CHAPTER 14.12
SANITARY CODE – DEFINITIONS
Section
14.12.010 DEFINITIONS.
For the purpose of the Sanitary Code, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning:
ACT or THE ACT. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act, as amended, 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.
APPLICANT. The person making application for a permit for a sewer or plumbing installation and shall be the owner of premises to be served by the sewer for which a permit is requested or his or her authorized agent.
AUTHORIZED OR DULY AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE OF THE USER.
A. If the user is a corporation:
1. 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
2. The manager of 1 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 or general 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 their 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 environmental matters for the company, and the written authorization is submitted to the district.
BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (BMPs). Schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to implement the prohibitions listed in the Sanitary Code. BMPs include 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). The quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of the wastewater under standard laboratory conditions in 5 days at 20 degrees Celsius, expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/L).
BIOSOLIDS. Treated residual solids from wastewater treatment.
BOARD. The governing board of the Fort Bragg Municipal Improvement District No. 1.
BUILDING. Any structure used for human habitation or a place of business, recreation or other purpose containing sanitary facilities.
CATEGORICAL INDUSTRIAL USER. An industrial user subject to a categorical pretreatment standard or categorical standard.
CATEGORICAL PRETREATMENT STANDARD or CATEGORICAL STANDARD. Any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in accordance with Sections 307(b) and (c) of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1317) that apply to a specific category of users and that appear in 40 CFR Chapter I, Subchapter N, Parts 405 through 471.
CATEGORICAL WASTEWATER. Technology-based limitations on pollutant discharges to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) promulgated by EPA in accordance with Section 307 of the Clean Water Act that apply to specified process wastewaters of particular industrial categories (see 40 CFR 403.6 and 40 CFR Parts 405 through 471).
COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES. Includes, but is not necessarily limited to, retail and wholesale businesses, hotels, motels, auto courts, theaters, professional services, cleaning establishments, restaurants, banks and similar establishments.
COMPOSITE SAMPLE. A composite sample is composed of individual grab samples collected at periodic intervals, at least every hour, during the operating hours of the facility over a 24-hour period.
CONSENT ORDER. A final, binding judicial decree or judgment memorializing a voluntary agreement between parties to a suit in return for withdrawal of a criminal charge or an end to a civil litigation. In a typical consent decree, the defendant has already ceased or agrees to cease the conduct alleged by the plaintiff to be illegal and consents to a court injunction barring the conduct in the future.
CONTRACTOR. An individual, firm, corporation, partnership or association duly licensed by the state of California to perform the type of work to be done under the permit.
DAILY MAXIMUM LIMIT. The maximum allowable discharge limit of a pollutant during a calendar day. Where daily maximum limits are expressed in units of mass, the daily discharge is the total mass discharged over the course of the day. Where daily maximum limits are expressed in units of concentration, the daily discharge is the arithmetic average measurement of the pollutant concentration derived from all measurements taken that day.
DISTRICT. The Fort Bragg Municipal Improvement District No. 1, Mendocino County, California.
DISTRICT MANAGER. The person or persons appointed by the Board to administer and enforce the rules and regulations of the District or his or her designee.
DOMESTIC WASTEWATER. The wastewater derived principally from dwellings, business buildings, institutions and the like.
EXISTING SOURCE. Any source of discharge that is not a new source.
FATS, OILS AND GREASES (FOG). Any organic compounds derived from animal and/or plant sources that contain multiple carbon chain triglyceride molecules. These substances are detectable and measurable using analytical test procedures established in the United States Code of Federal Regulations 40 CFR 136, as may be amended from time to time. All are sometimes referred to herein as “grease” or “greases.”
FOOD SERVICE ESTABLISHMENTS. Those establishments primarily engaged in activities of preparing, serving, or otherwise making food available for consumption by the public. These establishments include, but are not limited to, restaurants, commercial kitchens, caterers, hotels, schools, hospitals, prisons, correctional facilities, and care institutions. These establishments use 1 or more of the following preparation activities: cooking by frying (all methods), baking (all methods), grilling, sauteing, rotisserie cooking, broiling (all methods), boiling, blanching, roasting, toasting, or poaching. Also included are infrared heating, searing, barbecuing, and any other food preparation activity that produces a hot, nondrinkable food product in or on a receptacle that requires washing.
GARBAGE. Solid wastes from the preparation, cooking and dispensing of food and from the handling, storage and sale of product, except for FOG.
GENERAL PERMIT. A permit issued by the District to control significant industrial user (SIU) discharges to the wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) if the type of operations of various users are the same or substantially similar, the discharges are the same, the effluent limitations are the same, require the same or similar monitoring, and in the opinion of the District Manager are more appropriately controlled under a general permit than under individual wastewater discharge permits.
GRAB SAMPLE. A sample that is taken from a wastestream without regard to the flow in the wastestream and over a period of time not to exceed 15 minutes.
GREASE INTERCEPTORS. A structure or device designed for the purpose of removing and preventing FOG from entering the sanitary sewer works. These devices are often below ground units in outside areas and are built as 2 or 3 chamber baffled tanks.
GREASE TRAP. A device for separating and retaining waterborne greases and grease complexes prior to the wastewater exiting the trap and entering the sanitary sewer works. Such traps are typically compact under-the-sink units that are near food preparation areas.
INDIVIDUAL WASTEWATER DISCHARGE PERMIT. A permit issued by the District to control individual SIU discharges to the WWTF.
INDUSTRIAL PROPERTIES. Includes, but is not necessarily limited to, manufacturing, canning, food processing and similar types of business.
INDUSTRIAL USER (IU). A source of indirect discharge. An indirect discharge is the introduction of pollutants from a nondomestic source into a publicly owned sanitary sewer works. Indirect dischargers can be commercial or industrial facilities whose wastes enter local sewers.
INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER. Wastewater not otherwise defined as domestic wastewater, including the runoff and leachate from areas that receive pollutants associated with industrial or commercial storage, handling or processing facilities.
INTERFERENCE. A discharge that, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, inhibits or disrupts the WWTF, its treatment processes or operations, or its biosolids processes, use or disposal; and therefore, is a cause of a violation of the District’s NPDES permit or of the prevention of biosolids use or disposal in compliance with any of the following statutory/regulatory provisions or permits issued thereunder, or any more stringent state or local regulations: § 405 of the Act; the Solid Waste Disposal Act, including Title II, commonly referred to as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA); any state regulations contained in any state biosolids management plan prepared pursuant to Subtitle D of the Solid Waste Disposal Act; the Clean Air Act; the Toxic Substances Control Act; and the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act.
MEDICAL WASTE. Isolation wastes, infectious agents, human blood and blood products, blood byproducts, pathological wastes, sharps, body parts, fomites, etiologic agents, contaminated bedding, surgical wastes, potentially contaminated laboratory wastes, and dialysis wastes.
MINIMUM DESIGN CAPACITY. The design features of a grease interceptor and its ability or volume required to effectively intercept and retain greases from grease-laden wastewaters discharged to the public sanitary sewer works.
MULTIPLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL. Those properties on which exists a structure or structures housing more than 1 family unit and having 1 or more sewer lateral connections.
NEW SOURCE.
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 source if such pretreatment 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; or
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 facility, and the extent to which the new facility is engaged in the same general type of activity as the 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 subsection (A)(2) or (3) of this definition but otherwise alters, replaces, or adds to existing process or production equipment.
C. Construction of a new source as defined under this subsection has commenced if the owner or operator has:
1. 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 which is necessary for the placement, assembly, or installation of new source facilities or equipment; or
2. 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 subsection.
PASS THROUGH. A discharge which exits the WWTF 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 District’s NPDES permit, including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation.
PERMIT. Any written authorization required pursuant to this or any other regulation of the District for the installation of, connection to, or use of any sanitary sewer works.
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, or local governmental entities.
PLUMBING SYSTEM. All plumbing fixtures and traps for soil waste and special waste, vent pipes and all sewer pipes within a building and extending to the private sewer lateral connection 3 feet outside the building wall.
PRETREATMENT REQUIREMENTS. Any substantive or procedural requirement related to pretreatment imposed on a user, other than a pretreatment standard.
PRETREATMENT STANDARDS. Pretreatment standards shall mean prohibited discharge standards, categorical pretreatment standards, and local limits.
PUBLIC PROPERTIES. Includes, but is not necessarily limited to, schools, hospitals, churches, meeting halls and similar structures.
SANITARY SEWER WORKS. All facilities for collecting, pumping, storing, treating, recycling, reclaiming, and disposing of wastewater or industrial wastes of a liquid nature, and any conveyances which convey wastewater to a treatment plant. Such facilities do not intentionally admit storm, surface, or ground waters.
SANITARY SEWER WORKS, PRIVATE. A sanitary sewer works serving an independent wastewater user not connected to a public sewer.
SEPTIC TANK SERVICES. Businesses of a commercial nature engaged in pumping and cleaning septic tanks.
SEWER. A pipe or conduit for carrying wastewater.
SEWER, LATERAL. A sewer serving a user between a building and a sewer main. The private portion of a sewer lateral lies within private property, private easement, or other similar right. The public portion of a sewer lateral lies within a public right-of-way, public easement, or other similar right.
SEWER, MAIN. A public sewer designed to accommodate 1 or more lateral sewer.
SEWER, PUBLIC. A sewer lying within a street and which is controlled by or under the jurisdiction of the District.
SIGNIFICANT INDUSTRIAL USER (SIU). Except as provided in subsections (C) and (D) of this definition, a significant industrial user is:
A. An industrial user subject to categorical pretreatment standards; or
B. An industrial user that:
1. Discharges an average of 25,000 gallons per day (gpd) or more of process wastewater to the WWTF (excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling, and boiler blowdown wastewater); or
2. Contributes a process wastestream which makes up 5% or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the WWTF; or
3. Is designated as such by the District on the basis that it has a reasonable potential for adversely affecting the WWTF’s operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement.
C. The District may determine that an industrial user subject to categorical pretreatment standards is a nonsignificant categorical industrial user rather than a significant industrial user on a finding that the industrial user never discharges more than 100 gpd of total categorical wastewater (excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling, and boiler blowdown wastewater, unless specifically included in the pretreatment standard) and the following conditions are met:
1. The industrial user, prior to the District’s finding, has consistently complied with all applicable categorical pretreatment standards and requirements;
2. The industrial user annually submits the certification statement required in § 14.18.120(B) (see 40 CFR 403.12(q)), together with any additional information necessary to support the certification statement; and
3. The industrial user never discharges any untreated concentrated wastewater.
D. Upon a finding that a user meeting the criteria in subsection (B) of this definition has no reasonable potential for adversely affecting the WWTF’s operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement, the District may at any time, on its own initiative or in response to a petition received from an industrial user, and in accordance with procedures in 40 CFR 403.8(f)(6), determine that such user should not be considered a significant industrial user.
SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL. Properties on which exist a single unit having only 1 sewer lateral connection.
SINGLE-FAMILY UNIT. Refers to the place of residence for a single family. Property improved for multifamily purposes shall constitute the number of units that the facilities thereon provide, in number, facilities for single-family units. When such improvements are for other than residential purposes, the number of units shall be determined by dividing the total number of persons regularly using or occupying said premises by 3. When the property is unimproved, a single lot shall be deemed to have 4 lots to the acre, unless the Board, in its discretion, specially fixes some other number of lots therefor.
SLUG LOAD or SLUG DISCHARGE. Any discharge at a flow rate or concentration which could cause a violation of the prohibited discharge standards in Chapter 14.16. A slug discharge is any discharge of a nonroutine, episodic nature, including but not limited to an accidental spill or a noncustomary batch discharge, which has a reasonable potential to cause interference or pass through, or in any other way violate the WWTF’s regulations, local limits or NPDES permit conditions.
STORM DRAIN. A system of pipes which carries storm and surface or ground waters and drainage, but excludes wastewater and polluted industrial wastes.
USER. Any person, including those located outside the jurisdictional limits of the District, who contributes, causes or permits the contribution or discharge of wastewater into sanitary sewer works within the District’s boundaries, including persons who contribute such wastewater from mobile sources, such as those who discharge hauled wastewater.
WASTEWATER. A combination of water-carried wastes from residences, business buildings, institutions, and industrial establishments. This excludes storm water and groundwater discharges.
WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY (WWTF). Any arrangement of devices and structures used for treating wastewater. A public WWTF is also known as a public owned treatment works (POTW).
(Ord. 911, § 2, passed 08-24-2015)