For the purpose of this chapter the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ADMINISTRATOR. The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, or any person authorized to act for him or her.
BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND (BOD). The quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure in 5 days at 20° C, expressed in milligrams per liter.
BUILDING DRAIN. The 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 the building and conveys it to the building sewer, beginning 3 feet outside the building wall.
BUILDING SEWER or LATERAL. The extension from the building drain to the public sewer or other place of disposal.
COMBINED SEWER. A sewer which conveys both sanitary wastes and storm water. This type of sewer is prohibited.
COMMERCIAL. A user of the wastewater treatment works not in the DOMESTIC or INDUSTRY classifications, as defined herein.
COMMERCIAL CLASS. All retail stores, restaurants, office buildings, laundries, and other private business and service establishments.
COMPATIBLE POLLUTANT. A waste constituent which does not interfere with the operation or performance of the wastewater treatment works and plant and includes BOD, suspended solids, pH, fecal coliform bacteria, and additional pollutants identified in the NPDES permit if the publicly owned treatment works was designed to treat such pollutants and in fact does remove such pollutants to a substantial degree.
DEBT CHARGE. A charge levied against users of the city's sewer system for the recovery of all or a portion of the non-grant funded portion of the capital cost of the sewer system.
DOMESTIC. A residential user of the wastewater treatment works.
DOMESTIC WASTES. Wastes from industries which originate from sanitary conveniences. Domestic wastes do not include trade or process wastes.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY. The Federal (or United States) Environmental Protection Agency, or any person authorized to act for that agency.
FLOATABLE GREASE. Oil, fat or grease in a physical state such that it will separate by gravity from wastewater by treatment in an approved pretreatment facility.
GARBAGE. Solid wastes from the preparation, cooking, and dispensing of food, and from the handling, storage, and sale of produce.
GOVERNMENTAL CLASS. Includes legislative, judicial, administrative, and regulatory activities of federal, state and local governments.
INCOMPATIBLE POLLUTANT. Any pollutant which is not a compatible pollutant.
INDUSTRIAL CLASS. Any non-governmental, nonresidential user of publicly owned treatment works which is identified in the Standard Industrial Classification Manual, 1972, Office of Management and Budget, as amended and supplemented, under the following divisions: Division A-Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing; Division B-Mining; Division D--Manufacturing; Division E-Transportation, Communications, Electric, Gas and Sanitary; and Division I-Services.
INDUSTRIAL WASTES. The wastewater from industries, as defined herein, as distinct from segregated domestic wastes or wastes from sanitary conveniences.
INDUSTRY. A manufacturing activity identified as a "Division A, B, D, E or I" industry, as defined in the office of Management and Budget's Standard Industrial Classification Manual, 1972, as amended and supplemented. However, any industry, as previously defined in this section, may be excluded from the INDUSTRY category if it discharges nonprocess, segregated domestic wastes or wastes from sanitary conveniences.
INSTITUTIONAL CLASS. Includes schools, hospitals, penal institutions and similar institutional users.
MAINTENANCE. Upkeep and repair costs required to maintain the sewer system structures and equipment in efficient operating condition during the service life of such works.
MAY. MAY is permissive, SHALL is mandatory.
mgd. Million gallons per day.
mg/l. Milligrams per liter.
MOBILE. A structure that can be transported on the highway and is directly connected to the sewer system via a pipe or conduit.
NATURAL OUTLET. Any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface or ground water.
NONPERMANENT USER. Those users which indirectly discharge wastewater to the sewer system from a building, structure or site. (Indirectly meaning that the building, structure or site has no interior plumbing or wastes generated at the site are stored in a holding device and later discharged to the sewer system.)
NORMAL DOMESTIC WASTEWATER. Wastewater that has a BOD concentration of not more than 200 mg/l, a suspended solids concentration of not more than 240 mg/l and a phosphorus concentration of not more than 10 mg/1.
NPDES PERMIT. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for the sewer subdistrict wastewater treatment plant.
OPERATION. Any physical and mechanical actions, processes or functions required to efficiently operate the sewer system.
OWNER or PERSON. Any individual, firm, company, industry, association, society, corporation or group.
PERMANENT USER. All users which directly discharge wastewater to the sewer system from a building, structure or site.
pH. The logarithm of the reciprocal of the hydrogen-ion concentration.
POLLUTANT. Any noxious chemical or other refuse material or constituent that impairs the purity of water.
PRETREATMENT. The treatment of wastewater from users before introduction into the sewer system.
PRIVATE SEWER. Any extension of the wastewater treatment works which is not a public sewer.
PROPERLY SHREDDED GARBAGE. The wastes from the preparation, cooking, and dispensing of food that have been shredded to such degree that all particles will be carried freely under the flow conditions normally prevailing in public sewers, with no particle greater than 1/2-inch in any dimension.
PUBLIC SEWER. A sewer in which all owners of abutting properties have equal rights, and is controlled by public authority.
RECREATIONAL VEHICLE. A structure that can be licensed to travel on the highway and is not directly connected to the sewer system via a pipe or conduit.
REPLACEMENT. Expenditures for obtaining and installing equipment, accessories or appurtenances necessary to maintain design capacity and performance of the sewer system. The term OPERATION and MAINTENANCE shall include REPLACEMENT.
RESIDENTIAL CLASS. Any contributor to the city's treatment works whose lot, parcel or real estate, or building is used for domestic dwelling purposes only.
SANITARY SEWER. A sewer that carries liquid and water-carried wastes from residences, commercial buildings, industries and institutions, together with minor quantities of ground, storm and surface waters that are not admitted intentionally.
SANITARY SEWER CHARGES. The aggregate of various components of billing charges, user charges, extra strength surcharges and industrial cost recovery charges.
SANITARY WASTES. The combination of liquid and water-carried wastes discharged from sanitary plumbing facilities and conveniences by reason of normal human and domestic activities.
SEWER. A pipe or conduit that carries wastewater or drainage water.
SLUG. Any discharge of water or wastewater which in concentration of any given constituent or in quantity of flow exceeds for any period of duration longer than 15 minutes more than 5 times the average 24-hour concentration of flows during normal operation and shall adversely affect the wastewater treatment works.
STORM DRAIN or STORM SEWER. A drain or sewer for conveying water, ground water, subsurface water or unpolluted water from any source.
SUSPENDED SOLIDS. Total suspended matter that either floats on the surface of, or is in suspension in, water, wastewater, or other liquids and that is removable by laboratory filtering as prescribed in "Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater" and referred to as nonfilterable residue.
UNPOLLUTED WATER. Water of quality equal to or better than the effluent criteria delineated in the NPDES permit or water that would not cause violation of receiving water quality standards and would not be benefitted by discharge to the sanitary sewers and wastewater treatment facilities provided.
USER. Any building, structure or other facility either directly or indirectly connected to the city's sewer system.
USER CHARGE. A charge levied on users of the wastewater treatment works for the cost of operation, maintenance and replacement of such works.
USER CLASS. Any class of users of the wastewater facilities.
CITY. The City of Van Wert.
WASTES or WASTEWATER. The spent water of a community. From the standpoint of source, it may be combination of the liquid and water-carried wastes from residences, commercial buildings, industries and institutions, together with any ground water, surface water, and storm water that may be present.
WASTEWATER FACILITIES. The structures, equipment and processes required to collect and carry away domestic and industrial wastes of the city.
WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT or WWTP. The sewage lagoons and appurtenances constructed by the city to receive, treat and dispose of wastewater.
WATERCOURSE. A channel in which a flow of water occurs either continuously or intermittently.
(1981 Code, § 51.001) (Ord. 6405-90, passed 9-10-1990)