City of Marlborough, MA - Use of Public Sewers

A. No stormwater, surface water, groundwater, roof runoff, subsurface drainage, uncontaminated cooling water or unpolluted industrial process water shall be discharged or caused to be discharged to any sanitary sewer. No direct connection shall be made from a public water supply to a building drain discharging to any sanitary sewer.

(1) No user shall contribute or cause to be contributed, directly or indirectly, any pollutant or wastewater which will interfere with the operation or performance of the POTW. These general prohibitions apply to all such users of a POTW, whether or not the user is subject to National Categorical Pretreatment Standards or any other national, state or local pretreatment standards or requirements. A user may not contribute the following substances to any POTW:

(a) Any liquids, solids or gases which by reason of their 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 POTW or to the operation of the POTW. At no time shall two (2) successive readings on an explosion hazard meter, at the point of discharge into the system or at any point in the system, be more than five percent (5%) nor any single reading over ten percent (10%) of the lower explosive limit (LEL) of the meter. Prohibited materials include, but are not limited to, gasoline, fuel oil, kerosene, naphtha, benzene, toluene, xylene, ethers, alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, peroxides, chlorates, perchlorates, bromate, carbides, hydrides and sulfides and any other substances which the city, the state or EPA has notified the user is a fire hazard or a hazard to the system.

(b) Solids or viscous substances which may cause obstruction to the flow in a sewer or other interference with the operation of the wastewater treatment facilities, such as but not limited to: grease, garbage with particles greater than one-half (1/2) inch in any dimension, animal guts or tissues, paunch manure, bones, hair, hides or fleshing, entrails, whole blood, feathers, ashes, cinders, sand, spent lime, stone, gravel, or marble dust, plaster, cement, mortar, metal, glass, straw, sticks, shavings, grass clippings, rags, spent grains, spent hops, wastepaper, paper dishes, cups, oil containers, wood, plastics, gas, tar, asphalt residues, residues from refining, or processing of fuel or lubricating oil, mud or glass grinding or polishing wastes.

(e) Any wastewater containing toxic or poisonous pollutants, including any solids, liquids or gases, in sufficient quantity, either singly or by interaction with other pollutants, to injure or interfere with any wastewater treatment process, constitute a hazard to humans or animals, create a toxic effect in the receiving waters of the POTW or to exceed the limitation set forth in a Categorical Pretreatment Standard. A toxic pollutant shall include, but not be limited to, any pollutant identified pursuant to Section 307(a) of the Act.

(f) 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 sewers for maintenance and repair.

(g) Any substance which may cause the POTW's effluent or any other product of the POTW, such as residues, sludges or scums, to be unsuitable for reclamation and reuse or to interfere with the reclamation process. In no case shall a substance discharged to the POTW cause the POTW to be in noncompliance with sludge use or disposal criteria, guidelines or regulations developed under Section 405 of the Act, or with any criteria, guidelines or regulations affecting sludge use or disposal Act, the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act or state criteria applicable to the sludge management method being used.

(h) Any substance which will cause the POTW to violate the NPDES and/or State Disposal System permit or the receiving water quality standards. Any wastewater with objectionable color not removed in the treatment process, such as but not limited to dye wastes and vegetable tanning solutions.

(i) Any wastewater having a temperature which will inhibit biological activity in the POTW treatment plant resulting in interference but in no case heat in such quantities that the temperature at the POTW treatment plant exceeds forty degrees centigrade (40 C) [one hundred four degrees Fahrenheit (104 F.).]

(j) Any pollutants, of a non-routine, episodic nature, including, but not limited to, any accidental spill or a non-customary batch of discharge released at a flow rate and/or pollutant concentration which a user knows or has reason to know will cause interference to the POTW. In no case shall a slug load have a flow rate or contain concentration or quantities or pollutants that exceed, for any time period longer than fifteen (15) minutes, more than five (5) times the average twenty-four-hour concentration, quantities or flow during normal operation.

(l) Water or waste containing fats, wax, grease or oils, whether emulsified or not, in excess of one hundred (100) milligrams per liter or containing substances which may solidify or become viscous at temperatures between thirty-two degrees and one hundred fifty degrees Fahrenheit (32 and 150 F.) [zero degrees and sixty-five degrees centigrade (0 and 65 C.)].

(n) Materials which exert or cause unusual concentrations of inert suspended solids, such as but not limited to fuller's earth, lime slurries and lime residues or of dissolved solids, such as but not limited to sodium chloride and sodium sulfate.

(r) Waters or wastes containing substances which are not amenable to treatment or reduction by he waste treatment process employed, or are amenable to treatment only to such degree that sewage treatment plant effluent cannot meet the requirements of other agencies having jurisdiction over discharge to the receiving waters.

(2) When the Commissioner determines that a user(s) is discharging or proposing to discharge to the POTW any of the above enumerated substances in such amounts as to interfere with the operation of the POTW, the Commissioner shall advise the user(s) of impact of the contribution on the POTW and develop effluent limitation(s) for such user to correct the interference with the POTW.

(1) Upon the promulgation of the Federal Categorical Pretreatment Standards for a particular industrial subcategory, 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 Commissioner shall notify all effected users of the applicable reporting requirements under 40 CFR 403.12.

(2) Where the city's wastewater treatment system achieves consistent removal of pollutants limited by Federal Pretreatment Standards, the city may apply to the Approval Authority for modification of specific limits in the Federal Pretreatment Standards. "Consistent removal" shall mean reduction in the amount of a pollutant or alteration of the nature of the pollutant by the wastewater treatment system to a less toxic or harmless state in the effluent which is achieved by the system in ninety-five percent (95%) of the samples taken when measured according to the procedures set forth in Section 403.7(c)(2) of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 403, General Pretreatment Regulations for Existing and New Sources of Pollution, promulgated pursuant to the Act. The city may then modify pollutant discharge limits in the federal pretreatment standards if the requirement contained in 40 CFR 403.7 are fulfilled and prior approval from the Approval Authority is obtained.

(3) Except where expressly authorized to do so by an applicable categorical pretreatment standard, no User shall ever increase the use of process water, or in any other way attempt to dilute a discharge as a partial or complete substitute for adequate treatment, to achieve compliance with the categorical pretreatment standard. Mass limitations may be imposed on users when determined by the Authority to be appropriate.

(1) If any waters or wastes are discharged or are proposed to be discharged to the public sewers, which waters contain the substances or possess the characteristics enumerated in Subsections C and E of this section and which, in the judgment of the Commissioner, may have a deleterious effect upon the sewerage facilities, processes, equipment or receiving waters or which otherwise create a hazard to life or constitute a public nuisance, the Commissioner may do any or all of the following:

(2) If the Commissioner permits the treatment or equalization of waste flows, the design and installation of the plants and equipment shall be subject to the review and approval of the Commissioner and subject to the requirements of all applicable code, ordinances and laws.

H. Grease, Oil and sand interceptors shall be provided when, in the opinion of the Commissioner, they are necessary for the proper handling of liquid wastes containing grease in excessive amounts or any flammable wastes, sand or other harmful ingredients, except that such interceptors shall not be required for private living quarters or dwelling units. All interceptors shall be of a type and capacity approved by the Commissioner and shall be so located as to be readily and easily accessible for cleaning and inspection.

K. The owner of any property serviced by a building sewer carrying industrial wastes shall perform such monitoring of its discharges as may be required by the Commissioner, including the installation, use and maintenance of monitoring equipment. Records of the results of such monitoring shall be kept, and said results shall be reported to the Commissioner. The Commissioner shall make such records available upon request to state, federal or any other public agencies having jurisdiction over such discharges. In addition, the owner of any property serviced by a building sewer carrying industrial wastes shall, at the discretion of the Commissioner, install a suitable control manhole to facilitate monitoring of the wastes in the building sewer as may be required by the Commissioner. Such manhole shall be accessibly and safely located and shall be constructed in accordance with plans approved by the Commissioner. The manhole shall be installed by the owner at his expense and shall be maintained by him so as to be safe and accessible to the Commissioner at all times.

(1) Except as noted in this subsection, all measurements, tests and analyses of the characteristics of waters and wastes to which reference is made in this chapter shall be determined in accordance with the latest edition of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, published by the American Public Health Association, and shall be determined at the control manhole provided or upon suitable samples taken at such control manhole. In the event that no special manhole has been required, the control manhole shall be considered to be the nearest downstream manhole in the public sewer to the point at which the building sewer is connected. Sampling shall be carried out by customarily accepted methods to reflect the effect of constituents upon the sewerage facilities and to determine the existence of hazards to life, limb and property. The particular analyses involved will determine whether a twenty-four hour composite of all outfalls of a property is appropriate or whether a grab sample or samples should be taken. Normally, but not always, BOD and suspended solids analyses are re obtained from twenty-four-hour composites of all outfalls, whereas pH's are determined from periodic grab samples.

(2) Measurements, tests and analyses of the characteristics of waters and wastes discharged by significant users shall be performed in accordance with procedures established by the EPA pursuant to Section 304(g) of the Act and contained in 40 CFR 136, as amended.

(1) Each significant user shall provide protection from accidental discharge 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's or user's own cost and expense. Detailed plans showing facilities and operating procedures to provide this protection shall be submitted to the city for review and shall be approved by the city before construction of the facility. All existing significant users shall submit such a plan by October 1, 1985.

(2) No user who commences contribution to the POTW after the effective date of this chapter shall be permitted to introduce pollutants into the system until accidental discharge procedures have been approved by the city. Review and approval of such plans and operating procedures shall not relieve the industrial user from the responsibility to modify the user's facility as necessary to meet the requirements of this chapter. In the case of an accidental discharge, it is the responsibility of the users to immediately telephone and notify the POTW of the incident. The notification shall include location of discharge, type of waste, concentration and volume and corrective actions.

N. Written notice. Within five (5) days following an accidental discharge, the user shall submit to the Commissioner a detailed written report describing the cause of the discharge and the measures to be taken by the user to prevent similar future occurrences. Such notification shall not relieve the user of any expense, loss, damage or other liability which may be incurred as a result of damage to the POTW, fish kills or any other damage to person or property; nor shall such notification relieve the user of any fines, civil penalties or other liability which may be imposed by this chapter or other applicable law.

O. Notice to employees. A notice shall be permanently posted on the user's bulletin board or other prominent place advising employees of whom to call in the event of a dangerous discharge. Employers shall ensure that all employees who may cause or suffer such a dangerous discharge to occur are advised of the emergency notification procedure.

P. No statement contained in this chapter shall be construed as preventing any special agreement or arrangement between the city and any industrial concern whereby an industrial waste of unusual strength or character may be accepted by the city for treatment, provided that such agreements do not contravene any applicable state or federal regulations.

R. Within thirty (30) days of being notified by the Commissioner, all persons discharging industrial wastes to the public sewers, prior to the effective date of this revised ordinance, shall apply to the Commissioner for an industrial waste discharge permit. The application shall be made on the forms furnished by the Commissioner.