25.030 Definitions and Abbreviations.

Accidental discharge means accidental or unintentional discharge of wastewater from a user which contains indirect discharge, pollutants, or sludges which are not normally discharged by the user. An accidental discharge may also be an unintentional slug loading or wastes normally discharged by the user which causes the user to exceed its wastewater discharge permit limitations.

Act means the Clean Water Act (33 USC 1251, et seq.), as amended.

Approval authority means the WDNR.

Authorized representative of industrial user means an authorized representative of an industrial user may be:

(a) A president, secretary, treasurer or vice president of the corporation in charge of a principal business function, if the industrial user is a corporation;

(b) A general partner or proprietor, if the industrial user is a partnership or proprietorship, respectively; or

(c) An authorized representative of the individual designated above if (1) such representative is responsible for the overall operation of the facilities from which the discharge into the POTW originates, (2) the authorization is in writing and (3) the written authorization is submitted to the POTW.

Billable flow means the total number of gallons utilized to determine the unit cost for billing for wastewater facilities services.

Board of Public Works means the Board of Public Works of the City of Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter in five days at 20 degrees Celsius expressed in milligrams per liter, as determined in accordance with standard laboratory procedures prescribed in 40 CFR Part 136 and the amendments thereto or such other methods as the EPA Administrator may approve.

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 (1.5 meters) outside the inner face of the building wall.

Building sewer means the extension from the building drain to the public sewer or other place of disposal.

Bypass means the intentional diversion of wastestreams from any portion of an industrial user’s treatment facility.

Capital costs means all reasonable and necessary costs and expenses incurred by the City in planning, designing, financing and constructing wastewater facilities including but not limited to costs and expenses for obtaining necessary permits, licenses, approvals and grants for design and construction, fees for legal and consulting services and acquisition.

Categorical Pretreatment Standards (National Pretreatment Standards) means regulations specifying quantities or concentrations of pollutants or pollutant properties which may be discharged or introduced into a POTW by specific industrial dischargers. A copy of the standards shall be available from the Superintendent.

CFR means the Code of Federal Regulations. 40 CFR Part 403 is Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 403.

City means the City Council of the City of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, or their duly authorized representative.

City Council means the duly elected Mayor and Councilmen of the City of Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

COD (chemical oxygen demand) means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the chemical oxidation of organic matter, expressed in milligrams per liter as determined in accordance with standard laboratory procedures prescribed in 40 CFR Part 136 and the amendments thereto or such other methods as the EPA Administrator may approve.

Commercial user means a user engaged in the purchase or sale of goods, engaged in the transaction of business or who otherwise renders a service.

Compatible pollutant means biochemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, pH, fecal coliform bacteria and total phosphorus which the wastewater treatment facility was designed to treat, and in fact does remove such pollutants to a substantial degree. The term substantial degree is not subject to precise definition, but generally contemplates removals in the order of 80 percent or greater. Minor incidental removals in the order of 10 to 30 percent are not considered substantial.

Connection means any point where wastewater is discharged to a private interceptor main or the wastewater facilities. Each sewer service charge recipient as defined in MMC 25.050(1)(a) shall be considered (at a minimum) to be one connection.

Contract user means any user who has a written contract with the City to use the wastewater facilities.

Contributor means any individual, firm, company, association, society, corporation or group responsible for the production of domestic, commercial or industrial waste which is directly or indirectly discharged into the City’s wastewater facilities.

Debt service means the principal and interest necessary to pay bonded indebtedness.

Discharger or industrial discharger means any nonresidential user who discharges an effluent into a POTW by means of pipes, conduits, pumping stations, force mains, constructed drainage ditches, surface water intercepting ditches, intercepting ditches, or any constructed devices and appliances appurtenant thereto. This definition also includes users that discharge by tanker trucks, rail-tankers, or similar conveyance.

Domestic user means those establishments of which its related occupations, if any, are usually considered as domestic service and whose discharge consists solely of sanitary wastes from each separate house, apartment, flat or other living quarters occupied by a person or persons constituting a distinct household.

Dwelling unit means a room or rooms connected together, constituting a separate, independent housekeeping establishment for one family only, for owner occupancy or for rental, lease or other occupancy on a weekly or longer basis, physically separated from any other rooms or dwelling units, and containing independent bathing and cooking and sleeping facilities.

EPA means the Environmental Protection Agency.

Federal grant means the total amount of funding paid by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to the City of Manitowoc for the construction of the 1975 Sewage Works Improvements.

Flow means the quantity of billable flow expressed in gallons or cubic feet.

Garbage means solid wastes resulting from the domestic and commercial preparation, cooking and dispensing of food, and from the handling, storage or sale of meat, fish, fowl, fruit, vegetables and condemned food.

General municipal flow means the total wastewater flow discharged to the wastewater facilities, minus the flows from industrial users, other municipalities, and contract users. General municipal flow includes flow from domestic users, commercial users, institutional users and governmental users. General municipal flow, based on the design of the wastewater treatment plant, is further defined as flows containing five-day BOD concentrations no greater than 260 mg/l, SS concentrations no greater than 240 mg/l, and phosphorus concentrations no greater than 12 mg/l.

General municipal user means any user discharging wastewater to the general municipal flow other than industrial users, municipalities, and other contract users. This category of user includes as subcategories:

Domestic users.

Commercial users.

Institutional users.

Governmental users, which are not contract users.

Governmental user means those establishments whose function is the administration and/or execution of governmental programs as well as the offices of executives, legislative bodies and agencies which provide general support services for government.

Grab sample means a sample which is taken from a wastestream on a one-time basis with no regard to the flow in the wastestream and without consideration of time.

Holding tank means an approved watertight receptacle for the collecting and holding of wastewater.

Incompatible pollutant means any pollutant that is not defined as a compatible pollutant, including nonbiodegradable dissolved solids.

Indirect discharge means the discharge or the introduction of nondomestic pollutants from any source regulated under Section 307(b) or (c) or (d) of the Act into the POTW, including holding tank waste discharged into the system.

Industrial user, for the purpose of the Industrial Cost Recovery System, means any nongovernmental user of the wastewater facilities identified in the “Standard Industrial Classification Manual, 1972,” Office of the Management and Budget, as amended and supplemented, under the following divisions:

Division A – Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing.

Division B – Mining.

Division C – Manufacturing.

Division E – Transportation, Communication, Electric, Gas and Sanitary Services.

Division I – Services.

A user in the division listed may be excluded and treated as a commercial user if the Wastewater Treatment Facility Board determines it will primarily introduce domestic wastes or wastes from sanitary conveniences. For industrial users with wastewater containing BOD and suspended solids concentrations less than the concentrations as defined for general municipal flow, charges shall be based on concentrations as defined for general municipal flow. For the purpose of the user charge system industrial user shall mean a manufacturing or process facility engaged in a productive or profit making venture (generally Division D of the “Standard Industrial Classification Manual.”)

Industrial wastes means the solid, liquid or gaseous wastes resulting from any industrial or manufacturing processes, trade or business, or from the development, recovery or processing of natural resources, including cooling water and the discharge from wastewater pretreatment facilities.

Infiltration and inflow means that portion of the wastewater facilities flow which cannot be identified as billable flow.

Institutional user means those establishments engaged in activities of a noneconomic nature, frequently being the performance of services for the general public (health, educational, social), and not classified as a governmental or commercial user in this chapter.

Interference means the inhibition or disruption of a POTW’s sewer system, treatment processes or operations by an indirect discharge which, alone or in conjunction with the discharge or discharges from other sources, causes a violation or increases the magnitude or duration of a violation of any requirement of the POTW’s WPDES permit, including the impairment of the use or disposal of POTW sludge under Wis. Stat. Chs. 144 and 147.

l means liter.

Load means quantities of wastewater characteristics such as BOD, SS or other constituents as expressed in milligrams per liter, or pounds per 24 hours (lbs./24 hrs.).

mg means milligrams.

mg/l means milligrams per liter.

National Prohibitive Discharge Standard or Prohibitive Discharge Standard means any regulation developed under the authority of Section 307(b) of the Act, or found in 40 CFR Part 403.5.

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

NCPS means National Categorical Pretreatment Standards.

New source or new discharger means 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 such standards are thereafter promulgated in accordance with the 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 of 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 engaged in the same general type of activity as the existing source should be considered.

Nonindustrial User. For the purpose of the Industrial Cost Recovery System, nonindustrial user shall mean a user of the treatment works considered to be governmental or determined to be discharging primarily segregated domestic wastes or wastes from sanitary conveniences.

Other wastes means other substances except sanitary wastes and industrial wastes.

Pass through means a discharge which exits the POTW 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 WPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation).

Person means any individual, firm, company, association, society, corporation, municipal corporation, governmental unit or group.

pH means the logarithm of the reciprocal of the concentration of hydrogen ions in moles per liter of solution, and indicates the degree of alkalinity or acidity. A pH value of 7.0 is the neutral point.

Plumbing Code means the Wis. Admin. Code H 62.

Pollutant means any dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewerage 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 means publicly owned treatment works.

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 POTW. The reduction or alteration can be accomplished by physical, chemical or biological processes, by process changes, or by other means, except by dilution of discharge as prohibited by MMC 25.060(3)(e).

Pretreatment standards means local, State, or National pretreatment standards specifying quantities or concentrations of pollutants or pollutant properties which may be discharged or introduced into a POTW by specific industrial dischargers.

Private interceptor main sewer means a privately owned building sewer not directly controlled by public authority. Privately owned means single ownership by an individual, firm or corporation.

Process water means any water used in the manufacturing, preparation or production of goods, materials or food.

Public sewer means any sewer owned or operated by the City.

Regional Administrator means Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region V, which encompasses the State of Wisconsin.

Sanitary sewer means a sewer which carries wastewater and to which storm, surface and ground water are not intentionally admitted.

Septage means scum, liquid, sludge or waste from a septic tank, soil absorption field, holding tank, vault, toilet or privy. Septage does not include the waste from a grease trap.

Septic tank means a tank which receives and partially treats septage through processes of sedimentation, oxidation, flotation and bacterial action so as to separate solids from the liquid in the septage and discharges the liquid to a soil absorption system. Typically the tank must be pumped every two to three years. Tanks that are pumped more frequently than once every six months shall be treated as holding tanks.

Severe property damage means substantial physical damage to property, damage to the wastewater treatment facilities which causes them to become inoperable, or substantial and permanent loss of natural resources which can reasonably be expected to occur. Severe property damage does not mean economic loss caused by delays in production.

Sewer means a pipe or conduit for carrying wastewater.

Sewer service charge means the total of the user charge system and debt service charges to be assessed to each user.

Sewer system means pipeline or conduits, pumping stations, force mains, and all devices and appliances appurtenant thereto, used for collecting or conducting wastewater to the point of ultimate disposal.

Shall is mandatory; may is permissive.

SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) means a classification pursuant to the Standard Industrial Classification Manual issued by the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, 1972.

Significant industrial user or significant user means any industrial user of the City’s wastewater disposal system who:

(a) Is subject to categorical pretreatment standards; or

(b) Discharges an average of 10,000 gallons per day or more of process wastewater; or

(c) 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

(d) 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.

Slug means any discharge of wastewater which in concentration of any given constituent or in quantity of flow exceeds for any period of duration longer than 15 minutes more than five times the average 24-hour concentration or flows during the normal operation.

Storm sewer (sometimes termed storm drain) means a sewer which carries storm and surface water and drainage, but excludes wastewaters other than approved unpolluted cooling or process water.

Superintendent means the Superintendent or Manager of the municipal Wastewater Treatment Facility of the City of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, or the Superintendent’s duly authorized deputy, agent or representative.

Suspended solids (total suspended solids) means solids that either float on the surface of, or are in suspension in, water, wastewater or other liquids and which are removable by laboratory filtering, prescribed in 40 CFR Part 136 and the amendments thereto or such other methods as the EPA Administrator may approve.

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

Toxic pollutant means any pollutant or combination of pollutants listed as toxic in regulations promulgated by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under the provision of Section 307(a) of the Act or other Acts.

TSS means total suspended solids.

Unpolluted water means clean water uncontaminated by industrial wastes, other wastes, or any substances which renders such water unclean, or noxious, or impure so as to be actually or potentially harmful or detrimental or injurious to public health, safety or welfare, to domestic, commercial, industrial or recreational use, or to livestock, wild animals, birds, fish or other aquatic life.

Upset means an exceptional incident in which a discharger is unintentionally and temporarily noncompliant with the standards set forth in this chapter due to factors beyond the reasonable control of the discharger, 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.

USC means the United States Code.

User means any person, firm, corporation or other entity, whether municipal or otherwise, discharging wastewater into the wastewater facilities.

User charge system means the method by which the annual operations, maintenance and replacement costs for the wastewater facilities will be recovered.

Wastewater means the liquid-carried waste products from whatever source derived, together with such ground water infiltration and surface water as may be unintentionally present.

Wastewater discharge permit means the document issued by the City as set forth in MMC 25.060(6).

Wastewater facilities means individually or collectively all parts and facilities of the sewer system and wastewater treatment facility.

Wastewater treatment facility means any facility, appurtenant structures, or arrangement of devices used for the treatment of wastewater.

Wastewater Treatment Facility Board means the Wastewater Treatment Facility Board created by the City of Manitowoc Common Council to direct and supervise the operation of the wastewater treatment facility.

Watercourse means a channel in which a flow of water occurs, either continuously or intermittently.

WDNR means the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

WPDES (Wisconsin Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit) means the written authorization of the State of Wisconsin for discharge from the Manitowoc Wastewater Treatment Facility to Lake Michigan.

[Prior code § 25.03]