Kern County Municipal Code Art. II Definitions

The definitions given in this article shall be used in the interpretation of this chapter, the issuance of permits, the making of charges for service and all other operations of this chapter unless another meaning for the word is apparent from the context.

"Ad valorem tax" means the tax levied for the benefit of an individual district on the assessed value of property within its boundaries.

(Prior code § 39 11.5.01)

"Assessed value" means that portion of the total assessed value of the property upon which individual districts' taxes are levied.

(Prior code § 3911.5.02)

"Board" or "board of directors" means the governing board of the district.

(Prior code § 3911.5.03)

"BOD" or "biochemical oxygen demand" means the measure of decomposable organic material in domestic or industrial wastewaters as represented by the oxygen utilized over a period of five (5) days at 20°C and as determined by the appropriate procedure in "Standard Methods."

(Prior code § 3911.5.04)

"Chief engineer" means the general manager of the county sanitation district or his duly authorized deputy or agent.

(Ord. G-5704 § 3, 1991: prior code § 3911.5.05)

"Chlorine demand" means the difference between the amount of chlorine added to a wastewater sample and the amount remaining at the end of a thirty (30) minute period as determined by the procedures given in "Standard Methods."

(Prior code § 3911.5.06)

"COD" or "chemical oxygen demand" means the measure of chemically decomposable material in domestic or industrial wastewater as represented by the oxygen utilized as determined by the appropriate procedure described in "Standard Methods."

(Prior code § 3911.5.07)

"Contiguous property" means property which is owned or hired by the industrial wastewater discharger, is contiguous to the source of industrial wastewater discharge, and is made up of land parcels with common boundaries or parcels separated only by publicly owned or operated rights-of-way. Publicly owned rights-of-way include those owned or operated by railroad, pipeline, water, power, electrical, gas, telephone or other public utility companies. Only those parcels having a common boundary, if the public right-of-way is removed, shall be considered to be contiguous.

(Prior code § 3911.5.08)

"County" means the county of Kern.

(Prior code § 3911.5.09)

"County engineer" means the chief engineer of the county sanitation district or his duly authorized deputy or agent.

(Ord. G-5704 § 4, 1991: prior code § 3911.5.10)

"Discharger" means any person that discharges or causes a discharge to a public sewer.

(Prior code § 3911.5.11)

"Dissolved solids" or "dissolved matter" means the solid matter in solution in the wastewater and shall be obtained by evaporation of a sample from which all suspended matter has been removed by filtration as determined by the procedures in "Standard Methods."

(Prior code § 3911.5.12)

"District" means, unless otherwise specified, the county sanitation district which adopts this chapter by reference in the manner provided in Health and Safety Code Sections 4766.1 4766.5. The terms "district" and "county sanitation district" shall be interchangeable.

(Prior code § 3911.5.13)

"Domestic wastewater" means the water carried wastes produced from noncommercial or nonindustrial activities and which result from normal human living processes.

(Prior code § 3911.5.14)

"Effluent" means the liquid outflow of any facility designed to treat, convey or retain wastewater.

(Prior code § 3911.5.15)

"House connection" means the sewer connecting the building sewer or building waste drainage system to the public sewer for the purpose of conveying domestic wastewater.

(Prior code § 3911.5.16)

"Industrial connection sewer" means the sewer connecting the building sewer or building waste drainage system to the public sewer for the purpose of conveying industrial wastewater.

(Prior code § 3911.5.17)

"Industrial wastewater" means any water carried wastes and wastewater of the community excluding domestic wastewater and contaminated water, and includes all wastewater from any producing, manufacturing, processing, institutional, commercial, agricultural or other operation where the wastewater discharged includes significant quantities of wastes of nonhuman origin.

(Prior code § 3911.5.18)

"Inspector" means a person authorized by the chief engineer to inspect wastewater generation, conveyance, processing and disposal facilities.

(Prior code § 3911.5.19)

"Gravity separation interceptor" means any facility designed, constructed and operated for the purpose of removing and retaining dangerous, deleterious or prohibited constituents from wastewater by differential gravity separation before discharge to the public sewer.

(Prior code § 3911.5.20)

"Lateral sewer, collecting sewer or main line sewer" means the public sewer usually eight (8) inches or larger in diameter and used to collect wastewater from house connection and industrial connection sewers and transport it to trunk sewers. Lateral, collecting or main line sewers are normally built and maintained by the local sewering agency.

(Prior code § 3911.5.21)

"Local sewering agency" means the city or county or other public agency legally authorized to construct, maintain and operate a system of lateral or collecting sewers.

(Prior code § 3911.5.22)

"Ordinance" means, unless otherwise specified, the ordinance from which this chapter derives. also known as the Kern County model wastewater ordinance for county sanitation districts. The words "ordinance" and "chapter" as used herein are interchangeable.

(Prior code § 3911.5.23)

"Peak flow rate" means the average rate at which wastewater is discharged to a public sewer during the highest thirty (30) minute flow period in the preceding twelve (12) months.

(Prior code § 3911.5.24)

"Person" means any individual, partnership. committee, association, corporation. public agency, and any other organization or group of persons, public or private.

(Prior code § 3911.5.25)

"Public corporation" means this state and any political subdivision thereof, any incorporated municipality therein, any public agency of the state or any political subdivision thereof, or any corporate municipal instrumentality of this state.

(Prior code § 3911.5.26)

"Public sewer" means any sewer dedicated to public use and whose use is controlled by a public corporation.

(Prior code § 3911.5.27)

"Radioactive material" means material containing chemical elements that spontaneously change their atomic structure by emitting any particles, rays or energy forms.

(Prior code § 3911.5.28)

"Section" means a section of this chapter.

(Prior code § 3911.5.29)

"Sewage" means wastewater.

(Prior code § 3911.5.30)

"Sewage pumping plant" means any facility designed and constructed to raise wastewater in elevation or to overcome head losses due to pipeline friction.

(Prior code § 3911.5.31)

"Sewerage" means any and all facilities used or collecting, conveying, pumping, treating and disposing of wastewater.

(Prior code § 3911.5.32)

"Sewerage system" means a network of wastewater collection, conveyance, treatment and disposal facilities interconnected by sewers, and owned by the districts.

(Prior code § 3911.5.33)

"Shall" is mandatory and "may" is permissive.

(Prior code § 3911.5.34)

"Solid wastes" means the non-liquid carried wastes normally considered to be suitable for disposal with refuse at sanitary landfill refuse disposal sites.

(Prior code § 3911.5.35)

"Standard Methods" means the current edition of "Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater" as published by the American Public Health Association.

(Prior code § 3911.5.36)

"Suspended solids" or "suspended matter" means the insoluble solid matter suspended in wastewater that is separable by laboratory filtration in accordance with the procedure described in "Standard Methods."

(Prior code § 3911.5.37)

"Trade secrets" includes but is not limited to any formula, plan, pattern, process, tool, mechanism, compound, procedure, production data, or compilation of information which is not patented, which is known only to certain individuals within a commercial concern who are using it to fabricate, produce, or compound an article of trade or a service having commercial value and which gives its user an opportunity to obtain a business advantage over competitors who do not know or use it.

(Prior code § 3911.5.38)

"Trunk sewer" means a sewer constructed, maintained and operated by the districts that conveys wastewater to districts' treatment facilities and into which lateral and collecting sewers discharge.

(Prior code § 3911.5.39)

"Uncontaminated water" means any wastewater of the community not contaminated or polluted with wastewater and which is suitable or could readily be made suitable for discharge to the municipal stormwater drainage system.

(Prior code § 3911.5.40)

"User" means discharger.

(Prior code § 39 11.5.41)

"Wastewater" means the water-carried wastes of the community derived from human or industrial sources, including domestic wastewater and industrial wastewater. Rainwater, groundwater or drainage of uncontaminated water is not wastewater.

(Prior code § 39 11.5.42)