Santa Barbara County Municipal Code Art. V Sewer Connections and Use

All plumbing which receives the waste discharge from any building, structure or place of business, shall be connected to an available public sewer.

All plumbing receiving waste discharge which is connected to a private disposal system shall be connected to a public sewer within one year after a public sewer becomes available.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

The connection to a public sewer required by section 22A-42 of this chapter may be dispensed with when no public sewer is available and when, in the opinion of the health officer of the county, a private sewage disposal system would be adequate and safe and would not constitute a menace to public health.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

All plumbing receiving waste discharge which is not connected to a public sewer shall be connected to a private sewage disposal system approved by the building official and the health officer of the county.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

No person shall discharge or cause to be discharged any of the following described waste liquids, oils or solids into any public sewer:

(a) Any liquid or vapor having a temperature greater than one hundred forty degrees Fahrenheit;

(b) Any waste containing gasoline, benzene, naphtha, petroleum oils or any volatile, inflammable or explosive gas, liquid or solid;

(c) Any waste which contains more than one hundred parts per million by weight of fat, oil or grease;

(d) Any sand, grit, straw, metal, glass, rags, feathers, tar, plastic, wood, manure, dead animals, offal or any other solid or viscous substance capable of causing obstruction to the flow in sewers, or which in any way interferes with the proper operation of the sewage works;

(e) Any garbage which has not been properly shredded;

(f) Any waste containing a toxic or poisonous substance in sufficient quantities to constitute a hazard to humans or animals or to create a hazard at the treatment plant, or to injure or interfere with any sewage treatment process;

(g) Any waste containing suspended solids of such character or quantity that unusual attention or expense is required to handle such material at the sewage treatment plant;

(h) Any noxious or malodorous gas or substance capable of creating a public nuisance;

(i) Any liquid waste having a pH lower than five and five-tenths, or higher than nine, or having a corrosive property capable of causing damage or hazard to structures or equipment of the sewerage system or the treatment plant;

(j) Any cesspool or septic tank drainage, except as provided for by this title.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

No person shall discharge, or cause to be discharged, any storm water, surface water, ground water, subsurface drainage, uncontaminated, unseptic, non-septic cooling water, boiler exhaust, blow-off water, non-septic wash-rack drainage, swimming pool water, or uncontaminated and non-septic industrial process water into any public sanitary sewer.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

No person shall make or maintain any connection by pipes or otherwise with any public sewer by which roof or surface water may run into any such sewer.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

Grease, oil and sand interceptors shall be provided when in the opinion of the health officer of the county they are necessary for the proper handling of liquid waste containing excessive amounts of grease, oil, sand, inflammable waste, or other harmful materials, except that no such interceptor shall be required for private dwellings. All interceptors shall be of a type, capacity and construction approved by the health officer of the county and shall be accessible to the health officer of the county for inspection.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

The discharge into a public sewer of any waste meeting any of the following conditions shall be subject to review by the public works director:

(a) A five-day biochemical oxygen demand greater than three hundred parts per million by weight;

(b) Containing more than three hundred parts per million by weight of suspended solids;

(c) Containing any quantity of substances having characteristics described in Section 22A-45.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

When deemed necessary in the opinion of the public works director, the owner shall provide, at his own expense, such preliminary pretreatment as may be required to bring the objectionable characteristics or constituents of the waste to be disposed of in the city sewage disposal system within the limits provided for in Sections 22A-45 and 22A-49.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

Tests, measurements and analysis of the characteristics of sewage waste, to which reference is made in Sections 22A-45, 22A-48 and 22A-49, shall be made in accordance with the standard methods for examination of water and sewage, and shall be determined at the site of the discharge, or upon suitable samples taken from the discharge.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

No person shall dispose or cause to be disposed any effluent from any septic tank into any sewer or manhole except when and as directed by the public works director.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

Smoking, open fires, the striking of matches, open-flame lamps or lanterns, and electrical equipment and appliances that will generate or produce sparks of fire shall not be permitted in any tunnel, storm drain, sewer or portion thereof where there is or may be an accumulation of inflammable gas in explosive quantities given off from the surrounding earth formation, from pools or accumulations of petroleum products, or from leakage from conduits, tanks or reservoirs carrying or storing gas or a liquid capable of giving off or generating inflammable gas.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

No person shall, without authorization from the public works director, open, enter, disturb or clean any public sewer, structure or appurtenance thereto.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

No person shall do, or cause to be done, any maintenance which would damage or obstruct the flow of any public sewer.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

It shall be the responsibility of each property owner whose property is connected to the sewer system to maintain continuously and satisfactorily in operation at his own expense, any house connection sewer private sewage disposal system or industrial liquid waste pretreatment facility.

Failure to maintain such industrial liquid waste pretreatment facilities shall be sufficient for immediate revocation of the industrial liquid waste permit of the person so failing and disconnection of his premises from the public sewer.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

The public works director or the health officer of the county or any authorized representative of either the public works department or the health department is hereby authorized to make such inspections as such department may deem necessary at any reasonable time in any building, premises or lot for any of the purposes hereinafter mentioned in the section. No person shall interfere with, prevent or refuse to permit such authorized persons to enter any building, premises or lot at any reasonable time for any of the following purposes:

(a) To determine the size, depth and location of any sewer connection;

(b) To determine the outlet of any sewer connection by depositing harmless testing materials in any plumbing fixture attached thereto and flushing the same, if necessary;

(c) To determine by measurements and samples the quantity and nature of the sewage or waste water being discharged into any sewer;

(d) To determine the location of the roof, swimming pool, floor and surface drains and whether or not they connect to a sewer.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

When a house connection sewer is constructed connecting a main line sewer, a house sewer which previously drained to a septic tank or cesspool, the septic tank or cesspool shall be abandoned and no portion of the house sewer shall then pass through or connect to such septic tank or cesspool.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

When any septic tank or cesspool is abandoned, the top of such septic tank or cesspool shall be removed and the tank or cesspool shall be drained and filled with fine earth or sand and compacted and any pipes connecting to such tank or cesspool shall be cut directly outside of the tank or cesspool and shall be plugged with concrete. The abandonment of the septic tank or cesspool shall be complete before the house connection constructed shall be considered to have completely passed inspection.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)

It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly discharge any of the following described waste into the sewer system:

(a) Any waste having a temperature higher than one hundred fifty degrees Fahrenheit;

(b) Any waste which may contain more than one hundred milligrams per liter of fat, oil or greases;

(c) Mineral oils, greases, or other products of petroleum origin;

(d) Any flammable or explosive waste;

(e) Any ashes, cinders, sand, mud, straw, shavings, metal, glass, rags, feathers, tar, plastics, wood, paunch manure, viscera, or other solid or viscous substances capable of causing obstruction to the flow or undue maintenance of sewer system or other interference with the proper operation of the treatment facility;

(f) Any waste containing algicides, fungicides, insecticides, strong concentration of oxiding agents or strong concentrations of reducing agents;

(g) Any noxious or malodorous gas or substance capable of creating a public nuisance either by itself or by interaction with other substances;

(h) Any domestic or other wastes obtained from a septic tank or chemical toilet;

(i) Any storm water, surface water, groundwater, roof runoff, subsurface drainage or uncontaminated process water;

(j) Any waste which exerts or causes discoloration differing from that of domestic usage;

(k) Any waste containing in excess of:

0.2 mg/l arsenic,

0.2 mg/l cadmium,

0.5 mg/l copper,

1.0 mg/l cyanide,

1.0 mg/l lead,

0.01 mg/i mercury,

1.0 nickel,

0.2 mg/l silver,

0.5 mg/l total chromium,

2.0 mg/l zinc;

(1) Any waste containing substances which are not amenable to treatment or which cause the treatment plant effluent to fail to meet the discharge requirements established by the State Water Resources Control Board, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, or any other state or regulatory agency.

(m) Industrial Waste. Any waste, as distinct from domestic waste, including but not limited to liquid, solid, gaseous, and radioactive material resulting from any producing, manufacturing, processing of either a commercial or industrial operation of whatever nature.

(Ord. No. 3574, § 1)