As used in this chapter:
(1) "Act" means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act, as amended, 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.
(2) "Applicable pretreatment standard" means any pretreatment limit or prohibitive standard (Federal and/or local) deemed to be the most restrictive, with which nondomestic users are required to comply.
(3) "Approval Authority" means the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
(4) "Approving Authority"- means the City Engineer or other designated official of the City, or his duly authorized agent or representative.
(5) "Assigned unit" means the measurement of a connection based on flow. One unit is equal to 1,000 cubic feet (Mcf).
(6) "Authorized representative of industrial user" means a principal executive officer of at least the level of vice-president if the industrial user is a corporation; a general partner or proprietor if the industrial user is a partnership or proprietorship, respectively; or a duly authorized representative of an individual designated in this paragraph if such representative is responsible for the overall operation of the facilities from which the discharge originates.
(7) "Average monthly discharge limitation" means the highest allowable average of daily discharges over a calendar month, calculated as the sum of all daily discharges measured during a calendar month divided by the number of daily discharges measured during the month.
(8) "Average weekly discharge limitation" means the highest allowable average of daily discharges over a calendar week, calculated as the sum of all daily discharges measured during a calendar week divided by the number of daily discharges measured during that week.
(9) "Beneficial use" means and includes, but is not limited to, domestic, Municipal agricultural and industrial uses, power generation, recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, navigation, the preservation and enhancement of fish, wildlife and other aquatic resources or reserves, and other uses both tangible and intangible, as specified by State or Federal law.
(10) "Biochemical oxygen demand (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 (milligrams per liter (mg/l)). Laboratory procedures shall be in accordance with the standards and methodologies contained in 40 CFR Part 136, as amended.
(11) "Building drain" means that part of the lowest horizontal piping of a drainage system which receives the discharge from soil, waste and other drainage pipes inside the walls of a building and conveys it to the sewer, beginning outside the inner face of the building wall.
(12) "Building sewer" means the extension from the building drain to the Municipal sewer or other place of disposal.
(13) "Bypass" means the intentional diversion of wastewater from any portion of an industrial user's treatment facility.
(14) "Capital cost" means that portion of the cost of the sewage treatment system which is directly attributable to the cost of principal and interest obligations issued to finance acquisition and construction of the wastewater system.
(15) "Chemical oxygen demand (COD)" means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the chemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedures, expressed in terms of parts per million by weight, in accordance with procedures set forth in 40 C.F.R. Part 136, as amended.
(16) “Chlorine requirement" means the amount of chlorine, in parts per million by weight, which must be added to sewage to produce a specified residual chlorine content, or to meet the requirements of some other objective, in accordance with procedures set forth in 40 C.F.R., Part 136, as amended.
(17) "City" means the City of Strongsville.
(18) "Commercial user," for purposes of system charges, means any aggregation of space or area occupied for a distinct purpose, such as a retail store, office, laundry, restaurant and other like unit, which space or area is equipped with one or more water fixtures draining into the wastewater disposal system, separate and distinct from other users of service. In office buildings or other premises containing more than one tenant, only those tenants who occupy space equipped with a distinct opening or fixture or set of fixtures for the use of water, separate from other tenants, and with waste draining into the waste disposal system, shall be classified as users of service.
(19) "Compatible pollutant" means the BOD, suspended solids, pH and fecal coliform bacteria, plus additional pollutants identified in the City's NPDES permit, if the treatment works was designed to treat such pollutants, and in fact does remove such pollutants to a substantial degree.
(20) "Composite sample" means a sample containing a minimum of eight discrete samples taken at equal time intervals over the compositing period or proportional to the flow rate over the compositing period. More than the minimum number of discrete samples will be required where the wastewater loading is highly variable.
(21) "Control manhole" means a structure which provides access to a building sewer. A control manhole may be used as an inspection chamber and may contain certain testing equipment.
(22) "Cooling water" means the water discharge from any use, such as air conditioning, cooling or refrigeration, or during which the only constituent added to the water is heat.
(23) “Daily discharge” means the discharge of a pollutant measured during a calendar day or during any twenty-four hour period that reasonably represents a calendar day for purposes of sampling.
(24) "Easement" means an acquired legal right of the specific use of land owned by others.
(25) "Environmental Protection Agency" or "EPA" means the United States Environmental Protection Agency and may also be used, where appropriate, as a designation for the administrator or other duly authorized official of such Agency.
(26) "Ether-soluble matter" means oil and grease which is soluble in ether, as measured in a laboratory procedure made in accordance with the method set forth in 40 C.F.R. Part 136, as amended.
(27) "Fecal coliform" means any number of organisms common to the intestinal tract of man and animals, the presence of which in sanitary sewage is an indicator of pollution.
(28) "Floatable oil" means oil, fat or grease in a physical state, such that it will separate by gravity from wastewater by treatment in an approved pretreatment facility.
(29) "Garbage" means the residue from the preparation and dispensing of food and from the handling, storage and sale of produce.
(30) "Government user" means any user discharging wastewater from premises utilized by public political units, including Federal, State, County and City units.
(31) "Grease and oil" means a group of substances, including hydrocarbons, fatty acids, soaps, fats, waxes, oils or other materials, that is extracted by a solvent from an acidified sample and that is not volatilized during the laboratory test procedures. Greases and oils are defined by the method of their determination in accordance with standards and methodologies set forth in 40 C.F.R. Part 136, as amended.
(32) "Grease and oil of animal and vegetable origin" means substances that are less readily biodegradable in nature, such as are discharged by meatpacking, vegetable oil and fat industries, food processors, canneries and restaurants.
(33) "Grease and oil of mineral origin" means substances that are less readily biodegradable than grease and oil of animal or vegetable origin and that are derived from a petroleum source. Such substances include machinery lubricating oils, gasoline station wastes, petroleum refinery wastes and storage depot wastes.
(34) "Ground garbage" means the residue from the preparation, cooking and dispensing of food that has been shredded to such a 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.
(35) "Incompatible pollutant" means any pollutant which is not a compatible pollutant.
(36) "Industrial user" means a person who discharges to the City's wastewater disposal system liquid, solid or gaseous wastes resulting from the processes employed in industrial or manufacturing activities, or from the development, recovering or processing of any natural resource.
(37) "Industrial waste" means any liquid, solid or gaseous substance or form of energy, or combination thereof, 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.
(38) "Industrial waste permit" means a formal permit to deposit or discharge industrial waste into any sanitary sewer, as issued by the City.
(39) "Influent" means the water, together with any waste that may be present, flowing into a drain, sewer, receptacle or outlet and then to the sewage treatment plant.
(40) "Institutional user” means any person discharging wastewater from premises serving educational, social or eleemosynary purposes, including, but not limited to, private schools, hospitals, nursing homes and charitable organizations.
(41) "Interference" means a discharge which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, both:
A. Inhibits or disrupts the POTW, its treatment processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use or disposal; and
B. Therefore is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the POTW's NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation) or of the prevention of sewage sludge use or disposal in compliance with the following statutory provisions and regulations or permits issued thereunder (or more stringent State or City regulations): Section 405 of the Act, the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) (including Title II, more commonly referred to as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and including State regulations contained in any State sludge management plan prepared pursuant to subtitle D of the SWDA), the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act.
(42) "Maximum daily discharge limitations" means the highest allowable daily discharge.
(43) "Municipal sewer" means a sewer in which all owners of abutting properties have equal rights and which is controlled by the City.
(44) "National categorical pretreatment standard" means any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the EPA in accordance with Section 307(b) and (c) of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1347), which standard applies to a specific category of industrial users.
(45) "National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit" means a permit issued by the State or the EPA 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.
(46) "Natural outlet" means any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface or ground water.
(47) "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 national categorical pretreatment standards under Section 307(c) (33 U.S.C. 1347) of the Clean Water Act which will be applicable to such source if such national categorical standards are thereafter promulgated, provided that:
A. 1. The building, structure, facility or installation is constructed at a site at which no other source is located; or
2. The building, structure, facility or installation totally replaces 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 any existing source of wastewater at the same site. In determining whether these are substantially independent, factors such as the extent to which the new facility is integrated with the existing plant, and the extent to which the new facility is engaged in the same general type of activity as the existing source should be considered.
B. Construction on a site at which an existing source is located results in a modification rather than a new source if the construction does not create a new building, structure, facility or installation meeting the criteria of paragraphs A.2. or 3. hereof but otherwise alters, replaces or adds to existing process or production equipment.
C. Construction of a new source as defined herein has commenced if the owner or operator has:
1. Begun, or caused to begin as part of a continuous on-site construction program:
a. Any placement, assembly or installation of facilities or equipment; or
b. Significant site preparation work including clearing, excavation or removal of existing buildings, structures or facilities which is necessary for the placement, assembly or installation of new source facilities or equipment; or
2. Entered into a binding contractual obligation for the purchase of facilities or equipment which are intended to be used in its operation within a reasonable time. Options to purchase or contracts which can be terminated or modified without substantial loss, and contracts for feasibility, engineering and design studies do not constitute a "contractual obligation" hereunder.
(48) "Normal domestic sewage" means wastewater characterized by wastes created in the preparation of foods, bathing, laundry facilities and sanitary facilities, i.e. resulting from normal living functions. Normal characteristics are considered to be a loading of 200 mg/l BOD and 250 mg/l suspended solids per capita.
(49) "On-site treatment facilities" means any sewage treatment facilities located at the site where wastewater is being generated, when such facilities are for the purpose of treating or pretreating the generated wastewater before it enters the public sewer.
(50) "Operation and maintenance costs" means the current, reasonable and necessary costs of operation and maintenance of the wastewater disposal system, paid or incurred, determined in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, including replacement costs, but excluding payments of principal and interest on obligations issued to finance the costs of acquisition and construction of the wastewater disposal system.
(51) "Parts per million (ppm)" means a weight-to-weight ratio. The parts per million value multiplied by the factor 8.345 shall be equivalent to pounds per million gallons of water. Milligrams per liter (mg/l) is a synonymous term.
(52) "Pass through" means a discharge which exits the POTW into waters of the State 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 POTW's NPDES permit.
(53) "Person" means any person, natural or artificial, including any individual, firm, company, municipal or private corporation, partnership, copartnership, joint stock company, trust, association, institution, enterprise, governmental agency, the State, the United States or any other legal entity, or his or its representatives, agents or assigns. The masculine gender shall include the feminine and the singular shall include the plural where indicated by the context.
(54) "pH" means the logarithm, base ten, of the reciprocal of the hydrogen-ion concentration expressed in moles per liter. It shall be determined by one of the procedures outlined in 40 C.F.R. Part 136, as amended.
(55) "Pollutant" means 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.
(56) "Pollution" means an alteration of the quality of the waters of the State by waste to a degree which unreasonably affects such waters for beneficial uses or facilities which serve such beneficial uses. Pollution is the man-made or man-induced alteration of the chemical, physical, biological and radiological integrity of water.
(57) "Premises" means any piece of real estate having one or more sewers which may be connected, either individually or through a common sewer, directly or indirectly, to the wastewater disposal system.
(58) "Pretreatment" means the process of reducing the amount of pollutants, eliminating pollutants or altering the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater introduced into the City's wastewater disposal system. The reduction, elimination or alteration may be obtained by physical, chemical or biological processes, by process changes or by other means, except as prohibited by this chapter.
(59) "Pretreatment requirements" means any substantive or procedural requirements related to pretreatment, other than a national pretreatment standard, imposed on an industrial user.
(60) "Properly shredded garbage" means wastes from the preparation, cooking and dispensing of food, which wastes have been shredded to such a degree that all particles will be carried freely under the conditions normally prevailing in Municipal sewers, with no particle greater than one-half inch in any dimension.
(61) "Publicly owned treatment works (POTW)" means all publicly owned (City owned) facilities for the collection, treatment and disposal of wastewater.
(62) "Public sewers" means 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 to the City sanitary sewerage system, even though those sewers may not have been constructed with City funds.
(63) "Receiving stream" means a watercourse, stream or body of water receiving the waters finally discharged from the wastewater treatment plant.
(64) "Reimbursable expenses" means those costs incurred by the City which are passed on to the users of the POTW on whose behalf the expenses were incurred. Included are such items as sampling costs and laboratory fees.
(65) "Replacement" means any expenditures for obtaining and installing equipment, accessories or appurtenances which are necessary during the useful life of the treatment works to maintain the capacity and performance for which such works were designed and constructed. These costs are also known as equipment replacement costs.
(66) “Residential user," for purposes of system charges, means any aggregation of space or area occupied as a residence and generating domestic wastewater. In multi-use premises, only those divisions of the building utilized as domiciles will be considered residential users.
(67) "Sanitary sewer" means a sewer which carries wastewater and to which storm, surface and ground waters are not intentionally admitted.
(68) “Sewer" means a pipe or conduit for carrying wastewater.
(69) "Sewage" means water-carried human, animal and household wastes in public or private drains and may include ground water infiltration, surface drainage and industrial waste.
(70) "Sewage disposal works" means all facilities for collecting, pumping, treating and disposing of sewage and industrial waste, and includes sewerage as well as the sewage treatment facilities. This shall not include plumbing inside or in connection with building services or service sewers from a building to the street lateral.
(71) "Sewage treatment plant" means an assemblage of devices, structures and equipment for the treatment of sewage and industrial waste.
(72) "Sewerage" means the system of sewers and appurtenances for the collection, transportation and pumping of sewage and industrial waste.
(73) "Sewer service charge" means a charge imposed upon all users receiving service from the City's sewage disposal system in a total amount sufficient to pay the costs of the system. Sewer service charges consist of a capital charge, a user charge and a surcharge.
(74) "Shall" is mandatory; "may" is permissible.
(75) "Significant industrial user" means the following users of the City's wastewater disposal system:
A. All industrial users subject to national categorical pretreatment standards; and
B. Any other industrial user which:
1. Discharges an average of 25,000 gallons per day or more of process wastewater (excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling and boiler blowdown wastewaters); or
2. Contributes a process wastestream which makes up five percent (5%) or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic (i.e., BOD) capacity of the treatment plant; or
3. Has a reasonable potential in the judgment of the Superintendent, to adversely affect the treatment plant's operation or for violating any pretreatment standard.
(76) "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 as defined in standards issued under Sections 402 and 405 of the Act and in the applicable requirements under Sections 3001, 3004 and 4004 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act (PL 94-580).
(77) "Slug" means any pollutant, including oxygen demanding pollutants released in a discharge at a flow rate and/or pollutant concentration which will cause interference with the POTW.
(78) "Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)" means a system that classifies industries pursuant to the Standard Industrial Classification Manual issued by the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, 1972, by assigning a code (SIC Code) denoting the manufacturing process, and may be amended from time to time.
(79) "Storm sewer" means a sewer which carries storm surface and ground water drainage, but excludes sewage and industrial wastes.
(80) "Storm water runoff" means that portion of rainfall that is drained into the sewers.
(81) "Superintendent" means the Assistant Service Director in charge of the wastewater treatment system, or his authorized deputies, agents or representatives, as may be designated by the Mayor to supervise and enforce this chapter. The Superintendent and the Approving Authority may be the same person.
(82) "Surcharge" means the assessment, in addition to the service charge, which is levied on those persons whose wastes are greater in strength than the concentration values established as representatives of normal sewage.
(83) "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 40 C.F.R. Part 136, as amended.
(84) "Technical review criteria" or "TRC" means a value of 1.4 for BOD, total suspended solids, fats, oils and grease, and 1.2 for all other pollutants except pH.
(85) "Total solids" means the sum of suspended and dissolved solids.
(86) "Toxic amounts" means concentrations of any pollutant or combination of pollutants which, upon exposure to or assimilation into any organism, will cause adverse effects, such as cancer, genetic mutations and physiological manifestations, as defined in standards issued pursuant to Section 307 (a) of the Act.
(87) "Toxic pollutants" means those substances referred to in Section 307 (a) of the Act as well as any other known potential substances capable of producing toxic effects.
(88) "Treatment plant. " See Sewage treatment plant.
(89) "Unpolluted water or unpolluted liquid" means any water or liquid containing none of the following: free or emulsified grease or oil; acids or alkalies; substances that may impart taste, odor or color characteristics; toxic or poisonous substances in suspension, colloidal state or solution; or odorous or otherwise obnoxious gases. It shall not contain more than 2,500 parts per million by weight of dissolved solids and not more than ten parts per million each of suspended solids or biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). Analytical determinations shall be made in accordance with procedures set forth in 40 C.F.R. Part 136, as amended.
(90) "Upset" or "operating upset" means an exceptional incident in which a discharger 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 discharger, 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.
(91) "User" means a person who discharges or causes or permits the discharge of wastewater into the sewerage system.
(92) "User charge" means the fee imposed by the City upon all units serviced by the sewage disposal works of the City in a total amount sufficient to pay the costs of operation and maintenance, including the costs of replacement of equipment, of the wastewater disposal system.
(93) "Volatile organic matter" means the material in the sewage solids transformed to gases or vapors when heated at 550 degrees Centigrade for fifteen to twenty minutes.
(94) "Wastewater" means the liquid and water-carried industrial or domestic wastes from dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities and institutions, together with any ground water, surface water and storm water that may be present, whether treated or untreated, which is discharged into or permitted to enter the City's wastewater disposal system.
(95) "Wastewater disposal system." See Sewage disposal works.
(96) "Watercourse" means a channel in which a flow of water occurs, whether continuously or intermittently.
(97) "Waters of the State" means all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, water courses, waterways, wells, springs, reservoirs, aquifers, irrigation systems, drainage systems and 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.
(Ord. 1991-230. Passed 1-21-92.)