§ 6-13.103. Policy.

The City protects the health, welfare, and safety of the local residents, City employees, and the environment by constructing, operating, and maintaining a system of local sewers, trunk sewers and interceptors, and liquid waste treatment and disposal facilities that service the homes, industries, and commercial establishments throughout the City and surrounding environments as required by federal, state, and local law. The following basic policies apply to sanitary sewage, liquid waste, and industrial and process wastewater discharged into the sewerage system and disposal works of the City.

(a)

The highest priority and best use of the sewerage system is the collection, treatment, and reclamation or disposal of sanitary sewage. The use of the sewerage system for industrial and process wastewater discharges is subject to regulation by the City.

(b)

In accordance with the policies and goals of the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 (42 USC 13101 et seq.) and the Hazardous Waste Source Reduction and Management Review Act of 1989 (California Health and Safety Code Section 25244.12, et seq.), industry is urged to seek source reduction, waste minimization, pollution prevention, and/or recovery and reuse procedures to meet the limitations set on industrial and process wastewater discharges rather than those procedures designed solely to meet discharge limitations.

(c)

The City is committed to a policy of wastewater reclamation and reuse in order to provide an alternate source of water supply and to reduce overall costs of wastewater treatment and disposal. The reclamation of wastewater through wastewater treatment processes may necessitate more stringent quality requirements on industrial and process wastewater discharges as the demand for reclaimed water increases. Optimum use of City facilities may require the discharge of wastewaters during periods of low flow in the sewerage system as established by the City.

(d)

Provisions are made in this chapter to regulate industrial and process wastewater discharges, to comply with federal and state government requirements and policies and to meet increasingly higher standards of treatment plant effluent quality and environmental considerations. This chapter establishes quantity and quality limitations on sanitary sewage, liquid waste, and industrial and process wastewater discharges where such discharges may adversely affect the sewerage system or the effluent quality. It is the intent of these limitations to improve the quality of wastewater being received for treatment and to encourage water conservation by all users connected to a public sewer. It is the City's policy to discourage an increase in the quantity or mass emission of waste pollutants being discharged. This chapter also provides for regulation of the degree of wastewater pretreatment required, the issuance of permits for industrial and process wastewater discharge, connections, and other miscellaneous permits and the establishment of penalties for violations of the chapter.

(e)

Cost recovery methods are established where industrial and process wastewater discharges impose collection system treatment or disposal costs on the City, which are unfair and/or inequitable to all users of the system.

(§ 1, Ord. 1170, eff. April 21, 2011)