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For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning:

APPLICATION. The written instrument by which a DEVELOPER or a CUSTOMER applies for sewer service of any sort.

APPROVING AUTHORITY. The City Council or its designated representative.

BOARD OF REVIEW. The members of the City Council or its designated committee.

BOD (BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND). The quantity of oxygen utilized in biochemical oxydation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure in five days at 20º C, expressed in milligrams per liter.

BRANCH SEWER. An arbitrary term for a sewer which receives sewage from lateral sewers from a relatively small area.

BUILDING. Any structure containing sanitary facilities used for human habitation, a place of business, recreation or like purpose.

C. Centigrade degrees.

COD (CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND). A measure of the oxygen-consuming capacity of inorganic and organic matter present in water or wastewater under standard laboratory procedures expressed in milligrams per liter.

CONNECTION CHARGE. A charge for the proposed usage of the City’s facilities paid by a developer or a customer for utilizing portions of the City’s sanitary sewer system funded by the City.

CONSTRUCTION CONNECTION CHARGE. A charge, payable to the City, for a developer’s utilization of oversized facilities paid for by other parties, including the City.

CONSTRUCTION COST. The cost to a developer, less the City’s oversizing costs, if any, described herein, for the design and construction of all facilities as required to serve the developer’s property and to connect to the City’s sanitary sewer system.

CONSULTING ENGINEERS. The engineer or engineering firm or corporation responsible for professional engineering services provided for an assignment.

CONTROL MANHOLE. The structure that is accessible for the purpose of maintaining a building sewer. A CONTROL MANHOLE may be used as an inspection chamber.

COOLING WATER. The water discharge from any system of condensation, air conditioning, cooling, refrigeration, or other sources. It shall contain no pollution substances which would produce BOD or SS in excess of ten parts per million by weight, or toxic substances as limited in this Code, or other polluting substances which may be limited in this chapter.

COUNTY. County of Yuma.

CUSTOMER or CONSUMER. Any individual, corporation, partnership, firm or association furnished sewage disposal service by the City.

DEVELOPER. Any individual, corporation, partnership, firm or association developing a property or properties for self-use, resale, rental or lease, at or to which sewage disposal service is to be rendered by the City, and who shall have the legal right to negotiate for the service. Where applicable, any individual, corporation, partnership, firm or association applying for the extension of sewers or force mains in order to serve a certain property.

DIRECTOR. The executive officer of the Public Works Department.

DOMESTIC SEWAGE or SANITARY SEWAGE. Sewage derived principally from dwellings, business buildings, industries, institutions and the like, originating as wastes from kitchens, water closets, lavatories, bathrooms and showers.

DOMESTIC USER. All users of sewage treatment facilities not classified as industrial users.

EFFLUENT. Sewage, water or other liquid after some degree of treatment, flowing out of any treatment device or facilities.

FORCE MAIN. A pressure sewer pipeline for the transmission of sewage. The pipe cannot receive sewage, except under pressure by pumping.

FRONTAGE. The actual width, normally expressed in feet, of a property in respect to a street or avenue but without relation to the front, side or rear of any structure located on the property along which the proposed sewer or force main is installed. In the case of a corner lot, FRONTAGE is calculated as the longer of the sides involved. For irregular shaped lots, or acreage, FRONTAGE will be calculated by taking the square root of the number of square feet of property involved.

GARBAGE. Solid wastes from the domestic and commercial preparation, cooking and dispensing of food, and from the handling, storage and sale of produce.

GREASE or FATS. Any material which is extractable from an acidified sample of a waste by hexane or other designated solvent.

GROUND GARBAGE. Solid wastes from the preparation, cooking and dispensing of food that has been shredded or cominuted to a degree so that all particles will be carried freely in suspension in public sewers, with no particle greater than one-half inch in any dimension.

HAULER. Any person engaged in transportation or conveyance of liquid wastes to sewage treatment plant or other location in the sewerage system for disposal.

INDUSTRIAL COST RECOVERY. Recovery by the sewer district of an amount allocable to the treatment and/or transmission of wastes from industrial users of a treatment works.

INDUSTRIAL USER.

(1) Any nongovernmental, nonresidential user of a publicly owned treatment works which discharges more than the equivalent of 25,000 gallons per day (gpd) of sanitary wastes, and which is identified in the Standard Industrial Classification Manual 1982, Office of Management and Budget, as amended and supplemented under one of the following divisions:

Division A. Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing;

Division B. Mining;

Division D. Manufacturing;

Division E. Transportation, Communications, Electric, Gas and Sanitary Services;

Division I. Services.

(2) Any nongovernmental user of a publicly owned treatment works which discharges wastewater to the treatment works which contains toxic pollutants or poisonous solids, liquids or gases in sufficient quantity, either singly or by interaction with other wastes, to contaminate the sludge of any municipal systems, or to injure or to interfere with any sewage treatment process, or which constitutes a hazard to humans or animals, creates a public nuisance or creates any hazard in or has any adverse effect on the waters receiving any discharge from the treatment works.

INDUSTRIAL WASTE. Any liquid, solid or gaseous substance or form of energy, or combination thereof, resulting from any process of industrial, commercial, governmental and institutional concerns, manufacturing, business, trade or research, including the development, recovery or processing of natural resources, or from sources identified in the Standard Industrial Classification Manual of the United States Office of Management and Budget, as amended.

INFLUENT. Sewage, raw or partly treated, flowing into any sewage treatment device, pumping station or related facilities.

INSPECTION CHAMBER. An accessible structure through which sewage from a building sewer flows, and from which samples of the sewage may be collected for the purpose of being tested.

INTERCEPTOR. A large size gravity flow sewer or force main for the transmission of sewage, which has been designed to receive sewage from one or more collecting sewers or pumping stations.

LABORATORY DETERMINATION. The measurements, tests and analysis of the characteristics of waters and wastes in accordance with the provisions of 40 C.F.R. Part 136. These methods are contained in the latest edition of three publications:

(1) Standard Methods for Examinations of Water and Wastewater, a joint publication of the American Public Health Association, the American Water Works Association and the Water Pollution Control Federation;

(2) ASTM, which means Annual Book of Standards, Part 23, Water Atmospheric Analysis, 1972, a publication of the American Society for Testing Materials;

(3) EPA Methods, which means Methods for Chemical Analysis of Water and Wastes, a publication of the Environmental Protection Agency; or

(4) In accordance with any other equivalent methods prescribed by the Director.

LATERAL SEWER LINE. A branch sewer line connected to the main sewer line. A LATERAL SEWER is normally eight inches in size or larger.

MAIN SEWER LINE. A major gravity line in any specific development, to which one or more lateral sewers may be tributary.

METER MEASUREMENT. An act of or result of determining the quantity of water supplied or being discharged by a user and determined by an instrument or device used for the measurements and approved by the Director.

MUNICIPALITIES. Any city, town or village, wholly or partly within Yuma County.

OFF-SITE SEWERS. Sewer lines totally outside a development.

ON-SITE SEWERS. Sewer lines in streets or rights-of-way, or easements totally within a development, and those sewer collection lines in peripheral streets constructed for use by that development.

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE. The process and act of keeping all facilities for collecting, pumping, treating and disposing of sewage in normal operation and in a good state of repair, including the replacement of the facilities when necessary.

OVERSIZED SEWER. A sewer extension in, through or past a development which, because of future extensions or other reasons, is larger than required for the immediate development to be served.

pH. The logarithm of the reciprocal of the hydrogen-ion concentration in grams per liter of solution.

PLANNED EXTENSION. Future sewer extensions scheduled by the Authority with special provisions for payments therefor.

PLUMBING. All pipes, fittings and appurtenances on the property owner’s side of the property line or outside easement areas. This includes the property owner’s extension from the sewer lateral up to and including the house plumbing.

PPM. Part per million by weight and/or milligrams per liter.

PRETREATMENT FACILITIES. Structures, devices or equipment for the purpose of removing deleterious wastes from sewage generated from a premises prior to its discharge into a public sewer.

PRIVATE SEWER. Any sewer, or system of sewers, exclusive of building sewers, which is not owned by the municipality in which it is located, or any other public authority or private utility.

PROPERTY OWNER. The record title holder of premises served or to be served with a sewer connection by the City.

PUBLIC LAW NO. 92-500. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1982, as amended.

PUBLIC SEWER. A sewer which is owned and/or controlled by public authority or private utility.

PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR. The City’s Public Works Director, or his or her authorized representative.

SAMPLING. Periodic collection of sewage for testing.

SCAVENGER WASTE. Any liquid waste from sources such as septic tanks, package plants or industrial processes, which are removed from a premises by means other than a sewer.

SERVICE LATERAL. Sewer connection extending from the collecting sewer in the street to a customer’s property line, or from the collecting sewer in an easement to the easement line, often referred to as a house connection.

SEWAGE. A combination of the water-carried wastes from residences, business buildings, institutions and industrial establishments, together with infiltration as may be present, often referred to as wastewater.

SEWAGE DISPOSAL PLANT. The physical facilities for the treatment of sewage before discharge into a canal, ocean, lake or injection well.

SEWAGE DISPOSAL SERVICE. The service provided by the City for the disposal of sewage, including transmission, treatment and effluent disposal.

SEWAGE DISPOSAL SERVICE CHARGE or SEWER CHARGE. The charge established for the disposal of sewage.

SEWAGE DISPOSAL SYSTEM. All facilities required to transport sewage to a treatment plant for treatment and effluent disposal, including gravity sanitary sewers, interceptors, force mains, pumping stations, treatment plants, outfalls and disposal wells.

SEWAGE FLOW METER. A device that measures and records the flow of sewage. It may also measure the rate of flow.

SEWER or COLLECTION SEWER. The gravity flow sloping pipe facility installed in public streets, rights-of-way and easements for the collection of sewage.

SEWER DISTRICT. All that portion inside or outside the City now or hereafter reached by the sewer system.

SEWER SYSTEM OF THE CITY. The sanitary sewer collection system within the corporate limits of the City that is operated by the City.

SEWER SYSTEM OUTSIDE THE CITY. The sanitary sewer collection system outside the corporate limits of the City that is operated by the City.

SEWERAGE SYSTEM. All facilities for collecting, pumping, transmission, treatment and disposal of sewage.

SLUG. Any discharge of water, sewage or industrial waste which, in concentration of any given constituent or in quantity of flow, exceeds for any period of duration longer than 15 minutes, more than five times the average 24-hour concentration or flows during normal operation.

SURCHARGE. That part of the sewer service charge which shall be applied to extra strength wastes to cover added operation and maintenance costs.

SUSPENDED SOLIDS. Solids that are in suspension in water, sewage or other liquids, and which are removable by laboratory filtering.

SYSTEM. The entire sewerage system (sewer district) of the City, and all treatment and disposal facilities and interceptor sewers owned and operated by the City, and all sewerage collection systems connected thereto.

TESTING. The analysis of samples of sewage.

TOXIC SUBSTANCE. Any substance, whether gaseous, liquid or solid, which, when discharged to the sewer system in sufficient quantities, may tend to interfere with any sewage treatment process, or to constitute a hazard to human beings or animals, or inhibit aquatic life, or create a hazard to recreation in the receiving waters of the effluent from the sewage treatment plant.

UNPOLLUTED WATER. Water discharged in its original state, or water discharged which, after use for any purpose, is at least equal chemically, physically and biologically to the water from its original source, i.e., potable water, ground water, river and stream water.

USER. Any person or premises receiving waste disposal services.

USER CHARGE. Charges assigned to each user which defray a proportionate share of the cost of operation and maintenance of the sewerage system, often referred to as sewage disposal service charge.

WASTEWATER. A term interchangeable with sewage as defined herein. (Ord. 50 § 2, passed 2-27-1985. Code 1982 § 13-1-1. Code 2012 § 51.01.)