Pacifica Municipal Code Art. 1 General

This chapter shall be known as the Pacifica Wastewater Control Ordinance.

(§ 1(Exh. A), Ord. 784 C.S., eff. December 28, 2011)

Wastewater disposal facilities have been constructed for the treatment and disposal of wastewater and industrial wastes originating within the City. The purpose of this chapter is to control wastewater to provide the maximum public benefit of the wastewater disposal facilities of the City.

(§ 1(Exh. A), Ord. 784 C.S., eff. December 28, 2011)

For the purposes of this chapter, unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the meaning of terms used shall be as follows:

(a) "Best management practices" (BMPs) shall mean schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to implement the prohibitions listed in Section 16-13.202. BMPs also 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.

(b) "Business classification code" (BCC) shall mean a classification of dischargers based on the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification Manual, Office of Management and Budget of the United States of America.

(c) "Bypass" shall mean the intentional diversion of wastestreams from any portion of a discharger's treatment facility.

(d) "Categorical industrial user" (CIU) shall mean a discharger subject to a categorical pretreatment standard or categorical standard.

(e) "Categorical pretreatment standards" shall mean any regulations containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the EPA in accordance with Section 307(b) and (c) of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1317) and that apply to a specific category of industrial user and which appear in Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (40 CFR) Chapter I, Subchapter N, Parts 405-471.

(f) "Chemical oxygen demand, filtered" shall mean the amount of chemical oxygen demand passing through a glass filter as measured in conformance with the City's approved method. Chemical oxygen demand is the measure of the oxygen equivalent of the organic matter of a sample that is susceptible to oxidation by a strong chemical oxidant.

(g) "City" shall mean the City of Pacifica, California.

(h) "City Manager" shall mean the City Manager of the City of Pacifica, California, or his or her designated representative.

(i) "Community sewer system" shall mean the pipes and conduits for carrying wastewater owned and operated by the City that receive wastewater from the side sewer of a discharger.

(j) "Contamination" shall mean an impairment of the quality of the waters of the State by waste to a degree which creates a hazard to the public health through poisoning or through the spread of disease. Contamination shall include any equivalent effect resulting from the disposal of wastewater, whether or not waters of the State are affected.

(k) "Director" shall mean the Director of the City's Sanitary Sewer Collection Division, or his or her designated representative.

(l) "Discharger" shall mean any person who discharges or causes the discharge of wastewater to a community sewer system.

(m) "Domestic" refers to wastewater originating from residential properties. The term "non-domestic" refers to wastewater originating from non-residential properties.

(n) "Federal Act, Clean Water Act, or Act" shall mean the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, PL 92-500, and any amendments thereto; as well as any guidelines, limitations, and standards promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency.

(o) "General pretreatment regulations" shall mean any regulations promulgated by EPA in accordance with Sections 307(b) and (c), and 402(b)(8) of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1317) for the implementation, administration and enforcement of pretreatment standards.

(p) "Indirect discharge" or "discharge" shall mean the introduction of pollutants into a POTW from any non-domestic source regulated under Section 307(b), (c) or (d) of the Clean Water Act.

(q) "Industrial user" (IU) shall mean a source of indirect discharge.

(r) "Industrial waste" includes any nondomestic liquid or semisolid wastes from any producing, manufacturing, or processing operation of whatever nature.

(s) "Interference" shall mean a discharge which, alone or in conjunction with discharges from other sources, both:

(1) Inhibits or disrupts the POTW, its treatment processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use or disposal; and

(2) Therefore is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the POTW'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 or local regulations): Section 405 of the Clean Water Act, the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) (including Title II, more commonly referred to as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and including State regulations contained in any State sludge management plan prepared pursuant to Subtitle D of the SWDA), the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act.

(t) "Major categorical industrial user" (major CIU) shall mean a categorical industrial user that discharges more than five thousand (5,000) gallons per day of total categorical wastewater.

(u) "Minor categorical industrial user" (minor CIU) shall mean a categorical industrial user that discharges between one hundred (100) and five thousand (5,000) gallons per day of total categorical wastewater.

(v) "National Pretreatment Standard, pretreatment standard, or standard" shall mean any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the EPA in accordance with Section 307(b) and (c) of the Act, which applies to industrial users. This term includes prohibitive discharge limits established pursuant to 40 CFR 403.5.

(w) "New source" shall mean any building, structure, facility, or installation from which there is or may be a discharge of pollutants, the construction of which commenced after the publication of proposed pretreatment standards which will be applicable to such source if such standards are thereafter promulgated, provided that:

(1) The building, structure, facility or installation is constructed at a site at which no other source is located; or

(2) The building, structure, facility or installation totally replaces the process or production equipment that causes the discharge of pollutants at an existing source; or

(3) The production or wastewater generating processes of the building, structure, facility or installation are substantially independent of an existing source at the same site. 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.

(x) "Non-significant categorical industrial user" (NSCIU) shall mean a categorical industrial user that never discharges more than one hundred (100) gallons per day of total categorical wastewater and:

(1) Has consistently complied with all applicable categorical pretreatment standards and requirements;

(2) Submits the certification statement required in 40 CFR 403.12(q); and

(3) Never discharges any untreated concentrated wastewater.

(y) "Nuisance" shall mean a discharge of wastewater in violation of City regulations or orders, or which is or could be harmful to or unreasonably affect the wastewater disposal facilities of the City, or which impairs or unreasonably affects the operation and maintenance of such facilities, or which violates quantity, quality, or flow standards adopted by the City, and all wastewater discharges which unreasonably affect the quality of the City's treatment plant effluent in such a manner that receiving water quality requirements established by law cannot be met by the City.

(z) "Order" means a mechanism to control the contribution to the POTW by each discharger to ensure compliance with applicable pretreatment standards and requirements and other wastewater discharge requirements. Includes, but is not limited to, wastewater discharge permits, pollution prevention permits, cease and desist orders, administrative or other orders.

(aa) "Pass-through" shall mean a discharge which exits the POTW into waters of the State in quantities or concentrations which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the POTW's NPDES permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation).

(bb) "Person" shall mean any individual, partnership, firm, association, corporation, or public agency, including the State of California and the United States of America.

(cc) "Pollution" shall mean 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.

(dd) "Premises" shall mean a parcel of real property, or portion thereof, including any improvements thereon, which is determined by the City to be a single unit for purposes of receiving, using, and paying for wastewater disposal service. In making this determination, the City shall take into consideration such factors as whether the unit could reasonably be subdivided, number and location of side sewers, and whether the unit is being used for a single activity and, if not, what is the principal activity for wastewater disposal services, but in any case the City determination shall be final.

(ee) "Pretreatment requirement" shall mean any substantive or procedural pretreatment requirement other than a National pretreatment standard.

(ff) "Process water" shall mean 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, finished product, byproduct, or waste product.

(gg) "Publicly-owned treatment works" (POTW) shall mean any devices and systems used by the City in the storage, treatment, recycling and reclamation of municipal sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature.

(hh) "Receiving water quality requirements" shall mean requirements for City's treatment plant effluent established by law or by State or Federal regulatory agencies for the protection of receiving water quality. "Requirements" shall include effluent limitations, and waste discharge standards, requirements, limitations, or prohibitions which may be established or adopted from time to time by State or Federal laws or regulatory agencies.

(ii) "Representative data" shall mean data obtained through analysis of representative samples using approved analytical methods and procedures.

(jj) "Representative sample" shall mean samples of discharges that are obtained using approved sampling methods, that are representative of the quantity and quality of the discharge, and the conditions occurring during the time the discharge was sampled or measured.

(kk) "Severe property damage" shall mean substantial physical damage to property, damage to the treatment facilities which causes them to become inoperable, or substantial and permanent loss of natural resources which can reasonably be expected to occur in the absence of a bypass. Severe property damage does not mean economic loss caused by delays in production.

(ll) "Sewage" shall mean the water-borne wastes derived from human habitation and use of buildings for residential, business, commercial, institutional, and industrial purposes.

(mm) "Side sewer" shall mean a sewer conveying the wastewater of a discharger from a residence, building, or other structure to a community sewer, including direct connections to a community sewer where permitted by the public agency.

(nn) "Significant industrial user" [shall mean]:

(1) A user subject to categorical pretreatment standards; or

(2) A user that:

a. Discharges an average of twenty-five thousand (25,000) gallons per day or more of process wastewater to the POTW (excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling, and boiler blowdown wastewater);

b. Contributes a process wastestream which makes up five (5%) percent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the POTW treatment plant; or

c. Is designated as such by the City on the basis that it has a reasonable potential for adversely affecting the POTW's operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement.

(3) Upon a finding that a user meeting the criteria in subsection (b) above 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 received from a user, determine that such user should not be considered a significant industrial user.

(oo) "Significant noncompliance" shall mean a significant industrial user (or any IU which violates paragraphs (3), (4), or (8) below) is in significant noncompliance with applicable pretreatment requirements if any violation meets one or more of the following criteria:

(1) Chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined here as those in which sixty-six (66%) percent or more of all of the measurements taken during a six-month period exceed (by any magnitude) a numeric pretreatment standard or requirement, including instantaneous limits, as defined by 40 CFR 403.3(1).

(2) Technical review criteria (TRC) violations, defined here as those in which thirty-three (33%) percent or more of all of the measurements for each pollutant parameter taken during a six-month period are equal to or exceed the product of the numeric pretreatment standard or requirement including instantaneous limits, as defined by 40 CFR 403.3(1) 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 standard or requirement as defined by 40 CFR 403.3(1) (daily maximum, long-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 human health, welfare or to the environment or has resulted in the POTW's exercise of its emergency authority to halt or prevent such a discharge.

(5) Failure to meet, within ninety (90) days after the due 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 forty-five (45) days after the due date, required reports such as baseline monitoring reports, ninety-day compliance reports, periodic self-monitoring reports and reports on compliance with compliance schedules.

(7) Failure to accurately report noncompliance.

(8) Any other violation or group of violations which the City determines will adversely affect the operation or implementation of the local pretreatment program.

(pp) "Slug load or slug discharge" shall mean any discharge at a flow rate or concentration, which could cause a violation of the prohibited discharge standards in Article 2 of this chapter. A slug discharge is any discharge of a non-routine, episodic nature, including but not limited to an accidental spill or non-customary batch discharge which has a reasonable potential to cause interference or pass through, or in any other way violate the City's regulations, local limits or permit conditions.

(qq) "Suspended solids" shall mean the concentration of nonfilterable residue dried at 103° to 105° C on a filter in conformance with the City's approved method.

(rr) "User" shall mean any person who discharges, causes, or permits the discharge of wastewater into a community sewer. Same as "discharger".

(ss) "Waste" includes 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 producing, manufacturing, or processing operation of whatever nature.

(tt) "Wastewater" shall mean all sewage, industrial, and other wastes and waters, whether treated or untreated, discharged into or permitted to enter a community sewer system. As used in this chapter, unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, "wastewater" shall mean sewage, industrial, and other wastes discharged to a community sewer by any person.

(uu) "Wastewater disposal purposes" shall mean the acquisition, construction, enlargement, operation, and maintenance of wastewater treatment works, pumping plants, outfall sewers, and appurtenances by a special district.

(vv) "Wastewater disposal facilities" or "City facilities" includes wastewater treatment works, pumping plants, outfall sewers, and appurtenances constructed, operated, and maintained by the City for wastewater disposal purposes.

(ww) "Wastewater strength" shall mean the quality of wastewater discharged as measured by its elements, including constituents and characteristics.

(§ 1(Exh. A), Ord. 784 C.S., eff. December 28, 2011)

Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter to the contrary, City and any discharger may enter into an agreement where unusual conditions compel special terms and conditions and charges for the treatment and disposal of the wastewater by the City. However, this section does not authorize the waiver of Federal or State standards or requirements.

(§ 1(Exh. A), Ord. 784 C.S., eff. December 28, 2011)

All dischargers shall pay wastewater disposal charges as provided for in Chapter 6 of this Title.

(§ 1(Exh. A), Ord. 784 C.S., eff. December 28, 2011)