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Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the following terms and phrases, as used in this chapter, shall have the meanings hereinafter designated:

1. “Act” or “the Act” means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act, as amended, 33 U.S.C. 1251, et seq.

2. “Approval authority” means the administrator of the EPA.

3. Authorized Representative of Industrial User. An “authorized representative of an industrial user” may be:

a. A principal executive officer of at least the level of vice president, if the industrial user is a corporation;

b. A general partner or proprietor if the industrial user is a partnership or proprietorship, respectively;

c. A duly authorized representative of the individual designated above if such representative is responsible for the overall operation of the facilities from which the indirect discharge originates.

4. “Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)” means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure, five days at 20 degrees centigrade expressed in terms of weight and concentration (milligrams per liter (mg/l)).

5. “Building sewer” means a sewer conveying wastewater from the premises of a user to the POTW.

6. “Categorical standards” means national categorical pretreatment standards or pretreatment standard.

7. “City” means the city of Palmer or the city council of Palmer.

8. “Cooling water” means the water discharged from any use such as air conditioning, cooling or refrigeration, or to which the only pollutant added is heat.

9. “Compatible pollutant” means biochemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, pH and fecal coliform bacteria; plus any additional pollutants identified in the publicly owned treatment work’s NPDES permit, where the publicly owned treatment work is designed to treat such pollutants and, in fact, does treat such pollutants to the degree required by the POTW’s NPDES permit.

10. “Control authority” refers to the approval authority, defined hereinabove; or the superintendent if the city has an approved pretreatment program under the provisions of 40 CFR Part 403.11.

11. “Direct discharge” means the discharge of treated or untreated wastewater directly to the waters of the state of Alaska.

12. “Environmental Protection Agency” or “EPA” means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or where appropriate, the term may also be used as a designation for the administrator or other duly authorized official of said agency.

13. “Grab sample” means a sample which is taken from a waste stream on a one-time basis with no regard to the flow in the waste stream and without consideration of time.

14. “Holding tank waste” means any waste from holding tanks such as vessels, chemical toilets, campers, trailers, septic tanks, and vacuum-pump tank trucks.

15. “Incompatible pollutant” means all pollutants other than compatible pollutants as defined in subsection (9) of this section.

16. “Indirect discharge” means the discharge or the introduction of nondomestic pollutants from any source regulated under Section 307(b) or (c) of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1317) into the POTW (including holding tank waste discharged into the system).

17. “Industrial user” means a source of indirect discharge which does not constitute a discharge of pollutants under regulations issued pursuant to Section 402 of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1342).

18. “Interference” means the inhibition or disruption of the POTW treatment processes or operations or which contributes to a violation of any requirement of the city’s NPDES permit. The term includes prevention of sewage sludge use or disposal by the POTW in accordance with Section 405 of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1345) or any criteria, guidelines or regulations developed pursuant to the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA), the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, or more stringent state criteria (including those contained in any state sludge management plan prepared pursuant to Title IV of SWDA) applicable to the method of disposal or use employed by the POTW.

19. “National categorical pretreatment standard” or “pretreatment standard” means any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the EPA in accordance with Section 307(b) and (c) of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1347) which applies to a specific category of industrial users.

20. “National Pollution Discharge Elimination System” or “NPDES permit” means a permit issued pursuant to Section 402 of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1342).

21. “National prohibitive discharge standard” or “prohibitive discharge standard” means any regulation developed under the authority of Section 307(b) of the Act and 40 CFR Section 403.5.

22. “New source” means any source, the construction of which is commenced after the adoption of this chapter. Any construction dealing solely with domestic residences is excluded.

23. “Person” means any individual, partnership, copartnership, firm, company, corporation, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, governmental entity or any other legal entity, or their legal representatives, agents or assigns. The masculine gender shall include the feminine; the singular shall include the plural where indicated by the context.

24. “pH” means the logarithm (base 10) of the reciprocal of the concentration of hydrogen ions expressed in grams per liter of solution.

25. “Pollutant” means any dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discharged equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water.

26. “Pollution” means the manmade or man-induced alteration of the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological integrity of water.

27. “POTW treatment plant” means that portion of the POTW designed to provide treatment to wastewater.

28. “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. The reduction or alteration can be obtained by physical, chemical or biological processes, or process changes by other means, except as prohibited by 40 CFR Section 403.6(d).

29. “Pretreatment requirements” means any substantive or procedural requirement related to pretreatment, other than a national pretreatment standard imposed on an industrial user.

30. “Publicly owned treatment works (POTW)” means a treatment works as defined by Section 212 of the Act (33 U.S.C. 1292) which is owned in this instance by the city. This definition includes any sewers that convey wastewater to the POTW treatment plant, but does not include pipes, sewers or other conveyances not connected to a facility providing treatment. For the purposes of this chapter, “POTW” also includes any sewers that convey wastewaters to the POTW from persons outside the city who are, by contract or agreement with the city, users of the city’s POTW.

31. “Settleable matter” means the total matter, both organic and inorganic, that will separate from a quiescent liquid by gravity.

32. “Shall” is mandatory; “may” is permissive.

33. “Significant industrial user” means any industrial user of the city’s wastewater disposal system who:

a. Has a flow greater than 10 percent of the flow in the city’s wastewater treatment system; or

b. Has in his wastes toxic pollutants as defined pursuant to Section 307 of the Act; or

c. Is found by the city, (State Control Agency) or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to have significant impact, either singly or in combination with other contributing industries, on the wastewater treatment system, the quality of sludge, the system’s effluent quality, or air emissions generated by the system.

34. “Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)” means a classification pursuant to the Standard Industrial Classification Manual issued by the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, 1972.

35. “State” means the state of Alaska.

36. “Stormwater” means any flow occurring during or following any form of natural precipitation and resulting therefrom.

37. “Superintendent” means the person designated by the city to supervise the operation of the publicly owned treatment works and who is charged with certain duties and responsibilities by this chapter, or his duly authorized representative.

38. “Suspended solids” means the total suspended matter that floats on the surface of, or is suspended in, water, wastewater or other liquids, and which is removable by laboratory filtering.

39. “Toxic pollutant” means any pollutant or combination of pollutants listed as toxic in regulations promulgated by the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under the provision of CWA 307(a) or other acts.

40. “User” means any person who contributes, causes or permits the contribution of wastewater into the city’s POTW.

41. “Wastewater” means the liquid and water-carried industrial or domestic wastes from dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities, and institutions, together with any groundwater, surfacewater, and stormwater that may be present, whether treated or untreated, which is contributed into or permitted to enter the POTW.

42. “Wastewater contribution permit” means as set forth in PMC 13.12.160 through 13.12.210.

43. “Waters of the state” means all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, reservoirs, aquifers, irrigation systems, drainage systems and all other bodies or accumulations of water, surface or underground, natural or artificial, public or private, which are contained within, flow through, or border upon the state or any portion thereof. (Ord. 234 § 1.3, 1980)