For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
(a) APPROVING AUTHORITY or AUTHORITY. The City Engineer and the Director of the Water Reclamation Department or other designated official of the city, or their duly authorized deputy, agent or representative. It can also be used to describe the city’s sewage disposal works and sewage treatment plant.
(b) AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE OF INDUSTRIAL USER.
(1) A president, secretary, treasurer or vice-president of a corporation;
(2) A general partner or proprietor if the industrial user is a partnership or sole proprietorship respectively; or
(3) A duly authorized representative of the individual designated in division (b)(1) or (b)(2) of this section if:
A. The authorization is made in writing by the individual described in division (b)(1) or (b)(2);
B. The written authorization is submitted to the Authority; and
C. The
AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE must be a manager authorized to make management decisions that govern the operation of the regulated facility including having the explicit or implicit duty of making major capital investment recommendations, and initiate and direct other comprehensive measures to assure long term environmental compliance with environmental laws and regulations; can ensure that the necessary systems are established or actions taken to gather complete and accurate information control mechanism requirements; and where authority to sign documents has been assigned or delegated to the manager in accordance with corporate procedures.
(c) BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES. Schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures and other management practices to implement the prohibitions listed in O.A.C. 3745-3-04 and in § 1044.05 of this chapter. BMPs also include treatment requirements, operating procedures and practices to control plant site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal or drainage from raw materials storage.
(d) BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (BOD). The quantity of oxygen, expressed in parts per 1,000,000 by weight, utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory conditions for five days at a temperature of 20°C. The laboratory determinations shall be made in accordance with procedures set forth in Standard Methods, as defined in division (ss) hereof.
(e) BYPASS. The intentional diversion of waste streams from any portion of an industrial user’s treatment facility.
(f) CITY. The City of Solon, Ohio.
(g) CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (COD). The quantity of oxygen utilized in the chemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedures expressed in parts per 1,000,000 by weight, in accordance with procedures set forth in Standard Methods, as defined in division (ss) hereof.
(h) COMPATIBLE POLLUTANT. The BOD, suspended solids, pH and fecal coliform bacteria, plus additional pollutants identified in the NPDES permit if the publicly owned treatment works was designated to treat such pollutants, and in fact does remove such pollutants to a substantial degree. Examples of such additional pollutants may include:
(1) COD;
(2) Total organic carbon;
(3) Phosphorus and phosphorus compounds;
(4) Nitrogen and nitrogen compounds; and
(5) Fats, oils and greases of animal or vegetable origin except as prohibited under § 1044.05 of this chapter.
(i) CONSISTENT REMOVAL. The reduction in the amount of a pollutant or alteration of the nature of the pollutant by the wastewater treatment plant to a less toxic or harmless state in the effluent, provided that the plant meets the NPDES permit limits established for that pollutant and the sludge meets all applicable requirements for the preferred method of disposal.
(j) COOLING WATER. The water discharged from any use such as air conditioning, cooling or refrigeration, or to which the only pollutant added is heat.
(k) DAILY AVERAGE CONCENTRATION. The method used to describe surcharge concentrations, as determined by the analysis of a grab sample, the arithmetic average of multiple grab samples in a 24-hour period or the analysis of a 24-hour composite sample.
(l) DAILY MAXIMUM DISCHARGE CONCENTRATION. The method used to describe prohibited discharge limits, as determined by the analysis of a grab sample, the arithmetic average of multiple grab samples in a 24-hour period or the analysis of a 24-hour composite sample.
(m) DIRECTOR. The Director of the Water Reclamation Department or his or her duly authorized deputy, agent or representative.
(n) ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY or EPA. The United States Environmental Protection Agency, or, when appropriate, the term may also be used as a designation for the Administrator or other duly authorized official of said agency.
(o) FEDERAL ACT or ACT. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, Pub. L. No. 92-500, being 33 USC 1251 et seq., and any amendments thereto, as well as any guidelines, limitations and standards promulgated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to the Act.
(p) GARBAGE. The residue from the preparation and dispensing of food, and from the handling, storage and sale of food products and produce.
(q) GROUND GARBAGE. The residue from the preparation, cooking and dispensing of food that has been shredded to such degree that all particles will be carried freely in suspension under the flow conditions normally prevailing in public sewers with no particle greater than one-half inch in any dimension.
(r) INCOMPATIBLE POLLUTANT. Any pollutant which is not a compatible pollutant as defined in division (h) hereof.
(s) INDUSTRIAL USER or USER. Any nonresidential user who discharges an effluent into the city sewage treatment plant by means of pipes, conduits, pumping stations, force mains, constructed drainage ditches, surface water intercepting ditches and all constructed devices and appliances appurtenant thereto. This shall include the introduction of pollutants into the sewage disposal works from any non-domestic source regulated under § 307(b), (c) or (d) of the Act, being 33 USC 1347.
(t) INDUSTRIAL WASTE.
(1) Any solid, liquid or gaseous substance discharged, permitted to flow or escaping from any industrial, manufacturing, commercial or business establishment or process, or from the development, recovery or processing of any natural resource.
(2) INDUSTRIAL WASTE is further defined as being process or trade waste as distinct from domestic or sanitary wastes.
(u) INTERFERENCE. A discharge which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, both:
(1) Inhibits or disrupts the authorities facilities, its treatment processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use or disposal; and
(2) Therefore is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the Authority’s NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation) or of the prevention of sewage sludge use or disposal.
(v) NATIONAL CATEGORICAL PRETREATMENT STANDARD or CATEGORICAL PRETREATMENT STANDARD. Any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the United States EPA in accordance with § 307(b) and (c) of the Act (33 U.S.C. § 1347) which applies to a specific category of industrial users. This term includes prohibitive discharge limits established to 40 C.F.R. Part 403.5.
(w) NEW SOURCE. 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 § 307(c) of the Act, being 33 USC 1347 which will be applicable to such source if such standards are thereafter promulgated in accordance with that section, provided that:
(1) The building, structure, facility or installation is constructed at a site at which no other source is located;
(2) The building, structure, facility or installation totally replaced the process or production equipment that causes the discharge of pollutants at an existing source; or
(3) The production or wastewater generating processes of the building, structure, facility or installation are substantially independent of an existing source at the same site.
(x) NORMAL STRENGTH SEWAGE OR WASTES. For the purpose of determining surcharge, means sewage having an average daily suspended solids concentration of not more than 300 parts per 1,000,000, an average daily BOD concentration of not more than 250 parts per 1,000,000, an average daily oil and grease (hexane or suitable alternative solvent) concentration of not more than 100 parts per 1,000,000, an average daily phosphate (measured as P) concentration of not more than 20.0 parts per 1,000,000, and an average daily ammonia (measured as N) concentration of not more than 15.0 parts per 1,000,000.
(y) NPDES PERMIT. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit issued to the City of Solon.
(z) PARTS PER MILLION (PPM). A weight-to-weight ratio; the parts-per-1,000,000 value multiplied by the factor 8.345 shall be equivalent to pounds per 1,000,000 gallons of water. MILLIGRAMS PER LITER (mg/l) is a synonymous term.
(aa) PASS THROUGH. A discharge which exits the Authority’s sewage treatment facility into water 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 Authority’s NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation).
(bb) PERSON. Any and all persons, natural or artificial, including any individual, firm, company, municipal or private corporation, association, society, institution, enterprise, governmental agency or other entity.
(cc) pH. The logarithm, base ten, of the reciprocal of the hydrogen ion concentration expressed in moles per liter. It shall be determined in accordance with procedures set forth in Standard Methods, as defined in division (ss) hereof.
(dd) POLLUTANT. The dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, wastewater, garbage, wastewater sludge, munition, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal, commercial, domestic and agricultural waste discharged into water.
(ee) PUBLIC SEWER. A sewer provided by or subject to the jurisdiction of the city. It also includes sewers within or outside the city boundaries that serve one or more persons and ultimately discharge into the city sanitary sewer system even though those sewers may not have been constructed with city funds.
(ff) REGIONAL ADMINISTRATOR or ADMINISTRATOR. The appropriate United States EPA regional Administrator.
(gg) SANITARY SEWER. A sewer that conveys sewage or industrial wastes or a combination of both, and into which storm, surface and ground waters or unpolluted industrial wastes are not intentionally admitted.
(hh) SEVERE PROPERTY DAMAGE. Substantial physical damage to property, damage to the treatment facilities which causes them to become inoperable, or substantial and permanent loss of natural resources which can reasonably be expected to occur in the absence of a bypass. SEVERE PROPERTY DAMAGE does not mean economic loss caused by delays in production.
(ii) SEWAGE. The water-carried human, animal and household waste in a public or private drain, and may include ground water infiltration, surface drainage and industrial wastes.
(jj) SEWAGE DISPOSAL WORKS. All facilities for collecting, pumping, treating and disposing of sewage and industrial waste, and includes sewerage as well as the sewage treatment facilities.
(kk) SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT. An assemblage of devices, structures and equipment for treatment of sewage and industrial waste.
(ll) SEWER. A pipe or conduit for conveying sewage or any other waste liquids, including storm, surface and ground water drainage.
(mm) SEWERAGE. The system of sewers and appurtenances for the collection, transportation and pumping of sewage and industrial waste.
(nn) SHALL; MAY. SHALL is mandatory; MAY is permissible.
(oo) SIGNIFICANT INDUSTRIAL USER (SIU).
(1) Except as provided in division (oo)(2) thereof, the term
SIGNIFICANT INDUSTRIAL USER includes:
A. All industrial users subject to categorical pretreatment standards; and
B. Any other industrial user that discharges an average of 25,000 gallons per day or more of process waste water to the Authority; contributes a process waste stream which makes up 5% or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the Authority’s treatment plant; or has a reasonable potential, in the opinion of the Director, to adversely affect the sewage disposal works operation or to violate any pretreatment standard or requirement.
(2) The Authority may at any time, on its own initiative or in response to a petition received from an industrial user, determine that a noncategorical industrial user is not a significant industrial user if the industrial user has no reasonable potential to adversely affect the sewage disposal works operation or to violate any pretreatment standard or requirement.
(pp) SIGNIFICANT NONCOMPLIANCE. Shall be applicable to all significant industrial users (or any other industrial user that violates divisions (pp)(3), (pp)(4) or (pp)(8) of this section) and shall mean:
(1) Chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined here as those in which 66% or more of all of the measurements taken during a six-month period exceed (by any magnitude) the daily maximum or the average limit for the same pollutant parameter;
(2) Technical review criteria (TRC) violations, defined here as those in which 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 Authority determines has caused, alone or in combination with other discharges, interference or pass through (including endangering the health of Authority personnel or the general public);
(4) Any discharge of a pollutant that has caused imminent endangerment to human health, welfare or the environment or has resulted in the Authority’s exercise of emergency authority to halt or prevent such a discharge;
(5) Failure to meet, within 90 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 45 days after the due date, required reports such as baseline monitoring reports, 90-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 Authority determines will affect or has adversely affected the operation or implementation of the city’s pretreatment program; and
(9) Any other violation(s), which may include a violation of best management practices, which the Director determines will adversely affect the operation or implementation of the local pretreatment program.
(qq) SLUDGE. Any solid, semi-solid 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 as defined in standards issued under §§ 402 and 405 of the Act, being 33 USC 1342 and 1345 and in the applicable requirements under §§ 2001, 3004 and 4004 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act (Pub. L. No. 94-580), being 42 USC 6901 et seq.
(rr) SLUG. All discharges of such quantity or concentration which result in interference or pass through and includes, but is not limited to, any discharge of water, sewage or industrial waste which, in concentration of any given constituent or in quantity of flow, exceeds for any period of longer duration than 15 minutes more than five times its average hourly concentration or flow.
(ss) STANDARD METHODS. The current edition of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, as published by the American Public Health Association, American Water Works Association and Water Pollution Control Federation.
(tt) STORM SEWER. A sewer that carries storm, surface and ground water drainage but excludes sewage and industrial wastes.
(uu) STORMWATER RUNOFF. That portion of rainfall that is drained into the sewers.
(vv) SURCHARGE. The assessment, in addition to the user charge, which is levied on those persons whose wastes are greater in strength than the concentration values established as representative of normal sewage.
(ww) SUSPENDED SOLIDS. Solids that either float on the surface of, or are in suspension or will settle in, water, sewage or industrial waste, and that are removable by a laboratory filtration device. Quantitative determination of SUSPENDED SOLIDS shall be made in accordance with procedures set forth in Standard Methods, as defined in division (ss) hereof.
(xx) TOXIC POLLUTANT. 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 Environmental Protection Agency under the provisions of CWA § 307(a) or other Acts.
(yy) UNPOLLUTED WATER; UNPOLLUTED LIQUID. Any water or liquid containing none of the following: free or emulsified grease or oil; acids or alkalis; substances that may impart taste and odor or color characteristics; toxic or poisonous substances in suspension, colloidal state or solution; odorous or otherwise obnoxious gases. It shall contain not more than 2,500 parts per 1,000,000 by weight of dissolved solids and not more than ten parts per 1,000,000 each of suspended solids or biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). Analytical determinations shall be made in accordance with procedures set forth in Standard Methods, as defined in division (ss) hereof.
(zz) UPSET. An exceptional incident in which an industrial user unintentionally and temporarily is in a state of noncompliance with the standards set forth in this chapter due to factors beyond the reasonable control of the industrial user, and excluding noncompliance to the extent caused by operational error, improperly designed treatment facilities, inadequate treatment facilities, lack of preventive maintenance or careless or improper operation thereof.
(aaa) USER CHARGE. The basic assessment levied on all users of the public sewer system, representing a proportionate share of the costs of operation and maintenance, including replacement of all waste treatment services provided.
(bbb) WASTEWATER. The liquid and water-carried or domestic wastes from dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities and institutions, together with any ground water, surface water and stormwater that may be present, whether treated or untreated, which is contributed into or permitted to enter the city sewage disposal works.
(ccc) WATER RECLAMATION DEPARTMENT. The department of the city charged with the management and operations of the sewage disposal works.
(Ord. 1991-239, passed 12-2-1991; Ord. 1998-21, passed 2-2-1998; Ord. 2005-152, passed 6-20-2005; Ord. 2010-89, passed 4-19-2010)