13.36.090   Health care related wastes.
   A.   Regulated Facilities. Hospitals, clinics, offices of medical doctors, mortuaries, morgues and long-term health care facilities:
      1.   May discharge through a waste grinder after director approval as a condition of the industrial wastewater discharge permit. The installation will have inlet size and design features suitable for its intended use and constructed such that all particles pass through a maximum three-eighths-inch mesh opening;
      2.   Shall not discharge to the sewer by any means:
         a.   Solid wastes generated in the rooms of patients who are isolated because of a suspected or diagnosed communicable disease;
         b.   Recognizable portions of the human anatomy;
         c.   Equipment, instruments, utensils and other materials of a disposable nature that may harbor or transmit pathogenic organisms and that are used in the rooms of patients having a suspected or diagnosed communicable disease which by the nature of the disease is required to be isolated by public health agencies;
         d.   Wastes excluded by other provisions of this chapter.
   B.   Limit of Authority. Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the authority of the Pima County department of environmental quality, Pima County health department or other health authorities to define wastes as being infectious and, with the concurrence of the director, to require that they will not be discharged to the POTW.
   C.   Dental Facilities. Dental facilities built prior to August, 2013 need not implement the requirement for a new dental facility or obtain an industrial wastewater discharge permit until such time as they are updated or the discharge from their facility is identified as exceeding the ordinance limits listed in Section 13.36.070. Any new dental facility or existing facility making a modification requiring the submittal of plans for construction or tenant improvements must install mercury amalgam separators to control mercury bearing wastestreams and are exempted from the requirement to obtain an industrial wastewater discharge permit as long as best management practices for amalgam waste as promulgated by the American Dental Association (October, 2007) are implemented to control mercury bearing wastestreams including but not limited to the use of an amalgam separator; staff training on amalgam waste handling, management and disposal; and vacuum system/amalgam separator maintenance recordkeeping.
(Ord. 2013-32 (part), 2013)