The purpose of this chapter is to promote the general welfare, to prevent
disease, to promote health, and to provide for the public safety by regulating
the use of public and private sewers and drains, private wastewater disposal,
the installation and connection of building sewer systems, the discharge of
waters and wastes into the public sewer system, including the wastewater treatment
plant, and providing penalties for violations thereof; in the Town of Orange,
Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the meaning of
terms used in this chapter shall be as follows:
APPLICANT or OWNER
Any person requesting approval to discharge industrial or domestic
wastewater into facilities of the Town.
BOARD OF SELECTMEN
The duly elected Board of Selectmen of the Town of Orange or their
authorized deputy, agent or representative. Wherever herein the term “Board”
is used, it refers to the Board of Selectmen.
BOD (denoting biochemical oxygen demand)
The quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of the
wastewater under standard laboratory procedure in five days at 20° C,
expressed in milligrams per liter.
BUILDING DRAIN
That part of the lowest horizontal piping of the drainage system,
which receives the discharge from soil, waste and other drainage pipes inside
the walls of the building and conveys into the building sewer, beginning eight
feet outside the inner face of the building wall.
BUILDING SEWER
The extension from the building drain to the public sewer or other
place of disposal.
COMBINED SEWER
A sewer receiving both wastewater and storm surface water.
DOMESTIC WASTEWATER
A wastewater derived principally from dwellings, business buildings,
institutions, and the like. It may or may not contain groundwater, surface
water, or stormwater.
EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency of the US government.
EXCESSIVE
Amounts or concentrations of a constituent of a wastewater which
in the judgment of the Town will cause damage to any sewerage facility, which
will be harmful to a wastewater treatment process, which cannot be removed
in the wastewater treatment works of the Town to a degree required to meet
the limiting stream classification standards of the receiving water, which
can otherwise endanger life, limb, or public property, and/or which can constitute
a nuisance.
FACILITY
Includes structures and conduits for the purpose of collecting, treating,
neutralizing, stabilizing or disposing of domestic waste conduits, including
treatment and disposal works, necessary intercepting, out-fall, and other
sewers, and pumping stations integral to such facilities with sewers, equipment,
furnishings thereof and other appurtenances connected therewith.
FORCE MAIN
A pipe that conveys wastewater under pressure from a discharge side
of a pump to a point of gravity flow.
GARBAGE
The animal and vegetable wastes resulting from the handling, preparation,
cooking, and serving of food. Garbage is composed largely of putrescible organic
matter and its natural moisture content.
INDUSTRIAL WASTE
The wastewater, as distinct from domestic wastewater, in which the
liquid wastes from the industrial manufacturing processes, laboratory, trade
or business predominates.
INDUSTRY
An establishment with facilities for mechanical testing, trade or
manufacturing purposes.
INVERT
The bottom inside of the sewer pipe.
NATURAL OUTLET
Any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake, or other body of
surface or groundwater.
PERSON
Any individual, firm, company, association, society, group, trust,
or governmental authority.
pH
The reciprocal of the logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration
in grams per liter of solution.
PROPERLY SHREDDED GARBAGE
Garbage that has been shredded to such a degree that all particles
will be carried freely under the flow conditions normally prevailing in public
sewers, with no particle greater than 1/2 inch (1.275 centimeters) in any
dimension.
PUBLIC SEWER
A sewer in which all owners of the abutting properties have equal
rights, and which is controlled by the Town.
RECEIVING WATERS
Any watercourse, river, pond, ditch, lake, aquifer, or other body
of surface or groundwater receiving discharge of wastewater.
SEWER
A pipe or conduit for carrying wastewater.
SHALL
Is mandatory; “may” is permissive.
SLUG
Any discharge of water or wastewater which in concentration of any
given constituent or in quantity of flow exceeds for any period of duration
longer than 15 minutes, or more than five times the average twenty-four-hour
concentration, or flow, during normal operation.
SPILL
The release, accidental or otherwise, of any material not normally
released to the facilities, which by virtue of its volume, concentration or
physical or chemical characteristics, creates a hazard to the facilities,
their operation or their personnel. Such characteristics shall include, but
not be limited to; volatile, explosive, toxic or otherwise unacceptable materials.
STORM DRAIN or STORM SEWER
A pipe or conduit for conveying rainwater, groundwater, subsurface
water, condensate, cooling water, or other similar discharge, but excludes
wastewater and polluted industrial wastes.
SUSPENDED SOLIDS (denoted SS)
Solids that either float on the surface, or are suspended in water,
wastewater, or other liquids, and which are removed by laboratory filtering,
and are referred to as nonfilterable residue in the laboratory test prescribed
in Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater.
[Amended 5-2-2005 ATM, Art. 11, approved 8-4-2005]
TOWN
The Town of Orange, Franklin County, Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
acting for and through its Board of Selectmen.
WASTES
Substances in liquid, solid, or gaseous form that can be carried
in water.
WASTEWATER
The spent water of a community, and may be a combination of the liquid
and water-carried wastes from residences, commercial buildings, industrial
plants, and institutions, together with any groundwater, surface water, and
stormwater that may be present.
WASTEWATER WORKS
All structures, equipment and processes for collecting, pumping,
treating, and disposing of wastewater.
WATERCOURSE
A channel in which a flow of water occurs, either continuously or
intermittently.