Victorville Municipal Code Art. I Purpose and Definitions

The provisions codified in Chapters 10.02 through 10.03 shall be known as the city's "Sanitary Sewer Use Ordinance."

(Ord. No. 2363, § 3, 3-21-17)

(a) The purpose of the sanitary sewer use ordinance ("this ordinance") is to regulate the use of the city's sanitary sewer system to avoid improper disposal, damage and misuse, prevent sanitary sewer overflows, and to promote the public health, safety and welfare. This ordinance further ensures compliance with applicable state, federal and local requirements in order to protect the city sewer system and the publicly owned treatment works to which it discharges, including the industrial wastewater treatment plant ("IWWTP") located at the Southern California Logistics Airport ("SCLA"), which is owned and operated by the Victorville Water District ("VWD"), as well as the regional wastewater treatment plant ("Regional Plant") owned and operated by the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority ("VVWRA").

(b) To achieve these purposes, this ordinance includes: requirements for the connection of residences and businesses to the city sewer system and the permits, plans, studies and fees associated with same; limitations on the use of onsite wastewater treatment systems ("OWTS"); provisions controlling and ensuring proper private sewer construction and maintenance; a program in Chapter 10.03 establishing permitting requirements and regulating discharges of fats, oils and grease ("FOG") to the city sewer system; as well as provisions prohibiting all users from depositing pollutants into the city sewer system.

(c) This ordinance also incorporates by reference certain permitting, monitoring, reporting and wastewater treatment requirements from Chapter 10.08 of this Code to clarify and reinforce the applicability of Chapter 10.08 to those industrial users located at the SCLA and in the northwest area of the city, who discharge wastewater to the portion of the city sewer system which outfalls to the IWWTP. This ordinance further provides a mechanism by which the city council can establish similar permitting requirements, in the form of rules and regulations to be adopted by resolution, to regulate industrial users in all other areas of the city, who discharge wastewater to the portion of the city sewer system that outfalls to the Regional Plant.

(Ord. No. 2363, § 3, 3-21-17)

Unless specified otherwise, or when apparent from the context, the following defined terms when used in this Chapter 10.02 and/or Chapter 10.03 shall have the following meanings:

(a) "Act" shall mean the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972, also known as the Clean Water Act, as amended, (33 USC 1251 et seq.)

(b) "Building official" shall mean the city official described in Section 16-1.02.050(a) of this Code and his/her designees who are responsible for applying the provisions of the city's Plumbing Code. Except as otherwise specified, the building official has authority over the provisions of this chapter affecting private property and/or private sewage disposal systems.

(c) "Cesspool" shall mean a lined excavation in the ground which receives the discharge of a drainage system, or part thereof, so designed as to retain the organic matter and solids discharging therein, but permitting the liquids to seep through the bottom and sides, and constructed pursuant to the city's Plumbing Code.

(d) "City council" or "council" shall mean the Victorville City Council.

(e) "City engineer" means the engineer of the city or his/her authorized designees. Except as otherwise specified, the city engineer has authority over the provisions of this chapter affecting the design, plans, permitting, and inspection of sewage facilities in or on dedicated public rights-of-way and city-maintained sewer and industrial wastewater treatment facilities.

(f) "City manager" shall mean the city manager of the city, and his/her designees.

(g) "City sewer system" shall mean the network of sanitary sewer collection and conveyance facilities owned by the city which outfall to the IWWTP and the Regional Plant.

(h) "Closed-circuit television or CCTV" shall mean a video monitoring system in which signals are not publicly distributed but are monitored, primarily for surveillance and security purposes.

(i) "Code" or "this Code" means the Victorville Municipal Code.

(j) "Code enforcement" or "code enforcement officer" shall mean those individuals employed by the city and/or designated by the city manager or his/her designees to conduct inspections and to take such actions as may be required to enforce the provisions of this chapter and other applicable statutes, rules, codes and regulations enforceable by the city. Enforcement shall be conducted in a manner that will not limit or otherwise affect the powers and duties of the county health officer.

(k) "County health officer" shall mean the county health officer of the county of San Bernardino, or his/her duly authorized representative.

(l) "Discharger" or "user" means any person who discharges or causes a discharge of wastewater directly or indirectly to the city sewer system.

(m) "Director" means the director of the public works and water department of the city, or his/her authorized designee. The director is responsible for and oversees the maintenance and upkeep of the city sewer system.

(n) "Domestic sewage" or "domestic wastewater" means the waterborne wastes derived from ordinary living processes, and of such character as to permit satisfactory disposal, without special treatment, into a public sewer or by means of a private sewage disposal system.

(o) "Industrial building" means any building, structure or works which is, or which is designed to be used for the manufacture, processing or distribution of materials, equipment, supplies, food or commodities of any description; or which is used or designed to be used as a school, sanitarium, hospital, penal institution or charitable institution, together with all appurtenances thereto and the surrounding premises under the same ownership or control.

(p) "Industrial user" shall mean any person who discharges or causes a discharge of industrial wastewater directly or indirectly to the city sewer system.

(q) "Industrial waste" shall mean any and all waste substances, liquid or solid, except domestic sewage, and includes among other things radioactive wastes and explosive, noxious or toxic gas when present in the sewage system.

(r) "Industrial wastewater" shall mean any water-carried wastes and wastewaters, excluding domestic wastewater, derived from any producing, manufacturing, institutional, agricultural or other operation.

(s) "Inspector" shall mean the inspector, deputy, agent or representative of the director or city engineer authorized to inspect any existing or proposed wastewater generation, conveyance, pretreatment, processing, or disposal facilities.

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

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

(2) Causes a violation of a POTW's NPDES or waste discharge requirements (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation) or of the prevention of sewage sludge use or disposal in compliance with any of the following statutory/regulatory provisions or permits issued thereunder, or any more stringent state or local regulations: Section 405 of the Act; the Solid Waste Disposal Act, including Title II, commonly referred to as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; any state regulations contained in any state sludge management plan prepared pursuant to Subtitle D of the Solid Waste Disposal Act; the Clean Air Act; the Toxic Substances Control Act; the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act; and the California Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act.

(u) "Licensed contractor" means a contractor having a valid license issued pursuant to Chapter 9, Division 3, of the California Business and Professions Code, which license includes the activities listed on the permit applied for.

(v) "Lot" shall mean any piece or parcel of land bounded, defined or shown upon a map or deed recorded or filed in the office of the county recorder of San Bernardino County located within the corporate boundaries of the city, however, that in the event any building or structure covers more area than a lot as defined above, the term "lot" shall include all such pieces or parcels of land upon which said building or structure is wholly or partly located together with the yards, courts and other unoccupied spaces legally required for the building or structure.

(w) "NPDES Permit" means a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit issued pursuant to Chapter 402 of the Act.

(x) "OWTS Policy" shall mean the "Water Quality Control Policy for Siting, Design, Operation, and Maintenance of Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems," adopted by the State of California Water Resources Control Board and effective May 13, 2013. The OWTS Policy applies to all private sewage disposal systems in the city.

(y) "Pass through." A discharge which exits a POTW into waters of the United States or California 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 a POTW's NPDES Permit or waste discharge requirements, including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation.

(z) "Permittee" means a person to whom a permit has been issued pursuant to the provisions of this Chapter 10.02.

(aa) "Person" shall mean and include any individual, person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, company or corporation, and any municipal, political or governmental corporation, district, body or agency, other than the City of Victorville.

(bb) "Plumbing Code" or "City Plumbing Code" shall mean the California and Uniform Plumbing Codes as adopted by the city pursuant to Section 16-5.06.010 et seq. of this Code.

(cc) "Pretreatment" or "treatment" means the reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination of pollutants, or the alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater to a less harmful state prior to or in lieu of discharging or otherwise introducing such pollutants into a POTW or other disposal facility. The reduction or alteration can be obtained by physical, chemical or biological processes or process changes by use of pretreatment devices or facilities, or other means, except as prohibited by 40 CFR Section 403.6(d).

(dd) "Private sewage disposal system" shall mean a septic tank with effluent discharging into a subsurface disposal field into one or more seepage pits or into a combination of subsurface disposal field and seepage pits.

(ee) "Pollutant" shall mean dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, filter backwash, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, medical wastes, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, municipal, agricultural and industrial wastes, and certain characteristics of wastewater (e.g., pH, temperature, total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TSS), turbidity, color, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) chemical oxygen demand (COD), toxicity, or odor).

(ff) "Public agency" means the State of California and/or any city, county, special district, other local or federal governmental authority or public body of or within this state.

(gg) "Publicly owned treatment works" or "POTW" shall mean a treatment works, as defined by Section 212 of the Act (33 USC, Section 1292), including any devices or systems used in the collection, storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of municipal sewage, including the city sewer system which collects and conveys wastewater to the IWWTP, the Regional Plant or other treatment facility.

(hh) "Regulatory agencies" means public agencies having regulatory jurisdiction over the wastewater disposal operations of the city, including without limitation: the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9 (EPA); the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB); the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Lahontan Region (RWQCB); the California Department of Public Health (CDPH); the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health (SBCDPH); the Victorville Water District (VWD); and the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority (WWRA).

(ii) "Seepage pit" shall mean a line-excavation in the ground which receives the discharge of a septic tank, so designed as to permit the effluent from the septic tank to seep through its bottom and sides.

(jj) "Septic tank" means a watertight receptacle which receives the discharge from a private sewerage disposal system, designed and constructed so as to retain solids, digest organic matter through a period of detention, and allow the liquids to discharge either into the soil outside of the tank through a drain field system or one or more seepage pits.

(kk) "Septic tank effluent" shall mean effluent from private septic tanks and shall be considered, for the purposes of this chapter the same as industrial waste. Whenever this chapter refers to industrial waste, the reference shall include septic tank effluent.

(ll) "Sewage" or "wastewater" shall mean the liquid and water carrying industrial or domestic wastewater from dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities, and institutions, together with any groundwater, surface water, and stormwater that may be present, whether treated or untreated, which is discharged directly or indirectly into a POTW.

(mm) "Sewage pumping plant" means any works or device used to raise sewage from a lower to a higher level or to overcome friction in a pipeline.

(nn) "Sewer" means any pipeline, sewer, lateral, main, trunk, lift station or other appurtenance or facility designed for the collection and conveyance of sewage and further defined as follows:

(1) "Building sewer" means a sewer located on a user's private property (commercial, industrial or residential) which conveys wastewater from the user's premises to a public sewer; private sewer, private sewage disposal system, or other point of disposal, and is maintained by the property owner.

(2) "Main-line sewer" means any public sewer in a dedicated right-of-way in which changes in alignment and grade occur only at manholes, or where angle points or curves between manholes have been approved by the city engineer. Such sewers are generally eight inches or more in diameter.

(3) "Public sewer" means a sewer that is owned, controlled and operated by the city or other public agency, and that is located within the public right-of-way or on property owned by the city or such other public agency.

(4) "Sanitary sewer" means sewers designed for collection and conveyance of domestic, commercial and industrial waste and which are not intended for collection or conveyance of stormwater, surface water, or groundwater, and to which storm, surface, and ground water are not intentionally admitted.

(5) "Sewer lateral" means that portion of horizontal piping that located in the public right-of-way that connects a building sewer to a public sewer and is maintained by the city.

(6) "Trunk sewer" means a sewer main within the dedicated public right-of-way that receives flow from many tributaries covering a large area and are generally twelve inches in diameter or larger.

(oo) "Sewer system" or "sewer facilities" shall mean any and all public sewers and facilities used for collecting, conveying, pumping, treating and disposing of wastewater.

(pp) "Sludge" shall mean any solid or liquid decant, subnate or supernate from industrial processes and treatment of wastewater.

(qq) "Tap" shall mean the forming of a tee or wye branch connection to a main-line sewer by installing a tee or wye saddle after the sewer is in place.

(rr) "Tee" or "T" means a fitting for a branch on which the spur joins the barrel of the pipe at an angle of approximately ninety degrees.

(ss) "VVWRA" shall mean the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority.

(tt) "Waste" shall mean domestic sewage and any and all other waste substances, liquid, solid, gaseous, or radioactive associated with human habitation, or human or animal origin, or from or related to any producing, manufacturing, or processing operation of whatever nature, including such waste placed within containers of whatever nature prior to, and for the purpose of, disposal.

(Ord. No. 2363, § 3, 3-21-17)