10.20.080 Definitions.
For the purpose of this chapter, the following words, phrases, abbreviations, terms and their derivatives shall be contrued as specidfied in this section. Words used in the singlar include the plural and the plural the singular. Words used in the masculine gender include the feminine, and the feminine the masculine.
“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.
“Applicable pretreatment standards,” for any specified pollutant, means City prohibitive discharge standards, City’s specific limitations on discharge, State pretreatment standards or categorical pretreatment standards (when effective), whichever standard is most stringent.
“Applicant” means a person who applies for sewer service or a sewer connection.
“Approval authority” means the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
“Authorized or duly authorized representative of user” means:
(a) If the user is a corporation:
(i) The president, secretary, treasurer or a vice 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; or
(ii) The manager of one or more manufacturing, production or operating facilities, provided the manager is 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 for individual wastewater discharge permit requirements; and where authority to sign documents has been assigned or delegated to the manager in accordance with corporate procedures.
(b) If the user is a partnership or sole proprietorship: a general partner or proprietor, respectively.
(c) If the user is a Federal, State or local governmental facility: a director or highest official appointed or designated to oversee the operation and performance of the activities of the government facility, or his or her designee.
(d) The individuals described in subsections (a) through (c) of this definition may designate a duly 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 the environmental matters for the company, and the written authorization is submitted to the Director.
“Best management practices (BMPs)” means schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures and other management practices to implement the prohibitions listed in MMC 10.20.090. BMPs include, but are not limited to, treatment requirements, operating procedures and practices to control plant site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw materials storage.
“Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)” means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure, five days at 20 degrees centigrade, expressed in terms of weight and concentration (milligrams per liter (mg/L)).
“Building sewer” means a sewer conveying wastewater from the premises of a user to the POTW.
“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. § 1317) that applies to a specific category of industrial users and that appears in 40 C.F.R. Chapter 1, Subchapter N, parts 405 through 471, incorporated herein by reference.
“City” means the City of Albany and/or the City of Millersburg, municipal corporations of the State of Oregon.
“City Manager” means the person designated by the Albany City Council to act as the administrative head of the City government and who is charged with certain duties and responsibilities by this chapter or the duly authorized representative.
“Commercial user” means any person who contributes, causes or permits the contribution of wastewater into the City’s POTW that by nature of the services rendered is of a dissimilar volume or chemical makeup than that of a domestic user. Examples of commercial users may include, but are not limited to, restaurants, grocery stores and car washes.
“Control authority” means the Director of Public Works for the City of Albany.
“Cooling water” means the water discharged from any use such as air conditioning, cooling or refrigeration, to which the only pollutant added is heat.
“Direct discharge” means the discharge of treated or untreated wastewater directly to the waters of the State of Oregon.
“Director/Director of Public Works” means the person designated by the City Manager to supervise the Public Works Department, and who is charged with certain duties and responsibilities by this chapter or the duly authorized representative.
“Discharge” means the discharge or introduction of pollutants into the municipal wastewater treatment system from any nondomestic user.
“Discharger/industrial discharger” means any nondomestic user who discharges an effluent into the wastewater treatment system by means of pipes, conduits, pumping stations, force mains, constructed drainage ditches, surface water intercepting ditches and all constructed devices and appliances appurtenant thereto.
“Domestic sewage” or “domestic waste” means the liquid and waterborne wastes derived from the ordinary living processes, free from industrial wastes and of such character as to permit satisfactory disposal, without special treatment, into the public sewer or by means of a private sewage disposal system.
“Domestic user” means any person who discharges only domestic waste.
“Domestic water supply” means any water supply system that serves potable water and may include, for the purposes of this chapter, wells that supply potable water.
“Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)” means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or, where appropriate, the term may also be used as a designation for the administrator, or other duly authorized official of said agency.
“Garbage” means the residue from the preparation and dispensing of food, and from the handling, storage and sale of food products and produce.
“Grab sample” means a sample that is taken from a waste stream on a one-time basis with no regard to the flow in the waste stream and without consideration of time.
“Hauled waste” means waste including septage, wastewater or chemical toilet waste that is hauled for discharge into the City wastewater treatment system.
“Indirect discharge” means the discharge or the introduction of pollutants from an industrial user into a POTW.
“Industrial user” means any person, including a waste hauler, that discharges wastewater that is not domestic waste.
“Industrial waste” means solid, liquid or gaseous waste resulting from any industrial, manufacturing, trade or business process or from the development, recovery or processing of natural resources.
“Instantaneous limit” means the maximum concentration of a pollutant allowed to be discharged at any time, determined from the analysis of any discrete or composite sample collected, independent of the industrial flow rate and the duration of the sampling event.
“Interference” means a discharge that, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources:
(1) Inhibits or disrupts the POTW, its treatment processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use or disposal; and
(2) Is a cause of a violation of any requirements of the 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 local regulations): Section 405 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA), being 42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq. (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, being 42 U.S.C. § 7401 et seq., the Toxic Substances Control Act, being 15 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq., and the Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act, being 16 U.S.C. § 1431 et seq. and 33 U.S.C. § 1401 et seq.
“Local limit” means specific discharge limits developed and enforced by the City upon industrial or commercial facilities to implement the general and specific discharge prohibitions listed in 40 C.F.R. Part 403.5.
“Natural outlet” means any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface water or groundwater.
“New source” means:
(a) 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 that will be applicable to such sources if such standards are thereafter promulgated in accordance with that section; provided, that:
(i) The building, structure, facility or installation is constructed at a site at which no other source is located; or
(ii) The building, structure, facility or installation totally replaces the process or production equipment that causes the discharge of pollutants at an existing source; or
(iii) The production of wastewater generating processes of the building, structure, facility or installation is 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 an 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 subsections (a)(ii) or (a)(iii) of this definition, 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:
(i) 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 that is necessary for placement, assembly or installation of new source facilities or equipment; or
(ii) Entered into a binding contractual obligation for the purchase of facilities or equipment that is intended to be used in its operation within a reasonable time. Options to purchase or contracts that can be terminated or modified without substantial loss and contracts for feasibility, engineering and design studies do not constitute a contractual obligation.
“Nondischarging categorical industrial user (NDCIU)” means any facility or industry having a connection to the City sewer system and having industrial processes that would otherwise be subject to national categorical pretreatment standards, but having no process wastewater discharge.
“Other wastes” means decayed wood, sawdust, shavings, bark, lime, refuse, ashes, garbage, offal, oil, tar, chemicals and all other substances, except sewage and industrial wastes.
“Pass through” means the occurrence of an indirect discharge that exits the POTW into waters of the United States in quantities or concentrations that, 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 (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation).
“Person” means any individual, partnership, copartnership, firm, company, corporation, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, governmental entity or any other legal entity, or his or her or their or its legal representatives, agents or assigns. The masculine gender shall include the feminine; the singular shall include the plural, where indicated by the context.
“pH” means the logarithm (base 10) of the reciprocal of the concentration of hydrogen ions expressed in grams per liter of solution.
“Plumbing fixture” means an approved receptacle or device intended to receive water, liquids or other permissible wastes, and that discharges the same into the soil pipe, waste pipe or special waste pipe with which they are connected, and shall include all floor drains.
“Pollutant” means any dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, wastewater, garbage, wastewater sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discharged equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal and agricultural waste discharged into water.
“Pretreatment” means the reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination of pollutants or the alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater to a less harmful state prior to, or in lieu of, discharging or otherwise introducing such pollutants into a POTW.
“Pretreatment requirement” means any substantive or procedural requirement related to pretreatment imposed on a user, other than a pretreatment standard.
“Pretreatment standards” or “standards” means prohibited discharge standards, categorical pretreatment standards and local limits.
“Prohibited discharge standards” or “prohibited discharges” means absolute prohibitions against the discharge of certain substances; these prohibitions appear in MMC 10.20.090.
“Publicly owned treatment works (POTW)” means any wastewater treatment works and the sewers, conveyances and appurtenances discharging thereto, owned and operated by the City of Millersburg or the City of Albany.
“Septage” means either liquid or solid material removed from a septic tank, cesspool, portable toilet, Type III marine sanitation device or similar treatment works that receives only domestic sewage. “Septage” does not include liquid or solid material removed from a septic tank, cesspool or similar holding tank that receives industrial waste, and does not include grease removed from a grease trap at a restaurant.
“Service lateral” means any pipe between the main sewer lines of the City and the user’s plumbing facilities.
“Sewage” means water-carried human wastes or a combination of water-carried wastes from residences, business buildings, institutions and industrial establishments, together with such ground, surface, storm or other waters as may be present.
“Sewer” means any pipe, conduit, ditch or other device used to collect and transport wastewater from the generating source.
“Sewer connection permit” means a permit issued to connect buildings or structures to a public sewer.
“Sewer, public” 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 into the City sanitary sewer system, even though those sewers may not have been constructed with City funds.
“Sewer, sanitary” means a sewer that conveys only wastewater and into which storm, surface and ground waters are not intentionally admitted.
“Sewer, storm” means a sewer that conveys storm, surface and ground waters and into which wastewaters are not intentionally admitted.
“Sewer system facility plan” means the current version of the facility plan for the development of the wastewater treatment plant and sanitary sewer system as amended or updated.
“Sewer use charge” means the assessment levied on all users of the public sewer system.
“Sewerage” means the system of sewers and appurtenances for the collection, transportation and pumping of wastewater.
Shall, May. “Shall” is mandatory; “may” is permissive.
Significant Industrial User. Except as provided in subsection (c) of this definition, the term “significant industrial user” shall mean:
(a) All industrial users subject to categorical pretreatment standards under 40 C.F.R. §§ 403.6 and 40 C.F.R. Part I, Subchapter N; or
(b) Any other industrial user that:
(i) Discharges a process waste stream that makes up five percent of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the POTW treatment plant;
(ii) Discharges to the POTW a process wastewater flow of 25,000 gallons or more per average work day (excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling and boiler blow down wastewater); or
(iii) Is designated as significant by the City on the basis that the industrial user has a reasonable potential for adversely affecting the POTW’s operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement.
(c) Upon finding that an industrial user meeting the criteria in subsection (b) of this definition has no reasonable potential for adversely affecting the POTW’s operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement, the City may at any time, on its own initiative or in response to a petition received from an industrial user, and in accordance with 40 C.F.R. § 403.8(f)(6), determine that such industrial user is not a “significant industrial user.”
Significant Noncompliance. A significant industrial user (or any other industrial user that violates subsections (c), (d) or (h) of this definition) is determined to be in significant noncompliance if its violation meets one or more of the following criteria:
(a) Chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined here as those in which 66 percent or more of all the measurements taken for the same pollutant parameter during a six-month period exceeded (by any magnitude) a numeric pretreatment standard or requirement, including “instantaneous limits” as defined in this section;
(b) Technical review criteria (TRC) violations, defined here as those in which 33 percent or more of all of the measurements for each pollutant parameter taken during a six-month period equaled or exceeded the product of the numeric pretreatment standard or requirement including “instantaneous limits,” as defined in this section, multiplied by the applicable criteria (1.4 for BOD, TSS, fats, oil and grease, and 1.2 for all other pollutants, except pH);
(c) Any other violation of a pretreatment standard or requirement as defined in this section (daily maximum, long-term average, instantaneous limit or narrative standard) that the Director determines has caused, alone or in combination with other discharges, interference or pass through, including endangering the health of City personnel or the general public;
(d) Any discharge of a pollutant that has caused imminent endangerment to human health, welfare or to the environment or has resulted in the Director’s exercise of its emergency authority to halt or prevent such a discharge;
(e) Failure to meet, within 90 days after the scheduled date, a compliance schedule milestone contained in a local control mechanism or enforcement order for starting construction, completing construction or attaining final compliance;
(f) Failure to provide, within 45 days after the due date, required reports such as baseline monitoring reports, reports on compliance with categorical pretreatment standard deadlines, periodic self monitoring reports and reports on compliance with compliance schedules;
(g) Failure to accurately report noncompliance; and/or
(h) Any other violation or group of violations, which may include a violation of best management practices, the Director determines will adversely affect the operation or implementation of the City’s pretreatment program.
“Slug load” or “slug discharge” means any pollutant (including BOD) released in a nonroutine, episodic or noncustomary batch discharge at a flow rate or concentration that has the potential to cause interference or pass through, cause a violation of the specific discharge prohibitions in MMC 10.20.090 through 10.20.120, or in any other way violate the POTW’s regulations, local limits or permit conditions.
“Storm water” means any flow occurring during or following any form of natural precipitation and resulting therefrom.
“Total suspended solids” means the total suspended matter that floats on the surface of, or is suspended in, water, wastewater or other liquids and that is removable by laboratory filtering.
“Toxic pollutant” means one of the pollutants or combination of those pollutants listed as toxic in regulations promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency under the provisions of Section 307 (33 U.S.C. § 1317) of the Act.
“Treatment plant” means the portion of the municipal wastewater treatment system designed to provide treatment to wastewater.
“Upset” means an exceptional incident in which an industrial user unintentionally and temporarily is in a state of noncompliance with the standards set forth in MMC 10.20.430 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.
“User” means any person who contributes, causes or permits the contribution of wastewater into the City’s POTW.
“Utility” means the City of Albany and City of Millersburg, municipal corporations of the State of Oregon.
“Wastewater” means the liquid- and water-carried industrial or domestic wastes from dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities and institutions, whether treated or untreated, that are contributed into or permitted to enter the POTW.
“Wastewater discharge permit” means as is set forth in MMC 10.20.140 through 10.20.230.
“Wastewater treatment system” means any wastewater treatment works and the sewers, conveyances and appurtenances discharging thereto, owned and operated by the City of Millersburg or City of Albany. Same as “Publicly owned treatment works (POTW).”
“Waters of the State” means all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, reservoirs, aquifers, irrigation systems, drainage systems and all other bodies or accumulations of water, surface or underground, natural or artificial, public or private, that are contained within, flow through or border upon the State, or any portion thereof. (Ord. 106 § 3, passed 10-9-2012; Code 2014 § 52.03)