Unless a provision explicitly states otherwise, the following terms and phrases, as used in this division, shall have the meanings hereinafter designated:
Agricultural stormwater runoff
means any stormwater runoff from orchards, cultivated crops, pastures, range lands, and other nonpoint source agricultural activities, but not discharges from concentrated animal feeding operations as defined in 40 CFR 122.23 or discharges from concentrated aquatic animal production facilities as defined in 40 CFR 122.24.
Aquatic monitoring organism
means the Fathead minnow Pimephales promelas, the bacterium Vibrio ficheri, or the daphnid Ceriodaphnia dubia.
Best management practices (BMPs)
means the schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to prevent or reduce the pollution of the MS4 and waters of the United States. The term “BMPs” also includes treatment requirements, operating procedures, and practices to control plant site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw material storage.
Cellar dirt
means construction site waste materials, such as natural rock and soil overburden.
CFR
means the Code of Federal Regulations.
Contaminated
means containing a harmful quantity of any substance.
Contamination
means the presence of or entry into a public water supply system, the MS4, waters of the state or waters of the United States of any substance which may be deleterious to the public health and/or the quality of the water.
Cosmetic cleaning.
(1) 
The term “cosmetic cleaning” means cleaning done for cosmetic purposes.
(2) 
The term “cosmetic cleaning” does not include industrial cleaning, cleaning associated with manufacturing activities, hazardous or toxic waste cleaning, or any cleaning otherwise regulated under federal, state or local laws.
Director
means the building official or the director’s authorized representatives.
Discharge
means any addition or introduction of any pollutant, stormwater, or any other substance whatsoever into the municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) or into waters of the United States.
Discharger
means any person who causes, allows, permits, or is otherwise responsible for a discharge, including, without limitation, any operator of a construction site or industrial facility.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
means the United States Environmental Protection Agency or any duly authorized official of said agency.
Facility,
as used in part III of this division, means any facility, including construction sites, required by the federal Clean Water Act to have a permit to discharge stormwater associated with industrial activity.
Fire code
means chapter 6 (fire prevention and protection).
Fire department
means the fire department of the city or any duly authorized representative thereof.
Fire protection water
means any water, and any substances or materials contained therein, used by any person other than the fire department to control or extinguish a fire.
Harmful quantity
means the amount of any substance that will cause pollution of waters in the state or waters of the United States, or that will cause lethal or sublethal adverse effects on representative sensitive aquatic monitoring organisms belonging to the city, upon their exposure to samples of any discharge into waters in the state, waters of the United States or the MS4.
Mobile commercial cosmetic cleaning
means power washing, steam cleaning, and any other mobile cosmetic cleaning operation, of vehicles and/or exterior surfaces, engaged in for commercial purposes.
Municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4)
means the system of conveyances (including sidewalks, roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catchbasins, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels or storm drains) owned and operated by the city and designed or used for collecting or conveying stormwater, and which is not used for collecting or conveying sewage.
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
means the national program for issuing, modifying, revoking and reissuing, terminating, monitoring and enforcing permits, and imposing and enforcing pretreatment requirements, under sections 307, 402, 318, and 405 of the federal Clean Water Act.
NOI
means notice of intent.
Nonpoint source
means any source of any discharge of a pollutant that is not a point source.
Notice of intent
means the notice of intent that is required by the NPDES stormwater multisector general permit, the EPA Region 6 NPDES stormwater construction general permit, or any similar general permit to discharge stormwater associated with industrial activity that is issued by the EPA or the TCEQ.
NPDES
means the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.
NPDES permit
means a permit issued by EPA (or by the state under authority delegated pursuant to 33 USC 1342(b)) that authorizes the discharge of pollutants to waters of the United States, whether the permit is applicable on an individual, group or general area-wide basis.
Operate
means to drive, conduct, work, run, manage or control.
Operator,
as used in part III of this division, means the parties that either individually or taken together meet the following two criteria:
(1) 
They have operational control over the site specifications (including the ability to make modifications in specifications); and
(2) 
They have the day-to-day operational control of those activities at the site necessary to ensure compliance with SWPPP requirements and any permit conditions.
Person
means any individual, partnership, co-partnership, firm, company, corporation, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, governmental entity, or any other legal entity, or their legal representatives, agents or assigns. The term “person” includes all federal, state and local governmental entities.
pH
means the logarithm to the base 10 of the reciprocal of the concentration in grams per liter of hydrogen ions; a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution, expressed in standard units.
Point source.
(1) 
The term “point source” means any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance, including, but not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, landfill leachate collection system, vessel or other floating craft from which pollutants are or may be discharged.
(2) 
The term “point source” does not include return flows from irrigated agriculture or agricultural stormwater runoff.
Pollutant
means dredged spoil; solid waste; incinerator residue; sewage; garbage; sewage sludge; filter backwash; munitions; chemical wastes; biological materials; toxic materials; radioactive materials; heat; wrecked or discarded equipment; rock; sand; cellar dirt; and industrial, municipal, recreational, and agricultural waste discharged into water or into the municipal separate storm sewer system.
Pollution
means the alteration of the physical, thermal, chemical, or biological quality of, or the contamination of, any waters of the state or waters of the United States, that renders the water harmful, detrimental or injurious to humans, animal life, vegetation or property, or to the public health, safety or welfare, or impairs the usefulness or the public enjoyment of the water for any lawful or reasonable purpose.
Publicly owned treatment works (POTW)
means a treatment works, as defined by section 212 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended by the Clean Water Act (33 USC 1292), as amended, owned by the City of Fort Worth, including any devices or systems used in the collection, storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature and any sewers, pipes and other conveyances which convey wastewater to a treatment plant.
Release
means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping or disposing into groundwater, subsurface soils, surface soils, the municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4), the waters of the state and the waters of the United States.
State
means the State of Texas.
Stormwater
means any flow occurring during or following any form of natural precipitation, and resulting from such precipitation, including snow melt.
Stormwater discharge associated with industrial activity.
(1) 
The term “stormwater discharge associated with industrial activity” means the discharge from any conveyance which is used for collecting and conveying stormwater and which is directly related to manufacturing, processing or raw materials storage areas at an industrial plant.
(2) 
The term “stormwater discharge associated with industrial activity” does not include discharges from facilities or activities excluded from the NPDES program under 40 CFR 122.
(3) 
For the categories of industries identified in subsections (5)(A) through (J) of this definition, the term includes, but is not limited to, stormwater discharges from industrial plant yards; immediate access roads and rail lines used or traveled by carriers of raw materials, manufactured products, waste material or byproducts used or created by the facility; material handling sites; refuse sites; sites used for the application or disposal of process wastewaters (as defined at 40 CFR 401); sites used for the storage and maintenance of material handling equipment; sites used for residual treatment, storage, or disposal; shipping and receiving areas; manufacturing buildings; storage areas (including tank farms) for raw materials, and intermediate and finished products; and areas where industrial activity has taken place in the past and significant materials remain and are exposed to stormwater.
(4) 
For the categories of industries identified in subsection (5)(K) of this definition, the term includes only stormwater discharges from all the areas (except access roads and rail lines) that are listed in the previous sentence where material handling equipment or activities, raw materials, intermediate products, final products, waste materials, byproducts or industrial machinery are exposed to stormwater.
(5) 
For the purposes of this subsection, material handling activities include the storage, loading and unloading, transportation, or conveyance of any raw material, intermediate product, finished product, byproduct or waste product. The term “stormwater discharge associated with industrial activity” excludes areas located on plant lands separate from the plant’s industrial activities, such as office buildings and accompanying parking lots, as long as the drainage from the excluded areas is not mixed with stormwater drained from the above-described areas. Industrial facilities (including industrial facilities that are federally, state, or municipally owned or operated that meet the description of the facilities listed in subsections (5)(A) through (K) of this definition) include those facilities designated under the provisions of 40 CFR 122.26(a)(1)(v). The following categories of facilities are considered to be engaging in “industrial activity”:
(A) 
Facilities subject to stormwater effluent limitations guidelines, new source performance standards, or toxic pollutant effluent standards under 40 CFR subchapter N (except facilities with toxic pollutant effluent standards which are exempted under subsection (5)(K) of this definition);
(B) 
Facilities classified as Standard Industrial Classification 24 (except 2434), 26 (except 265 and 267), 28 (except 283), 29, 311, 32 (except 323), 33, 3441, or 373;
(C) 
Facilities classified as Standard Industrial Classifications 10 through 14 (mineral industry) including active or inactive mining operations (except for areas of coal mining operations no longer meeting the definition of a reclamation area under 40 CFR 434.11(1) because the performance bond issued to the facility by the appropriate federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) authority has been released, or except for areas of non-coal-mining operations which have been released from applicable state or federal reclamation requirements after December 17, 1990) and oil and gas exploration, production, processing, or treatment operations, or transmission facilities that discharge stormwater contaminated by contact with, or that has come into contact with, any overburden, raw material, intermediate products, finished products, byproducts or waste products located on the site of such operations (inactive mining operations are mining sites that are not being actively mined, but which have an identifiable owner/operator; inactive mining sites do not include sites where mining claims are being maintained prior to disturbances associated with the extraction, beneficiation, or processing of mined materials, nor sites where minimal activities are undertaken for the sole purpose of maintaining a mining claim);
(D) 
Hazardous waste treatment, storage or disposal facilities, including those that are operating under interim status or a permit under subtitle C of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA);
(E) 
Landfills, land application sites, and open dumps that receive or have received any industrial wastes (waste that is received from any of the facilities described under this subsection) including those that are subject to regulation under subtitle D of RCRA;
(F) 
Facilities involved in the recycling of materials, including metal scrapyards, battery reclaimers, salvage yards, and automobile junkyards, including but limited to those classified as Standard Industrial Classifications 5015 and 5093;
(G) 
Steam electric power generating facilities, including coal handling sites;
(H) 
Transportation facilities classified as Standard Industrial Classifications 40, 41, 42 (except 4221-25), 43, 44, 45, and 5171 which have vehicle maintenance shops, equipment cleaning operations, or airport deicing operations. Only those portions of the facility that are either involved in vehicle maintenance (including vehicle rehabilitation, mechanical repairs, painting, fueling, and lubrication), equipment cleaning operations, airport deicing operations, or which are otherwise identified under subsections (5)(A) through (F) or (5)(J) and (K) of this definition are associated with industrial activity;
(I) 
Treatment works treating domestic sewage or any other sewage sludge or wastewater treatment device or system, used in the storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of municipal or domestic sewage, including land dedicated to the disposal of sewage sludge that are located within the confines of the facility, with a design flow of 1.0 mgd or more, or required to have an approved pretreatment program under 40 CFR 403. Not included are farm lands, domestic gardens or lands used for sludge management where sludge is beneficially reused and which are not physically located in the confines of the facility, or areas that are in compliance with section 405 of the federal Clean Water Act;
(J) 
Construction activity including clearing, grading and excavation activities, except operations that result in the disturbance of less than five acres of total land area which are not part of a larger common plan of development or sale;
(K) 
Facilities under Standard Industrial Classifications 20, 21, 22, 23, 2434, 25, 265, 267, 27, 283, 285, 30, 31 (except 311), 323, 34 (except 3441), 35, 36, 37 (except 373), 38, 39, 4221-25 (and which are not otherwise included within subsections (5)(B) through (J) of this definition).
Stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWPPP)
means a plan required by a permit to discharge stormwater associated with industrial activity, including construction, and which describes and ensures the implementation of practices that are to be used to reduce the pollutants in stormwater discharges associated with industrial activity at the facility.
TAC
means the Texas Administrative Code.
Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (TPDES)
means the program delegated to the state by the EPA pursuant to 33 USC 1342(b).
Total suspended solids (TSS)
means solids that either float on the surface of, or are in suspension in, water, wastewater or other liquids, and which are generally removable by a laboratory filtration device. TSS is expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/l).
Uncontaminated
means not containing a harmful quantity of any substance.
USC
means United States Code.
Wastewater
means any water or other liquid, other than uncontaminated stormwater, discharged from a facility.
Waters in the state
means groundwater, percolating or otherwise, lakes, bays, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, wetlands, marshes, inlets, canals inside the territorial limits of the state, and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, navigable or non-navigable, and including the bed and banks of all watercourses and bodies of surface water that are wholly or partially inside or bordering the state or inside the jurisdiction of the state.
Waters of the United States.
(1) 
The term “waters of the United States” means:
(A) 
All waters which are currently used, were used in the past, or may be susceptible to use in interstate or foreign commerce;
(B) 
All interstate waters, including interstate wetlands; all other waters the use, degradation, or destruction of which would affect or could affect interstate or foreign commerce;
(C) 
All impoundments of waters otherwise defined as waters of the United States under this definition;
(D) 
All tributaries of waters identified in this definition;
(E) 
All wetlands adjacent to waters identified in this definition; and
(F) 
Any waters within the federal definition of “waters of the United States” at 40 CFR 122.2.
(2) 
The term “waters of the United States” does not include any waste treatment systems, treatment ponds or lagoons designed to meet the requirements of the federal Clean Water Act.
Wetland
means an area that is inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances does support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. The term “wetland” generally includes swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas.
(1998 Code, sec. 113-30; Ordinance 2011-05-004, sec. 2 (113-30), adopted 6/21/11; 2013 Code, sec. 48-126)
The director and the director’s authorized representatives are authorized to administer, implement, and enforce the provisions of this division.
(1998 Code, sec. 113-31; Ordinance 2011-05-004, sec. 2 (113-31), adopted 6/21/11; 2013 Code, sec. 48-127)
(a) 
A person commits an offense if the person introduces or causes to be introduced into the MS4 any discharge that is not composed entirely of stormwater.
(b) 
It is an affirmative defense to any enforcement action for a violation of subsection (a) of this section that the discharge was composed entirely of one or more of the following categories of discharges:
(1) 
A discharge authorized by, and in full compliance with, an NPDES permit (other than the NPDES permit for discharges from the MS4);
(2) 
A discharge or flow resulting from firefighting by the fire department;
(3) 
A discharge or flow of fire protection water that does not contain oil or hazardous substances or materials that chapter 6 (fire protection and prevention) requires to be contained and treated prior to discharge, in which case treatment adequate to remove harmful quantities of pollutants must have occurred prior to discharge;
(4) 
Agricultural stormwater runoff;
(5) 
A discharge or flow from water line flushing or disinfection that contains no harmful quantity of total residual chlorine (TRC) or any other chemical used in line disinfection;
(6) 
A discharge or flow from lawn watering, or landscape irrigation;
(7) 
A discharge or flow from a diverted stream flow or natural spring;
(8) 
A discharge or flow from uncontaminated pumped groundwater or rising groundwater;
(9) 
Uncontaminated groundwater infiltration (as defined at 40 CFR 35.2005(20)) to the MS4;
(10) 
Uncontaminated discharge or flow from a foundation drain, crawl space pump or footing drain;
(11) 
A discharge or flow from a potable water source not containing any harmful substance or material from the cleaning or draining of a storage tank or other container;
(12) 
A discharge or flow from air conditioning condensation that is unmixed with water from a cooling tower, emissions scrubber, emissions filter or any other source of pollutant;
(13) 
A discharge or flow from individual residential car washing;
(14) 
A discharge or flow from a riparian habitat or wetland;
(15) 
A discharge or flow from cold water (or hot water with prior permission of the director) used in street washing or cosmetic cleaning that is not contaminated with any soap, detergent, degreaser, solvent, emulsifier, dispersant or any other harmful cleaning substance;
(16) 
Drainage from a private residential swimming pool containing no harmful quantities of chlorine or other chemicals. Drainage from swimming pool filter backwash is prohibited;
(17) 
A discharge or flow of uncontaminated stormwater pumped from an excavation.
(c) 
No affirmative defense shall be available under subsection (b) of this section if:
(1) 
The discharge or flow in question has been determined by the director to be a source of a pollutant or pollutants to the waters of the United States or to the MS4;
(2) 
Written notice of such determination has been provided to the discharger;
(3) 
The discharge has continued after the expiration of the time given in the notice to cease the discharge.
(d) 
A person commits an offense if the person introduces or causes to be introduced into the MS4 any harmful quantity of any substance.
(1998 Code, sec. 113-32; Ordinance 2011-05-004, sec. 2 (113-32), adopted 6/21/11; 2013 Code, sec. 48-128)
(a) 
An actual or threatened discharge to the MS4 that violates or would violate this division is hereby declared to be a nuisance.
(b) 
A line conveying sewage or designed to convey sewage that is connected to the MS4 is hereby declared to be a nuisance.
(1998 Code, sec. 113-34; Ordinance 2011-05-004, sec. 2 (113-34), adopted 6/21/11; 2013 Code, sec. 48-130)
(a) 
The city may, without prior notice, suspend water service, sanitary sewer service and/or MS4 discharge access to a person discharging to the MS4 or waters of the United States when such suspension is necessary to stop an actual or threatened discharge which:
(1) 
Presents or may present imminent and substantial danger to the environment or to the health or welfare of persons; or
(2) 
Presents or may present imminent and substantial danger to the MS4 or waters of the United States.
(b) 
When the director determines that city-provided water and/or sanitary sewer service needs to be suspended pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, the director shall request the director of the department of water to do so.
(c) 
As soon as is practicable after the suspension of service or MS4 discharge access, the director shall notify the violator of the suspension in person or by certified mail, return receipt requested, and shall order the violator to cease the discharge immediately. When time permits, the director should also attempt to notify the violator prior to suspending service or access.
(d) 
If the violator fails to comply with an order issued under subsection (c) of this section, the director may take steps as deemed necessary to prevent or minimize damage to the MS4 or waters of the United States, or to minimize danger to the environment or to the health or welfare of persons.
(e) 
The city shall not reinstate suspended services or MS4 access to the violator until the violator:
(1) 
Presents proof, satisfactory to the director, that the noncomplying discharge has been eliminated and its cause determined and corrected;
(2) 
Pays the city for all costs the city incurred in responding to abating and remediating the discharge or threatened discharge; and
(3) 
Pays the city for all costs the city will incur in reinstating service or access.
(f) 
A violator whose service or access has been suspended or disconnected may appeal such enforcement action to the director, in writing, within ten days of notice of the suspension, in accordance with section 7.07.102.
(g) 
The city may obtain a lien against the property to recover its response costs pursuant to the procedure set out in subsections (e)(2) and (3) of this section.
(h) 
The remedies provided by this section are in addition to any other remedies set out in this article. Exercise of this remedy shall not be a bar against, or a prerequisite for, taking other action against a violator.
(1998 Code, sec. 113-35; Ordinance 2011-05-004, sec. 2 (113-35), adopted 6/21/11; 2013 Code, sec. 48-131)
(a) 
The city may terminate the city-provided water supply, sanitary sewer connection, and/or MS4 access to any person discharging to the MS4 in violation of this division, if such termination would abate or reduce the illicit discharge.
(b) 
The director will notify a violator of the proposed termination of its water supply, sanitary sewer connection, and/or MS4 access. The violator may petition the director for a reconsideration and hearing pursuant to section 7.07.102.
(c) 
The city shall not reinstate suspended services or MS4 access to the discharger until:
(1) 
The violator presents proof, satisfactory to the director, that the noncomplying discharge has been eliminated and its cause determined and corrected; and
(2) 
The violator pays the city for all costs the city will incur in reinstating service or MS4 access.
(d) 
The remedies provided by this section are in addition to any other remedies set out in this article. Exercise of this remedy shall not be a bar against, or a prerequisite for, taking other action against a violator.
(e) 
A person commits an offense if the person reinstates water service, sanitary sewer service, and/or MS4 access to premises terminated pursuant to this section, without the prior approval of the director.
(1998 Code, sec. 113-36; Ordinance 2011-05-004, sec. 2 (113-36), adopted 6/21/11; 2013 Code, sec. 48-132)