Chapter 13.01
PUBLIC UTILITIES AND SERVICES DEFINITIONS
Sections:
13.01.010 Definitions.
For the purposes of this code, the following words, phrases, abbreviations, terms and their derivatives shall be construed as specified in this section. Words used in the singular include the plural and the plural the singular. Words used in the masculine gender include the feminine, and the feminine the masculine.
1. “Air gap” means the physical separation between the free-flowing end of a potable water supply pipeline and the overflow rim of an open or non-pressure-receiving vessel. To be an “approved air gap,” the separation must be at least twice the diameter of the inlet piping (supply pipe) measured vertically, and never be less than one inch.
2. “Applicant” means a person, 18 years of age or older, or emancipated, who:
a. Applies for utility service; or
b. Reapplies for utility service at a new or existing location after service has been discontinued.
3. “Approved” means approved in writing.
4. “Approved backflow prevention assembly” or “backflow assembly” or “assembly” means an assembly to counteract backpressure and/or prevent back-siphonage. This assembly must appear on the list of approved assemblies issued by the Oregon State Health Division and excludes external AVBs and external PVBs.
5. “Approved potable water supply” or “potable water supply” means any system of water supply intended or used for human consumption or other domestic use as approved by the city and regulated by the Oregon Health Division as a public water supply.
6. “Approved water auxiliary” means an auxiliary water supply which has been investigated and approved by the health authority, meets water quality regulations, and is accepted by the water purveyor. An “unapproved water auxiliary” means an auxiliary water supply which is not approved by the health authority.
7. “Atmospheric vacuum breaker (AVB),” also known as “syphon breaker,” means a mechanical device consisting of a valve member opening to the atmosphere when the pressure in the line drops to atmospheric and shall be an approved backflow prevention assembly.
8. “Auxiliary water supply” means any supply of water used to augment the supply obtained from the city water system which serves the premises in question.
9. “Backflow” means the flow in the direction opposite to the normal flow or the introduction of any foreign liquids, gases or substances into the water system of the city.
10. “Backflow prevention device” or “backflow prevention device assembly” means a backflow prevention device such as a pressure vacuum breaker, a double check valve, or a reduced pressure principle device, and the attached shut-off valves on the inlet and outlet ends of the device assembled as a complete unit.
11. “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.
12. “Building sewer” means the extension from the building drain to the property line.
13. “Certified cross connection inspector” means an employee of the city who has been trained in cross-connection control and is certified by the state of Oregon.
14. “Check valve” means a valve which allows flow in only one direction.
15. “City” means the city of Junction City, a municipal corporation of the state of Oregon.
16. “City administrator” means the person designated by the Junction 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 of same.
17. “City water system” means the city of Junction City potable water system, which shall include treatment mechanisms or processes, pumping stations, reservoirs, supply trunk or feeder lines, service lines, meters and all other appurtenances, device lines and things necessary to the operation of the system and to supply water service to individual property or premises and shall include the city’s potable water with which the system is supplied.
18. “Commercial premises” means the plumbed location at which a customer of the city’s service carries on his activities of gaining a livelihood or performing a public service, as distinguished from his residence, and such activity may be of a business, industrial, professional or public nature.
19. “Consumption charge” means a charge placed on every hundred cubic feet (HCF) of water delivered.
20. “Council” means the city council of the city of Junction City.
21. “Cross connection” means any physical arrangement where a potable water supply is connected, directly or indirectly, with any other nondrinkable water system or auxiliary system, sewer, drain conduit, swimming pool, storage reservoir, plumbing fixture, swamp coolers, or any other device which contains, or may contain, contaminated water, sewage, or other liquid of unknown or unsafe quality which may be capable of imparting contamination to the public water system as a result of backflow. Bypass arrangements, jumper connections, removable sections, swivel or changeover devices, or other temporary or permanent devices through which or because of which backflow may occur, are considered to be cross connections.
22. “Curbside” means a location within three feet of the edge of a city-maintained street, excluding such area separated from the street by a fence or enclosure. For residences on nonmaintained streets or private driveway, curbside shall be the point where the driveway or nonmaintained street intersects the publicly maintained street, or at such location agreed upon between the franchisee and customer or as determined by the city.
23. “Customer” means the person in whose name service is rendered, as evidenced by a request for service, receipt of service, signature on an application for service or by receipt and payment of bills for service.
24. “Debt service” means the total principal and interest payments for a year on long-term debt issues.
25. “Degree of hazard” means the low or high hazard classification that shall be assigned to all actual or potential cross connections.
26. “Developed” means any service location which has been altered by grading or filling of the ground surface, or by construction of any improvement or impervious surface area, which affects the hydraulic or hydrologic properties of the parcel.
27. “Development” means any manmade change to improved or unimproved real property, including but not limited to buildings or other structures, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations.
28. “Director” or “public works director” means the person designated by the city administrator to supervise the public works department and who is charged with certain duties and responsibilities by this chapter, or the duly authorized representative.
29. “Discharge” means the discharge or introduction of pollutants into the municipal wastewater treatment system from any nondomestic source regulated under Section 307(b), (c) or (d) of the Act.
30. “Double check valve backflow prevention assembly” or “double check assembly” or “double check” means an assembly which consists of two independently-operating check valves which are spring-loaded or weighted. The assembly comes complete with a shut-off valve on each side of the checks, as well as test cocks to test the checks for tightness.
31. “Garbage” means solid wastes from the preparation, cooking, and dispensing of food, and from the handling, storage and sale of produce.
32. “Health hazard” means an actual or potential threat of contamination of a physical, chemical, or biological nature to the public potable water system or the consumer’s potable water system that would be a danger to health.
33. “High hazard” means the classification assigned to an actual or potential cross connection that potentially could allow a substance that may cause illness or death to backflow into the potable water supply.
34. “Impervious surface” means any surface area which either prevents or retards saturation of water into the land surface, or a surface which causes water to run off the land surface in greater quantities or at an increased rate of flow from that present under natural conditions pre-existent to development. Common impervious surfaces include, but are not limited to, rooftops, concrete or asphalt sidewalks, walkways, patio areas, driveways, parking lots or storage areas, graveled, oiled or macadam surfaces or other surfaces which similarly impede the natural saturation or runoff patterns which existed prior to development.
35. “Industrial wastes” means the liquid wastes from industrial processes as distinct from sanitary sewage.
36. “Inspector” means a person who has successfully completed and maintains all requirements as established by the Oregon Health Division to be an inspector in the state of Oregon. Inspector may be employed with the city or contracted by the city.
37. “Lot” means a plot, parcel, or tract of land.
38. “Low hazard” means the classification assigned to an actual or potential cross connection that potentially could allow a substance that may be objectionable, but not hazardous to one’s health, to backflow into the potable water supply.
39. “Mainline extensions” means an extension of transmission or distribution pipelines, exclusive of service connections, beyond existing facilities.
40. “Mobile units” means units connecting to the water system through a hydrant, hosebib, or other appurtenance of a permanent nature that is part of the City water system or a permanent water service to a premises. Examples can include, but are not limited to, the following: water trucks, pesticide applicator vehicles, chemical mixing units or tanks, waste or septage haulers trucks or units, sewer cleaning equipment, carpet or steam cleaning equipment other than for homeowner use, rock quarry or asphalt/concrete batch plants, or any other mobile equipment or vessel. Uses that are excluded from this definition are recreational vehicles at assigned sites or parked in accordance with other city ordinances pertaining to recreational vehicles, and homeowner devices that are used by the property owner in accordance with other provisions of this, or other, city ordinances pertaining to provision of water service to a premises.
41. “Multi-unit residence” or “multifamily residential” means a building or facility under unified ownership and control and consisting of more than two dwelling units with each such unit consisting of one or more rooms with bathroom and kitchen facilities designed for occupancy by one family and having a common water meter.
42. “Nonputrescible solid waste” means nonputrescible material including, but not limited to: inoperable vehicles, vehicle parts, tires, residential, commercial and industrial appliances, equipment and furniture; scrap metal, residential, commercial and industrial building demolition or construction waste; plastic, glass, cardboard and wastepaper.
43. “OHD” means the Oregon Health Division.
44. “Open drainage way” means a natural or manmade path, ditch, or channel which has the specific function of transmitting natural stream water or storm runoff water from a point of higher elevation to a point of lower elevation.
45. “Operation and maintenance” means all expenditures during the useful life of the utility for materials, labor, utilities and other items which are necessary for managing and maintaining the utility to achieve the capacity and performance for which such utilities were designed and constructed. The term operation and maintenance includes replacement.
46. “Owner” means any person owning a beneficial interest with a right of possession in property served by the city water system, any occupant of any premises served by the city water system, and any customer or water user of the city water system.
47. “Person” means any 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. The masculine gender shall include the feminine; the singular shall include the plural where indicated by the context.
48. “pH” means the logarithm (base 10) of the reciprocal of the concentration of hydrogen ions expressed in grams per liter of solution.
49. “Planning period” means the period over which a works is evaluated for cost-effectiveness which shall be a period of 20 years.
50. “Plumbing fixture” means approved receptacle or devices intended to receive water, liquids or other permissible wastes, and which discharge the same into the soil pipe, waste pipe or special waste pipe with which they are connected and shall include all floor drains.
51. “Potable water” means safe drinking water.
52. “Premises” means any piece of property to which utility service is provided, including, but not limited to, all improvements, mobile structures and other structures located upon it.
53. “Pressure vacuum breaker assembly (PVB)” means a mechanical device consisting of one spring-loaded check valve in the supply line and a spring-loaded air inlet on the downstream side of the check valve(s) which will open to atmosphere when the pressure in the device drops below one pound per square inch. The complete assembly consists of two shut-off valves and two test ports for checking water tightness of the check valve. The assembly shall be an approved backflow prevention assembly.
54. “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 the treatment works.
55. “Public sewer” 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.
56. “Putrescible solid waste” means solid waste or waste material including bones, meat and meat scraps, fat, grease, fish and fish scraps, food containers contaminated with food wastes, particles or residues, vegetable and fruit food wastes, manure, dead fowl, dead animals, or similar organic wastes which cause offensive odors or create a health hazard or which are capable of attracting or providing food for potential disease carriers, such as birds, rodents, flies and other vectors.
57. “Rate schedules” means those rates, charges, rentals, and associated regulations, as they are set forth and amended from time to time by resolution of the city council.
58. “Reconstruction” means the replacement of equipment, equipment components, or other utility components which have been in service for its useful life.
59. “Recyclable material” means those materials designated from time to time by the Department of Environmental Quality or materials designated by the city. An exemption to this definition is an inoperable vehicle commonly manufactured of ferrous metals.
60. “Reduced pressure principle backflow prevention assembly” or “reduced pressure principle assembly” or “RP assembly” means an assembly containing two independently acting approved check valves together with a hydraulically operated, mechanically independent pressure differential relief valve located between the check valves, and at the same time, below the first check valve. The assembly shall include properly located test cocks and two tightly closing shutoff valves.
61. “Replacement” means expenditures for obtaining and installing equipment, accessories or appurtenances which are necessary during the useful life of the utility to maintain the capacity and performance for which the utility was designed and constructed.
62. “Resident” means a person or persons living within the area(s) served by the city utility system.
63. “Resource recovery” means the process of obtaining useful material or energy resources from solid waste and includes:
64. “Recycling,” which means any process by which solid waste materials are transformed into new products in such manner that the original products may lose their identity. The process includes collection, transportation, storage and transfer of solid waste and placing the solid waste in the stream of commerce for resource recovery.
65. “Reuse,” which means the return of a commodity into the economic stream for use in the same kind of application as before without change in its identity.
66. “Safe drinking water” means water which has sufficiently low concentrations of microbiological, inorganic chemical, organic chemical, radiological or physical substances so that individuals drinking such water at normal levels of consumption will not be exposed to disease organisms or other substances which may produce harmful physiological effects.
67. “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.
68. “Service connection” means the pipes, valves, meter boxes, and appurtenances necessary to supply water from mains through the meter, but this does not include the piping from the meters to the point of service.
69. “Service line” means all piping and appurtenances from the meter to the point of service. The service line is privately owned and maintained.
70. “Sewage” means a combination of the water-carried wastes from residences, business buildings, institutions, and industrial establishments, together with such ground, surface, and storm waters as may be present.
71. “Sewer” means a pipe or conduit ditch, or other device used to collect and transport wastewater or stormwater from the generating source or from a given location.
72. “Sanitary sewer” means a sewer that conveys only wastewater and into which storm, surface, and ground waters are not intentionally admitted.
73. “Storm sewer” means a sewer that conveys storm, surface, and ground waters and into which wastewaters are not intentionally admitted.
74. “Shall” is mandatory; “may” is permissive.
75. “Single-family residence” means the plumbed dwelling of a householder and/or his family, who is a customer of the city’s service, which premises may be an individual residence, family apartment in an apartment house, or a cottage, cabin, trailer house or tent, a residential court, motel, auto court or camp, or a similar use.
76. Solid Waste.
a. “Solid waste” means all putrescible and nonputrescible wastes including, but not limited to: garbage, rubbish, refuse, ashes, wastepaper, cardboard, grass clippings, compost, tires, equipment and furniture; commercial, industrial, demolition and construction wastes; discarded home or industrial appliances; manure, vegetable or animal solid and semisolid wastes, dead animals, biomedical waste and other wastes.
b. “Solid waste” does not include:
i. Materials defined as principle recyclable materials in OAR 340-090-0700, and any others designated by the city, which have been correctly source-separated and placed for collection or taken to a depot by the generator;
ii. Hazardous wastes as defined in ORS 466.005;
iii. Material used for fertilizer or for other productive purposes or which are salvageable as such materials are used on land in agricultural operations and growing or harvesting of crops and the raising of fowls or animals. OAR 340-090-0100(36).
c. The fact that materials that would otherwise come within the definition of solid waste may from time to time have value and thus be utilized does not remove them from the definition.
77. “Solid waste management” means the prevention or reduction of solid waste, management of the storage, transfer, collection, transportation, treatment, utilization, processing and final disposal of solid waste, resource recovery from solid waste, and facilities used for those activities.
78. “Solid waste service” means the collection, transportation, storage, transfer, disposal of or resource recovery of solid waste, including solid waste management.
79. “Stormwater” means water from precipitation, surface or subterranean water from any source, drainage and nonseptic wastewater.
80. “Submerged heads” means irrigation sprinkling or delivery devices that are located below the surface of the landscaped area in which they are installed.
81. “Temporary service” means service that will not be of a permanent nature such as construction.
82. “Thermal expansion” means the pressure created by the expansion of heated water.
83. “Treatment works” means any devices and systems for the storage, treatment, recycling and reclamation of municipal sewage, domestic sewage, or liquid industrial wastes. These include intercepting sewers, outfall sewers, sewage collection and their appurtenances, extensions, improvements, remodeling, additions and alterations thereof, elements essential to provide a reliable recycled supply such as standby treatment units and clear well facilities, and any works, including site acquisition of the land that will be an integral part of the treatment process or is used for ultimate disposal of residues resulting from such treatment (including land for composting sludge, temporary storage of such compost and land used for the storage of treated wastewater, or any other method or system for preventing, abating, reducing, storing, treating, separating, or disposing of municipal waste or industrial waste).
84. “Used water” means water supplied by a public water system to a water user’s system after it has passed through the service connection.
85. “Useful life” means the estimated period during which a treatment works will be operated, as defined by the planning period.
86. “User” means a person who has applied for, been accepted, and is currently receiving one or more utility service(s) from the city.
87. “User charge” means the total utility service charge which is levied in a proportional and adequate manner for the cost of operation and maintenance of the treatment works, and the costs of debt service as applicable, and the costs associated with reconstruction as applicable.
88. “Utility” means one or more of the following city service(s): sanitary sewer, water, surface water management and garbage services.
89. “Utility rate” means the combined water, sewer and surface water management service rates imposed pursuant to this chapter.
90. “Utility service” means city water service, sewer service and garbage service.
91. “Waste” means material that is no longer wanted or usable by the source, the source generator or producer of the material, and the material is to be disposed of or resource recovered by another person, and includes both source separated material and nonsource separated materials.
92. “Wastewater” means the liquid and water-carried wastes from dwellings, commercial buildings, and institutions, whether treated or untreated, which is contributed into or permitted to enter the treatment works.
93. “Wastewater treatment system” means any wastewater treatment works and the sewers, conveyances, and appurtenances discharging thereto, owned and operated by the city. Includes treatment works.
94. “Water main” means the transmission or distribution pipelines located in streets, highways, and public and private rights-of-way which supply water for general public usage.
95. “Water meter” means a water volume measuring and recording device, furnished and installed by the city, or by a user, and approved by the city.
96. “Water system” means the following:
a. The water system shall be considered as made up of two parts: the utility system and the customer system.
b. The utility system shall consist of the source of facilities and the distribution system, and shall include all those facilities of the water system under the complete control of the utility, up to the point where the customer system begins, generally at the water meter, or in case of fire service at the utility control valve or detector check.
c. The customer system will include those parts of the facilities which convey domestic water to points of use beyond the termination of the utility system. The term “customer system” is that of any user whether or not a charge is made. [Ord. 1258 § 2 (Exh. B), 2019.]