New York Codes, Rules and Regulations
Title 21 - Miscellaneous
Chapter XXX - Niagara Falls Water Board
Part 1960 - Wastewater Regulations
Section 1960.1 - Definitions

Universal Citation: 21 NY Comp Codes Rules and Regs ยง 1960.1

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 12, March 20, 2024

(a) Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the following words and terms, without regard to capitalization, shall be construed or defined as follows:

(1) Acceptable limits means those amounts or concentrations of pollutants that will allow consistent compliance with all SPDES permit limits, residuals disposal regulations for non- hazardous wastes, and satisfactory operation and maintenance of the entire water board POTW as determined by the director.

(2) Act or Water Board Act means the Niagara Falls Water Authority Act, codified as section 1230-a et seq. of title 10-B and 10-C of article 5 of the New York Public Authorities Law.

(3) Clean Water Act means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act ( P.L. 92-500 ), as amended by the Clean Water Act of 1977 ( P.L. 95-217 ) et seq., as amended.

(4) Administrative order means an order issued by the director to a water board POTW user and binding on the user to the extent that the director is acting within his purview.

(5) Approval authority means USEPA, or NYSDEC, as the case may be.

(6) Authorized representative of industrial user means:
(i) a principal executive officer of at least the level of vice president, if the industrial user is a corporation;

(ii) a general partner or proprietor if the industrial user is a partnership or proprietorship, respectively;

(iii) a duly authorized representative of the individual designated above if such representative is responsible for the overall operation of the facilities from which the discharge originates (e.g., plant manager);

(7) Best management practices (BMPs) means schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, general good housekeeping practices, pollution prevention and educational practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to prevent or reduce the discharge of pollutants directly or indirectly to stormwater, receiving waters, or stormwater conveyance systems. BMPs also include treatment practices, operating procedures, and practices to control site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or water disposal, or drainage from raw materials storage.

(8) Board or water board means the Niagara Falls Water Board, established pursuant to section 1231-b of the Water Board Act, and its directors, employees, agents, together with any authorized contractor, or any other person acting with written authority on behalf of the board.

(9) Board schedule of rates means a schedule of rates, fees and other charges established at least annually and as modified from time to time by the water board.

(10) Building drain means that part of the lowest horizontal piping of a drainage system which receives the discharge from soil, waste, and other drainage pipes inside the walls of the building and conveys it to the building sewer. The building drain begins three feet from the outside face of the building wall.

(11) Categorical pretreatment standard or categorical standard means any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the USEPA in accordance with section 307(b) and (c) of the Clean Water Act which applies to a specific category of industrial user.

(12) Chlorine demand means the difference between the amount of chlorine added to water or wastewater and the amount of residual chlorine remaining at the end of a 20-minute contact period at room temperature.

(13) City shall mean the City of Niagara Falls, NY, its employees and agents, together with any authorized contractor or other person acting with written authority on behalf of the city.

(14) CIU or categorical industrial user means any user which is regulated by USEPA in accordance with sections 307(b) and (c) of the Clean Water Act which apply to a specific category of users and which appear in 40 CFR chapter I, subchapter N, parts 405-471.

(15) Clean Water Act means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act ( 33 U.S.C. section 1251 et seq.), and any subsequent amendments thereto.

(16) Combined sewer means a sewer intended to receive both wastewater and stormwater or surface water.

(17) Compliance means conformance with SIU or ICU discharge permit limits, and/or conformance with all the terms of this Part. Compliance shall be determined by periodic monitoring by the water board and/or self-monitoring, as applicable.

(18) Connection means and refers to the pipeline from the sewer main to the building drain, control manhole or monitoring station.

(19) Construction activity means activities requiring authorization under the SPDES permit for stormwater discharges from construction activity, GP-02-01, as amended or revised. These activities include construction projects resulting in land disturbance of one or more acres. Such activities include but are not limited to clearing and grubbing, grading, excavating and demolition.

(20) Contamination or contaminated means waters or wastewaters which contain polluting substances, or toxic substances, as may be limited by section 1960.5 of this Part and/or applicable water quality standards.

(21) Control authority means the water board.

(22) Control manhole means a structure maintained by the owner and approved by the director that is continuously and immediately accessible and adequate for the insertion of a flow metering device and the collection of samples and suitable for inspection, observation, sampling, testing and measuring of plant discharges.

(23) Cooling water means the water discharge from any system of condensation, air conditioning, cooling or refrigeration.

(24) CSIRU (commercial/small industrial/residential user) shall include any person not within the definition of a SIU, transporter or generator who discharges wastewater to the water board POTW.

(25) De minimus means a quantity which in the opinion of the director is too small to have a significant adverse effect upon the water board POTW and/or its State SPDES discharge permit.

(26) Design flow means the daily flow for which the water board POTW treatment plant was designed (i.e., 48 million gallons per day).

(27) Design loading means the daily loading of parameters (that is, total suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand and phenols) utilized in the design of the water board POTW as follows:

Total suspended solids - 100,000 pounds/day

Chemical oxygen demand - 145,000 pounds/day

Phenols - 275 pounds/day

(28) Director or department mean, without other designation, the executive director of the water board, or other person or persons designated by the director to act in his or her stead, and the department of wastewater facilities of the water board, respectively.

(29) Diversion sewer means exclusively a gravity conduit extending generally from a shaft of the Adams Tailrace Tunnel, easterly in Buffalo Avenue, Packard Road, A Street and 47th Street, into which the plants of the Buffalo Avenue industrial area discharge such waters as are allowed under individual plant NPDES/SPDES permits.

(30) Easement means an acquired legal right for the specific use of land owned by others.

(31) Excessive infiltration means infiltration in excess of 4,000 gallons/day/inch/mile for existing combined or sanitary sewers, and 200 gallons/day/inch/mile for new combined or sanitary sewers, or greater as otherwise designated by the director.

(32) Garbage means the solid wastes from the domestic or commercial handling, storage, dispensing, preparation, cooking or serving of produce.

(33) Generator means any person, by site, whose act or process produces hauled waste.

(34) Groundwater means water within the earth.

(35) Hauled waste means all waste lawfully introduced to the water board POTW by means other than through the water board sewer system.

(36) Hazardous materials means any material, including any substance, waste, or combination thereof, which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may cause, or significantly contribute to, a substantial present or potential hazard to human health, safety, property, or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed of, or otherwise managed.

(37) ICU (industrial commercial user) means any person within the definition of CSIRU who has the potential to discharge other than sanitary wastewater.

(38) ICU permit means and shall be the wastewater discharge permit that may be required for ICUs for discharge of wastewater into the water board POTW and issued pursuant to these regulations and may contain discharge restrictions as deemed appropriate by the director.

(39) Immediately means, as it pertains to any abnormal discharge or spill, as soon as the spillage has been controlled or within 30 minutes of discovery, whichever is sooner.

(40) ILC (industrial liaison committee) means a committee of the Niagara Falls Area Chamber of Commerce established as an advisory group to the water board and the city for the purposes of observing and consulting on the operation, maintenance, costs, budgets, revenues and financial reports and for liaison work with all SIUs in order to assure adequate water board POTW service to industrial users.

(41) Illicit connection means any drain or conveyance, whether on the surface or subsurface, which allows an illegal discharge to enter the MS4, including but not limited to:
(i) any conveyances which allow any non-stormwater discharge including treated or untreated sewage, process wastewater, and wash water to enter the MS4 and any connections to the storm drain system from indoor drains and sinks, regardless of whether said drain or connection had been previously allowed, permitted, or approved by an authorized enforcement agency; or

(ii) any drain or conveyance connected from a commercial or industrial land use to the MS4 which has not been documented in plans, maps, or equivalent records and approved by an authorized enforcement agency.

(42) Illicit discharge means any direct or indirect non-stormwater discharge to the MS4, except:
(i) water line flushing or other potable water sources, landscape irrigation or lawn watering, existing diverted stream flows, rising ground water, uncontaminated ground water infiltration into storm drains, uncontaminated pumped ground water, foundation or footing drains, crawl space or basement sump pumps, air conditioning condensate, irrigation water, springs, water from individual residential car washing, natural riparian habitat or wetland flows, dechlorinated swimming pool discharges, residential street wash water, water from fire fighting activities, and any other water source not containing pollutants, and unless the department or the municipality has determined such discharges to be substantial contributors of pollutants;

(ii) discharges approved in writing by the SMO to protect life or property from imminent harm or damage, provided that, such approval shall not be construed to constitute compliance with other applicable laws and requirements, and further provided that such discharges may be permitted for a specified time period and under such conditions as the SMO may deem appropriate to protect such life and property while reasonably maintaining the purpose and intent of this local law; and

(iii) dye testing in compliance with applicable State and local laws is an allowable discharge, but requires a verbal notification to the SMO prior to the time of the test. 6.1.4

The prohibition shall not apply to any discharge permitted under an SPDES permit, waiver, or waste discharge order issued to the discharger and administered under the authority of the department, provided that the discharger is in full compliance with all requirements of the permit, waiver, or order and other applicable laws and regulations, and provided that written approval has been granted for any discharge to the MS4.

(43) Industrial user means any non-residential source of indirect discharge regulated under section 307(b), (c) or (d) of the Clean Water Act.

(44) Industrial wastes or industrial wastewater means the liquid wastes, other than sanitary wastewater, uncontaminated non-contact cooling water and boiler blowdown, resulting from manufacturing, industrial or other processes and discharged by an industrial user.

(45) Infiltration means the water entering a sewer system from the ground through such means as, but not limited to, defective pipes, pipe joints, connections, or manhole walls. Infiltration does not include, and is distinguished from, inflow.

(46) Infiltration/inflow means the total quantity of water from both infiltration and inflow without distinguishing the source.

(47) Inflow means the water discharged into a sewer system and service connections from such sources as, but not limited to, roof leaders, cellar, yard and area drains, foundation drains, cooling water discharges, drains from springs and swampy areas, manhole covers, cross connections from storm sewers and combined sewers, catch basins, stormwater, surface run- off, street wash water, or drainage. It does not include, and is distinguished from, infiltration.

(48) Interference means a discharge which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, both:
(i) inhibits or disrupts the water board POTW, its treatment process or operations, or its sludge processes, use or disposal of sludge; and

(ii) therefore, is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the water board's State SPDES discharge permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation) or of the prevention of a wastewater sludge use or disposal in compliance with all applicable Federal and State laws and regulations.

(49) Monitoring station means a permanent structure constructed, maintained and operated by and at the owner's expense and approved by the director as to design and construction for the express purpose of providing an accessible point out of the traveled way for metering and sampling waste discharges continuously into the water board POTW in a safe and accurate manner.

(50) MS4 means municipal separate storm sewer system.

(51) Municipal separate storm sewer system means a conveyance or system of conveyances (including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels, or storm drains):
(i) owned or operated by the Niagara Falls Water Board;

(ii) designed or used for collecting or conveying stormwater;

(iii) which is not a combined sewer; and

(iv) which is not part of a publicly owned treatment works (POTW) as defined herein.

(52) Natural outlet means any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface water or groundwater.

(53) New source means a facility from which there is, or may be, a discharge of pollutants, construction of which began after the publication of the proposed pretreatment standards pursuant to section 307 of the Clean Water Act, which will apply to the facility if the standards are promulgated, provided certain location and construction criteria are applicable.

(54) Non-compliance means non-conformance with established limits as defined under compliance.

(55) Non-stormwater discharge means any discharge to the MS4 that is not composed entirely of stormwater.

(56) NYSDEC means New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

(57) Occupied building means and refers to any structure erected and intended for habitation, occupancy or use by human beings or animals and from which structure wastewater is or may be discharged.

(58) Operation and maintenance means the process and act of keeping all facilities for collecting, pumping, treating and disposing of wastewater, in a state of good repair and functioning properly including the replacement of said facilities when necessary.

(59) Other wastes means solid wastes such as garbage, refuse, wood, egg shells, coffee grounds, sawdust, shavings, bark, sand, lime, cinder, ashes and all other discarded matter not normally present in wastewaters.

(60) Owner means the person or persons who legally own, lease, or occupy private property with wastewater facilities, which discharge, or will discharge, to the water board's POTW.

(61) Pass through means a discharge containing pollutant(s) which exits the water board POTW into the waters of the United States 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 water board's SPDES discharge permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation).

(62) Person means any natural person, firm, trustee, executor, personal representative, partnership, association, limited partnership, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, joint venture or corporation, or other legal entity whatsoever. The masculine gender shall include the feminine, and the singular shall include the plural where indicated by the context.

(63) pH means the negative logarithm of the concentration of hydrogen ions in moles per liter of solution.

(64) Pollutant means dredged spoil, filter backwash, solid waste, incinerator residue, treated or untreated sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste or ballast discharged into water; which may cause or might reasonably be expected to cause pollution of the waters of the State in contravention of the standards.

(65) Publicly owned treatment works or (POTW) means treatment works as defined by section 212 of the Clean Water Act ( 33 U.S.C. section 1292 ) which are owned or operated by the water board. This definition includes any devices and systems used in the storage, treatment, recycling and reclamation of sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature and any sewers, pipes, conveyances and appurtenances that transport wastewater to or from the water board's treatment plant. For the purposes of these regulations, POTW shall also include any sewers that transport wastewater to the POTW from persons outside the water board's service area who are, by contract or agreement with the water board, users of the water board's POTW.

(66) Premises means any building, lot, parcel of land, or portion of land whether improved or unimproved including adjacent sidewalks and parking strips.

(67) Premises accessible to the sewer system means and refers to real estate which adjoins, abuts, is adjacent to or has access (within 100 feet) to the water board POTW.

(68) Pretreatment means the reduction of the amount of, or alteration of, pollutant properties in wastewater prior to, or in lieu of, discharging or otherwise introducing such pollutants into the water board POTW. The reduction or alteration can be obtained by physical, chemical or biological processes, production process changes or by other means, except as prohibited by 40 CFR 403.6 General Pretreatment Regulations for Existing and New Sources of Pollution.

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

(70) Pretreatment standards, national pretreatment standard or standards means prohibited discharge standards, categorical pretreatment standards, local limits, or any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by USEPA under section 307(b) and (c) of the Clean Water Act applicable to industrial users, including general and specific prohibitions found in 40 CFR 403.5.

(71) Priority pollutant means a toxic pollutant as defined under 307(a)(1) of the Clean Water Act requiring the USEPA to publish a list of toxic pollutants after weighing the importance of each of the following factors:
(i) toxicity;

(ii) persistence;

(iii) degradability; and

(iv) effect on organisms.

(72) Right-of-way means a strip of land designated for travel by the public (pedestrian and vehicular) and includes pavement, curbs, margin areas, sidewalks, driveway approaches, etc.

(73) Sanitary sewer means a sewer that carries liquid water-carried wastes from residences, commercial buildings, industrial plants and institutions, together with minor quantities of ground, storm, or surface waters that are not admitted intentionally.

(74) Sanitary wastewater means sewage discharging from sanitary conveniences including but not limited to toilets, washrooms, urinals, sinks, showers, drinking fountains, laundries, kitchens, cafeterias, essentially free of industrial wastes or toxic material.

(75) Sewer lateral means the extension from the building drain to the water board POTW.

(76) Shredded means at least 30 percent on a dry basis passes a No. 40 U.S. Standard Sieve.

(77) SIU (significant industrial user) means any person who:
(i) discharges wastewater subject to Categorical Pretreatment Standards under 40 CFR 403.6 and 40 CFR chapter 1, subchapter N; or

(ii) discharges an average of 25,000 gallons per day or more of process wastewater to the water board POTW (excluding sanitary, non-contact cooling and boiler blowdown wastewater); contributes a process wastestream which makes up five percent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the water board POTW treatment plant; or is designated as such by the Control Authority as defined in 40 CFR 403.12(a) on the basis that the industrial user has a reasonable potential for adversely affecting the water board's POTW operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement.

(78) SIU permit means the wastewater discharge permit that shall be required for SIUs for discharge of wastewater into the water board POTW and issued pursuant to these regulations and may contain discharge restrictions as deemed appropriate by the director.

(79) Slug or slug load means any wastewater discharge at a flow rate, concentration or load which could result in any prohibited discharge listed in section 1960.5 of this Part.

(80) SNC (significant non-compliance) means an industrial user is in significant noncompliance if its violation meets one or more of the following criteria:
(i) chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined here as those in which 66 percent or more of all of the measurements taken during a six-month period exceed (by any magnitude) the daily maximum limit or the average limit for the same pollutant parameter;

(ii) Technical Review Criteria (TRC) violations, defined here as those in which 33 percent or more of all of the measurements for each pollutant parameter taken during a six- month period equal or exceed the product of the daily maximum limit or the average limit multiplied by the applicable TRC (TRC = 1.4 for BOD, TSS, fats, oil, and grease; and 1.2 for all other pollutants except pH.);

(iii) any other violation of a pretreatment effluent limit (daily limit or longer term average) that the water board determines has caused, alone or in combination with other discharges, interference or pass through (including endangering the health of POTW personnel or the general public);

(iv) any discharge of a pollutant that has caused imminent endangerment to human health, welfare or to the environment or has resulted in the POTW's exercise of its emergency authority under paragraph (f)(1)(vi)(B) of section 40 CFR 403.8 to halt or prevent such a 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 report 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; and

(viii) any other violation or group of violations which the water board determines will adversely affect the operation or implementation of the local pretreatment program.

(81) SOC (soluble organic carbon) shall mean the measure of organic material as TOC in that portion of a water or waste that has passed through a standard glass fiber filter. The glass fiber filter shall be equivalent to that described in the procedure for residue determination and the measurement of TOC shall be as set forth in the latest USEPA-approved edition of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater.

(82) SOC amenable to carbon treatment means that portion of the SOC that is removed by granular activated carbon treatment.

(83) Special conditions means:
(i) discharge compliance with water quality standards. The condition that applies where a municipality has been notified that the discharge of stormwater authorized under their MS4 permit may have caused or has the reasonable potential to cause or contribute to the violation of an applicable water quality standard. Under this condition the municipality must take all necessary actions to ensure future discharges do not cause or contribute to a violation of water quality standards.

(ii) 303(d) listed waters. The condition in the municipality's MS4 permit that applies where the MS4 discharges to a 303(d) listed water. Under this condition the stormwater management program must ensure no increase of the listed pollutant of concern to the 303(d) listed water.

(iii) Total maximum daily load (TMDL) strategy. The condition in the municipality's MS4 permit where a TMDL including requirements for control of stormwater discharges has been approved by EPA for a waterbody or watershed into which the MS4 discharges. If the discharge from the MS4 did not meet the TMDL stormwater allocations prior to September 10, 2003, the municipality was required to modify its stormwater management program to ensure that reduction of the pollutant of concern specified in the TMDL is achieved.

(iv) The condition in the municipality's MS4 permit that applies if a TMDL is approved in the future by EPA for any waterbody or watershed into which an MS4 discharges. Under this condition the municipality must review the applicable TMDL to see if it includes requirements for control of stormwater discharges. If an MS4 is not meeting the TMDL stormwater allocations, the municipality must, within six months of the TMDL's approval, modify its stormwater management program to ensure that reduction of the pollutant of concern specified in the TMDL is achieved.

(84) Spill means to allow or to cause, either inadvertently or intentionally, a substance to escape from its normal container or containment system and enter the water board POTW.

(85) State means the State of New York.

(86) State pollutant discharge elimination system (SPDES) stormwater discharge permit means a permit issued by the department that authorizes the discharge of pollutants to waters of the State.

(87) Storm sewer means a sewer which is intended to carry solely storm and surface waters and drainage directly to waters of the State, but excludes wastewaters other than cooling waters and/or other unpolluted waters.

(88) Stormwater means water that is deposited on the earth from such phenomena as rain, snow, hail or sleet. Stormwater means rainwater, surface runoff, snowmelt and drainage.

(89) Stormwater management officer (SMO) means an employee, the municipal engineer or other public official(s) designated by the director to enforce this local law.

(90) TMDL means total maximum daily load.

(91) TOC (total organic carbon) shall mean a measure of the amount of organic material in a water or waste expressed in milligrams of carbon per liter of solution. Measurement shall be as set forth in the latest USEPA-approved edition of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater.

(92) Total maximum daily load means the maximum amount of a pollutant to be allowed to be released into a waterbody so as not to impair uses of the water, allocated among the sources of that pollutant.

(93) Transporter means any person who delivers hauled waste via tank truck or rail car.

(94) TSS (total suspended solids) means solids that are in suspension in water or wastewater, and which are removable by filtration. Measurement shall be as set forth in the latest USEPA-approved edition of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater.

(95) Toxic pollutants means those substances as defined and referred to in the act or as designated by the commissioner of the NYSDEC.

(96) Uncontaminated means waters (or wastewaters) which are not contaminated.

(97) USEPA means the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

(98) User means and refers to any person whose premises are connected to the water board POTW or MS4, or effluent source that directly or indirectly contributes, causes or permits the contribution of waste into or through the POTW or stormwater through the MS4.

(99) Wastewater means water that is not stormwater, is contaminated with pollutants and is or will be discarded.

(100) Water board sewer system means all sewer pipes and other appurtenances which are used or useful in whole or in part in connection with the collection, treatment or disposal of wastewater, industrial waste or other properly shredded wastes and which are owned, operated and maintained by the water board, including wastewater pumping stations and wastewater treatment and disposal facilities, but excluding separate storm sewers and the diversion sewer. Preferred current terminology water board POTW shall be used throughout the text of this Part.

(101) Water board's SPDES discharge permit means the current State or National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit, as issued by the NYSDEC or the USEPA, to the water board.

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