14.17.010 - Definitions, acronyms and abbreviations.
(A) Definitions. For the purposes of this Chapter and except as the context otherwise requires, the following terms, phrases, words and their derivations shall have the meanings provided in this Chapter and applicable Federal and State statutes, rules, or regulations that apply to the activity being regulated. Words not otherwise defined, shall be given their common and ordinary meaning.
"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.
"Approval authority" means the EPA Region 9 Regional Administrator, or upon State program authorization, the Director of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.
"Authorized representative" or "duly authorized representative of the industrial user" means:
(1) If the industrial user is a corporation:
(a) The president, secretary, treasurer, or vice president of the corporation in charge of a principal business function, or any other person who performs similar policy or decision-making functions for the corporation; or
(b) The manager of one or more manufacturing, production, or operating facilities, provided the manager:
(i) Is authorized to make management decisions that govern the operation of the regulated facility, including having the explicit or implicit duty of making major capital investment recommendations, and of initiating and directing other comprehensive measures to assure long-term environmental compliance with environmental laws and regulations;
(ii) Can ensure that the necessary systems are established or actions taken to gather complete and accurate information for industrial wastewater permits or other control mechanism and for reporting requirements established by the City; and
(iii) Has been assigned or delegated the authority to sign documents in accordance with corporate procedures.
(2) If the industrial user is a partnership or sole proprietorship, a general partner or proprietor, respectively;
(3) If the industrial user is a limited liability company, the managing member(s) of the limited liability company;
(4) If the industrial user is a Federal, State, or local governmental facility, a director or highest official appointed or designated to oversee the operation and performance of the activities of the government facility, or designee of such official; or
(5) With respect to any type of industrial user identified in subsections (1) through (4) above, another person who has been designated by an individual described in the applicable subsection if the designation is made in writing, specifies the individual or position responsible for the overall operation of the facility from which the discharge originates or having overall responsibility for environmental matters for the company, and is submitted to the City.
"Best management practices" or "BMPs" refers to practices or combination of practices determined to be an effective means of implementing the prohibitions listed in Section 14.17.015. BMPs may include schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices, such as treatment requirements, operating procedures, and practices to control plant site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw materials storage. BMPs shall be considered local limits and pretreatment standards for the purposes of this Chapter and Section 307(d) of the Act as specified at 40 CFR 403.5(c)(4). NOTE: BMPs may also include alternative means (such as management plans) of complying with, or in place of compliance with, certain categorical pretreatment standards and effluent limits.
"Biochemical oxygen demand," "five-day biochemical oxygen demand" or "BOD 5 " means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure in five days at 20°C expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/L) by weight using methods approved under 40 CFR Part 136 or procedures that have been approved by NDEP.
"Bypass" means the intentional diversion of wastestreams from any portion of an industrial user's treatment facility, which are subject to the notice requirements of 40 CFR 403.17 and LVMC 14.17.085(C).
"Categorical industrial user" or "CIU" means an industrial user subject to a categorical pretreatment standard.
"Categorical pretreatment standard" or "categorical 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. § 1317), as amended, that apply to a specific category of industrial users and that appear in 40 CFR Chapter I, Subchapter N, Parts 405—471.
"City's pretreatment program" means the program administered by the POTW that is designed to meet the requirements of applicable Federal and State law and regulations and that is governed by this Chapter.
"Class I industrial user" has the same meaning as an "SIU," as defined in this Section.
"Class II industrial user" means an industrial user that is not a Class I industrial user and to whom the City has used its discretion to issue a permit, authorization to discharge, or other control mechanism pursuant to LVMC 14.17.030.
"Composite sample" means a representative flow-proportioned sample generally collected within a twenty-four (24) hour period or in accordance with the industrial user's operating data, as appropriate. The aliquots are combined according to flow. Time-proportional sampling may be approved or used by the City where time-proportional samples are believed representative of the discharge.
"Contributing jurisdiction" means a municipality other than the City that contributes wastewater to the POTW.
"Control mechanism" means a governmentally issued mechanism used to control an industrial user's discharge to the POTW in a manner designed to protect the POTW and to ensure compliance with pretreatment and related standards. The term may include without limitation a discharge permit or other authorization to discharge.
"Cooling water" includes:
(1) Contact. Water used for cooling purposes which comes in contact with any raw material, intermediate product, waste product or finished product.
(2) Noncontact. Water used for cooling purposes which does not come in contact with any raw material, intermediate product, waste product or finished product and the only pollutant added is heat.
"Daily maximum discharge limit" means the maximum allowable discharge limit of a pollutant that may be discharged during a twenty-four (24) hour period or as specified in an industrial wastewater discharge permit. Where daily maximum limits are expressed in units of mass, the daily discharge is the total mass discharged over the sampling period. Where daily maximum limits are expressed in terms of a concentration, the daily discharge is the arithmetic average measurement of the pollutant concentration derived from all measurements taken during that sampling period.
"Director," unless otherwise specified, means the City's Director of Public Works, or the Director's designee.
"Effluent" means the liquid outflow from any treatment plant or facility that is designated to treat, convey or store wastewater, liquid waste or industrial waste.
"Excess strength waste" means wastewater or waste that exceeds in any respect the concentration limits of normal domestic strength wastewater or exceeds other applicable discharge limits, maximum concentrations, or surcharge concentrations as described in Section 14.17.015.
"Existing source" means a CIU that is not a new source.
"Extra-jurisdictional user" means an industrial user located outside the City limits that contributes wastewater to the POTW.
"Fee" means any charge to a person that is made under this Chapter, including each fee chargeable by or on behalf of the City pursuant to this Chapter.
"Grab sample" means a sample which is taken from a wastestream on a one-time basis with no regard to the flow in the wastestream and over a period of time not to exceed fifteen minutes.
"Grease interceptor" means a plumbing appurtenance or appliance that is installed in a sanitary drainage system to intercept non-petroleum FOG from a wastewater discharge. The term includes GGIs and HMGIs. The acronyms appearing in this definition are as defined in LVMC 14.17.070(B).
"Hazardous waste" means any waste designated as hazardous under the provisions of 40 CFR Part 261 and NRS 459.430.
"Holding tank waste" means any liquid, solid material or waste from a holding tank, such as septic tank waste, as well as waste from tanks associated with vessels, chemical toilets, campers, trailers, vacuum pump tank trucks or other tanker trucks.
"Indirect discharge" means the discharge or introduction of pollutants into the POTW from any industrial user as defined in this Chapter and all other industrial users regulated under Section 307(b), (c) or (d) of the Act (33 U.S.C. § 1317), including holding tank waste from a user discharged into the POTW.
"Industrial waste" means a liquid or solid waste from industrial manufacturing processes, trade or business activities.
"Industrial user" or "IU" means a source of indirect discharge or any other industrial or commercial facility or business that has a sewer connection to the POTW. The term also includes an industrial user to whom the City has used its discretion to issue a permit, authorization to discharge, or other control mechanism pursuant to LVMC 14.17.030.
"Industrial wastewater discharge permit" means a type of control mechanism issued by the City to an industrial user that allows, limits or prohibits the discharge of pollutants or flow to the POTW as set forth in this Chapter.
"Interceptor" means any grease interceptor (GGI or HCMI), sand/oil interceptor or any other device that is designed, constructed and operated for the purpose of removing and retaining floatable or settleable material from wastewater by differential gravity separation before its discharge into the wastewater collection system.
"Interference" means a discharge which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, both:
(1) Inhibits or disrupts the wastewater collection system, its treatment processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use or disposal; and
(2) Therefore is a cause of a violation of the City's NPDES permit (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 or regulatory provisions or permits issued thereunder, or any more stringent State or local regulations: Section 405 of the Act; the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA), including Title II commonly referred to as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA); 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; and the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act.
"Instantaneous discharge limit" or "instantaneous limit" means the maximum or minimum concentration or measurement for a pollutant or pollutant property allowed to be discharged at any time as determined by use of a grab sample or direct measurement.
"Local limit" means any regulation containing discharge limits developed by the Director in accordance with 40 CFR 403.5(c) and (d), which are pretreatment standards and are specified in Section 14.17.015.
"Maximum allowable industrial load" or "MAIL" means an estimate of the maximum loading of a pollutant that can be received at the POTW's headworks from all permitted industrial users and other controlled sources without causing pass through or interference. The establishment of MAILs regarding particular pollutants, including corresponding allocations, is at the discretion of the Director and any MAILs so established are to be taken into account only if and when the Director takes such action.
"Medical waste" means isolation wastes, infectious agents, human blood and blood products, pathological wastes, sharps, body parts, contaminated bedding, surgical wastes, potentially contaminated laboratory wastes, pharmaceutical residues, and dialysis wastes.
"Normal domestic strength wastewater" means wastewater, when analyzed in accordance with procedures established in 40 CFR Part 136, as amended, contains no more than three-hundred mg/L of five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD 5 ) or three hundred mg/L of total suspended solids or thirty mg/L ammonia or five mg/L of phosphorus. Discharges to the POTW that exceed these concentrations may be surcharged for the concentrations above these levels as specified in LVMC 14.17.015(E).
"North American Industry Classification System Code" or "NAICS Code" means the industrial classification scheme developed by the United States Office of Management and Budget used to classify business establishments for the collection, tabulation, presentation, and analysis of statistical data describing the U.S. economy. Also, see Standard Industrial Classification Code.
"NPDES permit" means a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit that is issued by NDEP pursuant to Section 402 of the Act, authorizing a person to discharge pollutants into the waters of the United States.
"Pass through" means a discharge that exits the POTW into the waters of the State 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 the City's NPDES permit, including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation.
"Person" means any individual, partnership, co-partnership, firm, company, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, society, corporation, group, government, governmental agency or other legal entity, or their legal representatives, agents or assigns. The definition includes all Federal, State and local government entities.
"pH" means the intensity of acid or base condition of the solution expressed as the logarithm (base ten) of the reciprocal of the hydrogen ion concentration, expressed in moles per liter, as determined in accordance with the procedures that are set forth in 40 CFR Part 136 or procedures that have been approved by NDEP.
"Pollutant" means any dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, filter backwash, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, explosives, munitions, medical waste, chemical wastes, corrosive substance, biological material, biological nutrient, toxic substance, radioactive materials, heat, malodorous substance, wrecked or discharged equipment, rock, sand, slurry, cellar dirt, untreatable waste, or industrial, domestic, or agricultural wastes and certain characteristics of wastewater (e.g. pH, temperature, TSS turbidity, color, BOD 5 , COD, toxicity or odor) discharged into or with water.
"POTW treatment plant" means that portion of the POTW or any portion thereof designed to provide treatment of wastewater.
"Pretreatment" 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 the POTW. The reduction or alteration can be obtained by physical process, biological process, or by other process or means, except as prohibited by 40 CFR 403.6(d). Appropriate pretreatment technology includes control equipment, such as equalization tanks or facilities, for protection against surges or slug loadings that might interfere with or otherwise be incompatible with the POTW. However, where wastewater from a regulated process is mixed in an equalization facility with unregulated wastewater or with wastewater from another regulated process, the effluent from the equalization facility must meet an adjusted pretreatment limit calculated in accordance with 40 CFR 403.6(e).
"Pretreatment requirement" means any substantive or procedural requirement related to pretreatment, other than a pretreatment standard, imposed on an industrial user.
"Pretreatment standard" means any regulation containing pollutant limitations promulgated by the EPA in accordance with Section 307(b) and(c) of the Act which applies to industrial users. The term includes prohibited discharge limits established pursuant to 40 CFR 403.5 and those standards, BMPs, local limits and specific prohibitions established by the City. In cases of differing standards, the more stringent shall apply.
"Publicly owned treatment works" or "POTW" means a treatment works as defined by Section 212 of the Act (33 U.S.C. § 1292), which is owned by the City. This definition includes any devices or systems used in the collection, storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of municipal sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature and any sewers, pipes or other conveyances which convey wastewater to the treatment plant. The term also means the City as the municipality having jurisdiction over indirect discharges to and discharges from the wastewater collection and treatment systems.
"Radioactive material" means material containing chemical elements that spontaneously change their atomic structure by emitting particles, rays or energy forms in excess of normal background radiation.
"Sector control program" means a program designed to control specific pollutants from industrial users with similar operations, waste generation or treatment through the implementation of pretreatment standards and requirements, including best management practices. The sector control program requirements may be found in Section 14.17.070.
"Septic tank waste" means sewage and solids from domestic activities pumped from a septic tank serving one or more private residences, wastes from chemical toilets, campers, trailers, or cesspools.
"Severe property damage" means substantial physical damage to property, damage to the treatment facilities which causes them to become inoperable, or substantial and permanent loss of natural resources which can reasonably be expected to occur in the absence of a bypass. The term does not include economic loss caused by delays in production.
"Shall," "May." "Shall" is mandatory; "may" is permissive.
"Significant industrial user" or "SIU," except as otherwise provided in this definition, means:
(1) A categorical industrial user; or
(2) An industrial user that:
(a) Discharges an average of twenty-five thousand gpd or more of process wastewater to the POTW (excluding domestic, noncontact cooling water and boiler blowdown wastewater);
(b) Contributes a process wastestream which makes up five percent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the POTW treatment plant; or
(c) Is designated as an SIU by the Director on the basis that the industrial user has a reasonable potential for adversely affecting the POTW's operation; or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement (in accordance with 40 CFR 403.8(f)(6)).
Notwithstanding the preceding provisions of this definition, the Director has discretion, without any obligation, as follows:
(A) To determine that an industrial user subject to categorical pretreatment standards is deemed to be a non-significant CIU rather than an SIU based upon a finding that the industrial user never discharges more than one hundred gallons per day of total wastewater subject to categorical (but excluding sanitary, non-contact cooling and boiler blowdown wastewater, unless specifically included in the pretreatment standard), and subject to compliance with the following conditions:
(a) The industrial user, prior to the City's finding, has consistently complied with all applicable categorical pretreatment standards and pretreatment requirements;
(b) The industrial user annually submits the certification statement as found in 40 CFR 403.12(q), together with any additional information necessary to support the certification statement; and
(c) The industrial user never discharges any untreated concentrated wastewater.
(B) To determine that an industrial user is not a significant industrial user upon a finding that the industrial user, although meeting the criteria in subsection (2) of this definition, has no reasonable potential for adversely affecting the POTW's operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement. The Director may do so on the Director's own initiative or in response to a petition received from an industrial user, and in accordance with 40 CFR 403.8(f)(6).
"Significant noncompliance" refers to the existence of one or more of the following:
(1) Chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits in which sixty-six percent or more of all the measurements taken for the same pollutant parameter during a six-month period exceed by any magnitude, a numeric pretreatment standard or requirement, including instantaneous limits;
(2) Violations of technical review criteria (TRC), in which thirty-three percent or more of all measurements taken for the same pollutant parameter during a six-month period equal or exceed the product of the numeric pretreatment standard or requirement, including instantaneous maximum limits, multiplied by the applicable TRC (1.4 for BOD 5 , TSS, fats, oils and grease, and 1.2 for all other pollutants except pH);
(3) Any other violation(s) of a pretreatment standard or requirement, including daily maximum, long-term average, instantaneous limit or narrative standard, that the City determines to have caused, alone or in combination with other discharges, pass through or interference, or both, including an endangerment to the health of the general public or of POTW personnel;
(4) Any discharge of a pollutant that has caused imminent endangerment to human health, welfare or to the environment, or has resulted in the City's exercise of its emergency authority to halt or prevent such discharge;
(5) Failure to meet, within ninety days after the schedule date, a compliance schedule milestone contained in a local control mechanism or administrative order for starting construction, completing construction, or attaining final compliance;
(6) Failure to provide, within thirty days after the due date, any required report, including a baseline monitoring report, ninety-day compliance report, periodic self-monitoring reports, or a report on compliance with compliance schedules;
(7) Failure to accurately report non-compliance; or
(8) Any other violation or group of violations, including a violation of BMPs, which the City determines will adversely affect the operation or implementation of the City's pretreatment program in accordance with this Chapter.
"Slug load" or "slug discharge" means any discharge of a non-routine, episodic nature, including but not limited to an accidental spill or a non-customary batch discharge, which has a reasonable potential to cause interference or pass through, enter a storm drain, public street or water of the State, or in any other way violate the POTW's regulations, local limits or permit conditions. This includes a discharge which exceeds the hydraulic or design capacity of an industrial user's treatment system or any part of the treatment unit.
"Standard Industrial Classification" or "SIC Code" means a system of classifying industries, as identified in the Standard Industrial Classification Manual, 1987, as amended, prepared by the Office of Management and Budget. Also, see North American Industry Classification System Code.
"Storm drain" means a street, gutter, wash or conveyance structure for carrying stormwater.
"Stormwater" means that portion of precipitation, including snowmelt, that does not naturally percolate into the ground or evaporate, but flows via overland flow, interflow, pipes, and other features of a stormwater drainage system into a receiving water or stormwater facility.
"Temporary industrial user" or "TIU" means a source of indirect discharge on a temporary basis to whom the City has used its discretion to issue a permit, authorization to discharge, or other control mechanism pursuant to LVMC 14.17.030.
"Total suspended solids" or "TSS" means the solid matter that is suspended in a liquid, as determined in accordance with the procedures that are set forth in 40 CFR Part 136 or procedures that have been approved by NDEP.
"Toxic pollutant" "or "toxic organic pollutant" means any pollutant or combination of pollutants listed as toxic in regulations promulgated by the Administrator of the EPA under Section 307(a) of the Act or as otherwise listed in 40 CFR Part 122, Appendix D.
"Wastewater" means the liquid and water-carried industrial wastes and sewage from residential dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial and manufacturing facilities and institutions, together with any infiltrating groundwater, surface water that may be present, whether treated or untreated, which are discharged to or permitted to enter the POTW.
"Wastewater collection system" means the part of the wastewater treatment system that is used to convey wastewater to wastewater treatment plants.
"Wastewater treatment system" means an assemblage of devices, structures and equipment for the treatment of wastewater.
(B) Acronyms and abbreviations. The following acronyms and abbreviations, when used in this Chapter, shall have the designated meanings.
BMPs | Best management practices
BOD 5 | Five-day biochemical oxygen demand
°C | Degrees Celsius
CFR | Code of Federal Regulations
CIU | Categorical industrial user
COD | Chemical oxygen demand
EPA | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
°F | Degrees Fahrenheit
FOG | Fats, oils and grease
Gpd | Gallons per day
IU | Industrial user
LEL | Lower explosive limit
MAIL | Maximum allowable industrial loading
Mgd | Million gallons per day
Mg/L | Milligrams per liter
NAICS Code | North American Industry Classification System Code
NDEP | Nevada Division of Environmental Protection
NPDES | National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
NSCIU | Non-significant categorical industrial user
O&M | Operations and maintenance
PIA | Pretreatment interlocal agreement
POTW | Publicly owned treatment works
RCRA | Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
SIC Code | Standard Industrial Classification Code
SIU | Significant industrial user
SNC | Significant noncompliance
SWDA | Solid Waste Disposal Act
TDS | Total dissolved solids
TIU | Temporary industrial user
TSS | Total suspended solids
U.S.C. | United States Code
(Ord. No. 6891, § 2, 11-6-24)
