As used in this chapter, the following terms are defined in this section:
"Acceptable private sewerage disposal system" means adequate earth-covered underground septic tanks, cesspools, leach lines and wells, and/or combinations thereof; not including privies, privy vaults, open cesspools, or similar devices.
"Act" or "the act" means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act, as amended, 33 U.S.C. 1251, et. seq.
"Applicant" means the person making application for a permit for a sewer or plumbing installation, who shall be the owner of premises to be served by the sewer or plumbing installation for which a permit or waiver is requested, or his authorized agent.
"Authorized representative" means:
1. If the discharger is a corporation, an authorized representative shall mean:
a. President of the corporation in charge of a principal business function, or any other person who performs similar policy or decision-making functions for the corporation;
b. The manager of one or more manufacturing, production, or operational facilities employing more than two hundred fifty (250) persons or having gross annual sales or expenditures exceeding twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000.00), if authority to sign documents has been assigned or delegated to the manager in accordance with corporate procedures;
2. If the discharger is a partnership, or sole proprietorship, an authorized representative shall mean a general partner or proprietor, respectively;
3. If the discharger is a federal, state or local governmental facility, an authorized representative shall mean a director or highest official appointed or designated to oversee the operation and performance of the activities of the governmental facility, or his/her designee;
4. The individuals described in this section may designate another authorized representative if the authorization is in writing, the authorization specifies the individual or position responsible for the overall operation of the facility from which the discharge originates or having overall responsibility for environmental matters for the company, and the written authorization has been submitted to the city.
"Available sewer" means a community sewer within two hundred (200) feet of the property line of any premises.
"Beneficial uses" means uses of the waters of the state that may be protected against quality degradation including, but not necessarily limited to, domestic, municipal, agricultural and industrial supply, power generation, recreation, aesthetic enjoyment, and the preservation and enhancement of fish, wildlife and other aquatic resources or reserves, and other uses, both tangible or intangible as specified by federal and state law.
"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 (20) degrees C, expressed in milligrams per liter.
"Building" means a structure used for any purpose which contains a fixture, plumbing system or sanitary facility of any type.
"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 the building and conveys it to the side sewer.
"Categorical pretreatment standards" means National Categorical Pretreatment Standard(s). Any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the EPA in accordance with Section 307(b) and (c) of the Act which applies to a specific category of industrial discharger.
"Cesspool" means an excavation in the ground which receives the discharge of a drainage system, or part thereof, so designed and constructed as to retain the organic matter and solids discharging therein, but permitting the liquids to seep through the bottom and sides.
"Chlorine demand" means the amount of chlorine required to produce a free chlorine residual of 0.1 mg/l after a contact time of fifteen (15) minutes as measured by the Iodometric Method on a sample at a temperature of twenty (20) degrees C in accordance with the procedures in standard methods.
"City" means the city of Visalia, California.
"City council" means the city council of the city.
"City engineer" means the city engineer of the city or the engineer's authorized deputy, agent or representative.
"City manager" means the city manager of the city or the manager's authorized deputy, agent or representative.
"Clean Water Grant Program Regulations" means the latest regulations of the California Code of Regulations, Title 23, Chapter 3, Subchapter 7, and any subsequent amendments thereto.
"Commercial discharger" means any discharger not specifically defined as a residential, industrial, or institutional discharger.
"Commercial garbage grinder" means a mechanical unit for pulverizing solid wastes produced by commercial dischargers.
"Community sewer" means a sewer owned and operated by the city or other public agency tributary to a treatment facility operated by the city.
"Compatible pollutant" means biochemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, settleable solids, pH and fecal coliform bacteria; plus other pollutants that the city's treatment facilities are designed to accept and/or remove. Compatible pollutants are noncompatible when discharged in quantities that have an adverse effect on the city's system or NPDES permit compliance.
"Connection" means the physical attachment of a building, premises, fixture, plumbing system, trap, pretreatment facility, or any other facility discharging wastewater to a community sewer.
"Connection fee" means a one time charge for new connections to the collection system. The fee is normally paid at the time of issuance of a building permit.
"Contamination" means an impairment of the quality of the waters of the state by waste to a degree which creates a hazard to the public health through poisoning or through the spread of disease. Contamination shall include any equivalent effect resulting from the disposal of wastewater, whether or not waters of the state are affected.
"Contractor" means an individual, firm, corporation, partnership or association duly licensed by the state of California to perform the type of work to be done under a permit.
"County" means the county of Tulare, California.
"Developed lot" means a parcel of ground of record, of less than five acres, created by subdivision or lot split, and occupied by a residential, commercial, institutional or industrial structure.
"Director" means the director(s) of the department(s) of the city or such other person as may be designated by the director to perform the services or make the determinations permitted or required in this chapter to be made by the director.
“Discharger” means any person who discharges or causes the discharge of wastewater to a community sewer system or directly to the POTW. Discharger shall mean the same as user.
"Dissolved solids" means the solid matter in solution in wastewater, as determined by evaporation of a sample from which all suspended matter has been removed by filtration, in accordance with the procedures in standard methods.
"Domestic sewage" means the waterborne wastes derived from the ordinary living processes and of such character as to permit satisfactory disposal, without special treatment, into the community sewer.
"Dwelling unit" means a building or portion of a building arranged, intended or designed to be occupied by not more than one family and having facilities for sleeping, eating, cooking and sanitary purposes.
"Effluent" means wastewater or other liquid, partially or completely treated, or in its natural state, or any portion thereof flowing out of a reservoir, basin, treatment plant or industrial treatment plant.
"Fixture" means lavatory, tub, shower, water closet, garbage disposal or other facility connected by a drain to the sewer.
"Fixture unit" means the flow producing effluent of different fixtures on the collection system as defined by the most recent edition adopted by the city of the Uniform Plumbing Code, published by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, a nonprofit organization.
"Garbage" means putrescible animal, fish, fowl, fruit, or vegetable refuse or any part thereof resulting from the preparation, storage, handling, processing or consumption of food.
"Grease" means any material which is extractable from an acidified sample of a waste by hexane or other designated solvent and as determined by the appropriate methods and procedures approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, and identified in 40 CFR Part 136. Grease includes fats and oils.
"Grease interceptor" means a pretreatment device designed and installed to separate fats, oils and grease from wastewater.
“Holding tank waste” means any waste from holding tanks such as chemical toilets, campers, trailers, septic tanks or other such tanks intended to temporarily contain septage wastes.
"Incompatible pollutant" means any pollutant which is not a compatible pollutant as defined in this section.
"Indirect discharge" means the introduction of pollutants into the city's wastewater collection or treatment systems from any nondomestic source regulated under the provisions of the Act, Section 307, as amended, or as otherwise identified by the city.
“Industrial user” means a source of indirect discharge.
"Industrial waste" means the waterborne waste and wastewater from any producing, manufacturing or processing operation of whatever nature, including institutional and commercial operations, where water is used for laundering, vehicle cleaning, or the removal of significant quantities of wastes of nonhuman origin, as distinct from sanitary sewage.
"Industrial waste inspector" means the representative of the city specifically authorized as industrial waste inspector.
"Institutional discharger" means any public or nonprofit school, church, hospital, lodge, club, fire department, library, memorial building or other public or nonprofit activity which discharges only sanitary sewage to city's system.
“Interference” means the inhibition or disruption of the sewer system, treatment process or operations of the wastewater treatment plant which contributes to the violation of city's NPDES permit caused by a discharge, either alone or in conjunction with discharge or discharges from other sources. The term includes prevention of sewage sludge use or disposal by the city in accordance with Section 405 of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1345) or any criteria, guidelines, or regulations developed pursuant to the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA), the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act, or more stringent state criteria (including those contained in any state sludge management plan prepared pursuant to Title IV of SWDA) applicable to the method of disposal or use employed by the city.
"Mass emission rate" means the weight of material discharged to the sewer system during a given time interval. Unless otherwise specified, the mass emission rate shall mean pounds per day of a particular constituent or combination of constituents.
"Natural outlet" means any outlet into a water course, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface or groundwater.
"New source" means:
1. 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 Section 307(c) of the Act which will be applicable to such source if standards are thereafter promulgated in accordance with that section, provided that:
a. The building, structure, facility or installation is constructed at a site at which no other source is located; or
b. The building, structure, facility or installation totally replaces the process or production equipment that causes the discharge of pollutants at an existing source; or
c. The production or wastewater generating process of the building, structure, facility or installation are substantially independent of an existing source 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, will be considered.
2. 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 subsections (1)(b) or (1)(c) of this definition, but otherwise alters, replaces, or adds to existing process or production equipment.
3. Construction of a new source is determined to have commenced if the owner or operator has:
a. Begun, or caused to being as part of a continuous on-site construction program:
i. Any placement, assembly, or installation of facilities or equipment; or
ii. 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
b. 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 under this definition.
"Nuisance" means anything which is injurious to health or is offensive to the senses or an obstruction to the free use of property so as to interfere with a person's comfort or enjoyment of life or property, or which affects at the same time an entire community or neighborhood or any considerable number of persons, although the extent of the annoyance or damage inflicted upon individuals may be unequal.
"Outside sewer" means a sanitary sewer, beyond the limits of the city, not subject to control or jurisdiction of the city.
“POTW (Publicly Operated Treatment Works)” means the city sewage treatment facilities, known also as the sewage treatment plant, the water conservation plant, or the wastewater treatment plant.
“Pass through” means the discharge of pollutants through the city's treatment system into navigable waters 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 city's NPDES permit, including an increase in magnitude or duration of the violation.
"Peak flow rate" means the annually determined highest flow rate of sewage or industrial waste discharged to a public sewer over a period of at least fifteen (15) minutes at any time during the preceding twelve (12) month period.
"Permit" means any written authorization to install or construct sewers or to discharge to the city sewerage system required pursuant to this or any other regulation of the city.
"Person" means any individual, firm, company, partnership, association, organization, the United States of America, the state of California, a political subdivision, governmental agency or other public or municipal corporation.
"pH" means the logarithm of the reciprocal of the hydrogen-ion activity in moles per liter of solution as determined by standard methods and procedures approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, and identified in 40 CFR Part 136.
"Plumbing fixtures" means receptacles that receive liquid, water, or wastewater and discharge them into a drainage system.
"Plumbing system" means the distributing pipes for the water supply; the fixtures and fixture traps; the soil, waste and vent pipes; the building drain and building sewer, and the stormwater drainage pipes; with their devices, appurtenances, and connections within and adjacent to the building.
"Pollution" means an alteration of the quality of the receiving waters of the state by waste to a degree which unreasonably affects such waters for beneficial use or for facilities which serve such beneficial uses. Pollution may include, but not be limited to, contamination.
"Premises" means any lot, place or parcel of land or any building, structure, mobile home, or any part of a building, structure, or mobile home on any lot, place or parcel of land.
1. "Residential premises" means all premises used exclusively for residential purposes except for boarding houses, dormitories, motels, hotels, hospitals, convalescent homes, or other premises used primarily as a temporary place of residence, and discharging only sanitary sewage.
2. "Nonresidential premises" means all premises other than residential premises.
"Pretreatment facility" means any works or device for the treatment or flow limitation of sewage or industrial waste, prior to discharge into a public sewer.
“Pretreatment requirements” means any substantive or procedural requirement related to pretreatment, other than a pretreatment standard, imposed on an industrial user.
"Pretreatment standard" means any prohibitive discharge standards, categorical pretreatment standards and/or local limitations on wastewater discharge characteristics.
"Private sewer," "building sewer" or "house service sewer" means that part of the building sewer beginning at the junction thereof with the building plumbing or drainage system and terminating at the property line or at the easement line.
"Properly shredded garbage" means the wastes from the preparation, cooking, and dispensing of food that have been shredded to such a degree that all particles shall be carried freely under the flow conditions normally prevailing in public sewers, with no particles greater than one-half inch (1.27 centimeters) in any dimension.
"Public sewer" ("community sewer") means a sewer directly controlled by the city.
"Radioactive material" means material containing chemical elements that spontaneously change their atomic structure by emitting any particles, rays or energy forms.
"Receiving water quality requirements" means requirements for the city's treatment plant effluent and/or the waters to which such effluent is discharged, established by law or by state or federal regulatory agencies, for the protection of receiving water quality.
"Residential discharger" means any discharger whose premises are used solely for residential purposes.
"Sanitary sewage" means any and all waste substances, liquids or solids associated with human habitation, excluding storm, surface and groundwaters, and industrial wastes.
"Sanitary sewer" means a sewer which carries only sanitary or sanitary and industrial wastewaters and to which storm, surface, and groundwaters are not intentionally admitted.
"Septage receiving station" means a facility at the Visalia Water Conservation Plant for receipt of septic and holding tank wastes.
“Septage waste” means the liquid and semi- solid material removed from septic tanks or other holding tanks used to temporarily contain domestic sewage.
“Septage waste hauler” means an entity permitted to transport septage waste from various locations to the wastewater treatment facility.
"Septic tank" means a watertight receptacle which receives the discharge of a drainage system or part thereof, designed and constructed so as to retain solids, digest organic matter through a period of detention, and allow the liquids to discharge into the soil outside of the tank through a system of open joint piping or a seepage pit meeting the requirements of the Uniform Plumbing Code.
"Sewage" ("wastewater") means a combination of the water-carried wastes from residences, commercial buildings, institutions, and industrial establishments, together with such ground, surface and storm waters as may be present.
"Sewerage system" means all facilities for collecting, pumping, storing, treating and disposing of sewage.
"Sewage treatment plant" means the city sewage treatment facilities known also as the water conservation plant or the wastewater treatment plant.
"Sewer" means a pipe or conduit for holding and carrying sewage, including manholes and all other appurtenance facilities which are necessary or convenient to the holding or carrying of sewage.
1. "House sewer" (building sewer) means that portion of the side sewer from the lateral sewer to its connection to the building drain.
2. "Interceptor sewer" means a public sewer in a public right-of-way receiving the discharges from main or trunk sewers and conveying said sewage to the sewage treatment plant.
3. "Lateral sewer" means that portion of the side sewer which is within the public right-of-way.
4. "Main sewer" means a publicly owned sewer in a public right-of-way to which side sewer connections from private properties are or may be connected for the disposal of domestic or industrial waste.
5. "Side sewer" means the privately owned and maintained sewer which connects the plumbing system of the building to the main sewer. The side sewer begins at the point of connection to the main sewer, including the wye, and terminates at the point of connection to the building drain two feet outside the foundation line or building wall. Side sewer includes the lateral sewer and the house sewer.
6. "Trunk sewer" means a public sewer in a public right-of-way receiving the discharge from one or more main sewers and conveying said sewage to another trunk sewer or to an interceptor sewer.
"Sewer service charge" means a charge established to obtain equitable payment from all dischargers for the cost of construction, operation and maintenance of the sewerage facilities.
"Shall" is mandatory; "may" is permissive.
“Significant industrial user” means any industrial user which:
1. May be subject to categorical pretreatment standards;
2. Discharges an average twenty-five thousand (25,000) gallons per day or more of process wastewater to the POTW (excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling, and boiler blowdown wastewater);
3. Contributes a process wastestream which makes up five percent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the treatment plant; or
4. Is designated as significant by the city on the basis that the industrial user has a reasonable potential for adversely affecting the operation of the system or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement.
"Significant noncompliance" occurs when one or more of the following criteria occur:
1. Chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined here as those in which sixty-six percent (66%) or more of all the measurements taken for the same pollutant parameter during a six (6)-month period exceed (by any magnitude) a numeric pretreatment standard or requirement, including instantaneous limits, as defined by 40 CFR 403.3(I);
2. Technical review criteria (TRC) violations, defined here as those in which thirty-three percent (33%) or more of all the measurements taken for the same pollutant parameter during a six (6)-month period equal or exceed the product of the numeric pretreatment standard or requirement including instantaneous limits, as defined by 40 CFR 403.3(I) 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 standard or requirement as defined by 40 CFR 403.3(I) (daily maximum, long-term average, instantaneous limit, or narrative standard) that the POTW determines has caused, alone or in combination with other discharges, interference or pass through (including endangering the health of POTW personnel or the general public);
4. Any discharge of a pollutant that has caused imminent endangerment to human health, welfare or to the environment or has resulted in the POTW's exercise of its emergency authority under paragraph 40 CFR 403.8 (f)(I)(vi)(B) to halt or prevent such a discharge;
5. Failure to meet, within ninety (90) days after the schedule date, a compliance schedule milestone contained in a local control mechanism or enforcement order for starting construction, completing construction, or attaining final compliance;
6. Failure to provide, within forty-five (45) days after the due date, required reports such as baseline monitoring reports, ninety (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 may include a violation of best management practices, which the POTW determines will adversely affect the operation or implementation of the local pretreatment program.
"Slug" means 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 duration longer than fifteen (15) minutes more than three times the average twenty-four (24) hour concentration or flows.
"Solid wastes" means the nonliquid carried wastes normally considered to be suitable for disposal with refuse at sanitary landfill refuse disposal sites.
"Street" means a public highway, road, street, avenue, alley way, public place, easement or right-of-way for vehicle or pedestrian use.
"Storm drain" ("storm sewer") means a sewer which carries storm and surface waters and drainage, but excludes sanitary sewage and industrial wastes, other than unpolluted cooling water.
"Suspended solids" means solids that either float on the surface of or are in suspension in, water, sewage, or other liquids; and which are removable by laboratory filtering.
"Trade secret" means any formula, plan, pattern, process, tool, mechanism, compound, procedure, production data, or compilation of information which is not patented, which is known only to certain individuals within a commercial concern who are using it to fabricate, produce or compound an article of trade or a service having commercial value, and which gives its user an opportunity to obtain a business advantage over competitors who do not know or use it.
"Trap" means any facility designed, constructed and operated for the purpose of removing and retaining dangerous, deleterious or prohibited constituents from wastewater by differential gravity separation before discharge to the public sewer.
"Unpolluted water" means water to which no constituent has been added, either intentionally or accidentally, which would render such water unacceptable to the agency having jurisdiction thereof for disposal to storm or natural drainages or directly to surface waters.
"Unsanitary" means contrary to those principles which are known to promote and safeguard health.
“User” means any person who discharges or causes the discharge of wastewater to a community sewer system or directly to the POTW. User shall mean the same as discharger.
"User classification" means a classification of users based on the 1987 edition of the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Manual prepared by the Federal Executive Office of Management and Budget.
"Waste" means and includes sewage and any and all other waste substances, liquid, solid, gaseous, or radioactive, associated with human habitation, or of human or animal origin, or from any producing, manufacturing, or processing operation of whatever nature, including such waste placed within containers of whatever nature prior to, and for purposes of, disposal.
"Wastewater constituents and characteristics" means the individual chemical, physical, bacteriological and radiological parameters, including volume and flow rate, and such other parameters that serve to define, classify or measure the contents, quality, quantity and strength of wastewater.
"Watercourse" means a channel in which a flow of water occurs either continuously or intermittently.
"Water softener" means a unit using the ion exchange process and requiring sodium chloride to regenerate the exchange bed designed to remove hardness (magnesium and/or calcium ions) from a water supply.
"Waters of the state" means any water, surface or underground, including saline waters, within the boundaries of the state. (Ord. 2011-08 § 2, 2011: Ord. 2006-02 (part), 2006: Ord. 2003-20 (part), 2003; Ord. 2000-18 §§ 1 (part), 2 (part), 2000: prior code §§ 4104--4199)