Woodland Municipal Code Art. 2 Discharge Requirements

A. It is unlawful for any user to discharge, contribute, or cause to be contributed, directly or indirectly, any pollutant, or wastewater at any flow rate or concentration which will cause interference with the operation or performance of the WPCF or which would cause the WPCF to be in violation of its NPDES permit. These general prohibitions apply to all users of the WPCF whether or not the user is subject to pretreatment standards or any other national, state or local pretreatment requirements.

B. It is unlawful for any user to discharge the following substances to the WPCF:

1. Caustic Substances. Any wastewater having a pH higher than 12.5 or having any other caustic property capable of causing damage or hazard to structures, equipment or personnel of the City.

2. Chlorine Demand. Any wastewater requiring an excessive quantity of chlorine or other chemical compound used for disinfection purposes.

3. Corrosive Substances. Any wastewater having a pH lower than 5.0 or having any other corrosive property capable of causing damage or hazard to structures, equipment or personnel of the City.

4. Dilution Water. Any water added to wastewater for the purpose of diluting wastes which would otherwise exceed applicable maximum concentration limitations.

5. Discoloration. Any wastewater with objectionable color not removed in the treatment process, such as, but not limited to, dye wastes and vegetable tanning solutions.

6. Flammable or Explosive Substances. Any liquids, solids or gases which by reason of the nature or quantity are, or may be, sufficient either alone or by interaction with other substances, to cause fire or explosion, or be injurious in any other way to the WPCF or to the operation of the WPCF, or which exceed a flashpoint limit of 140 degrees Fahrenheit or 60 degrees Celsius (using the test methods specified in 40 CFR 261.21). At no time shall two successive readings on an explosion hazard meter, at the point of discharge into the sewage system (or at any point in the sewage system), be more than five percent nor any single reading over 10% of the lower explosive limit (LEL) of the meter. Prohibited materials include, but are not limited to: gasoline, kerosene, naphtha, benzene, toluene, xylene, ethers, alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, peroxides, chlorates, perchlorates, bromates, carbides, hydrides and sulfides and any other substances in any quantity or concentration that the City, the State or the EPA has notified the user is a fire hazard or a hazard to the WPCF.

7. Insecticides. Any wastewater containing algaecides, fungicides, antibiotics, insecticides, strong oxidizing agents or strong reducing agents in such quantity or strength as to cause or contribute to violations of the WPCF's NPDES discharge restrictions, interference with or upset of the WPCF, or personnel safety hazards.

8. Medical Waste. Any wastewater containing medical wastes including, but not limited to, isolation wastes, infectious agents, human blood and blood products, pathological wastes, sharps, body parts, contaminated bedding, surgical wastes, potentially contaminated laboratory wastes, or dialysis wastes except as specifically authorized by the Director in a wastewater discharge permit.

9. Noxious or Malodorous Substances. Any noxious or malodorous liquids, gases, or solids which either singly or by interaction with other wastes are sufficient to create a public nuisance or hazard to life, or are sufficient to prevent entry into the WPCF for maintenance and repair.

10. Pollutants and BOD. Any wastewater containing pollutants, including oxygen demanding pollutants (BOD, etc.), wastes containing suspended solids, or exerting a chlorine demand released at a flow rate and/or pollutant contamination which will cause interference to the WPCF, or which will cause or contribute significantly to violations of the WPCF NPDES limits.

11. Slug Discharges. Any slug discharge having a flow rate, or containing concentrations or quantities of pollutants which will:

a. Cause interference with the operation or performance of the WPCF; or

b. Exceed for any time period longer than 15 minutes, more than five times the average 24-hour concentration, quantity or flow during normal user operations.

12. Public Nuisance. Any wastewater that causes a hazard to human life or creates a public nuisance.

13. Radioactive Wastes. Any wastewater containing radioactive wastes or isotopes of such half-life or concentration as may exceed limits established by the Director in compliance with any applicable State or Federal regulations.

14. Solids or Viscous Matter. Any solid or viscous substances which may cause obstruction to the flow in a sewer or other interference with the operation of the WPCF, such as, but not limited to: grease or fat, garbage with particles greater than one-half inch in any dimension, animal guts or tissues, paunch manure, bones, hair, hides or fleshings, entrails, whole blood, feathers, ashes, cinders, sand, spent lime, stone or marble dust, metal, glass, straw, shavings, grass clippings, rags, spent grains, spent hops, wastepaper, wood, plastics, gas, tar, asphalt residues, residues from refining, or processing of fuel or lubricating oil, mud, or glass grinding or polishing wastes.

15. Storm and Cooling Water. Any rainwater, stormwater, groundwater, street drainage, subsurface drainage, yard drainage, including evaporative type air cooler discharge water and noncontact cooling water.

16. Sulfides. Any wastewater containing sulfides in sufficient quantity or strength as to cause or contribute to WPCF corrosion, worker or public safety hazard, interference or upset of the WPCF, or violations of the WPCF's NPDES permit.

17. Temperature. Any liquid, vapor, solid, gas, wastewater or substance having or developing a temperature which will inhibit biological activity in the WPCF resulting in interference; but, in no case, wastewater with a temperature, at introduction into the WPCF, which exceeds 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius).

18. Toxic Substances. Any wastewater containing toxic pollutants, gases, vapors, or fumes in sufficient quantity, either singly or by interaction with other pollutants, which may injure or interfere with any wastewater treatment process, cause acute worker health and safety problems, constitute a hazard to humans or animals, create a toxic effect in the receiving waters of the WPCF, result in exceedances of sludge disposal restrictions, or exceed the limitation set forth in a pretreatment standard or pretreatment regulation. A toxic pollutant shall include, but not be limited to, any pollutant identified pursuant to Section 307(a) of the Act.

19. Trucked/Hauled Wastes. The discharge of hauled or trucked pollutants, except at points which the Director shall designate in accordance with Section 8.04.230, or as permitted by the Director as part of the elimination or decommissioning of a septic tank within the City.

20. Unsuitable Wastes. Any substance which may cause the WPCF's effluent, or any other product of the WPCF such as residues, sludges or scums, to be unsuitable for reclamation and reuse or which may interfere with the reclamation process. In no case shall a substance discharged to the WPCF cause the WPCF to be in noncompliance with sludge use or disposal criteria, guidelines or regulations developed under Federal law, including, but not limited to, Section 405 of the Act, any criteria, guidelines or regulations affecting sludge use or disposal developed pursuant to the Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 USC Section 6901 et seq.), the Clean Air Act (42 USC Section 7401 et seq.), the Toxic Substances Control Act (15 USC Section 2601 et seq.) or State criteria applicable to the sludge management method being used.

21. Pass Through Substances. Any substance or discharge which will pass through the WPCF in quantities or concentrations that, alone or with discharges from other sources, may cause a violation of the WPCF's NPDES permit or the receiving water quality standards.

22. Petroleum. Any petroleum oil, any non-biodegradable cutting oil, or any amounts of products of mineral oil origin which may cause interference or pass through.

(Prior code § 19-2-1)

A. An interceptor shall be installed in a user's building sewer, when in the opinion of the Director it is necessary for the proper handling of wastewater containing grease or oil in excessive amounts, any flammable wastes, sand, grit or other harmful ingredients; except that such interceptors shall not be required for buildings used solely for residential purposes; provided, however, that interceptors shall be constructed in any place or building having a capacity to serve group meals and in commercial and industrial cleaning facilities.

Where the Director requires the installation of an interceptor by a user who is neither a SIU nor a CIU, then that user shall also be required to obtain a pollution prevention permit. Common types of users requiring an interceptor and a pollution prevention permit include, but are not limited to, the following establishments: restaurants, cafes, lunch counter, cafeterias, bars and clubs; hotel, hospital, sanitarium, factory or school kitchens, equipment repair shops, service stations and other establishments where grease, oils, sand, or grit may be introduced into the WPCF in quantities that can cause line stoppage or hinder sewage treatment or private sewage disposal.

B. All interceptors shall be of a type and capacity approved by the Director and shall be so located as to be readily and easily accessible for cleaning and inspection. Interceptors shall be constructed of impervious materials capable of withstanding abrupt and extreme changes in temperature. They shall be of substantial construction, watertight and equipped with easily removable covers which, when bolted in place, are gastight and watertight. All interceptors shall be maintained by the owner, at his or her expense, in continuously efficient operation at all times.

C. Each user shall regularly inspect, clean and repair interceptors owned by the user. Records of inspections, cleaning and repairs, and the costs associated with these actions shall be kept for three years and be made available for inspection by City personnel upon request. The debris from interceptors shall be disposed of through a licensed waste hauler. Waste disposal records, including receipts, shall be kept for three years and be made available for inspection by City personnel upon request.

D. Standards for Interceptors. All interceptors shall comply with the standards of this subsection.

1. Plans shall be submitted to and approval obtained from the Director prior to the installation of any interceptor.

2. All drains from kitchen areas including pre-wash, shall be connected to an interceptor. Toilets, lavatories and other sanitary fixtures shall not be connected to any interceptor.

3. All fixtures discharging into an interceptor shall be individually trapped and vented in a manner approved by the Director.

4. Each interceptor shall be so installed and connected that it shall be at all times easily accessible for inspection, cleaning, and removal of the intercepted material.

5. Interceptors shall be maintained in efficient operating condition by periodic removal of the accumulated materials. No such collected material shall he or she introduced into any drainage piping, public or private or discharged to the WPCF.

6. Each interceptor shall be constructed of durable materials satisfactory to the Director and shall have a full-size gastight cover which can easily and readily be removed.

7. Interceptors required by this chapter shall not he or she installed until the type and/or model has been subjected to, and has fully complied with, tests acceptable to the Director. Where existing conditions are found acceptable as determined by the Director such facilities as presently exist will he allowed to remain in use. Whenever it shall come to the attention of the City that any Interceptor is no longer acceptable or does not comply with the provisions of this section, the Director shall suspend or revoke such approval and require corrective measures.

(Prior code § 19-2-2)

The pretreatment standards found in 40 CFR Chapter 1, subchapter N, Parts 405—471, as amended, are hereby incorporated into this chapter. Upon the promulgation of pretreatment standards for a particular industrial category, the Federal standard, if more stringent than limitations imposed under this chapter for sources in that subcategory, shall immediately supersede the limitations imposed under this chapter. The Director shall attempt to notify all known affected users of the applicable reporting requirements under 40 CFR 403.12, or other applicable Federal statutes or regulations; provided, however, that in no case shall the failure of the Director to notify a user constitute a defense to noncompliance with any such requirement, statute or regulations, or to noncompliance with the provisions of this chapter.

(Prior code § 19-2-3)

A. Where the WPCF achieves consistent removal of pollutants limited by pretreatment standards, the City may apply to the Administrator for modification of specific limits in the pretreatment standards. The City may then modify pollutant discharge limits in the pretreatment standards if the requirements contained in 40 CFR 403.7 are fulfilled and prior approval from the Administrator is obtained.

B. Where a pretreatment standard is expressed only in terms of either the mass or the concentration of a pollutant in wastewater, the City may impose equivalent concentration or mass limits in accordance with 40 CFR 403.6(c).

C. When wastewater subject to a pretreatment standard is mixed with wastewater not regulated by the same standard, the City shall impose an alternate limit using the combined wastestream formula in 40 CFR 403.6(e).

D. A user otherwise classified as a CIU may obtain a variance from a pretreatment standard if the user can prove, pursuant to the procedural and substantive provisions in 40 CFR 403.13, that factors relating to its discharge are fundamentally different from the factors considered by EPA when developing the pretreatment standard.

E. A CIU may obtain a net gross adjustment to a pretreatment standard in accordance with 40 CFR 403.15.

(Prior code § 19-2-4)

Industrial discharges to the WPCF shall not exceed the limits shown below, as measured "end of pipe" of the industrial user's process. In addition, no discharge shall exceed the collection system limits shown below as measured at "end of pipe."

(Prior code § 19-2-5)

In any case where State or Federal requirements and limitations or pretreatment standards on discharges differ from the pretreatment requirements of this chapter, the most stringent requirements and limitations shall apply.

(Prior code § 19-2-6)

The City reserves the right to establish, by ordinance or permit, more stringent limitations or pretreatment requirements on discharges to the WPCF, if deemed necessary to comply with the objectives of this chapter or the Act.

(Prior code § 19-2-7)

No user shall increase the use of process water or in any way attempt to dilute a discharge, as a partial or complete substitute for adequate treatment to achieve compliance with the discharge limitations contained in the pretreatment standards, the EPA, local limits, any pretreatment requirement, or in any other pollutant-specific limitation developed by the City, the EPA, or the State.

The Director may impose mass limitations on users who may be using dilution to meet applicable pretreatment standards or pretreatment requirements, or in other cases when the imposition of mass limitations is appropriate.

(Prior code § 19-2-8)

Users who are CIUs, SIUs, or who are required by the Director to obtain a wastewater discharge permit shall provide wastewater pretreatment as necessary to comply with this chapter and shall achieve compliance with all pretreatment standards, pretreatment requirements, local limits, any requirements of either the CTR, NTR or a water quality plan adopted by the SWRCB pursuant to Water Code Section 13170 which are incorporated into the user's wastewater discharge permit, and the prohibitions of this chapter within the time limitations specified by EPA, the State, or the Director, whichever is more stringent. Any facilities necessary for compliance shall be provided, operated, and maintained at the user's expense. Detailed plans describing such facilities and operating procedures shall be submitted to the Director for review, and shall be acceptable to the Director before such facilities are constructed. The review of such plans and operating procedures shall in no way relieve the user from the responsibility of modifying such facilities as necessary to comply with this chapter. Subsequent changes in the pretreatment facilities or method of operation shall be reported to and acceptable to the Director prior to the user's initiation of the changes.

(Prior code § 19-2-9)

In no case shall a slug discharge have a flow rate or contain concentrations or quantities of pollutants that will: (1) cause interference with operation or performance of the WPCF; (2) exceed for any time period longer than 15 minutes, more than five times the average time 24-hour concentration, quantity, or flow during normal operations; (3) exceed the local limits of specific constituents established by the City; or (4) cause the WPCF discharge to exceed its NPDES permit conditions.

(Prior code § 19-2-10)

A. The Director shall evaluate each SIU at least once to determine if the SIU needs a spill and slug control plan (40 CFR 403.8(f)(1)(iii)(B)(6)). New SIUs must be evaluated within one year of being classified. In addition, the Director may require any user with a waste discharge permit (including those not designated as SIUs) to develop, submit for approval, and implement such a plan. Alternatively, the Director may develop such a plan for any such user. The spill and slug control plan shall address, at a minimum, the items contained in 40 CFR 403.8(f)(1)(iii)(B)(6).

B. Each user required to have a spill and slug control plan shall provide protection from spills or accidental discharges of prohibited materials or other substances regulated by this chapter. Facilities to prevent accidental discharge of prohibited materials shall be provided and maintained at the owner or user's own cost and expense. Detailed plans showing facilities and operating procedures to provide this protection shall be submitted to the Director for review, and shall be approved by the Director before construction of the facility.

C. No user required to have a spill and slug control plan shall discharge to the WPCF until said plan has been approved by the Director. Review and approval of such plans and operating procedures shall not relieve such user from the responsibility to modify the user's facility as necessary to meet the requirements of this chapter. The Director shall have the right to deny or condition new or increased contributions of pollutants or changes in the nature of pollutants.

D. Each user required to have a spill and slug control plan shall permanently post a notice on a bulletin board or other prominent place within the user's place of business advising employees whom to call in the event of spill, slug discharge or an accidental discharge. Users shall insure that all employees who may cause or suffer such spills or slug discharges to occur are advised of the emergency notification procedures.

(Prior code § 19-2-11)

No user shall intentionally release or discharge a spill to the WPCF.

(Prior code § 19-2-12)

All users shall keep that portion of their side sewer which constitutes a building sewer in good repair at their own expense, and shall be liable for any damages which may result from their failure to do so.

(Prior code § 19-2-13)