Mountain House Municipal Code Ch. 1 General Provisions

(a) The purpose of this Division is to facilitate the maximum beneficial use of the City's sewer system while preventing blockages of the sewer lines resulting from discharges of fats, oils, and grease (collectively "FOG") into the public sewer, and to specify appropriate FOG discharge requirements for food service or industrial establishments as defined herein.

(b) This Division shall be known as the FOG Control Program and may be so cited.

(c) The provisions set forth in this Division are designed to ensure compliance with State, Federal, and local laws and regulations and to allow the City to meet applicable standards.

(d) This Division also establishes quantity and quality standards on all discharges containing FOG, which may alone or collectively cause or contribute to FOG accumulation in the sewer facilities causing or potentially causing or contributing to the occurrence of sanitary sewer overflows.

(Ord. 2024-23, § 1(Exh. A), 2024)

This Division shall apply to discharges of wastewater containing FOG conveyed to the public sewer from any commercial or institutional food service establishment, including significant industrial users, unless their wastewater discharge permit states otherwise. All industrial users are subject to State, Federal and/or local, pretreatment regulations.

(Ord. 2024-23, § 1(Exh. A), 2024)

(a) Unless otherwise defined herein, terms related to water quality shall have the same meaning as those as adopted in the latest edition of Standard Methods for Examination of Water and Wastewater, published by the American Public Health Association, the American Water Works Association, and the Water Environment Federation. The testing procedures for waste constituents and characteristics shall be as provided in 40 CFR 136.

(b) Other terms not herein defined but defined in other sections of the District Code or in the latest edition of the California Building Standards Code shall have the meaning set forth therein.

(1) Subject to the foregoing provisions and for the purposes of this Division, the following definitions shall apply:

"Best management practices" or "BMPs" means activities, prohibitions, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to prevent or reduce the introduction of FOG into the public sewer.

"Blockage" means a partial or complete obstruction of wastewater flowing through a sewer pipeline.

"Brown grease" means floatable FOG, settled solids, and associated wastewater retained by grease interceptors and grease traps.

"Change in law" means a change to any State or Federal law, permit or regulation; changes to the City Municipal Code; changes to any City NPDES permit or waste discharge requirement; or the subsequent existence of any court order, consent decree, injunction or other regulatory or legal imposition that affects the use and/or operation of the City's sanitary sewer system and any other public or private sanitary sewer systems, lines or other public or private infrastructure that connects to the City's sanitary sewer system.

"Change in operations" means any change in the ownership, food types, or operational procedures that have the potential to change the amount of FOG discharged by a Food Service Establishment to the City's wastewater collection and treatment system.

"Collection system" means the public sewer system consisting of all pipes and conveyance system components conveying wastewater to the City's wastewater treatment plant.

"Compliance schedule agreement" means an agreement entered into between the City and a Food Service Establishment due to its non-compliance with the requirements of its applicable FOG wastewater discharge permit.

"Composite sample" means a collection of individual samples obtained at intervals during a specified period of time. Flow-proportioned composite samples are obtained by collecting incremental samples with volumes proportional to flow. The resulting mixture (composite sample) forms a representative sample of the waste stream discharged during the sample period.

"Design hydraulic depth" means the total operating depth of interceptor contents at which the interceptor is designed to operate.

"Director" means the Mountain House Director of Public Works and their authorized representative.

"Enforcement Officer" means any City employee or agent of the City with authority to enforce the provisions of this Division and the authority to make any decision, on behalf of the Director, required or called for by this Division.

"Fats, oils and grease" or "FOG" means any substance such as vegetable or animal product that is used in or is a by-product of, the cooking or food preparation process and that becomes or may become viscous or solidifies or may solidify, with a change in temperature or other conditions.

"FOG Control Program" means the Program identified in and developed pursuant to this Division.

"Food grinder" means any device installed in the plumbing or sewage system for the purpose of grinding food waste or food preparation by-products for the purpose of disposing of it in the sewer system.

"Food Service Establishment (FSE)" means food facilities as defined in California Uniform Retail Food Facilities Law (CURFFL) Section 113789 of the Health and Safety Code and any commercial or industrial entity within the boundaries of the sanitary sewer service area of the District's wastewater collection and treatment system, operating in a permanently constructed structure such as a room, building, or place, or portion thereof, maintained used, or operated for the purpose of storing, preparing, serving or manufacturing, packaging, or otherwise handling food for sale to other entities or for consumption by the public, its members or employees and which has any process or device that uses or produces FOG, or grease vapors, steam, fumes, smoke or odors that are required to be removed by mechanical ventilation as required by Health and Safety Code Section 114149. An establishment that limits its food preparation activities to those defined as "limited food preparation" in Health and Safety Code Section 113818 is not considered an FSE when engaged only in reheating, hot holding or assembly of ready to eat food products, provided that the establishment has no wastewater discharge containing a significant amount of FOG.

"Grab sample" means a sample taken from a waste stream on a one-time basis without regard to the flow in the waste stream and without consideration of time.

"Grease control device" means any grease interceptor, grease trap, or other mechanisms, device, or process which attaches to, or is applied to, wastewater plumbing fixtures and lines, the purpose of which is to trap, collect and/or treat FOG prior to it being discharged into the public sewer.

"Grease interceptor" means a multi-compartment device that primarily uses gravity to separate FOG from the wastewater as it moves from one (1) compartment to the next. The design, construction, sizing, and installation of grease interceptors shall conform to this Division and the most current edition of the California Plumbing Code. In the event of a conflict, this Division will control.

"Grease trap" means a grease control device that is used to serve individual plumbing fixtures. A grease trap is typically installed indoors, under, or near a dishwashing sink.

"Hot spots" means sewer lines that have experienced grease related blockages or sanitary sewer overflow and that must be cleaned or maintained frequently to avoid blockages of the public sewer.

"Inspector" means a person authorized by the Director to inspect any existing or proposed wastewater generation, conveyance, processing, and/or disposal facilities.

"Institution" means a school, church, hospital, lodge, club, convalescent home, or other similar entity.

"Interceptor" means a "grease interceptor."

"Manifest" means that receipt, which is retained by the generator of wastes for disposing of recyclable wastes or liquid wastes as required by the City.

"New construction" means any structure planned or under construction for which a sanitary sewer connection permit has not been issued.

"Person" means any individual, partnership, co-partnership, firm, company, corporation, association, joint-stock company, trust, estate, governmental entity or any other legal entity, or their legal representative, agents, or assigns. The masculine gender shall include the feminine, and the singular shall include the plural where indicated by the context.

"Public sewer" means a sewer owned and operated by the City. All public sewers must be constructed in accordance with the City's regulations and specifications for the construction of sanitary sewers.

"Remodel" or "remodeling" means any physical and/or operational change to an FSE that involves any one (1) or a combination of the following:

(a) Under-slab plumbing in the food processing area;

(b) A thirty (30) percent or greater increase in the net public seating area;

(c) A thirty (30) percent or greater increase in the size of the kitchen area;

(d) Any change in the size or type of food preparation equipment;

(e) Any remodel, addition, alteration, or repair valued greater than seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000.00).

"Sanitary sewer" means a sewer to which storm, surface, and ground waters are not intentionally admitted.

"Sanitary sewer overflow" or "SSO" means any overflow, spill, release, discharge, or diversion of untreated or partially treated wastewater from a sanitary sewer system.

"Sanitary waste" means domestic wastewater.

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

"Sewer lateral" means the pipe between the City's sewer mainline and the customer's service connection.

"Sludge" means any solid, semi-solid, and/or liquid decant, sediment, or supernatant from a manufacturing process, utility service, tank, vault, or FOG control facility.

"Storm sewers" or "storm drains" means a sewer that carries storm and/or surface runoff water but excludes domestic sewage and polluted industrial wastes.

"Variance" means an approval granted to a permittee to vary from a specific requirement or requirements of this Chapter when it can be demonstrated that the requirement(s) can be met with an equal or better process, technology or method.

"Waste" means sewage and any and all other waste substances, liquid, solid, gaseous or radioactive, associated with human habitation or of human or animal nature, including such wastes placed within containers of whatever nature prior to and for the purpose of disposal.

"Waste-hauler" means any person carrying on or engaging in vehicular transport of waste as part of or incidental to, any business for the purpose of discharging said waste into the City's system.

"Wastewater" means the liquid and water-carried industrial or domestic wastes from dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities, and institutions, together which may be present, whether treated or untreated, which is contributed to or permitted to enter the publicly owned treatment works (POTW).

"Wastewater constituents and characteristics" means the individual chemical, physical, bacteriological and radiological parameters, including volume and flow rate and such other parameters that serve to define, classify or measure the quality and quantity of wastewater.

"Yellow grease" means spent cooking oil and other fats and oils collected from commercial or industrial cooking operations. Yellow grease is typically collected in bins outside of the FSE for recycling.

(Ord. 2024-23, § 1(Exh. A), 2024)