any individual, User, partnership, co-partnership, firm, company, corporation, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, governmental entity or any other legal entity, or their legal representatives, agents or assigns. Where indicated by the context, the masculine gender shall include the feminine; the singular shall include the plural.
(27) pH: The logarithm to the base 10 of the reciprocal of the concentration of hydrogen ions expressed in grams per liter of solution and written as Standard Units (S.U.).
(28) Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW): A treatment works as defined by section 212 of the Act, (33 U.S.C. 1292) which is owned in this instance by the City. This definition includes any sewers, devices, or systems used in the collection, storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of sewage or industrial wastes, and any conveyances which 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 Ordinance, "POTW" shall also include any sewers that convey wastewater(s) to the POTW from Persons residing outside the City who are by contract, permit or agreement with the Board, Users of the City's POTW.
(29) POTW Treatment Plant: That portion of the POTW designed to provide treatment to wastewater.
(30) Public sewer: A sewer in which all owners of abutting properties have equal rights.
(31) “Receiving waters”: as applied in this Ordinance, any watercourse situated within the service area of the POTW which comes under the jurisdiction of the Parkersburg Utility Board.
(32) Right-of-way or Easement: An acquired legal right for the specific use of land owned by others.
(33) Sanitary sewage: Normal water-carried household and toilet wastes from any improved property. The preferred term is wastewater, also referred to as “domestic” sewage.
(34) Sanitary sewer: A sewer which carries liquid and water-carried wastes from private residences, commercial buildings, industrial plants and institutions, and to which storm, surface and ground waters are not intentionally admitted.
(35) Sewer system: All wastewater facilities and conveyances, owned by the City, for collecting, pumping, treating and disposing of sanitary sewage and/or industrial wastes.
(36) Shall is mandatory; May is permissive.
(37) Single Family Dwelling: Any room, group of rooms, house trailer or other enclosure occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living for a family or other group of persons living together, or by persons living alone.
(38) State: State of West Virginia.
(39) Storm sewer; storm drain: A sewer which carries storm and surface waters and drainage, but excludes wastewater and industrial wastes.
(40) Storm Water: Any flow occurring during or following any form of natural precipitation and resulting there from.
(41) User: Any individual, person, or group, partnership, co-partnership, firm, company, corporation, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, governmental entity or other legal entity, or their legal representatives, agents or assigns who discharges, causes or allows the discharge of wastewater into the POTW.
(42) Wastewater: The liquid or water-carried industrial or domestic wastes from dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities and institutions, whether treated or untreated, which is discharged into or permitted to enter into the POTW.
(43) Wastewater facilities: The structures, equipment, and processes required to collect, carry and treat domestic and industrial wastes and to dispose of the resulting effluent and sludges.
(44) Waters of the State: All streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, water courses, 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.
(45) Watercourse: A channel in which a flow of water occurs, either continuously or intermittently.
(Ord. 1394. Passed 6-14-11.)