The Town of Lexington Board of Health adopts
the following regulation pursuant to authorization granted by MGL
c. 111, §§ 31 and 122. The regulation shall apply,
as specified herein, to all facilities, existing and new, within the
Town of Lexington.
For the purposes of this regulation, the following
words and phrases shall have the following meanings:
COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL FACILITY
A public or private establishment where the principal activity
is the supply, sale and/or manufacture of services, products or information,
including but not limited to manufacturing, processing or other industrial
operations; service or retail establishments; printing or publishing
establishments; research and development facilities; small- or large-quantity
generators of hazardous waste; laboratories; and hospitals.
DEP
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
DISCHARGE
The accidental or intentional disposal, deposit, injection,
dumping, spilling, leaking, incineration or placing of toxic or hazardous
material or waste upon or into any land or water so that such hazardous
waste or any constituent thereof may enter the land or waters of the
commonwealth. "Discharge" includes, without limitation, leakage of
such materials from failed or discarded containers or storage systems
and disposal of such materials into any on-site leaching structure
or sewage disposal system.
FLOOR DRAIN
An intended drainage point on a floor constructed to be otherwise
impervious which serves as the point of entry into any subsurface
drainage, treatment, disposal, containment or other plumbing system.
LEACHING STRUCTURE
Any subsurface structure through which a fluid that is introduced
will pass and enter the environment, including but not limited to
dry wells, leaching catch basins, cesspools, leach fields and oil/water
separators that are not watertight.
OIL/WATER SEPARATOR
A device designed and installed so as to separate and retain
petroleum-based oil or grease and flammable wastes as well as sand
and particles from normal wastes while permitting normal sewage or
liquid wastes to discharge into the drainage system by gravity. Other
common names for such systems include MDC traps, gasoline and sand
traps, grit and oil separators, grease traps and interceptors.
TOXIC OR HAZARDOUS MATERIAL
Any substance or mixture of physical, chemical or infectious
characteristics posing a significant, actual or potential hazard to
water supplies or other hazard to human health if such substance or
mixture were discharged to land or water of the Town of Lexington.
Toxic or hazardous materials include, without limitation, synthetic
organic chemicals, petroleum products, heavy metals, radioactive or
infectious wastes, acids and alkalis and all substances defined as
toxic or hazardous under MGL c. 21C and c. 21E or Massachusetts hazardous
waste regulations (310 CMR 30.000) and also include such products
as solvents, thinners and pesticides in quantifies greater than normal
household use.
With the exception of discharges that have received
(or have applied for and will receive) a DEP-issued permit prior to
the effective date of this regulation, no floor drain(s) shall be
allowed to discharge, with or without pretreatment (such as an oil/water
separator), to the ground, a leaching structure or septic system in
any industrial or commercial facility if such floor drain is located
in either:
A. An industrial or commercial process area;
B. A petroleum, toxic or hazardous materials use and/or
waste storage area; or
C. A leased facility without either Subsection
A or
B of this section but in which the potential for a change of use of the property to a use which does have either Subsection
A or
B is, in the opinion of the Board of Health or its agent, sufficient to warrant the elimination of the ground discharge at the present.
The effective date of this regulation is November
18, 1998, which shall be identical to the date of adoption of the
regulation.
A. Existing facilities.
(1) Owners/operators of a facility affected by this regulation
shall comply with all of its provisions within 120 days of the effective
date.
(2) All applicable discharges to the leaching structures
and septic systems shall be discontinued immediately through temporary
isolation or sealing of the floor drain.
B. New facilities.
(1) As of the effective date of the regulation, all new
construction and/or applicable change of use within the Town of Lexington
shall comply with the provisions of this regulation.
(2) Certification of conformance with the provisions of
this regulation by the Board of Health shall be required prior to
issuance of construction and occupancy permits.
(3) The use of any new oil/water separator shall comply with the same requirements as for existing systems, as specified above in §
155-58B.
Failure to comply with provisions of this regulation
will result in the levy of fines of not less than $500, but no more
than $1000, under MGL c. 111, § 31 (violation of health
regulations) and § 122 (violation of nuisance regulations).
Each day's failure to comply with the provisions of this regulation
shall constitute a separate violation.
Each provision of this regulation shall be construed
as separate to the end that if any provision or sentence, clause or
phrase thereof shall be held invalid for any reason, the remainder
of that section and all other sections shall continue in full force
and effect.