Skip to main content
Loading…
This section is included in your selections.

(a) Definitions. The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

Act or the Act means the federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act, as amended, 33 USC 1251 et seq.

Approval authority means the director of the Water Quality Control Division of the State Department of Health, or the regional administrator of the EPA.

Authorized representative of commercial or significant industrial user may be:

1. A responsible corporate officer, if such user is a corporation. For purposes of this article, a responsible corporate officer means:

a. A president, secretary, treasurer, or 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

b. The manager of one or more manufacturing, production, or operation facilities employing more than 250 persons or having gross annual sales or expenditures exceeding $25,000,000, in second quarter 1980 dollars, if authority to sign documents has been assigned or delegated to the manager in accordance with corporate procedures.

2. A general partner or proprietor if such user is a partnership or sole proprietorship, respectively.

3. A duly authorized representative of an individual designated in subsection (1) or (2) of this definition if:

a. The authorization is made in writing by the individual;

b. The authorization specifies either an individual or a position having responsibility for the overall operation of the facility from which the discharge originates including but not limited to the position of plant manager, well operator, well field superintendent or a position of equivalent responsibility, or the individual having overall responsibility for environmental matters for the company; and

c. The written authorization is submitted to the city and to the metro district.

If an authorization granted under subsection (3) of this definition is no longer accurate because a different individual or position has responsibility for the overall operation of the facility or for environmental matters for the company, a new authorization satisfying the requirements of subsection (3)b of this definition must be submitted to the city and the metro district prior to or together with any reports required to be signed by an authorized representative.

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) means the quantity of oxygen used in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure, after five days, at 20 degrees Celsius and expressed in terms of weight and concentration (milligrams per liter (mg/l)).

Board of health means the board of health organized pursuant to state law having appropriate jurisdiction.

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 building sewer, beginning five feet outside the inner face of the building wall.

Building sewer means a sewer conveying wastewater from the premises of a user.

Building sewer permit (sewer tap permit) means a permit authorizing connection to but not necessarily the use of the municipal wastewater collection system.

Categorical standards means national categorical pretreatment standards or pretreatment standards.

Commercial user means any business or enterprise falling outside the definition of significant industrial user and which contributes wastewater to the POTW.

Commercial wastewater discharge permit means a permit which must be obtained by all commercial users of the POTW and which is further described in division 2 of this article. Dwellings from which no businesses are operated are not required to obtain a discharge permit.

Cooling water means the water discharged from any use such as air conditioning, cooling or refrigeration, or to which the only pollutant added is heat.

Environmental Protection Agency or EPA means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Health officer means the public health officer of the board of health or an authorized representative thereof.

Holding tank waste means any waste from holding tanks such as chemical toilets, campers, trailers, septic tanks, vacuum-pump trucks, or other vessels.

Industrial wastes means the liquid wastes from industrial processes, trade or other businesses as distinct from sanitary or domestic waste.

Industrial wastewater discharge permit means a permit which must be obtained by all significant industrial users of the POTW and which is further described in division 2 of this article.

Interference means a discharge which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, both:

1. Inhibits or disrupts the POTW, its treatment processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use or disposal; and

2. 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 as required by the following statutory provisions and regulations or permits issued thereunder or more stringent state or local regulations; section 405 of the Clean Water 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.

Metro district means the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District, a political subdivision of the state.

National categorical pretreatment standard (pretreatment standard) means any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the EPA in accordance with sections 307(b) and (c) of the Act (33 USC 1317) which applies to a specific category of industrial users.

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System or NPDES permit means a permit issued pursuant to section 402 of the Act (33 USC 1342).

Natural outlet means any outlet, including storm sewers, into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface or ground water.

New source means any building, structure, facility, or installation from which there is or may be a discharge of pollutants, the construction of which is commenced after the publication of proposed pretreatment standards under section 307(c) of the Act (33 USC 1317) which will be applicable to such source, if such standards are thereafter promulgated in accordance with that section; provided, that:

1. The building, structure, facility, or installation is constructed at a site at which no other source is located;

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 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 should be considered.

Nonmunicipal waste disposal system means a system not treating wastewater from municipal corporations or sanitary districts.

Pass through means a discharge which exits from the POTW into waters of the United States 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, 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 their legal representatives, agents or assigns, including any person or entity contracting with the city for sewer service.

pH means the logarithm (base 10) of the reciprocal of the concentration of hydrogen ions expressed in moles per liter of solution.

Pollutant means any dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage 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.

POTW treatment plant means that portion of the POTW designed to provide treatment to wastewater.

Pretreatment or treatment 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 publicly owned treatment works. The reduction or alteration can be obtained by physical, chemical or biological processes, or by other means, except as prohibited by 40 CFR 403.6(D).

Pretreatment requirement means any substantive or procedural requirement related to pretreatment, other than a national pretreatment standard imposed on a user.

Public sewer means a sewer in which all owners of abutting properties have equal rights, and is controlled by public authority.

Publicly owned treatment works (POTW) means a treatment works as defined by section 212 of the act (33 USC 1292) which is owned, in this instance, by the city or the metro district. This definition includes any sewers that convey wastewater to the POTW treatment plant, but does not include pipes, sewers, or other conveyances not connected to a facility providing treatment. For the purposes of this article, POTW shall also include any sewers that convey wastewaters to the POTW from persons outside the city who are users of the city's POTW.

Sanitary sewer means a sewer which carries wastewater and to which stormwaters, surface waters and groundwaters are not intentionally admitted.

Sewer means a pipe or conduit for carrying wastewater or drainage water.

Shall; may. Shall is mandatory; may is permissive.

Significant industrial user means any industrial (nondomestic) user who:

1. Is subject to national categorical pretreatment standards under 40 CFR 403.6 and 40 CFR chapter I, subchapter N.

2. Is found by the city or the metro district to have a reasonable potential of adversely affecting city or district operations.

3. Is discharging an average of 25,000 gallons or more per day of process wastewater to the sanitary sewer system; provided, however, that the metro district may delete a noncategorical industrial user from the list of significant industrial users if the user has no potential for adversely affecting the district's operation or for violating any deleterious waste standard as set forth in both the service contract and the rules and regulations of the metro district.

4. Is discharging a process wastewater stream which makes up five percent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the metro district's treatment plant.

Standard industrial classification (SIC) means a classification pursuant to the Standard Industrial Classification Manual issued by the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, 1987, as amended.

Storm drain (storm sewer) means a pipe or conduit which carries stormwaters and surface waters and drainage, but excludes wastewater and industrial wastes, other than unpolluted cooling water.

Stormwater means any flow occurring during or following any form of natural precipitation and resulting therefrom.

Total suspended solids (TSS) means the total suspended matter that floats on the surface of or is suspended in water, wastewater or other liquids, and which is removable by laboratory filtering according to standard laboratory procedure.

Toxic pollutant includes but is not limited to any pollutant or combination of pollutants listed as toxic in regulations promulgated by the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under the provisions of section 307(a) of the Act.

User means any person who contributes, causes or permits the contribution of wastewater into the city's POTW.

Wastewater means the liquid and water-carried industrial, commercial, or domestic wastes from dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities, and institutions, together with any groundwater, surface water, and stormwater that may be present, whether treated or untreated, which is contributed into or permitted to enter the POTW.

(b) Abbreviations. The following abbreviations shall have the designated meanings:

BOD. Biochemical oxygen demand.

CFR. Code of Federal Regulations.

COD. Chemical oxygen demand.

EPA. Environmental Protection Agency.

L. Liter.

Mg. Milligrams.

Mg/l. Milligrams per liter.

NPDES. National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

O & M. Operation and maintenance.

POTW. Publicly owned treatment works.

RCRA. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 42 USC 6901 et seq.

SIC. Standard industrial classification.

SWDA. Solid Waste Disposal Act, 42 USC 6901 et seq.

USC. United States Code.

TSS. Total suspended solids. (Code 1979, § 39-99; Ord. No. 2023-44, § 22, 9-11-2023; Ord. No. 2015-25, § 20, 6-29-2015; Ord. No. 2005-74, § 1, 10-10-2005)