§ 158.04 DEFINITIONS.

   For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.

   AGRICULTURAL STORM WATER RUNOFF. Any storm water runoff from orchards, cultivated crops, pastures, range lands and other non-point source agricultural activities, but not discharges from concentrated animal feeding operations as defined in 40 C.F.R. § 122.23 or discharges from concentrated aquatic animal production facilities as defined in 40 C.F.R. § 122.24.

   BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMP). Schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures and other management practice to prevent or reduce the pollution of waters of the United States. 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 material storage.

   CITY. The City of Texas City, Texas.

   CITY ENGINEER. The person appointed to the position of City Engineer by the city, or his or her duly authorized representative.

   COMMENCEMENT OF CONSTRUCTION. The disturbance of soils associated with clearing, grading or excavating activities or other construction activities.

   COMMERCIAL. Any business, trade, industry or other activity engaged in for profit.

   DISCHARGE. Any addition or introduction of any pollutant, storm water or any other substance whatsoever into the municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) or into waters of the United States.

   DISCHARGER. Any person, who causes, allows, permits or is otherwise responsible for, a discharge, including, without limitation, any operator of a construction site or industrial facility.

   DOMESTIC SEWAGE. Human excrement, gray water (from home clothes washing, bathing, showers, dishwashing and food preparation), other wastewater from household drains, and waterborne waste normally discharged from the sanitary conveniences of dwellings (including apartment houses and hotels), office buildings, factories and institutions, that is free from industrial waste.

   ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA). The United States Environmental Protection Agency, the regional office thereof, any federal department, agency or commission that may succeed to the authority of the EPA, and any duly authorized official of EPA or such successor agency.

   FACILITY. Any building, structure, installation, process or activity from which there is or may be a discharge of a pollutant.

   FINAL STABILIZATION. The status when all soil disturbing activities at a site have been completed, and a uniform perennial vegetative cover with a density of 70% of the cover for unpaved areas and areas not covered by permanent structures has been established, or equivalent permanent stabilization measures (such as the use of riprap, gabions or geotextiles) have been employed.

   FIRE DEPARTMENT. The Fire Department of the City of Texas City, or any duly authorized representative thereof.

   FIRE PROTECTION WATER. Any water, and any substances or materials contained therein, used by any person other than the Fire Department to control or extinguish a fire.

   GARBAGE. Putrescible animal and vegetable waste materials from the handling, preparation, cooking, or consumption of food, including waste materials from markets, storage facilities and the handling and sale of produce and other food products.

   HAZARDOUS HOUSEHOLD WASTE (HHW). Any material generated in a household (including single and multiple residences, hotels and motels, bunk houses, ranger stations, crew quarters, camp grounds, picnic grounds and day use recreational areas) by a consumer which, except for the exclusion provided in 40 C.F.R. § 261.4(b)(1), would be classified as a hazardous waste under 40 C.F.R. part 261.

   HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCE. Any substance listed in Table 302.4 of 40 C.F.R. part 302.

   HAZARDOUS WASTE. Any substance identified or listed as a hazardous waste by the EPA pursuant to 40 C.F.R. part 261.

   HAZARDOUS WASTE TREATMENT, DISPOSAL AND RECOVERY FACILITY. All contiguous land and structures, other appurtenances and improvements on the land, used for the treatment, disposal or recovery of hazardous waste.

   INDUSTRIAL WASTE. Any waterborne liquid or solid substance that results from any process of industry, manufacturing, mining, production, trade or business.

   MOTOR VEHICLE FUEL. Any vehicle crankcase oil, antifreeze, transmission fluid, brake fluid, differential lubricant, gasoline, diesel fuel, gasoline/alcohol blend and any other fluid used in a motor vehicle.

   MUNICIPAL SEPARATE STORM SEWER SYSTEM (MS4). The system of conveyances (including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, human-made channels or storm drains) owned and operated by the city and designed or used for collecting or conveying storm water, and which is not used for collecting or conveying sewage.

   NON-POINT SOURCE. Any source of any discharge of a pollutant that is not a “point source”.

   NOTICE OF INTENT (NOI). The notice of intent that is required by either the industrial general permit or the construction general permit.

   NOTICE OF TERMINATION (NOT). The notice of termination that is required by either the industrial general permit or the construction general permit.

   OIL. Any kind of oil in any form, including, but not limited to, petroleum, fuel oil, crude oil or any fraction thereof which is liquid at standard conditions of temperature and pressure, sludge, oil refuse and oil mixed with waste.

   OPERATOR. The person or persons who, either individually or taken together, meet the following two criteria:

      (1)   They have operational control over the facility specifications (including the ability to make modifications in specifications); and

      (2)   They have the day-to-day operational control over those activities at the facility necessary to ensure compliance with pollution prevention requirements and any permit conditions.

   OWNER. The person who owns a facility or part of a facility.

   PERSON. Any individual, 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. This definition includes all federal, state and local governmental entities.

   PESTICIDE. A substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate any pest, or any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant or desiccant (as these terms are defined in Tex. Agriculture Code § 76.001).

   PETROLEUM PRODUCT. A petroleum product that is obtained from distilling and processing crude oil and that is capable of being used as a fuel for the propulsion of a motor vehicle or aircraft, including motor gasoline, gasohol; other alcohol blended fuels, aviation gasoline, kerosene, distillate fuel oil and #1 and #2 diesel.

   POINT SOURCE. Any discernable, confined and discrete conveyance, including, but not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, landfill leachate collection system, vessel or other floating craft from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include return flows from irrigated agriculture or agricultural storm water runoff.

   POLLUTANT. Dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical waste, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal and agricultural waste discharged into water. The term POLLUTANT does not include tail water or runoff water from irrigation or rainwater runoff from cultivated or uncultivated rangeland, pastures land and farmland.

   POLLUTION. The alteration of the physical, thermal, chemical or biological quality of, or the contamination of, any water in the state that renders the water harmful, detrimental or injurious to humans, animal life, vegetation or property, or to the public health, safety or welfare, or impairs the usefulness or the public enjoyment of the water for any lawful or reasonable purpose.

   QUALIFIED PERSONNEL. Persons who possess the appropriate competence, skills and ability (as demonstrated by sufficient education, training, experience and/or, when applicable, any required certification or licensing) to perform a specific activity in a timely and complete manner consistent with the applicable regulatory requirements and generally accepted industry standards for such activity.

   RELEASE. Any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping or disposing into the municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) or the waters of the United States.

   RUBBISH. Non-putrescible solid waste, excluding ashes, that consist of:

      (1)   Combustible waste materials, including paper, rags, cartons, wood, excelsior, furniture, rubber, plastics, yard trimmings, leaves and similar materials; and

      (2)   Non-combustible waste materials, including glass, crockery, tin cans, aluminum cans, metal furniture and similar materials that do not burn at ordinary incinerator temperatures (1,600 to 1,800°F).

   SANITARY SEWER or SEWER. The system of pipes, conduits and other conveyances which carry industrial waste and domestic sewage from residential dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial and manufacturing facilities and institutions, whether treated or untreated, to the city sewage treatment plant (and to which storm water, surface water and ground water are not intentionally admitted).

   SEPTIC TANK WASTE. Any domestic sewage from holding tanks such as vessels, chemical toilets, campers, trailers and septic tanks.

   SERVICE STATION. Any retail establishment engaged in the business of selling fuel for motor vehicles that is dispensed from stationary storage tanks.

   SEWAGE or SANITARY SEWAGE. The domestic sewage and/or industrial waste that are discharged into the city sanitary sewer system and passes through the sanitary sewer system to the city sewage treatment plant for treatment.

   SITE. The land or water area where any facility or activity is physically located or conducted, including adjacent land used in connection with the facility or activity.

   SOLID WASTE. Any garbage, rubbish, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility, and other discarded material, including, solid, liquid, semi-solid or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, municipal, commercial, mining and agricultural operations, and from community and institutional activities.

   STATE. The State of Texas.

   STORM WATER. Storm water runoff, snowmelt runoff and surface runoff and drainage.

   STORM WATER DISCHARGE ASSOCIATED WITH INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY. The discharge from any conveyance which is used for collecting and conveying storm water and which is directly related to manufacturing, processing or raw materials storage areas at an industrial plant which is within one of the categories of facilities listed in 40 C.F.R. § 122.26(b)(14), and which is not excluded from EPA’s definition of the same term.

   STORM WATER MANAGER. The person appointed to the position of Storm Water Manager by the city, or his or her duly authorized representative.

   STORM WATER POLLUTION PREVENTION PLAN (SWPPP). A plan required by either the construction general permit or the industrial general permit and which describes and ensures the implementation of practices that are to be used to reduce the pollutants in storm water discharges associated with construction or other industrial activity at the facility.

   UNCONTAMINATED. Not containing a harmful quantity of any substance.

   USED OIL or USED MOTOR OIL. Any oil that has been refined from crude oil or synthetic oil that, as a result of use, storage or handling, has become unsuitable for its original purpose because of impurities or the loss of original properties but that may be suitable for further use and is recyclable in compliance with state and federal law.

   WATER IN THE STATE or WATER. Any ground water, percolating or otherwise, lakes, bays, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, marshes, inlets, canals, the Gulf of Mexico, inside the territorial limits of the state, and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, navigable or non-navigable, and including the beds and banks of all watercourses and bodies of surface water, that are wholly or partially inside or bordering the state or inside the jurisdiction of the state.

   WATER QUALITY STANDARD. The designation of a body or segment of surface water in the state for desirable uses and the narrative and numerical criteria deemed by the state to be necessary to protect those uses, as specified in Tex. Administrative Code Title 31, Ch. 307.

   WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES. All waters which are currently used, were used in the past, or may be susceptible to use in interstate or foreign commerce, including all waters which are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide; all interstate waters, including interstate wetlands; all other waters the use, degradation or destruction of which would affect or could affect interstate or foreign commerce; all impoundments of waters otherwise defined as waters of the United States under this definition; all tributaries of waters identified in this definition; all wetlands adjacent to waters identified in this definition; and any waters within the federal definition of waters of the United States at 40 C.F.R. § 122.2; but not including any waste treatment systems, treatment ponds or lagoons designed to meet the requirements of the Federal Clean Water Act.

   WETLAND. An area that is inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances does support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. WETLANDS generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas.

   YARD WASTE. Leaves, grass clippings, yard and garden debris, and brush that results from landscaping maintenance and land-clearing operations.

(1998 Code, § 50-213) (Ord. 10-05, passed 3-17-2010)