Ohio Administrative Code
Title 3745 - Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
Chapter 3745-36 - Permit Program Regulating Discharge of Nondomestic Wastewater into a POTW
Section 3745-36-02 - Definitions
Universal Citation: OH Admin Code 3745-36-02
Current through all regulations passed and filed through September 16, 2024
As used in this chapter:
(A)
(1)
"Act" means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly referred to as
the Clean Water Act)
33 U.S.C. sections
1251 to
1387.
(2) "Administrator" means the administrator
of the United States environmental protection agency.
(3) "Applicant" means any person who files
for an Ohio individual indirect discharge permit.
(4) "Application" means the Ohio
environmental protection agency form used to apply for an Ohio individual
indirect discharge permit.
(5)
"Approved POTW pretreatment program" or "POTW pretreatment program" or
"pretreatment program" means a program administered by a POTW that meets the
criteria established in 40 C.F.R. 403 and section
6111.032 of the Revised Code and
that has been approved by the director in accordance with 40 C.F.R. 403 and
section 6111.03 of the Revised
Code.
(B) "Best management practices" or "BMPs" means schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to implement the prohibitions listed in rule 3745-36-04 of the Administrative Code. BMPs also include, but are not limited to, treatment requirements, operating procedures, and practices to control plant site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw materials storage.
(C)
(1) "Categorical industrial user" means an
industrial user subject to categorical pretreatment standards.
(2) "Categorical pretreatment standard" means
any national pretreatment standard specifying quantities or concentrations of
pollutants or pollutant properties which may be discharged to a POTW by
existing or new industrial users in specific industrial subcategories,
promulgated by the administrator in accordance with section 307 of the act and
established under 40 C.F.R. chapter I, subchapter N.
(D) "Director" means the director of the Ohio environmental protection agency or the director's duly authorized representative.
(E) [Reserved.]
(F) [Reserved.]
(G) [Reserved.]
(H) "Historical data" means data that are more than five years old.
(I)
(1)
"Indirect discharge" means the introduction of pollutants into a POTW from any
nondomestic source including, but not limited to, those regulated under section
307(b), (c), or (d) of the act.
(2)
"Individual indirect discharge permit" means an authorization to discharge
issued by the director to a significant industrial user or non-significant
categorical industrial user specifying the terms and conditions of discharge.
These terms and conditions may include, but are not limited to, effluent
limits, monitoring requirements, pretreatment requirements, and requirements
for BMPs, pollution prevention plans and any other elements as deemed necessary
by the director.
(3) "Industrial
user" or "user" means a source of indirect discharge.
(4) "Interference" means a discharge that,
alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources,
results in either of the following:
(a)
Inhibits or disrupts the POTW, the POTW's treatment processes or operations, or
the POTW's sludge processes, use, or disposal.
(b) Causes a violation of any requirement of
the POTW'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 all of the following statutory provisions and regulations or
permits issued thereunder (or more stringent state or local regulations):
(i) Section 405 of the act.
(ii) The Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA)
42 U.S.C. sections
6901 to
6992
(including Title II, more commonly referred to as the Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act (RCRA), and including state regulations contained in any state
sludge management plan prepared pursuant to Subtitle D of the SWDA).
(iii) The standards for the use and disposal
of sewage sludge ( 40 C.F.R. 503, and Chapter 3745-40 of the Administrative
Code).
(iv) The Clean Air Act (CAA)
42 U.S.C.
sections 7401 to
7671.
(v) The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
15 U.S.C. sections
2601 to
2692.
(J) [Reserved.]
(K) [Reserved.]
(L) "Local limits" means limits on industrial users, developed by a POTW, that are technically based on site-specific factors to protect the POTW's operations from interference and pass through and to ensure that the POTW's dischargers comply with state and federal requirements. Local limits may be expressed as numerical values, narrative statements or best management practices, or a combination of these.
(M) "Mid-tier categorical industrial user" is a significant industrial user subject to categorical pretreatment standards under 40 C.F.R. 403.6 and 40 C.F.R. chapter I, subchapter N, that the director may determine is subject to a reduction in the user's reporting requirement, upon satisfaction of all of the following conditions:
(1) The industrial user's total categorical
wastewater flow does not exceed 0.01 per cent of any of the following:
(a) The design dry weather hydraulic capacity
of the POTW, or five thousand gallons per day (gpd), whichever is smaller, as
measured by a continuous effluent flow monitoring device unless the industrial
user discharges in batches.
(b) The
design dry weather organic treatment capacity of the POTW.
(c) The maximum allowable headworks loading
for any pollutant regulated by the applicable categorical pretreatment
standards for which approved local limits were developed by a POTW and approved
by Ohio EPA.
(2) The
industrial user has not been in significant noncompliance, as defined in this
rule, for any amount of time in the past two years.
(3) The industrial user does not have daily
flow rates, production levels, or pollutant levels that vary so significantly
that decreasing the reporting requirement would result in data that are not
representative of conditions occurring during the reporting period pursuant to
paragraph (B) of rule
3745-36-08 of the Administrative
Code.
(4) The industrial user is
not located upstream of a combined sewer overflow or sanitary sewer overflow,
unless the procedures for the categorization of such a user as a mid-tier
categorical industrial user and issues related to combined sewer overflows or
sanitary sewer overflows are specifically addressed in one of the following:
(a) The POTW's or Ohio EPA's approved long
term control plan.
(b) The POTW's
or Ohio EPA's approved combined sewer system operation plan implementing the
nine minimum controls.
(N)
(1)
"National pretreatment standard" means any regulation of the U.S. EPA,
containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the administrator in
accordance with sections 307(b) and (c) of the act, that applies to industrial
users. The term includes prohibitive discharge limits established pursuant to
40 C.F.R.
403.5.
(2) "New source" means any of the following:
(a) Any building, structure, facility or
installation from which there is or may be a discharge of pollutants, the
construction of which commenced after the publication of proposed pretreatment
standards under section 307(c) of the act that will be applicable to such
source if such standards are thereafter promulgated in accordance with that
section provided that one of the following applies:
(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 or
wastewater generating processes of the building, structure, facility, or
installation are substantially independent of an existing source at the same
site. In determining whether these are substantially independent, factors such
as the extent to which the new facility is integrated with the existing plant,
and the extent to which the new facility is engaged in the same general type of
activity as the existing source should be considered.
(b) Construction on a site at which an
existing source is located results in a modification rather than a new source
if the construction does not create a new building, structure, facility, or
installation meeting the criteria of paragraph (N)(2)(a)(ii) or (N)(2)(a)(iii)
of this rule, but otherwise alters, replaces, or adds to existing process or
production equipment.
(c)
Construction of a new source as defined under this paragraph has commenced if
the owner or operator has done any of the following:
(i) Begun, or caused to begin as part of a
continuous onsite construction program, in either of the following ways:
(a) Any placement, assembly, or installation
of facilities or equipment.
(b)
Significant site preparation work including clearing, excavation, or removal of
existing buildings, structures, or facilities that is necessary for the
placement, assembly, or installation of new source facilities or
equipment.
(ii) Entered
into a binding contractual obligation for the purchase of facilities or
equipment that are intended to be used in the operation within a reasonable
time. Options to purchase, or contracts that can be terminated or modified
without substantial loss, and contracts for feasibility, engineering, and
design studies do not constitute a contractual obligation under this
paragraph.
(3) "Noncontact cooling water" means the
water used to reduce temperature that does not come into contact with any raw
material, intermediate product, waste product (other than heat), or finished
product. Noncontact cooling water does not include any process waters or other
types of wastewaters, nor is the water exposed to anything but the inside of
the pipe. Noncontact cooling water should be reasonably free from contaminants
like metals, ammonia, organics, and total dissolved solids so that discharge of
noncontact cooling water to the POTW does not result in any of the following:
(a) An exceedance of Ohio's waters quality
standards in Chapter 3745-1 of the Administrative Code.
(b) Interference with the operation of the
POTW.
(c) Pass through of the
POTW.
(4)
"Non-significant categorical industrial user" is an industrial user subject to
40 C.F.R. chapter I, subchapter N, that the director may determine is a
non-significant categorical industrial user, rather than a significant
industrial user, on a finding that the industrial user does not discharge more
than one hundred gallons per day (gpd) of total categorical wastewater
(excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling, and boiler blowdown wastewater, unless
specifically included in the categorical pretreatment standard) and all of the
following conditions are met:
(a) The
industrial user, prior to the director's finding, has consistently complied
with all applicable categorical pretreatment standards and
requirements.
(b) The industrial
user annually submits the certification statement required in paragraph (F)(3)
of rule 3745-36-10 of the Administrative
Code together with any additional information necessary to support the
certification statement.
(c) The
industrial user never discharges any untreated concentrated
wastewater.
(d) The industrial
user's discharge does not result in pass through or interference of the
POTW.
(e) The industrial user is
not located upstream of a combined sewer overflow or a sanitary sewer overflow,
unless the industrial user does not discharge wastewater regulated by
categorical pretreatment standards at any time, or the following conditions are
met:
(i) The industrial user has not been in
significant noncompliance for any time in the past two years.
(ii) The procedures for the categorization of
such a user as a non-significant categorical industrial user and issues related
to combined sewer overflows or sanitary sewer overflows are specifically
addressed in one of the following:
(a) The
POTW's or Ohio EPA's approved long term control plan.
(b) The POTW's or Ohio EPA's approved
combined sewer system operation plan implementing the nine minimum
controls.
(5) "NPDES permit" means a national pollutant
discharge elimination system permit issued by the director under the
requirements of section 402 of the act, Chapter 6111. of the Revised Code, and
Chapter 3745-33 of the Administrative Code.
(O) "Ohio EPA" means the Ohio environmental protection agency.
(P)
(1) "Pass through" means a discharge that
exits the POTW into waters of the state in quantities or concentrations that,
alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from other sources, is a
cause of a violation of any requirement of the POTW's NPDES permit (including
an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation).
(2) "Person" means person as defined in
section 6111.01 of the Revised
Code.
(3) "pH" means the logarithm
(to the base 10) of the reciprocal of the hydrogen ion concentration of a
solution expressed in gram atoms per liter of solution.
(4) "Pollutant" means sewage, industrial
waste, or other waste as defined by divisions (B) to (D) of section
6111.01 of the Revised
Code.
(5) "Pollution prevention"
means the use of source reduction techniques in order to reduce risk to public
health, safety, and welfare, and the environment and, as a second preference,
the use of environmentally sound recycling to achieve these same goals.
Pollution prevention avoids cross-media transfers of waste or pollutants and is
multi-media in scope. Pollution prevention addresses all types of waste and
environmental releases to the air, water, and land.
(6) "POTW treatment plant" means that portion
of the POTW that is designed to provide treatment (including recycling and
reclamation) of municipal sewage and industrial waste.
(7) "Pretreatment" means the reduction of the
amount of pollutants, the elimination of pollutants, or the alteration of the
nature of pollutant properties in wastewater prior to or in lieu of
discharging, or otherwise introducing such pollutants into a POTW. The
reduction or alteration may be obtained by physical, chemical, or biological
treatment processes, by BMPs, by pollution prevention alternatives including
process changes, material substitutions, improved operating practices and
recycling, or by other means, except as prohibited by paragraph (F) of rule
3745-36-09 of the Administrative
Code.
(8) "Pretreatment
requirement" means any substantive or procedural requirement related to
pretreatment, other than a pretreatment standard, imposed on an industrial
user.
(9) "Pretreatment standard"
means a discharge limit related to pretreatment that is imposed on an
industrial user through regulations promulgated by U.S. EPA in accordance with
section 307(b) and (c) of the act, by this chapter, by local ordinance, or
individual indirect discharge permit. This term includes all of the following:
(a) Categorical pretreatment
standards.
(b) Prohibited
discharges established pursuant to rule
3745-36-04 of the Administrative
Code.
(c) Local limits developed by
the POTW and approved by the Ohio EPA.
(d) Any enforceable schedule designed to
achieve compliance with limits in paragraphs (P)(9)(a) to (P)(9)(c) of this
rule.
(10) "Process
wastewater" means any water that, during manufacturing or processing, comes
into contact with, or results from the production or use of any raw material,
intermediate product, finished product, byproduct, or waste product.
(11) "Process wastewater pollutants" means
pollutants present in process wastewater.
(12) "PSES" means categorical pretreatment
standards for existing sources.
(13) "PSNS" means categorical pretreatment
standards for new sources.
(14)
"Public authority" means a municipal corporation, the governing board of a
county, a sanitary district established pursuant to Chapter 6115. of the
Revised Code, a sewer district established pursuant to Chapter 6117. of the
Revised Code, a conservancy district under Chapter 6101. of the Revised Code,
or any other special district owning or operating a POTW in accordance with
section 6111.032 of the Revised
Code.
(15) "Publicly owned
treatment works " or "POTW" means a treatment works that is owned or operated
by a public authority. This definition includes any devices and systems used in
the storage, treatment, recycling and reclamation of municipal sewage or
industrial wastes of a liquid nature. It also includes sewers, pipes and other
conveyances only if they convey wastewater to a POTW treatment plant. The term
also means the public authority that owns or operates the POTW and that has
jurisdiction over the indirect discharges to and the discharges from such a
treatment works.
(Q) [Reserved.]
(R) [Reserved.]
(S)
(1) "Significant industrial user" means
either of the following, except as provided in paragraph (S)(1)(c) of this
rule:
(a) Any industrial user subject to
categorical pretreatment standards, except industrial users considered
non-significant categorical industrial users, as defined in paragraph (N) of
this rule.
(b) Any other industrial
user that meets one of the following:
(i)
Discharges an average of twenty-five thousand gallons per day or more of
process wastewater to the POTW (process wastewater excludes sanitary,
non-contact cooling and boiler blowdown wastewaters).
(ii) Contributes a process wastestream that
makes up five per cent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic
capacity of the POTW treatment plant.
(iii) Is designated as such 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.
(c) Upon
finding that an industrial user designated as a significant industrial user for
meeting the criteria in paragraph (S)(1)(b)(iii) of this rule has no reasonable
potential for adversely affecting the POTW's operation or for violating any
pretreatment standard or requirement, the director may at any time, on the
director's own initiative or in response to a petition received from an
industrial user or POTW, determine that such industrial user is not a
significant industrial user.
(2) "Significant noncompliance" for a
non-significant industrial user means a violation meets any of the criteria in
paragraph (S)(2)(c), (S)(2)(d), or (S)(2)(h) of this rule. Significant
noncompliance for a significant industrial user means a violation of any of the
following criteria:
(a) Chronic violations of
wastewater discharge limits, defined here as those in which sixty-six per cent
or more of all the measurements taken for the same pollutant parameter at any
permitted monitoring point during a six-month period exceed (by any magnitude)
a numeric pretreatment standard or requirement, including instantaneous
limits.
(b) Technical review
criteria (TRC) violations, defined here as those in which thirty-three per cent
or more of all of the measurements taken for the same pollutant parameter at
any permitted monitoring point during a six-month period equal or exceed the
product of the numeric pretreatment standard or requirement including
instantaneous limits, multiplied by the applicable TRC (TRC = 1.4 for BOD, TSS,
fats, oil and grease, and 1.2 for all other pollutants, except pH).
(c) Any other violation of a pretreatment
standard or requirement as defined in this rule (daily maximum or longer-term
average, instantaneous limit, or narrative standard) that the director
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).
(d) Any discharge of a pollutant that has
caused imminent endangerment to human health, welfare, or the environment, or
has resulted in the director's exercise of emergency authority to halt or
prevent such a discharge.
(e)
Failure to meet, within ninety days after the schedule date, a compliance
schedule milestone contained in the individual indirect discharge permit or
enforcement order for starting construction, completing construction, or
attaining final compliance.
(f)
Failure to provide, within forty-five days after the due date, required reports
such as baseline monitoring reports, ninety-day compliance reports, periodic
self-monitoring reports, reports on compliance with compliance schedules, or
any other reports required by the director.
(g) Failure to accurately report
noncompliance.
(h) Any other
violation or group of violations, including a violation of BMPs, that the
director determines adversely affects the operation of the POTW.
(3) "Slug discharge" or "slug
load" means any discharge of a non-routine, episodic nature, including but not
limited to an accidental spill or a non-customary batch discharge that has a
reasonable potential to cause interference or pass through, or in any other way
violate the POTW's regulations, local limits, or permit conditions.
(T) "Treatment works" means any plant, disposal field, lagoon, dam, pumping station, building sewer connected directly to treatment works, incinerator, or other works used for the purpose of treating, stabilizing, blending, composting, or holding sewage, sludge, sludge materials, industrial waste, or other wastes, except as otherwise defined.
(U) "U.S. EPA" means the United States environmental protection agency.
(V) [Reserved.]
(W)
(1)
"Water quality standards" means the regulations in Chapter 3745-1 of the
Administrative Code.
(2) "Waters of
the state" means the waters of the state as defined in section
6111.01 of the Revised
Code.
(X) [Reserved.]
(Y) [Reserved.]
(Z) [Reserved.]
(AA) Incorporation by reference. The text of the incorporated materials is not included in the rules contained in this chapter. The materials are hereby made a part of this chapter. For materials subject to change, only the version specified in this rule is incorporated. Any amendment or revision to a referenced document is not incorporated unless and until this rule has been amended to specify the new version.
(1) Availability. The materials
incorporated by reference are available as follows:
(a) Code of federal regulations (C.F.R.).
Information and copies may be obtained by writing to: "U.S. Government
Publishing Office Bookstore, 710 North Capitol Street N.W., Washington, D.C.
20403." The full text of the C.F.R. is also available in electronic format at
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/ . The
C.F.R. compilations are also available for inspection and copying at most
public libraries and "The State Library of Ohio."
(b) Federal statutes. The full text is
available in electronic format at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys. These laws are
also available for inspection and copying at most public libraries and "The
State Library of Ohio."
(2) Incorporated materials.
(a) Appropriate "Federal Statutes." The
statutes listed in this rule are those versions of the laws amended through
July 1, 2017, including the following:
(i)
Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA),
42 U.S.C. sections
6901 to
6992.
(ii) Clean Air Act (CAA),
42 U.S.C.
sections 7401 to
7671.
(iii) Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
15 U.S.C. sections
2601 to
2692.
(iv) Federal Water Pollution Control Act
(commonly referred to as the Clean Water Act),
33 U.S.C. sections
1251 to
1387.
(v) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA),
42 U.S.C.
6901 to
6992.
(3) Appropriate "Code
of Federal Regulations." As used in this chapter "40 C.F.R." means Title 40 of
the Code of Federal Regulations as amended through July 1, 2017.
Replaces: 3745-36-02
Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. Ohio may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google
Privacy Policy and
Terms of Service apply.
