Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the following
terms and phrases, as used in this article, shall have the meanings
herein designated:
Accidental discharge.
An act or omission through which waste or other substances
are inadvertently discharged into water in the state.
Act or the Act.
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the
Clean Water Act, as amended, 33 USC 1251 et seq.
Approval authority.
The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) or the appropriate agency of a National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System (NPDES) delegated state with an approved state
pretreatment program.
Authorized representative of a user.
(1)
If the user is a corporation:
(A)
A principal executive officer such as the president, secretary,
treasurer or a vice president 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 (1) or more manufacturing, production or
operation facilities 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 the industrial user is a
partnership or sole proprietorship respectively.
(3)
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.
(4)
The individuals described in subsections
(1) through
(3) may designate another 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 city environmental services division.
(5)
If an authorization under subsection
(4) is no longer accurate because a different individual or position has responsibility for the overall operation of the facility, or overall responsibility for environmental matters for the company, a new authorization must be submitted to the city environmental services division prior to, or together with, any reports to be signed by the authorized representative.
Best management practices (BMPs).
Schedules of activities, prohibition of practices, maintenance procedures and other management practices to implement the prohibitions listed in section
12.05.074 (General prohibitions) and section
12.05.075 (Specific prohibitions) of this article. 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. BMPs also include alternative means of complying with, or in place of certain categorical pretreatment standards and effluent limits.
The quantity of oxygen used in the biochemical oxidation
of organic matter under the standard laboratory procedure in five
(5) days at twenty (20) degrees Celsius expressed in terms of weight
and concentration (milligrams per liter (mg/l)) as set forth in standard
methods.
Boiler blowdown wastewater.
Wastewater emitted from a boiler or energy-generating equipment
containing chemical residues as a result of the conventional boiler
water treatment programs.
Bypass.
The intentional diversion of wastestreams from any portion
of a pretreatment facility.
Categorical pretreatment standard or categorical standard.
Any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated
by the EPA in accordance with sections 307(b) and (c) of the Clean
Water Act that apply to a specific category of users and that appear
in 40 CFR chapter I, subchapter N.
Chemical oxygen demand (COD).
The measure of the oxygen-consuming capacity of organic and
inorganic matter present in the wastewater expressed in mg/l as the
amount of oxygen consumed from a chemical oxidant in a specific test,
but not differentiating stable from unstable organic matter and thus
not necessarily correlating with biochemical oxygen demand.
City.
The city or any authorized person acting in its behalf.
Comminuted garbage.
Garbage that has been shredded to such a degree that all
particles will be carried freely under the flow conditions normally
prevailing in sanitary sewers, with no particle greater than one-half
(1/2) inch in any dimension.
Combined wastestream formula.
Calculation deriving an alternative limit for a discharge
from a categorical user when the regulated wastestream is mixed with
wastewater not regulated by the same categorical standard. Such alternative
limits shall be derived in accordance with 40 CFR 403.6.
Composite sample.
A series of samples mixed together so as to approximate the
average strength of discharge to the sewer over a twenty-four (24)
hour period. Sampling may be done manually or automatically, and discretely
or continuously. A composite sample shall consist of a pool of at
least twelve (12) sample aliquots if discrete sampling is employed.
Discrete sampling may be flow proportioned by either varying the time
interval between aliquots or the volume of each aliquot. Non-flow
proportional composite samples may be collected when flow proportional
sampling is not possible or feasible. Non-flow proportional samples
shall consist of at least twelve (12) sample aliquots collected at
equal intervals over a twenty-four (24) hour period with a minimum
volume of one-hundred (100) milliliters per aliquot. The supervisor
must authorize the use of any alternative composite procedure for
sampling wastestreams of intermittent or less than twenty-four (24)
hour duration. Volatile pollutant aliquots must be combined in the
laboratory immediately prior to analysis. Samples shall be iced or
refrigerated during sampling and transportation to appropriate laboratory
facilities.
Control manhole.
A manhole giving access to a building sewer at a point before
the building sewer discharge mixes with other discharges in the public
sewer.
Control point.
The point on a building sewer where access to a discharge
is provided, which shall be before the discharge mixes with others
in the public sewer. The control point shall be the control manhole
unless otherwise designated by the supervisor.
Cooling water.
Water discharged from air conditioning, cooling or other
uses, to which the only pollutant added in significant amounts is
heat, exclusive of boiler blowdown wastewater.
Direct discharge.
The discharge of wastewater, treated or untreated, into or
adjacent to the waters of the state.
Discharge.
In verb form: to deposit, conduct, drain, spill, emit, throw,
allow to seep, or otherwise release or dispose; or to allow, permit,
or suffer any of these acts or omissions. In its noun form: the product
of any of these acts.
Disposal.
The discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking,
or placing of a waste into or on land, water, air, or the POTW.
Environmental Protection Agency or EPA.
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 such agency.
Environmental services supervisor.
The person designated by the city manager to enforce this
chapter on behalf of the city and other such duties as designated
by the city manager.
Flow-weighted (or flow proportional) composite sample.
A composite sample in which twelve (12) or more aliquots
have been proportioned either by varying the volume of each aliquot
in accordance to the flow within a fixed time or collecting a fixed
volume for each aliquot by varying the time interval according to
changing flow.
Garbage.
Animal and vegetable wastes and residue from the preparation,
cooking and dispensing of food and from the handling, processing,
storage and sale of food products and produce.
Generator.
A person who causes, creates, or otherwise produces waste.
Grab sample.
An individual sample collected over a period of time not
exceeding fifteen (15) minutes with no regard to instantaneous wastestream
flow.
Holding tank waste.
Any waste from septic tanks, vacuum pump tank trucks, chemical
toilets, campers, trailers or other direct holding vessels.
Hazardous waste.
Any waste (or combination of wastes), which because of its
quantity, concentration, physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics
may:
(1)
Have any of the following characteristics: Toxic, corrosive,
chemically reactive, flammable or combustible, explosive or otherwise
capable of causing substantial personal injury or illness.
(2)
Pose a substantial hazard to human health or the environment
when improperly treated, stored, transported or disposed of, or otherwise
improperly managed.
(3)
Be identified or listed as a hazardous waste in 40 CFR part
261 as defined by the Administrator of the United States Environmental
Protection Agency pursuant to the Federal “Solid Waste Disposal
Act” as amended by the “Resource Conservation and Recovery
Act of 1976” as amended.
Indirect discharge.
The discharge of non-domestic pollutants from any source
regulated under section 307(B) or (C) of the Act, (33 USC 1317) into
the POTW (including holding tank waste).
Industrial waste.
Waste resulting from any process involved with industry,
manufacturing, trade or business establishments including nonprofit
organizations and government agencies, concerned with the development
of any natural resource, or any mixture of the waste with water or
domestic wastewater, as distinct from normal wastewater.
Interference.
Any inhibition or disruption of the POTW treatment processes
or operations which contributes to a violation of any requirements
or limitations of the city’s NPDES permit. The term also includes
any prevention of sludge use or disposal by the POTW in accordance
with section 405 of the Act (33 USC 1345) or any criteria, guidelines
or regulations developed pursuant to the Solid Waste Disposal Act
(SWDA), the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act or more
stringent state criteria (including those contained in any state sludge
management plan prepared pursuant to title IV of SWDA applicable to
the methods of disposal or use employed by the POTW).
May.
May is permissive or discretionary.
Maximum allowable discharge limit.
The maximum concentration of any pollutant discharged to
the POTW based on daily or monthly averages or a single grab sample
as established by the city based on technically based local limits
development, national categorical pretreatment standards, or best
professional judgment of the city. If state, federal, and local discharge
limits are different, then the most stringent limit shall apply. Dilution
of the wastestream to achieve an allowable discharge limit is prohibited.
Monthly average.
The sum of all discharges measured during a calendar month
divided by the number of daily discharges measured during that month.
Natural outlet.
Any outlet into a watercourse, ditch, lake or other body
of surface water or groundwater.
New source.
Any user who commences discharge to the POTW after the publication
of a proposed federal pretreatment standard under section 307(c) of
the Act applicable to such user and thereafter promulgated in accordance
with that section, provided that:
(1)
(A)
The facility is constructed at a site at which no other source
is located; or
(B)
The facility totally replaces the process or production equipment
that causes the discharge of pollutants at an existing source; or
(C)
The production or wastewater generating processes of the facility
are substantially independent of an existing source at the same time.
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.
(2)
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, facility or installation meeting the criteria of subsections
(1)(B) or
(C), but otherwise alters, replaces or adds to existing process or production equipment.
(3)
Construction of a new source as defined herein has commenced
if the owner or operator has:
(A)
Begun, or caused to begin as part of a continuous onsite construction
program:
(i)
Any placement, assembly or installation of facilities or equipment;
or
(ii)
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
(iii)
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 or design studies do not constitute a
contractual obligation under this subsection.
Noncontact cooling water.
Water used for cooling that does not come into direct contact
with any raw material, intermediate product, waste product or finished
product.
Normal domestic wastewater.
Wastewater other than industrial wastewater discharged by
a person into the sanitary sewers and containing an average twenty-four
(24) hour composite concentration of not more than two hundred fifty
(250) mg/l BOD, two hundred fifty (250) mg/l TSS, or thirty (30) mg/l
ammonia.
Other substances.
Substances which may be useful or valuable and therefore
are not ordinarily considered to be waste, but which will cause pollution
if discharged into water in the state.
Overload.
Any increase in flow, BOD, suspended solids or pollutants
that would upset normal operations or cause the POTW to be noncompliant
with its state or federal permits.
pH.
The logarithm (base 10) of the reciprocal of the concentration
of hydrogen ions expressed in grams per liter of solution.
Pass-through.
A discharge which exits the POTW into waters of the state
in quantities or concentrations which, alone or in conjunction with
discharges from other sources, is a cause of a violation of any requirement
of the POTW’s NPDES or TPDES permits (including an increase
in the magnitude or duration of a violation).
Person.
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.
Pollutant.
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 agricultural municipal and industrial waste.
Polluted.
Referring to the alteration of the chemical, physical, biological
and/or radiological integrity of water, air, or soil induced or made
by man.
Pretreatment or treatment.
The reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination
of pollutants, the alteration of the nature of pollutants or the alteration
of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater to a less harmful
state prior to or instead of the discharge of pollutants into a POTW.
Such reduction or alteration can be obtained by physical, chemical,
or biological processes or other process change means, except as prohibited
by 40 CFR, section 403.6(d).
Pretreatment requirements.
Any requirement related to pretreatment, other than a national
pretreatment standard, imposed on an industrial user.
Pretreatment standard or standards.
Any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated
by the EPA in accordance with section 307(b) and (c) of the Clean
Water Act, which applies to industrial users. This term includes the
prohibitive discharge limits established pursuant to 40 CFR, 403.5.
Process wastewater.
Any water which, during manufacturing or processing, comes
into direct contact with or results from the production or use of
any raw material, intermediate product, by-product, waste product
or finished product.
Publicly owned treatment works (POTW).
A treatment works as defined by section 212 of the Act, (33
USC 1292) owned by the city, including any sewers that convey wastewater
to the POTW treatment plant, but not including pipes, sewers or other
conveyances not connected to a treatment facility. For article purposes,
POTW shall also include any sewers that convey wastewaters to the
POTW from users outside the city, who are by agreement or contract
users of the POTW treatment facility.
Receiving waters.
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, intermittent
or perennial flowing, which are contained within, flow through or
border upon the state or any portion thereof.
Sanitary sewer.
A public sewer conveying domestic wastewater, industrial
wastes, or both, into which stormwater, surface water, groundwater,
and other unpolluted wastes are not intentionally discharged.
Significant industrial user.
Any industrial user of the city POTW who meets any of the
following:
(1)
Is subject to categorical pretreatment standards under 40 CFR
403.6 and 40 CFR chapter I, subchapter N.
(2)
Discharges a flow of twenty-five thousand (25,000) gallons or
more per day of process wastewater to the city POTW.
(3)
Discharges a process wastestream of five (5) percent or more
of the of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity in
the city’s wastewater treatment facility.
(4)
Is found by the city, TCEQ, or the EPA to have significant impact,
or the potential for, either singly or in combination with other contributing
industries, on the wastewater treatment system, the quality of sludge,
the system effluent quality or air emissions generated by the system.
(5)
Upon finding that an industrial user meeting the criteria in subsections
(2) through
(4), has no reasonable potential for adversely affecting the POTW’s operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement, the city may at any time, on its own initiative or in response to a petition from the industrial user, and in accordance with 40 CFR 403.8(f)(6), determine that such industrial user is not a significant industrial user.
Significant noncompliance.
An industrial user is in significant noncompliance with pretreatment
standards as defined in 40 CFR 403.8(f)(2)(vii)(A-H) if found in violation
of one (1) or more of the following:
(1)
Chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined here
as those in which sixty-six (66) percent or more of all measurements
taken during a six (6) month period exceed (by any magnitude) the
daily maximum or the average limit for the same pollutant parameter;
(2)
Technical review criteria (TRC) violations, defined here as
those in which thirty-three (33) percent or more of all measurements
for each pollutant parameter taken during a six (6) month period equal
or exceed the product of the daily maximum limit or average limit
multiplied by the applicable TRC (TRC = one and four-tenths (1.4)
for fats, oil and grease, and one and two-tenths (1.2) for all other
pollutants except pH) NOTE: BOD and TSS controlled by surcharge and
TRC is not applicable;
(3)
Any other violation of a pretreatment effluent limit (daily
maximum or longer-term average, instantaneous limit or narrative standard)
that the city 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 the public or the environment, or has resulted in the city’s
exercise of its emergency authority to halt or prevent such discharge;
(5)
Failure to meet within ninety (90) days of the scheduled date,
a compliance schedule milestone contained in a wastewater discharge
permit or enforcement order for starting construction, completing
construction or attaining final compliance;
(6)
Failure to provide within forty-five (45) days after its due
date, any required reports, including baseline monitoring reports,
reports on compliance with categorical pretreatment standard deadlines,
periodic self-monitoring reports and reports on compliance with compliance
schedules;
(7)
Failure to accurately report noncompliance; or
(8)
Any other violation(s), including violations with best management
practices (BMPs) when applicable, the city determines will adversely
affect the operation or implementation of the local pretreatment program.
Slug load.
Any discharge of a non-routine, episodic nature, including
but not limited to an accidental spill or a non-customary batch discharge.
Spill.
An act or omission through which waste or other substances
are deposited where, unless controlled or removed, they will drain,
seep, run, or otherwise enter water in the state.
Storm sewer.
A public sewer assigned to carry storm and surface waters
and drainage into which domestic wastewater and industrial wastes
are not intentionally discharged.
Stormwater.
Flow resulting from and occurring during or following natural
precipitation.
Supervisor.
See definition for “environmental services supervisor.”
Suspended solids.
The words “suspended solids” shall mean total
suspended matter that either floats on the surface or is in suspension
in water or wastewater and that is removable by laboratory filtering
(as described in standard methods for the examination of water and
wastewater, current edition, or guidelines for establishing test procedures
for the analysis of pollutants, contained in 40 CFR 136, as published
in the Federal Register and referred to as non-filterable residue)
also called total suspended solids or TSS.
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality or TCEQ.
The state of Texas environmental agency or, where appropriate,
the term may be used as a designation for the executive director or
other duly authorized official of the commission. Formerly known as
the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission or TNRCC.
Toxic pollutant.
Any pollutant or combination of pollutants listed as toxic
in regulations promulgated by the administrator of the EPA under the
provision of CWA section 307(a) or other acts.
Trap.
A device designed to skim, settle or otherwise remove oil,
grease, sand, flammable wastes or other harmful substances.
Unpolluted wastewater.
Water containing:
(1)
No detectable free or emulsified grease or oil;
(2)
No detectable acids or bases;
(3)
No detectable phenols or other taste- and odor-producing substances;
(4)
No detectable toxic or poisonous substances in solution or colloidal
state of suspension;
(5)
No detectable noxious or otherwise obnoxious or odorous gases;
(6)
Not more than an insignificant amount (five (5) mg/l) of suspended
solids and BOD, as determined by the state;
(7)
No color exceeding fifty (50) units as measured by the Platinum-Cobalt
method of determination as specified in standard methods.
User surcharge.
A charge made on those persons who discharge other than normal
domestic wastewater into the POTW.
Waste.
Substances rejected, unutilized or superfluous to domestic,
agricultural or industrial activities in liquid, gaseous or solid
form.
Wastewater.
Liquid and water-carried domestic or industrial waste 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.
Wastewater discharge permit.
A permit issued by the city to a specific user to discharge
wastewater to the sanitary sewer in accordance with the terms and
conditions of this article. (Same as “wastewater contribution
permit”).
Wastewater facilities.
All facilities for collection, pumping, treating, and disposing
of wastewater and industrial wastes.
Wastewater treatment plant.
Facilities, devices and structures for receiving, treatment
and disposing of wastewater, industrial wastes and sludges from the
sewer system.