§ 32-19. Definitions.

The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

Backwater valve shall mean a device placed in the building sewer that will prevent the backflow of sewage from an interceptor, major interceptor or collection system into a habitable structure.

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure in five days at 20 degrees Celsius, expressed in parts per million by weight.

Board means the board for the examination and licensing of plumbers.

Board of selectmen means the duly elected selectmen of the town.

Building drain means that part of the lowest horizontal piping of a drainage system which receives the discharge from soil, waste, and other drainage pipes inside the walls of a building and conveys it to the building sewer, beginning five feet (1.5 meters) outside the inner face of the building wall.

Building sewer means that part of the drainage system which extends from the end of the building drain and conveys its discharge to a public sewer, private sewer, individual sewage disposal system, or other point of disposal.

Chemical oxygen demand (COD) means a measure of the oxygen equivalent of that portion of the organic matter in a sample that is susceptible to oxidation by a strong chemical oxident. See the Standard Methods, latest edition.

Commission means the state water supply and pollution control commission.

Community means any city or town that is included as part of and is served by the Winnipesaukee River Basin Project Treatment Works and includes but is not limited to the following: Laconia, Franklin, Meredith, Gilford, Tilton, Belmont, Northfield and Sanbornton.

Contractor means either an individual, partnership or corporation and the proper agents and representatives thereof.

Cooling water means the clean wastewater from air conditioning, industrial cooling, condensing and similar apparatus and from hydraulically powered equipment. The term "cooling water" shall include only water which is sufficiently clean, uncontaminated and unpolluted and may be discharged, without treatment or purification and with written permission of the commission, into any natural open stream or watercourse.

EPA means the Federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Garbage means solid wastes from the preparation, cooking, and dispensing of food, or from the handling, storage, and sale of produce.

Grease means the volatile and nonvolatile residual fats, oils, fatty acids, soaps, waxes, mineral oils and other similar materials.

Grit means heavy inorganic matter such as stone, gravel, cinders, sand, silt, ashes, and heavy particulate matter such as bone chips and coffee grounds.

Improved property means any property located within the jurisdiction upon which there is erected a structure intended for continuous or periodic habitation, occupancy or use by human beings or animals and from which structures sanitary sewage and/or industrial wastes shall be or may be discharged.

Industrial establishment means any room, group of rooms, building or other enclosure used or intended for use, in the operation of one business enterprise for manufacturing, processing, cleaning, laundering or assembling any product, commodity or article or from which any process waste, as distinct from sanitary sewage, shall be discharged.

Industrial wastes means any liquid, gaseous or solid waste from any industrial process, manufacturing trade or business or from development of any natural resource as distinct from sanitary sewage.

Inspector means the person or persons duly authorized by the community to inspect and approve the installation of building sewers and their connections to the sewage collection system.

Interceptor means a channel or sewer which serves to collect the flow from the sewage collection system.

Major interceptor means a channel or sewer which serves to collect the flow from the sewage collection system and is owned and maintained by the state.

Natural outlet means any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake or other body of surface water or groundwater.

Other wastes means garbage, municipal refuse, decayed wood, sawdust, shavings, bark, lime, ashes, offal, oil, tar, chemicals and other substances harmful to human, animal, fish or aquatic life.

pH means the logarithm of the reciprocal of the weight of hydrogen ions in grams per liter of solution.

Pretreatment means the application of physical, chemical, and biological processes to reduce the amount of pollutants in or to alter the nature of the pollutant property in a waste prior to discharging such waste into a publicly owned treatment works.

Properly shredded garbage means the wastes from the preparation, cooking, and dispensing of food that have been shredded to such degree that all particles will be carried freely under the flow conditions normally prevailing in public sewers, with no particle greater than one-half inch in any dimension.

Property owner or owner means any person vested with ownership, legal or equitable, sale or partial, or possession of any improved property.

Public sewer means a sewer in which all owners of abutting properties have equal rights and is controlled by public authority.

Sanitary sewage means a combination of the water carried household and toilet wastes from residences, business buildings, institutions, and industrial establishments.

Sanitary sewer means a sewer which carries sewage and to which stormwater, surface water, and groundwater are not intentionally admitted.

Service connection means that part of the sewer system extending from a public sewer to the curbline or if there shall be no curbline, to the property line, or if the sewer is located in a right-of-way, to the edge of the right-of-way or if no such service connection shall be provided, then the term "service connection" shall mean that portion of or place in a sewer which is provided for connection of any building sewer.

Sewage collection system means each, and all, of the common lateral sewers, within a publicly owned treatment system, which are primarily installed to receive wastewaters directly from facilities which convey wastewater from individual structures or from private property and which includes service connection Y fittings, designed for connection with those facilities.

Sewage treatment plant means any arrangement of devices and structures used for treating sewage.

Sewer means a pipe or conduit for carrying sewage.

Sewerage means a system for the collection and pumping of sewage.

Slug means any discharge of water, sewage, or industrial waste which in concentration of any given constituent or in quantity of flow exceeds, for any period of duration longer than 15 minutes, more than five times the average 24-hour concentration or flow during normal operation.

Standard laboratory procedure means those procedures or tests for the examination of water and wastewater as described in "Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater," latest edition, as published jointly by the American Public Health Association, Inc., American Water Works Association, and Water Pollution Control Federation, or EPA approved methods published in the Code of Federal Regulations, title 40, part 136 (40 CFR 136).

State plumbing code shall be as defined under state statute in RSA ch. 330.

Storm sewer or storm drain means a sewer which carries stormwater and surface water and drainage, but excludes sanitary sewage and industrial wastes.

Superintendent means that individual employed by the state who is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the treatment works, or his authorized agent or representative.

Suspended solids means solids that either float on the surface of, or are in suspension in water, sewage, or other liquids; and which are removable by laboratory filtering.

Town manager means the town manager duly appointed by the board of selectmen or his authorized agent or representative.

Traps means intercepting devices, grease traps, oil separators or grit removal chambers located at the source and placed in the building drain prior to discharge to the sewage collection system.

Treatment works means all facilities for collecting, pumping, treating and disposing of sewage.

Unit means any independent dwelling unit, commercial establishment or industrial user connected to town sewerage or any subdivision of service to an independent user located therein. The terms "commercial and industrial units" shall be further defined in terms of equivalent units. One equivalent unit shall be determined by dividing the estimated sewer usage by the average usage of a single-family dwelling. The current state water supply and pollution control division's regulation ENV Wq 1008.03 shall be used establishing estimated water usage.

Unpolluted water means water that does not contain any pollutants limited or prohibited by effluent standards in effect or water whose discharge will not cause any violation of receiving water quality standards.

Watercourse means a channel in which a flow of water occurs, either continuously or intermittently

(Comp. 1988, § 12-21; Ord. of 1-16-1989; Ord. of 2-12-2001, § 101-150)