Mich. Admin. Code R. 323.2302

Current through Vol. 24-18, October 15, 2024

Section R. 323.2302 - Definitions

Rule 2. As used in this part:

(a) "Act" means sections 3101 to 3119 of Act No. 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, as amended, being §§324.3101 to 324.3119 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.

(b) "Approval authority" means the department of natural resources.

(c) "Approved program" or "approved pretreatment program" or "publicly owned treatment works' pretreatment program" means a program administered by a publicly owned treatment works which meets the criteria established in R 323.2306 and which has been approved by the approval authority in accordance with R 323.2308.

(d) "Average daily flow" means a reasonable measure of the average daily flow for a 30-day period.

(e) "Bypass" means the intentional diversion of waste streams from any portion of an industrial user's treatment facility needed for compliance with pretreatment standards.

(f) "Categorical industrial user" means all nondomestic users subject to categorical pretreatment standards.

(g) "Categorical pretreatment standard" or "categorical standard" means any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the E.P.A. in accordance with sections 307(b) and (c) of the clean water act, 33 U.S.C. §1317, which apply to a specific category of nondomestic users and which appear in 40 C.F.R. chapter I, subchapter N (1990), parts 405-471.

(h) "Clean water act" means the federal water pollution control act, 33 U.S.C. §1251 et seq., as amended.

(i) "Composite sample" means a collection of individual samples which are obtained at regular intervals, collected on a time-proportional or flow-proportional basis, over a specific time period and which provides a representative sample of the average stream during the sampling period.

(j) "Control authority" means the publicly owned treatment works if it has an approved program or means the approval authority until the publicly owned treatment works' program is approved.

(k) "Department" means the director of the department of natural resources or his or her designee.

(l) "Discharge" means any direct or indirect discharge of any waste, waste effluent, wastewater, pollutant, or any combination into any of the waters of the state or upon the ground.

(m) "E.P.A." means the United States environmental protection agency.

(n) "Grab sample" means a sample is taken from a wastestream on a 1-time basis over a period of time of not more than 15 minutes without regard to the flow in the wastestream.

(o) "Interference" means a discharge, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, to which both of the following provisions apply:

(i) The discharge inhibits or disrupts the publicly owned treatment works, its treatment processes or operations, or its sludge processes, use, or disposal.

(ii) Pursuant to paragraph (i) of this subdivision, the discharge is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the publicly owned treatment works' 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 the following statutory provisions and regulations or permits issued thereunder, or more stringent state or local regulations:

(A) Section 405 of the clean water act.

(B) The solid waste disposal act, 42 U.S.C. §6901 et seq., including title II, more commonly referred to as the resource conservation and recovery act, and including state regulations contained in any state sludge management plan prepared pursuant to subtitle D of the solid waste disposal act.

(C) The clean air act, 42 U.S.C. §7401 et seq.

(D) The toxic substances control act, 15 U.S.C. §2601 et seq.

(E) The marine protection, research, and sanctuaries act, 33 U.S.C. §1401 et seq.

(p) "Local limit" means a specific prohibition or limit set by a publicly owned treatment works on discharges by a nondomestic user.

(q) "Municipality" means a county, city, village, township, district, association, or other public body created by or under state law, or an agency or instrumentality of any of them, having jurisdiction over the disposal of wastewater.

(r) "New source" means any building, structure, facility, or installation from which there is or may be a discharge and for which construction commenced after the publication of proposed pretreatment standards under section 307(c) of the clean water act will be applicable to the source if the standards are thereafter promulgated in accordance with section 307(c), and if any of the following provisions apply:

(i) The building, structure, facility, or installation is constructed at a site at which no other source is located.

(ii) The building, structure, facility, or installation totally replaces the process or production equipment that causes the discharge of pollutants at an existing source.

(iii) The production of wastewater-generating processes of the building, structure, facility, or installation is substantially independent of an existing source at the same site. The extent to which the new facility is engaged in the same general type of activity as the existing source andthe extent of integration of the new facility with the existing plant should be considered in determining whether the process is substantially independent.

(s) "Nondomestic user" means an industry, commercial establishment, or other entity that discharges wastewater to a publicly owned treatment works other than, or in addition to, sanitary sewage.

(t) "Pass-through" means a discharge that exits a publicly owned treatment works into state waters in quantities or concentrations which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, cause a violation of any requirement of the act.

(u) "Permit" means an authorization, license, or equivalent control document and includes any of the following:

(i) A nondomestic user permit, which is a control document issued by the publicly owned treatment works that controls the wastewater discharges from nondomestic users into the publicly owned treatment works.

(ii) A national pollutant discharge elimination system, which is a permit issued pursuant to section 3112(1) of the act to control wastewater discharges to the surface waters.

(iii) A state permit, which is a permit issued pursuant to section 3112(1) of the act to control wastewater discharges of publicly owned treatment works to the groundwaters.

(v) "Pollutant" means any of the following:

(i) Substances regulated by categorical standards.

(ii) Substances discharged to publicly owned treatment works that are required to be monitored, are limited in the publicly owned treatment works' permit, or are to be identified in the publicly owned treatment works' permit application.

(iii) Substances for which control measures on nondomestic users are necessary to avoid restricting the publicly owned treatment works' approved residuals management program.

(iv) Substances for which control measures on nondomestic users are necessary to avoid operational problems at the publicly owned treatment works.

(v) Substances for which control measures on nondomestic sources are necessary to avoid worker health and safety problems in publicly owned treatment works.

(w) "Pretreatment" means the reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination of pollutants, or the alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater before or instead of discharging or otherwise introducing the pollutants into a publicly owned treatment works. The reduction or alteration may be obtained by physical, chemical, or biological processes; process changes; or other means, except for the use of dilution, unless expressly authorized by an applicable pretreatment standard or requirement.

(x) "Pretreatment program" means a nondomestic user waste control program which is required in a publicly owned treatment works' wastewater discharge permit or order of the department and which is developed in accordance with R 323.2306.

(y) "Pretreatment requirements" means any substantive or procedural requirement related to pretreatment, other than a pretreatment standard, imposed on a nondomestic user.

(z) "Pretreatment standard" means any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated in accordance with section 307(b) and (c) of the clean water act and the act. This term includes prohibited discharges and local limits defined in R 323.2303 and categorical standards.

(aa) "Publicly owned treatment works" means a treatment works that is owned by a municipality and includes any devices and systems used in the storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of municipal sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature. The term also includes sewers, pipes, and other conveyances if they convey wastewater to a publicly owned treatment works. The term also means the municipality that has jurisdiction over the indirect discharges to, and the discharges from, a treatment works.

(bb) "Sanitary sewage" means water-carried wastes from toilet, kitchen, laundry, bathing, or other facilities used for household purposes.

(cc) "Significant industrial user" means either of the following:

(i) A nondomestic user subject to categorical pretreatment standards under 40 C.F.R. §403 (1992) and 40 C.F.R. chapter I, subchapter N (1990).

(ii) A nondomestic user to which 1 of the following provisions applies:

(A) The user discharges an average of 25,000 gallons per day or more of process wastewater to the publicly owned treatment works, excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling, and boiler blowdown wastewater.

(B) The user contributes a process wastestream that makes up 5% or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the publicly owned treatment works.

(C) The user is designated as a significant industrial user by the control authority on the basis that the user has a reasonable potential for adversely affecting the publicly owned treatment works' operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement.

(iii) Upon a finding that a nondomestic user meeting the criteria in paragraph (ii) of this subdivision has no reasonable potential for adversely affecting the publicly owned treatment works' operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement, the control authority may, at any time, on its own initiative or in response to a petition received from a nondomestic user or publicly owned treatment works, determine that a nondomestic user is not a significant nondomestic user.

(dd) "Significant noncompliance" means any of the following:

(i) Chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined as results of analyses in which 66% or more of all of the measurements taken during a 6-month period exceed, by any magnitude, the daily maximum limit or the average limit for the same pollutant parameter.

(ii) Technical review criteria violations, defined as results of analyses in which 33% or more of all of the measurements for each pollutant parameter taken during a 6-month period equal or exceed the product of the daily maximum limit or the average limit multiplied by the applicable technical review criteria. Technical review criteria equals 1.4 for conventional pollutants and 1.2 for all other pollutants, except pH.

(iii) Any other violation of a pretreatment effluent limit, daily maximum, or longer-term average that the control authority determines has caused, alone or in combination with other discharges, interference or pass-through, including endangering the health of publicly owned treatment works' personnel or the general public.

(iv) Any discharge of a pollutant that has caused imminent endangerment to human health, welfare, or the environment or has resulted in the publicly owned treatment works' exercise of its emergency authority under R 323.2306(a)(vi) to halt or prevent the discharge.

(v) Failure to meet, within 90 days after the schedule date, a compliance schedule milestone contained in a local control mechanism or enforcement order for starting construction, completing construction, or attaining final compliance.

(vi) Failure to provide, within 30 days after the due date, required reports, such as baseline monitoring reports, 90-day compliance reports, periodic self-monitoring reports, and reports on compliance with compliance schedules.

(vii) Failure to accurately report noncompliance.

(viii) Any other violation or group of violations that the control authority determines will adversely affect the operation or implementation of the local pretreatment program.

(ee) "Slug discharge" means any discharge of a nonroutine, episodic nature, including an accidental spill or noncustomary batch discharge.

(ff) "Trade secret" means the whole or any portion or phase of any manufacturing proprietary process or method which is not patented, which is secret, which is useful in compounding an article of trade having a commercial value, and the secrecy of which the owner has taken reasonable measure to prevent from becoming available to persons other than those selected by the owner to have access for limited purposes. Trade secret shall not be construed, for purposes of these rules, to include any information regarding the quantum or character of waste products or their constituents discharged, or sought to be discharged, into the publicly owned treatment works.

(gg) "Upset" means an exceptional incident in which there is unintentional and temporary noncompliance with categorical pretreatment standards because of factors beyond the reasonable control of the nondomestic user. An upset does not include noncompliance to the extent caused by operational error, improperly designed treatment facilities, inadequate treatment facilities, lack of preventive maintenance, or careless or improper operation.

(hh) "Wastewater" means water resulting from industrial and commercial processes and municipal operations, including liquid or water-carried process waste, cooling and condensing waters, and sanitary sewage.

Mich. Admin. Code R. 323.2302

1995 AACS