ARTICLE I: DEFINITIONS
Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the meaning of terms used in this article shall be as follows:
Act shall mean 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 shall mean either:
(a) a principal executive officer of at least the level of vice-president, 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) 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 of wastewater originates.
Average daily flow shall mean the total rate of flow of sewage in gallons per day measured at a metering station or other point during a set time period convenient to the Board normalized to a per-day flow. Such per-day flow shall be adjusted for the number of work days in a week over which a commercial user operates in the case of commercial users.
Board shall mean the Board of Public Works of the Town of Essex, or their authorized deputy, agent, or representative.
BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) shall mean the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter in water when tested in accordance with USEPA Method 405.1.
Building shall mean a structure enclosed within exterior walls, built, erected, or framed of any materials, whether portable or fixed, having a roof, to form a structure for the shelter of persons and in which internal plumbing is required by the Massachusetts Uniform Plumbing Code.
Building drain shall mean that part of the lowest horizontal piping of a drainage system that receives flow from soil, waste and other drainage pipes inside the walls of the building and conveys it to the building sewer. The building drain terminus is five (5) feet (1.5 meters) outside the inner face of the building wall at its connection with the building sewer.
Building sewer shall mean the pipe connecting the building drain to the public sewer.
Categorical pretreatment standards shall mean discharge limitations for industrial users subject to the provisions of 40 CFR Subchapter N.
City shall mean City of Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Combined sewer shall mean a sewer receiving both surface runoff and sewage.
Certificate of Compliance shall mean a certificate issued by the Town of Essex Board of Public Works stating that such real property has been inspected and found to be in compliance with these Regulations.
DEP shall mean the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
Domestic Wastewater shall mean normal water-carried household and toilet wastes discharged from any improved property, excluding ground, surface or stormwater.
EPA shall mean the Environmental Protection Agency of the U.S. Government.
Excessive shall mean amounts or concentrations of any constituent of wastewater that by its concentration or other characteristic will cause damage to the sewer collection system, its pump stations or the wastewater facility, or which will increase the difficulty or costs of sludge disposal, or which will be harmful to a wastewater treatment process, or which cannot be removed in the wastewater treatment works of the City of Gloucester to the degree required to meet the NPDES permit limits or which cannot be removed to the degree required by the classification standard of the receiving water, or which can otherwise endanger life, limb, environment, public property, or which constitutes a nuisance.
Facilities shall include all structures and conduits for the purpose of collecting, conveying treating, neutralizing, or disposing of domestic wastewater and/or industrial or other wastewater, including treatment and disposal works, necessary intercepting, outfall, and outlet sewers, and pumping stations integral to such facilities with sewers, equipment, furnishings thereof and other appurtenances connected therewith.
Garbage shall mean the animal and vegetable wastes resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking, and serving of food and from the handling, storage and sale of produce. It is composed largely of putrescible organic matter and its natural moisture content.
Illegal Connection shall mean any connection not properly permitted by the Board. This definition includes, but is not limited to inflow and infiltration as defined below.
Improved Property shall mean any property located within the Town upon which there is erected a structure intended for continuous or periodic habitation, occupancy, or use by human beings or animals and from which structure domestic wastewater and/or industrial wastewater shall be or may be discharged.
Incompatible Pollutant shall mean any pollutant, other than biochemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, pH, coliform bacteria, or other pollutants identified in the permit, which the POTW was not designed to treat and does not remove to a substantial degree.
Infiltration shall mean water other than wastewater that enters a sewer system (including sewer service connections and foundation drains) from the ground through means that include, but are not limited to defective pipes, pipe joints, connection, or manholes. Infiltration does not include, and is distinguished from, inflow.
Inflow shall mean water other than wastewater that enters a sewer system (including sewer service connections) from sources which include, but are not limited to, roof leaders, cellar drains, yard drains, area drains, drains from springs and swampy areas, manhole covers, cross connections between storm sewers and sanitary sewers, catch basins, cooling towers, storm waters, surface runoff, street wash waters, or drainage. Inflow does not include, and is distinguished from, infiltration.
Industrial Establishment shall mean any room, group of rooms, building or other enclosure used or intended for use in the manufacturing, processing, cleaning, laundering, assembling or preparing of any product, commodity or article or from which any process waste, as distinct from domestic wastewater, may be discharged.
Industrial user shall mean a manufacturing, processing, or other non-residential facility, which discharges non-sanitary industrial wastewater into a public sewer.
Industrial wastewater shall mean the liquid wastes from industrial establishments distinct from sanitary sewage.
Interference shall mean a discharge which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources that:
Inhibits or disrupts the POTW, its treatment processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use or disposal; and
Is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the City’s NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation) or of the prevention of sewage sludge use or disposal in compliance with the following statutory provisions and regulations or permits issued thereunder (or more stringent State regulations); the Clean Water Act, the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA), State regulations contained in any State Sludge management plan prepared pursuant to Subtitle D or the SWDA, the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act.
Invert shall mean the bottom inside of the sewer pipe.
Maximum daily flow shall mean the highest flow rate in gallons per minute measured at a metering station or other point during any twenty-four (24) hour period.
Moratorium shall mean the prohibition of increase in sewage design flow as stipulated by portions of Town By-law 7-7 (Sewer Service Area By-law) as follows: “7-7.2 Identification of Lots to be Served: Notwithstanding paragraphs 7-7.7 and 7-7.8, each lot listed in Appendix B is entitled to connect a design flow of 330 gallons per day or the design flow in place as of February 1, 2000, whichever is greater, at any time, “7-7.5 Moratorium on Allocation of Reserve Capacity: Notwithstanding any other provisions of this by-law to the contrary, the Town shall not allow any sewer connections or extensions except as identified in 7-7.2, 7-7.4, and 7-7.6 of this by-law within five (5) years of the date of substantial completion of the sewer system. The Town shall not
allow the expansion of any use connected to the sewer system that would increase the design flow above 330 gpd within five (5) years of the date of substantial completion of the sewer system.”, “7-7.8 Allocation of Reserve Capacity for Change in Use of Existing Facilities: After the moratorium period set forth in paragraph 7-7.5, the Town may by two thirds (2/3) vote at an Annual Town Meeting and at the discretion of the Board of Public Works, subject to available capacity, allow the change in use of existing facilities within the Sewer Service Area that will result in increased sewage flow…”.
National Categorical Pretreatment Standard shall mean any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by EPA under Sections 307(b) and (c) of the Clean Water Act applicable to industrial users including the general and specific prohibitions found in 40 CFR 403.5 and the National categorical pretreatment standards promulgated by EPA that are set out in 40 CFR Chapter I, Subchapter N, Parts 405-471.
Natural outlet shall mean any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface or groundwater.
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit shall mean a permit issued pursuant to section 402 of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1342).
Old building sewer shall mean any building sewer which has never been used to carry sewage specifically to the Town sewer system about its entire length or inspected pursuant to a Board of Public Works sewer connection permit.
Owner shall mean the person who owns a building that is served by the sewer
Pass through shall mean a discharge which exits the City of Gloucester’s wastewater treatment facility into waters of the Unites States in quantities or concentrations which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, is a cause of violation of any requirement of the City’s NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation).
Person shall mean any individual, firm, company, association, society, corporation or group, partnership, the Chief Executive Officer or General Manager of any firm, including heir, executor, administrator, and/or successor and assign or any Federal, State or local governmental agencies or their representatives, or other entity.
pH shall mean the logarithm of the reciprocal of the hydrogen ion concentration.
Pollutant shall mean any material or substance that may cause an alteration of the chemical, physical, biological or radiological integrity of the POTW or its receiving waters.
POTW (Publicly Owned Treatment Works) shall mean the treatment works operated by the Town (or City) and its agents, including any devices and systems, whether owned by the Town or City under its control, used in the collection, storage, treatment, recycling and reclamation of municipal sewage or industrial wastewater and also including without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the City of Gloucester’s Wastewater Treatment Plant and appurtenances, the sewers, pipes, pumping stations and other devices conveying wastewater to the treatment plant, and sludge processing systems whether operated by the Town / City directly or by a contractor or agent of the Town / City.
Pretreatment requirement shall mean any substantive or procedural requirement, other than a national pretreatment standard, applicable to industrial users.
Property, Parcel, or Lot shall mean an area of land as marked on the assessment drawings in the office of the Town Assessor, Town of Essex, Massachusetts.
Public sewer shall mean a sewer in which all owners of abutting properties have equal rights, and is controlled by Town or City.
Real Property shall mean any property on which is situated any building that has been improved with a connection to the public wastewater collection and treatment system operated by the Town
Receiving Water Quality Standards shall mean the Massachusetts Water Quality Standards, as provided by M.G.L. Chapter 21, Section 27.
Receiving Waters shall mean any watercourse, river, pond, ditch, lake, aquifer, or other body of surface or groundwater receiving discharge of wastewaters.
Sanitary sewer shall mean a sewer that carries sewage, and from which storm, surface and groundwaters are prohibited.
Septage shall mean the wastes, primarily of sewage origin, that are removed from a cesspool, septic tank, or similar receptacle.
Sewage shall mean a combination of water-carried wastes from residences, business buildings, institutions and industrial establishments.
Sewage Treatment Plant or Wastewater Treatment Facility shall mean any arrangement of devices and structures used for treating sewage.
Sewage works shall mean all facilities for collecting, pumping, treating and disposing of sewage.
Sewer shall mean a pipe or conduit for carrying sewage.
“Shall” is mandatory; “May” is permissive.
Significant Industrial User or Significant User shall mean any industrial sewer user who (i) has a discharge flow of five thousand (5,000) gallons or more per normal operating day or (ii) discharges wastes containing toxic pollutants as defined pursuant to Section 307 of the Act or (iii) is found by the Town, the City, DEP or the EPA to have a significant impact, either singly or in combination with other contributing industries, on the POTW, the quality of sludge, the POTW effluent quality, or air emissions generated by the sewage works.
Sewer service connection shall mean the extension of the pipe, used only for discharge of sewage, from a point of five (5) feet outside the foundation wall of the building served to its junction with the sanitary sewer. The term shall have the same meaning as the term “building sewer” or “particular sewer “ in M.G.L. c. 83.
Significant noncompliance (SNC) An industrial user is in significant noncompliance if its violations meet one or more of the following criteria:
Chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined as those in which sixty-six (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;
Technical Review Criteria (TRC) violations, defined as those in which thirty-three (33) percent or more of all of the measurements for any pollutant parameter taken during a six-month period equal or exceed the product of the daily maximum limit or the average limit times the applicable TRC (TRC=1.4 for BOD, TSS, fats, oil and grease, and 1.2 for all other pollutants except pH), or in the case of pH, when at least one-third (1/3) of all measurements taken during a six-month period are either:
At least one (1) standard unit greater than any applicable upper limit on pH; or
At least one (1) standard unit less than any applicable limit on pH. (For industrial users required to continuously monitor pH as a condition of their industrial user discharge permit, significant noncompliance for pH exists if the total of all excursions outside the permitted range with a duration equal to or exceeding thirty (30) minutes, totals seven (7) hours, twenty-six (26) minutes or more in any month.)
Any other violation of a pretreatment effluent limit (daily maximum or longer-term average) that has caused, alone or in combination with other discharges, interference or pass through;
Any discharge of a pollutant that has caused imminent endangerment to human health, welfare or the environment.
Failure to meet, within ninety (90) days after the scheduled date, a compliance schedule milestone contained in an enforcement order, for starting construction, completing construction or attaining final compliance;
Failure to provide, within thirty (30) days after due date, required reports such as baseline monitoring reports, periodic self-monitoring reports, and reports on compliance with compliance schedules;
Failure to accurately report noncompliance; or
Any other violation or group of violations that will adversely affect the operation or implementation of the pretreatment program.
Slug shall mean any discharge of untreated or inadequately pretreated process wastewater, industrial waste, chemicals or other liquid, resulting from the breakdown of equipment, spills, process upset, accidental or intentional discharge or emergency bypass.
Slug loading shall mean:
a) Pollutants which create a fire or explosion hazard in the POTW.
b) Pollutants that cause corrosive structural damage to the POTW.
c) Solid or viscous pollutants in amounts that will cause obstruction to the flow in the POTW.
d) Any pollutant, including oxygen-demanding pollutants (BOD, etc.) released in a
discharge at a flow rate and/or pollutant concentration that will cause interference with the POTW.
e) Heat in amounts which will inhibit biological activity in the POTW resulting in interference.
f) The creation of other circumstances otherwise described in Article III of these Regulations at the discretion of the Board.
Storm drain sometimes termed “storm sewer”, shall mean a conduit that carries storm and surface waters and drainage, but exclude sewage and industrial wastes.
Suspended Solids shall mean solids that either float on the surface of, or are in suspension in water, sewage, or other liquids, and which are removable by laboratory filtering, and are referred to as non-filterable residue in the laboratory test procedures prescribed by the EPA.
Town shall mean the Town of Essex, Massachusetts.
Toxic Pollutant shall mean a pollutant or combination of pollutants listed as toxic in regulations promulgated by the EPA and/or in the Massachusetts Substance List.
Transfer shall mean the conveyance of title in real property, with or without consideration, whether by deed, lease, assignment or any other form of conveyance and whether or not the transfer is to a person related by blood or marriage to the transferor, but including neither a mortgage nor a change in the form of ownership among the same owners (such as placing real property within a family trust of which the owners are the beneficiaries).
Unpolluted Water shall mean water not containing any pollutants limited or prohibited by the effluent standards in effect, or water whose discharge will not cause any violation of receiving water quality standards.
User shall mean any person who contributes, causes, or permits the contribution of sewage into public sewer or sewage works.
Wastes shall mean substances in liquid, solid or gaseous form, which can be carried in water.
Watercourse shall mean a channel in which a flow of water occurs, either continuously or intermittently.
Well shall mean a private source of water utilized by a person.
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