15.20.070 - Definitions.
A. Generally. For the purpose of this chapter, the following words shall have the meaning set forth in this section.
B. Terms.
"Agricultural stormwater runoff" means any stormwater runoff from orchards, cultivated crops, pastures, range lands, and other non-point source agricultural activities, but not discharges from concentrated animal feeding operations as defined in 40 CFR Section 122.23 or discharges from concentrated aquatic animal production facilities as defined in 40 CFR Section 122.24.
"Best management practices (BMP)" means schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to prevent or reduce the pollution of waters of the United States. 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 material storage.
"City" means the City of El Paso, Texas, or the city council of El Paso.
"Coal pile runoff" means the rainfall runoff from or through any coal storage pile.
"Commencement of construction" means the disturbance of soils associated with or clearing, grading, or excavating activities or other construction activities.
Construction General Permit. See building code for definition.
"Discharge" means any addition or introduction of any pollutant, stormwater, or any other substance whatsoever into the municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) or into waters of the United States.
"Discharger" means any person who causes, allows, permits, or is otherwise responsible for, a discharge, including, without limitation, any operator of a construction site or industrial facility.
"Domestic sewage" means human excrement, gray water (from home clothes washing, bathing, showers, dishwashing, and food preparation), other wastewater from household drains, and waterborne waste normally discharged from the sanitary conveniences free from industrial waste.
"Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)" means the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the regional office thereof, any federal department, agency, or commission that may succeed to the authority of the EPA, and any duly authorized official of EPA or such successor agency.
"Extremely hazardous substance" means any substance listed in the Appendices to 40 CFR Part 355, Emergency Planning and Notification.
"Facility" means any facility where there is or may be a discharge of stormwater associated with industrial activity.
"Fertilizer" means a solid or non-solid substance or compound that contains an essential plant nutrient element in a form available to plants and is used primarily for its essential plant nutrient element content in promoting or stimulating growth of a plant or improving the quality of a crop, or a mixture of two or more fertilizers. The term does not include the excreta of an animal, plant remains, or a mixture of those substances, for which no claim of essential plant nutrients is made.
"Final stabilization" means the status when all soil disturbing activities at a site have been completed, and a uniform perennial vegetative cover with a density of seventy percent of the cover for unpaved areas and areas not covered by permanent structures has been established, or equivalent permanent stabilization measures (such as the use of rip-rap, gabions, or geotextiles) have been employed.
"Fire department" means the fire department of the city or any duly authorized representative thereof.
"Garbage" means putrescible animal and vegetable waste materials from the handling, preparation, cooking, or consumption of food, including waste materials from markets, storage facilities, and the handling and sale of produce and other food products.
"Harmful quantity" means, for purposes of this chapter, discharges of oil, motor fuel, or other petroleum products in such quantities that the stormwater administrator has determined may be harmful to the public health or welfare of the public or the environment include discharges of such products that are of sufficient quantity to:
a. Violate applicable water quality standards;
b. Cause a film or sheen upon or discoloration of the surface of the water or adjoining shorelines or cause a sludge or emulsion to be deposited beneath the surface of the water or upon adjoining shorelines;
c. Cause any damage to the MS4; or
d. Interfere with the operation of the MS4.
"Hazardous household waste (HHW)" means any material generated in a household (including single and multiple residences, hotels and motels, bunk houses, ranger stations, crew quarters, camp grounds, picnic grounds, and day use recreational areas) by a consumer which, except for the exclusion provided in 40 CFR Section 261.4(b)(1), would be classified as a hazardous waste under 40 CFR Part 261.
"Hazardous substance" means any substance listed in Table 302.4 of 40 CFR Part 302.
"Hazardous waste" means any substance identified or listed as a hazardous waste by the EPA in 40 CFR Part 261.
"Hazardous waste treatment, disposal, and recovery facility" means all contiguous land, and structures, other appurtenances and improvements on the land, used for the treatment, disposal, or recovery of hazardous waste.
"Herbicide" means a substance or mixture of substances used to destroy a plant or to inhibit plant growth.
"Industrial activity" means the categories of industries and activities identified in Section 122.26(6)(14) of Title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, as amended, including, without limitation, construction activity including clearing, grading and excavation activities (except for operations that result in the disturbance of less than five acres of total land area which are not part of a larger plan of development or sale).
"Industrial waste" means any waterborne liquid or solid substance that results from any process of industry, manufacturing, mining, production, trade, or business, including transportation related activities.
"Motor vehicle fluid" means any vehicle crankcase oil, antifreeze, transmission fluid, brake fluid, differential lubricant, gasoline, diesel fuel, gasoline/alcohol blend, and any other fluid used in a motor vehicle.
"Municipal landfill (or landfill)" means an area of land or an excavation in which municipal solid waste is placed for permanent disposal, and which is not a land treatment facility, a surface impoundment, an injection well, or a pile (as these terms are defined in regulations promulgated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality).
"Municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4)" means the system of conveyances (including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, flood control dams, retention and detention basins, grate and/or curb inlets, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels, arroyos, agriculture drains, storm drains or designated flow paths) owned operated or controlled by the city and designed or used for collecting or conveying stormwater, and which is not used for collecting or conveying sewage.
"Municipal solid waste" means solid waste resulting from or incidental to municipal, community, commercial, institutional, or recreational activities, and includes garbage, rubbish, ashes, street cleanings, dead animals, abandoned automobiles, and other solid waste other than industrial waste.
"NPDES general permit for stormwater discharges associated with industrial activity (or industrial general permit)" means the industrial general permit issued by EPA on August 27, 1992, and published in Volume 57 of the Federal Register at page 41304 on September 9, 1992, and any subsequent modifications or amendments thereto.
"NPDES general permit for stormwater discharges from construction sites (or construction general permit)" means the construction general permit issued by EPA on August 27, 1992, and published in Volume 57 of the Federal Register at page 41217 on September 9, 1992, and any subsequent modifications or amendments thereto.
"NPDES permit" means a permit issued by EPA (or by the state under authority delegated pursuant to 33 U.S.C Section 1342 (b)) that authorizes the discharge of pollutants to waters of the United States, whether the permit is applicable on an individual, group, or general area-wide basis.
"Non-point source" means any source of any discharge of a pollutant that is not a "point source."
"Notice of intent (NOI)" means the notice of intent that is required by either the industrial general permit or the construction general permit.
"Notice of termination (NOT)" means the notice of termination that is required by either the industrial general permit or the construction general permit.
"Oil" means any kind of oil in any form, including, but not limited to petroleum, fuel oil, crude oil or any fraction thereof which is liquid at standard conditions of temperature and pressure, sludge, oil refuse, and oil mixed with waste.
"Operator" means the person or persons who, either individually or taken together, meet the following two criteria; (a) they have operational control over the facility specifications (including the ability to make modifications in specifications); and (b) they have the day-to-day operational control over those activities at the facility necessary to ensure compliance with pollution prevention requirements and any permit conditions.
"Owner" means the person who owns a facility or part of a facility or who has control over day-to-day activities.
"Person" means any individual, partnership, co-partnership, firm, company, corporation, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, governmental entity, or any other legal entity; or their legal representatives, agents, or assigns or person who has control over day to day activities. This definition includes all federal, state, and local governmental entities.
"Pesticide" means a substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any pest, or any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant (as these terms are defined in Section 76.001 of the Texas Agriculture Code).
"Petroleum product" means a petroleum product that is obtained from distilling and processing crude oil and that is capable of being used as a fuel for the propulsion of a motor vehicle or aircraft, including motor gasoline, gasohol, other alcohol blended fuels, aviation gasoline, kerosene distillate fuel oil, and No. 1 and No. 2 diesel.
"Petroleum storage tank (PST)" means any one or combination of aboveground or underground storage tanks that contain petroleum products and any connecting underground pipes.
"Point source" means any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, landfill leachate collection system, vessel or other floating craft from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include return flows from irrigated agriculture or agricultural stormwater runoff.
"Pollutant" means dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical waste, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water. The term "pollutant" does not include tail water or runoff water from irrigation or rainwater runoff from cultivated or uncultivated range land, pasture land, and farm land.
"Pollution" means the alteration of the physical, thermal, chemical, or biological quality of, or the contamination of, any water in the state that renders the water harmful, detrimental, or injurious to humans, animal life, vegetation, or property, or to the public health, safety, or welfare, or impairs the usefulness or the public enjoyment of the water for any lawful or reasonable purpose.
"Qualified personnel" means persons approved by the stormwater administrator who possess the appropriate competence, skills, and ability (as demonstrated by sufficient education, training, experience, and, when applicable, any required certification or licensing) to perform a specific activity in a timely and complete manner consistent with the applicable regulatory requirements and generally-accepted industry standards for such activity.
"Registered professional engineer (RPE)" means a person who has been duly licensed and registered by the State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers to engage in the practice of engineering in the State of Texas.
"Release" means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) or the waters of the United States or onto the ground in such a manner that a pollutant may be discharged in the MS4.
"Reportable quantity (RQ)" means, for any "hazardous substance," the quantity established and listed in Table 302.4 of 40 CFR Part 302; for any "extremely hazardous substance," the quantity established in 40 CFR Part 355 and listed in Appendix A thereto.
"Rubbish" means nonputrescible solid waste, excluding ashes, that consist of:
a. Combustible waste materials, including paper, rags, cartons, wood, excelsior, furniture, rubber, plastics, yard trimmings, leaves, and similar materials; and
b. Noncombustible waste materials, including glass, crockery, tin cans, aluminum cans, metal furniture, and similar materials that do not burn at ordinary incinerator temperatures (one thousand six hundred to one thousand eight hundred degrees Fahrenheit).
"Sanitary sewer (or sewer)" means the system of pipes, conduits, and other conveyances which carry industrial waste and domestic sewage from residential dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial and manufacturing facilities, and institutions, whether treated or untreated, to the city sewage treatment plant (and to which stormwater, surface water, and groundwater are not intentionally admitted).
"Septic tank waste" means any domestic sewage removed from holding tanks such as vessels, chemical toilets, campers, trailers, and septic tanks.
"Service station" means any retail establishment engaged in the business of selling fuel for motor vehicles that is dispensed from stationary storage tanks.
"Sewage (or sanitary sewage)" means the domestic sewage and industrial waste that is discharged into the city sanitary sewer systems and passes through the sanitary sewer system to the city sewage treatment plant for treatment.
"Site" means the land or water area where any facility or activity is physically located or conducted, including adjacent land used in connection with the facility or activity.
"Solid waste" means any garbage, rubbish, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility, and other discarded material, including, solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, municipal, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations, from community and institutional activities, and material from transportation related activities.
"State" means the State of Texas.
"Storm drain pollution control plan (SDPCP)" means a plan required by either the construction general permit or the industrial general permit and which describes and ensures the implementation of practices that are to be used to reduce the pollutants in stormwater discharges associated with construction or other industrial activity at the facility.
"Stormwater" means stormwater runoff, snow melt runoff, and surface runoff and drainage.
"Stormwater discharge associated with industrial activity" means the discharge from any conveyance which is used for collecting and conveying stormwater and which is directly related to manufacturing, processing, or raw materials storage areas at an industrial plant which is within one of the categories of facilities listed in 40 CFR Section 122.26 (b) (14), and which is not excluded from EPA's definition of the same term.
Stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWPPP). See "storm drain pollution control plan (SDPCP)."
"Uncontaminated" means not containing a harmful quantity of any pollutant.
"Used oil (or used motor oil)" means any oil that has been refined from crude oil or a synthetic oil that, as a result of use, storage, or handling, has become unsuitable for its original purpose because of impurities or the loss of original properties but that may be suitable for further use and is recyclable in compliance with state and federal law.
"Water in the state (or water)" means any groundwater, percolating or otherwise, lakes, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, canals, streams, inside the territorial limits of the state, and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, navigable or nonnavigable, and including the beds and banks of all watercourses and bodies of surface water, that are wholly or partially inside or bordering the state or inside the jurisdiction of the state.
"Water quality standard" means the designation of a body or segment of surface water in the state for desirable uses and the narrative and numerical criteria deemed by the state to be necessary to protect those uses, as specified in Chapter 307 of Title 31 of the Texas Administrative Code.
"Waters of the United States" means all waters which are currently used, were used in the past, or may be susceptible to use in interstate or foreign commerce including all waters which are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide; all interstate waters, including interstate wetlands; all other waters the use, degradation, or destruction of which would affect or could affect interstate or foreign commerce; all impoundments of waters otherwise defined as waters of the United States under this definition; all tributaries of waters identified in this definition; all wetlands adjacent to waters identified in this definition; and any waters within the federal definition of "waters of the United States": at 40 CFR Section 122.2; including the Rio Grande River, but not including any waste treatment systems, treatment ponds, or lagoons designed to meet the requirements of the federal Clean Water Act.
"Wetland" means an area that is inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances does support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetland generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.
"Yard waste" means leaves, grass clippings, yard and garden debris, and brush that results from landscaping maintenance and land-clearing operations.
(Ord. 16822 § 1 (part), 2008; Ord. 13477 § 1 (part), 1998)
