Chapter 9.05
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sections:
9.05.010 Purpose and policy.
9.05.020 Definitions.
9.05.030 Abbreviations.
9.05.040 Severability.
9.05.050 Conflict.
9.05.010 Purpose and policy.
This title sets forth uniform requirements for contributors to the wastewater collection and treatment system of the West County Wastewater District (hereafter “district”) and enables the district to comply with all applicable state and federal laws required by the Clean Water Act of 1977 as amended and the General Pretreatment Regulations (40 CFR Part 403) which are on file at the district office.
The objectives of this title are:
A. To comply with the laws of the state of California and of the United States relating to the protection of the environment, control of water pollution, disposal of hazardous wastes and pretreatment of industrial discharges to publicly owned treatment works.
B. To prevent the introduction of wastes which will interfere with the operation of the system or other district operations.
C. To prevent the introduction of wastes into the district wastewater system, which will pass through the system, inadequately treated, into receiving waters.
D. To prevent the introduction of substances, which would cause the district to fail to meet air quality goals of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
E. To prevent introduction of toxic substances to the district wastewater system, which could reach the environment in toxic amounts.
F. To prevent the introduction of wastes into the system, which may affect the district's ability to dispose of, recycle, or reclaim its sludge or other residuals.
G. To reasonably maintain the opportunity to recycle and reclaim wastewater from the system.
H. To prevent the introduction of wastes that the district facilities are not designed to adequately treat and may therefore adversely affect the environment or may cause a violation of the district's NPDES permit or may contribute to the need for modification of the district's NPDES permit.
I. To protect district personnel while conducting activities related to the collection, treatment and disposal of wastes through the district facilities.
J. To prevent a public hazard or public nuisance arising from the collection, treatment and disposal of wastes through the district system.
K. To prevent the introduction of wastes to sewers connected to the district system that could result in the district being classified as a hazardous waste treatment, storage or disposal facility under the laws of the state of California or the United States.
L. To provide for equitable distribution of the cost of the district's source control program.
This title provides for the regulation of contributors to the district wastewater collection system through the issuance of permits to certain users and through enforcement of general requirements for the other users, authorizes monitoring and enforcement activities, requires user reporting, and provides for the setting of fees for the equitable distribution of costs associated with maintaining a source control program.
The district is committed to a policy for beneficial use of sludge. Therefore, the implementation of programs to land apply or to provide for marketing and distribution of sludge derived products, may necessitate more stringent quality requirements on waste discharges. The district is also committed to a policy of wastewater reclamation and reuse in order to provide an alternate source of water supply. More stringent quality requirements on waste discharges may be necessary to meet the effluent quality required to implement wastewater reclamation programs. In the event more stringent quality requirements are necessary, the title will be amended to reflect those changes.
This title shall apply to all discharges within the district and to discharges from other governmental bodies or agencies who are, by contract or agreement with the district, users of the district's treatment plant. Except as otherwise provided herein, the manager of the district will administer, implement, and enforce the provisions of this title. [Ord. 11-7-00 § 1.1]
9.05.020 Definitions.
Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the following terms and phrases, as used in this title, shall have the meanings hereinafter designated:
“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.
Authorized Representative of Industrial User. An authorized representative of an industrial user may be: (1) a principal executive officer, if the industrial user is a corporation; (2) a general partner or proprietor if the industrial user is a partnership or proprietorship, respectively; (3) a duly authorized representative of the individual designated above if such representative is responsible for the overall operation of the facilities from which the discharge originates and if such representative is identified in writing by the individual designated in (1) or (2) above.
“Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)” means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure, over five days at 20 degrees centigrade, expressed in terms of weight and concentration (milligrams per liter, mg/L).
“Bypass” means the intentional diversion of waste streams from any portion of an industrial user's treatment facility.
“Categorical industrial user” means all industrial users subject to national categorical pretreatment standards under 40 CFR 403.6 and 40 CFR Chapter I, Subchapter N.
“Categorical standards” means national pretreatment standards which specify quantities or concentrations of pollutants or pollutant properties that may be discharged by industrial users in specified industrial subcategories as defined in 40 CFR Chapter I, Subchapter N, Parts 405 – 471.
“Chemical oxygen demand (COD)” means the quantity of oxygen utilized, by a strong chemical oxidant, in the oxidation of organic and oxidizable inorganic material under standard laboratory procedures, expressed in terms of weight and concentration (mg/L).
“Class I user” means any user who is subject to national categorical pretreatment standards.
“Class II user” means any nondomestic user of the district's wastewater disposal system who is not subject to national categorical standards and:
1. Has an average discharge flow of 25,000 gallons or more per day, excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling water, and blowdown wastewaters; or
2. Contributes a process waste stream which makes up five percent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic (BOD, TSS) capacity of a treatment plant; or
3. Has a reasonable potential, in the opinion of the district, to adversely affect the POTW's operation or for violating a pretreatment standard, local limit, or discharge requirement; or
4. Has been determined by the district to discharge wastewater having a potential variability in the character of the wastewater, or the potential for increased operational or administrative cost to the district due to the characteristics of the waste.
“Class III user” means any nondomestic user who is not designated as a Class I or a Class II user. Class III users may include users who are not industrial nor commercial users, and:
1. Have a reasonable potential to adversely affect the district's ability to meet the objectives of this title; or
2. Generate hazardous waste, whether or not said waste is discharged into the sanitary sewer system, or if, in the determination of the district, there is a potential for this waste to be discharged into the sewer, even through accident in nonprocess or process of handling of the waste; or
3. Store or use hazardous materials, whether or not a hazardous waste is produced in the industrial or commercial process if, in the determination of the district, a potential exists for significant impact upon the district facilities due to a release of these materials into the environment.
Class III users may be individually designated by the district based on the criteria set forth above, or on categorization of the user as a member of a particular business category. A Class III user designation may include, but is not limited to, landfill operations, landfill leachate, or ground water cleanup sites.
Class IV User. Any nondomestic user who is not designated as a Class I, Class II, or Class III user may be designated as a “Class IV user” if the user:
1. Has a reasonable potential to adversely affect the district's ability to meet the objectives of this title; or
2. Generates hazardous waste, whether or not said waste is, in the normal course of the industrial or commercial process, discharged into the sanitary sewer system, or if, in the determination of the district, there is a potential for this waste to be discharged into the sewer, even through accident in nonprocess or process of handling of the waste; or
3. Stores or uses hazardous materials, whether or not a hazardous waste is produced in the industrial or commercial process if, in the determination of the district, a potential exists for significant impact upon the district facilities due to a release of these materials into the environment.
Class IV users may be individually designated by the district based on the criteria set forth above or on categorization of the user as a member of a particular business category. The Class IV user designation shall include, but is not limited to, the following business categories: analytical laboratories, clinical laboratories, dry cleaners, laundries, vehicle maintenance facilities, vehicle repair facilities, gasoline stations, printing shops, printing allied industries, photo processors, pesticide formulators, pesticide applicators, dental offices, dental laboratories and x-ray laboratories, and veterinary providers.
“Collection system” means the district pipelines, pump stations, manholes and other similar facilities, which accept, collect and convey sanitary sewage to the treatment plant.
“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.
“District” means the West County Wastewater District.
“District board” means the board of directors of the West County Wastewater District.
“District facilities” means all of the district's system of collecting, conveying and treatment including, but not limited to, the collection system and treatment plant. This includes any publicly owned facility connected to the district's collection system, which generates wastewater treated at the district treatment plant.
“District manager” means the manager of the district or his duly authorized representative.
“Domestic wastewater” means the liquid, solid, and water-carried waste derived from ordinary living processes of humans of such character as to permit satisfactory disposal, without special treatment, into the public sewer by means of a private conveyance system. The parameters by which domestic wastewater shall be distinguished from industrial or commercial wastewater is the concentration of BOD and suspended solids. The strength shall be considered to have no more than 300 milligrams per liter (mg/L) BOD and suspended solids.
“Environmental Protection Agency” or “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.
“Grab sample” means a sample, which 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.
“Hazardous pollutants” means any constituent or combination of constituents that is classified as hazardous under state or federal regulations or is included on the federal list of toxic pollutants as specified in CFR Title 40 Part 403.
“Holding tank waste” means any waste from holding tanks such as vessels, chemical toilets, campers, trailers and vacuum-pump tank trucks.
“Indirect discharge” means the discharge or the introduction of pollutants from any nondomestic source regulated under Section 307(b), (c), or (d) of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1317), into the district's treatment works (including holding tank wastes discharged into the system).
“Industrial user” means a source of indirect discharge. (See definition of “Indirect discharge.”)
“Industrial waste” or “wastewater” means all water-carried wastes and wastewater of the community, excluding domestic wastewater, derived from any producing, manufacturing, processing, institutional, commercial, agricultural, or other operation. Industrial wastewater may also include wastes of human origin similar to domestic wastewater, which have been mixed with industrial wastes or wastewater prior to discharge to the district's facilities.
“Interceptor” means a precast or cast-in-place concrete containment device designed to intercept, trap or otherwise prevent grease, sand, flammable liquids or other substances potentially harmful to the sewerage system from entering said system.
“Interference” means a discharge which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources:
1. Both inhibits or disrupts the POTW, its treatment processes or its operations, or its sludge processes, use, or disposal; and, therefore, causes a violation of any requirement of the POTW's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation) or prevents 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 Act (33 U.S.C. 1345), Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) (including Title II [RCRA] and including state regulations contained in any state sludge management plan prepared pursuant to Subtitle D of SWDA), the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Control Act.
2. Is likely to endanger life, health, or property or otherwise cause a nuisance; or
3. In the opinion of the district, otherwise adversely affects the district's ability to meet the objectives stated in WCWDC 9.05.010.
“National 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) which applies to industrial users. These regulations are found in 40 CFR, Chapter I, Subpart N, Parts 405 – 471.
“National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit” or “NPDES permit” means a permit issued pursuant to Section 402 of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1342).
“New source” means a facility from which there is, or may be, a discharge of pollutants, construction of which began after the publication of the proposed pretreatment standards pursuant to Section 307(c) of the Clean Water Act (CWA), which will apply to the facility if the standards are promulgated, provided certain location and construction criteria are met as defined in 40 CFR 403.3(k).
“Notice of violation (NOV)” means a document informing the user that the user has violated this title and requesting user to prescribe appropriate corrective action.
Ordinance. The term “this ordinance” and/or “pretreatment ordinance” and similar uses of the term “ordinance” shall refer to the entirety of the West County Wastewater District ordinance “Regulating Sewage and Nondomestic Wastes Discharged Into The West County Wastewater District System and Repealing Ordinance No. 9-19-89,” codified in this title, as may be amended and modified.
“Pass-through” means a discharge which exits the POTW in quantities or concentrations which, alone or in conjunction with other discharges, causes, or in the determination of the district has a potential for causing, a violation of any requirement of the district'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. 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 moles per liter of solution.
“Pollutant” includes sewage or any characteristic of sewage and any and all other waste substances, liquid, solid, gaseous, or radioactive, associated with human habitation, or of human or animal origin, or from any commercial producing, manufacturing, or processing operation of whatever nature.
“Pollution” means an alteration of the quality of the waters of the state by waste to a degree which unreasonably affects (1) such waters for beneficial use, or (2) facilities which serve such beneficial uses or which creates a hazard to the public health.
“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 district facilities. The reduction or alteration can be obtained by physical, chemical or biological processes, or process changes by other means, except as prohibited by 40 CFR Section 403.6(d).
“Pretreatment requirement” means any substantive or procedural pretreatment requirement, other than a national pretreatment standard, applicable to industrial users (IUs).
“Pretreatment standard” means any regulation of the district, state, or EPA containing pollutant discharge limits or other procedural or substantive requirements of the user.
“Publicly owned treatment works (POTW)” means a treatment works as defined by Section 212 of the Act (33 USC 1292), which is owned or operated, in this instance, by the district. This definition includes any sewers that convey wastewater to the POTW treatment plant, but does not include laterals, pipes, sewers, or other conveyances connected to a sewer main extension. For the purposes of this title, “POTW” shall also include any sewers that convey wastewaters to the POTW from persons outside the district who are, by contract or agreement with the district, users of the district POTW.
“POTW treatment plant” means that portion of the POTW designed to provide treatment of wastewater.
“RCRA” means the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (42 USC 6901, et seq.), as amended.
“Significant industrial user (SIU)” means any industrial user of the district's facilities, which is:
1. A categorical industrial user (CIU); or
2. Any other industrial user that:
a. Discharges an average of 25,000 gallons per day or more of process wastewater (excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling water, and boiler blowdown wastewaters); or
b. Contributes a process waste stream which makes up five percent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic (BOD, TSS) capacity of the treatment plant; or
c. Has a reasonable potential, in the opinion of the district, to adversely affect the POTW's operation or for violating a pretreatment standard or requirement.
3. The district may determine that an industrial user, which has no reasonable potential for adversely affecting the POTW's operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement, is not a significant industrial user. (40 CFR 403.3(t)(2).)
“Significant noncompliance” means one or more of the following:
1. Chronic violations, defined as those in which 66 percent or more of all the measurements taken during a six-month period exceed (by any magnitude) the daily maximum limit or the average limit for the same pollutant parameter;
2. Technical review criteria (TRC) violations defined as those in which 33 percent or more of all the measurements for each pollutant parameter taken during a six-month period equal or exceed the product of the daily maximum limit or the average limit multiplied by the applicable TRC (TRC = 1.4 for BOD, TSS, fats, oil and grease, and 1.2 for all other pollutants except pH);
3. Any other violation of a pretreatment effluent limit (daily maximum or longer-term average) that the district determines has caused, alone or in combination with other discharges, interference or pass-through (including endangering the health of POTW personnel or the general public);
4. Any discharge of a pollutant that has caused imminent endangerment to human health, welfare, or the environment, or has resulted in the district's exercise of its emergency authorities under 40 CFR 403.8(f)(1)(vi)(B) to halt or prevent such a discharge;
5. Failure to meet, within 90 days after the schedule date, a compliance schedule milestone contained in a local control mechanism or enforcement order for starting construction, completing construction, or attaining final compliance;
6. Failure to provide, within 30 days after the due date, required reports such as baseline monitoring reports, 90-day compliance reports, periodic self-monitoring reports, and reports on compliance with compliance schedules;
7. Failure to accurately report noncompliance; and
8. Any other violation or group of violations, which the district determines will adversely affect the operation or implementation of its pretreatment program.
“Slug discharge” means a discharge capable of causing adverse impacts to the district, its workers, or the environment, or any pollutant including an oxygen-demanding pollutant released in a discharge at a flow rate and/or pollutant concentration which may cause interference with the operation of the district's sewerage system. The discharge will be considered a slug discharge if the flow rate or concentrations or quantities of pollutants exceed, for any time period longer than 15 minutes, more than five times the average 24-hour concentration, quantity or flow during normal operations. A slug discharge is considered to be a discharge of a non-routine, episodic nature, including, but not limited to, an accidental spill, or a noncustomary batch discharge. Batch discharges are intentional, controllable discharges that occur periodically within an industrial user's process (typically the result of a noncontinuous process). Accidental spills are unintentional, largely uncontrolled discharges that may result from leaks or spills of storage containers or manufacturing processes in an area with access to floor drains.
“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.
“State” means state of California.
“Storm water” means any flow occurring during or following any form of natural precipitation and resulting therefrom.
“Suspended solids” 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.
“Toxic pollutant” means any pollutant or combination of pollutants listed in Appendix A attached to the ordinance codified in this chapter.1
“Trap” means a cast iron or stainless steel containment device used for trapping substances and to prevent grease, sand or flammable liquids from entering the sewerage system.
“Treatment plant” means any facility owned by the district that is designed to provide treatment to wastewater.
“User” means any person who contributes or causes the contribution of wastewater into district facilities.
“Wastewater” means the liquid and water-carried industrial or domestic wastes from dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities, and institutions, together with any ground water, surface water, and storm water that may be present, whether treated or untreated, which is contributed into or permitted to enter the district's facilities.
“Wastewater discharge permit” means as set forth in WCWDC 9.20.040.
“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, which are contained within, flow through, or border upon the state or any portion thereof. [Ord. 11-7-00 § 1.2]
9.05.030 Abbreviations.
The following abbreviations shall have the designated meanings:
BOD – Biochemical Oxygen Demand
CCR – California Code of Regulations
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
SIC – Standard Industrial Classification
USC – United States Code
TSS – Total Suspended Solids
[Ord. 11-7-00 § 1.3]
9.05.040 Severability.
If any provision, paragraph, word, section, or article of this title is invalidated by any court of competent jurisdiction, the remaining provisions, paragraphs, words, sections, and articles shall not be affected and shall continue in full force and effect. [Ord. 11-7-00 § 1.4]
9.05.050 Conflict.
All other chapters and parts of other chapters or ordinances inconsistent or conflicting with any part of this title are hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency or conflict. [Ord. 11-7-00 § 1.5]
1 Appendix A attached to Ord. 11-70-00 is available at the district office for review.