The city manager shall implement and enforce the provisions of this article. The director of each city department shall also implement and enforce the provisions of this article for all municipal operations under his/her direction. Any powers granted to or duties imposed in this article upon the city manager, or he may delegate the director of another city department to other city personnel.
(Ordinance 1304, sec. 8-2, adopted 4/12/2010)
The following abbreviations, when used in this article, shall have the designated meanings:
BMP
Best management practices
BOD5
Five-day biological oxygen demand
CFR
Code of Federal Regulations
COD
Chemical oxygen demand
CSCE
Comprehensive site compliance evaluation
EPA
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
HHW
Household hazardous waste
LPE
Licensed professional engineer
mg/l
Milligrams per liter
MS4
Municipal separate storm sewer system
MSGP
Multi-sector general permit
NOC
Notice of change
NOI
Notice of intent
NOT
Notice of termination
NPDES
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
pH
Measure of acidity or alkalinity
POTW
Publicly owned treatment works
PST
Petroleum storage tank
SWPPP
Storm water pollution prevention plan
TCEQ
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
TPDES
Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
TSS
Total suspended solids
USC
United States Code
(Ordinance 1304, sec. 8-2.1, adopted 4/12/2010)
Best management practices or BMPs
means schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to prevent or reduce the pollution of waters of the United States. BMPs also include treatment requirements, operating procedures, and practices to control plant site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw material storage.
City
means the City of Terrell Hills, Texas, or the city council of Terrell Hills.
City manager
means the city manager of the City of Terrell Hills, or his/her duly authorized representative.
Commencement of construction
means the initial disturbance of soils associated with clearing, grading, excavating, land filling, and other construction activities.
Commercial
means pertaining to any business, trade, industry, or other activity engaged in for profit.
Common plan of development
means a contiguous area where multiple separate and distinct construction activities may be taking place at different times on different schedules under one plan.
Construction
means any human activity that involves clearing, grading, excavation, land filling, or other placement, movement, removal, or disposal of soil, rock, or other earth materials.
Contaminated
means containing a harmful quantity of any substance.
Discharge
means any addition or introduction of any pollutant, storm water, 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.
Domestic sewage
means human excrement, gray water (from home clothes washing, bathing, showers, dishwashing, and food preparation), other wastewater from household drains, and waterborne waste normally discharged from the sanitary conveniences of dwellings (including apartment houses and hotels), office buildings, factories, and institutions, that is free from industrial waste.
Environmental Protection Agency or EPA
means the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the regional office thereof, any federal department, agency, or commission that may succeed to the authority of the EPA, and any duly authorized official of the EPA or such successor agency.
Facility
means any building, structure, installation, process, or activity from which there is or may be a discharge of a pollutant.
Fertilizer
means a solid or non-solid substance or compound that contains an essential plant nutrient element in a form available to plants and is used primarily for its essential plant nutrient element content in promoting or stimulating growth of a plant or improving the quality of a crop, or a mixture of two or more fertilizers. The term does not include the excreta of an animal, plant remains, or a mixture of those substances, for which no claim of essential plant nutrients is made.
Final stabilization
means the status when all soil disturbing activities at a site have been completed, and a uniform perennial vegetative cover with a density of 70% of the cover for unpaved areas and areas not covered by permanent structures have been established, or equivalent permanent stabilization measures (such as the use of riprap, gabions, or geotextiles) have been employed. (Note: The pervious area shall be uniformly vegetated such that randomly chosen areas, as would be enclosed by a hula hoop, each have a vegetation density at least 70%.)
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.
Garbage
means putrescible animal and vegetable waste materials from the handling, preparation, cooking, or consumption of food, including waste materials from markets, storage facilities, and the handling and sale of produce and other food products.
Harmful quantity
means the amount of any substance that will cause pollution of water in the state.
Hazardous material
means any substance or materials determined to be hazardous by the Secretary of Transportation according to 49 CFR part 171.8.
Hazardous substance
means any substance listed in table 302.4 of 40 CFR part 302.
Hazardous waste
means any substance identified or listed as a hazardous waste by the EPA pursuant to 40 CFR part 261.
Hazardous waste treatment, disposal, and recovery facility
means all contiguous land, and structures, other appurtenances and improvements on the land, used for the treatment, disposal, or recovery of hazardous waste.
Herbicide
means a substance or mixture of substances used to destroy a plant or to inhibit plant growth.
Household hazardous waste or HHW
means any material generated in a household (including single and multiple residences, hotels and motels, bunk houses, ranger stations, crew quarters, camp grounds, picnic grounds, and day use recreational areas) by a consumer which, except for the exclusion provided in 40 CFR section 261.4(b)(1), would be classified as a hazardous waste under 40 CFR part 261.
Industrial waste
means any byproduct that results from any process of industry, manufacturing, mining, production, trade, business, or facility identified as engaging in an industrial activity under 40 CFR part 122.26.
Land filling
means the deposition of soil and other inert materials on the land to raise its grade and/or smooth its features.
Licensed professional engineer or LPE
means a person who has been duly licensed (and registered if practicing as an individual) by the state board of professional engineers to engage in the practice of engineering in the State of Texas.
Motor vehicle fluid
means any vehicle crankcase oil, antifreeze, transmission fluid, hydraulic fluid, brake fluid, differential lubricant, gasoline, diesel fuel, gasoline/alcohol blend, and any other fluid used in a motor vehicle.
Municipal operations
means the day-to-day operation and maintenance activities that have the potential for contributing pollutant runoff to the MS4.
Municipal separate storm sewer system or MS4
means the system of conveyances (including roads with drainage systems, municipal streets, catch basins, curbs, gutters, ditches, man-made channels, or storm drains) owned and operated by the city and designed or used for collecting or conveying storm water.
Municipal solid waste
means solid waste resulting from or incidental to municipal, community, commercial, institutional, or recreational activities, and includes garbage, rubbish, ashes, street cleanings, dead animals, abandoned automobiles, and other solid waste other than industrial waste.
No exposure
means that all industrial materials and activities are protected by a storm resistant shelter to prevent exposure to rain, snow, snowmelt, run-on and/or runoff. Industrial materials or activities include, but are not limited to, material handling equipment or activities, industrial machinery, raw materials, intermediate products, byproducts, final products not intended to be used outdoors, or waste products. Material handling activities include the storage, loading and unloading, transportation, or conveyance of any raw material, intermediate product, final product or waste product.
No exposure certification
means receipt of an NPDES Form 3510-11 or an equivalent form issued by TCEQ related to the TPDES general permit.
No exposure exclusion
means that all industrial facilities that meet the criteria listed in 40 CFR 122.26(b)(14) (except construction) may be excluded from industrial storm water discharge permitting requirements on a conditional basis if certification that a condition of "no exposure" can be made for the facility.
Nonpoint source
means any source of any discharge of a pollutant that is not a "point source."
Notice of change or NOC
means the notice of change that is required by the TPDES general permit related to storm water discharges associated with industrial activity.
Notice of intent or NOI
means the notice of intent that is required by the construction general permit, the multi-sector general permit, or other general permit for the discharge of storm water.
Notice of termination or NOT
means the notice of termination that is required by the construction general permit, the TPDES general permit for industrial activity, or other general permit for the discharge of storm water.
NPDES general permit for discharges from ready-mixed concrete plants, concrete product plants, and their associated facilities in Texas or NPDES general permit
means General Permit No. TXG110000 published by the EPA in Volume 65 of the Federal Register at page 2165 on January 13, 2000, and any subsequent modifications or amendments thereto, that has been assumed and is now administered by the TCEQ.
NPDES general permit for storm water discharges associated with industrial activity or baseline industrial general permit
means the baseline industrial general permit issued by the EPA on August 27, 1992, and published in Volume 57 of the Federal Register at page 41304 on September 9, 1992, and any subsequent modifications or amendments thereto.
NPDES general permit for storm water discharges from construction sites or construction general permit or CGP
means the construction general permit issued by the EPA on June 24, 1998, and published in Volume 63 of the Federal Register at page 36485 on July 6, 1998, and any subsequent modifications or amendments thereto.
NPDES permit
means a permit issued by the EPA (or by the state under authority delegated pursuant to 33 USC section 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.
Oil
means any kind of oil in any form, including, but not limited to, petroleum, fuel oil, crude oil or any fraction thereof which is liquid at standard conditions of temperature and pressure, sludge, oil refuse, and oil mixed with waste.
Operator
means the person or persons who, either individually or taken together, meet either of the following two criteria: (i) they have operational control over the facility specifications (including the ability to make modifications in specifications); or (ii) they have the day-to-day operational control over those activities at the facility necessary to ensure compliance with pollution prevention requirements and any permit conditions.
Owner
means the person who owns a facility or part of a facility.
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. This definition includes all federal, state, and local governmental entities.
Pesticide
means a substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate any pest, or any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant (as these terms are defined in section 76.001 of the Texas Agriculture Code).
Petroleum product
means a product that is obtained from distilling and processing crude oil and that is capable of being used as a fuel for the propulsion of a motor vehicle or aircraft, including motor gasoline, gasohol, other alcohol blended fuels, aviation gasoline, kerosene, distillate fuel oil, and #1 and #2 diesel.
Petroleum storage tank or PST
means any one or combination of above-ground or underground storage tanks that contain petroleum products and any connecting underground pipes.
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. This term does not include return flows from irrigated agriculture or agricultural storm water runoff.
Pollutant
means dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical waste, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water. The term "pollutant" does not include tail water or runoff water from irrigation or rainwater runoff from cultivated or uncultivated rangeland, pastureland, and farmland.
Pollution
means the alteration of the physical, thermal, chemical, or biological quality of, or the contamination of, any water in the state 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.
Qualified personnel
means persons who possess the appropriate competence, skills, and ability (as demonstrated by sufficient education, training, experience, and/or, when applicable, any required certification or licensing) to perform a specific activity in a timely and complete manner consistent with the applicable regulatory requirements and generally accepted industry standards for such activity.
Release
means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing, directly or indirectly, into the municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) or the waters of the United States.
Rubbish
means non-putrescible solid wastes that consist of (i) combustible waste materials, including paper, rags, cartons, wood, excelsior, furniture, rubber, plastics, yard trimmings, leaves, and similar materials; and (ii) noncombustible waste materials, including glass, crockery, tin cans, aluminum cans, metal furniture, and similar materials that do not burn at ordinary incinerator temperatures (1600 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit).
Sanitary sewer (or sewer)
means the system of pipes, conduits, and other conveyances which carry industrial waste and domestic sewage from residential dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial and manufacturing facilities, and institutions, whether treated or untreated, to the sewage treatment plant utilized by the city (and to which storm water, surface water, and groundwater are not intentionally admitted).
Septic tank waste
means any domestic sewage from holding tanks such as vessels, chemical toilets, campers, trailers, and septic tanks.
Service station
means any retail establishment engaged in the business of selling fuel for motor vehicles that is dispensed from stationary storage tanks.
Sewage or sanitary sewage
means the domestic sewage and/or industrial waste that is discharged into the city sanitary sewer system and passes through the sanitary sewer system to the sewage treatment plant utilized by the city for treatment.
Site
means the land or water area where any facility or activity is physically located or conducted, including adjacent land used in connection with the facility or activity.
Solid waste
means any garbage, rubbish, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility, and other discarded material, including, solid, liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, municipal, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations, and from community and institutional activities.
Storm water
means storm water runoff, snowmelt runoff, and surface runoff and drainage.
Storm water discharge associated with industrial activity
means the release of storm water runoff from any conveyance which is used for collecting and conveying storm water that drains from manufacturing, processing, maintenance, materials storage, or waste storage areas at a facility that meets the criteria listed in 40 CFR section 122.26(b)(14).
Storm water pollution prevention plan or SWPPP
means a plan required by either the construction general permit, the baseline industrial general permit, or the multi-sector general permit and which describes and ensures the implementation of practices that are to be used to reduce the pollutants in storm water discharges associated with construction or other industrial activity at the facility.
Surface water in the state
means lakes, bays, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, wetlands, marshes, inlets, canals, the Gulf of Mexico inside the territorial limits of the state (from the mean high water mark (MHWM) out 10.36 miles into the Gulf), and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, navigable or non-navigable, and including the beds and banks of all watercourses and bodies of surface water, that are wholly or partially inside or bordering the state or subject to the jurisdiction of the state; except that waters in treatment systems which are authorized by state or federal law, regulation, or permit, and which are created for the purpose of waste treatment, are not considered to be water in the state.
Texas commission on environmental quality, state commission on environmental quality or TCEQ
means the State of Texas agency by that name, the regional offices thereof, any state department, agency, or commission that may succeed to the authority of the TCEQ, and any duly authorized official of TCEQ or such successor agency.
TPDES general permit or TPDES general permit relating to storm water discharges associated with industrial activity
means TPDES General Permit No. TXR050000 issued by the TCEQ in 2001 as authorized under provisions of section 402 of the Clean Water Act and chapter 26 of the Texas Water Code and subsequent revisions.
TPDES general permit for storm water discharges from construction sites or construction general permit
means the construction general permit issued by TCEQ on March 5, 2003 as authorized under provisions of section 402 of the Clean Water Act and chapter 26 of the Texas Water Code and subsequent revisions.
TPDES permit
means a permit issued by the TCEQ that authorizes the discharge of pollutants to waters of the state, whether the permit is applicable to an individual, group, or general area-wide basis.
Used oil or used motor oil
means any oil that has been refined from crude oil or a synthetic oil that, as a result of use, storage, or handling, has become unsuitable for its original purpose because of impurities or the loss of original properties but that may be suitable for further use and is recyclable in compliance with state and federal law.
Wastewater
means any water or other liquid, other than uncontaminated storm water, discharged from a facility.
Water quality standard
means the designation of a body or segment of surface water in the state for desirable uses and the narrative and numerical criteria deemed by the state to be necessary to protect those uses, as specified in chapter 307 of title 30 of the Texas Administrative Code.
Waters of the United States (from title 40, part 122, section 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations) or waters of the U.S.
means:
(1) 
All waters that are currently used, were used in the past, or may be susceptible to use in interstate or foreign commerce, including all waters that are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide;
(2) 
All interstate waters, including interstate wetlands;
(3) 
All other waters such as intrastate lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sand flats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, or natural ponds that the use, degradation, or destruction of which would affect or could affect interstate or foreign commerce including any such waters:
(A) 
Which are or could be used by interstate or foreign travelers for recreational or other purposes;
(B) 
From which fish or shellfish are or could be taken and sold in interstate or foreign commerce; or
(C) 
Which are used or could be used for industrial purposes by industries in interstate commerce;
(D) 
All impoundments of waters otherwise defined as waters of the United States under this definition;
(E) 
Tributaries of waters identified in subsections (3)(A) through (D) of this definition;
(F) 
The territorial sea; and
(G) 
Wetlands adjacent to waters (other than waters that are themselves wetlands) identified in subsections (3)(A) through (F) of this definition. Waste treatment systems, including treatment ponds or lagoons designed to meet the requirements of CWA (other than cooling ponds as defined in 40 CFR 423.11(m) which also meet the criteria of this definition) are not waters of the United States. This exclusion applies only to man-made bodies of water that neither were originally created in waters of the United States (such as disposal area in wetlands) nor resulted from the impoundment of waters of the United States. Waters of the United States do not include prior converted cropland. Notwithstanding the determination of an area's status as prior converted cropland by any other federal agency, for the purposes of the Clean Water Act, the final authority regarding Clean Water Act jurisdiction remains with the EPA.
Wetland
means an area that is inundated or saturated by surface 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. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas.
Yard waste
means leaves, grass clippings, yard and garden debris, and brush that results from landscaping maintenance and land-clearing operations.
(Ordinance 1304, sec. 8-2.2, adopted 4/12/2010; Ordinance adopting 2023 Code)