§ 138-2. Definitions.
The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this chapter, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:
Ashes means solid residue resulting from the combustion of all the fuels used for heating, cooking, and the production of power in any public or private establishment, institution or residence.
Business, professional or service office units include those businesses which in their operations do not carry or are not required to carry an inventory in the usual course of their operations.
Cell means a compacted volume of solid waste in a landfill which is completely surrounded by a layer of earth or cover material at the end of each working day.
Commercial, industrial and manufacturing units shall include those businesses which in their operations do carry, or are required to carry an inventory in the usual course of their operations.
Commercial refuse consists of garbage and trash, produced in the operation of retail stores.
Composting means a controlled process of decomposing yard wastes such as grass clippings, leaves, and shrubbery trimmings into a substance to be used as a fertilizer or soil amendment.
Contractor's refuse consists of waste materials or debris, resulting from fires or construction, repairs, alterations or demolition of buildings or other structures.
Daily cover means a six-inch layer of compacted earth used to enclose a cell once each working day.
Department means the department of safety and permits.
Dump means a land disposal site at which solid waste is disposed of in a manner which does not protect the environment.
Final cover means a layer of compacted earth two feet, six inches in depth applied to a completed landfill, the top six inches of which is loosely compacted to promote plant growth.
Garbage means all putrescible waste matter except sewage and recognizable industrial byproducts; putrescible vegetable matter, animal offal, and animal carcasses; and animal and vegetable matter, as waste from kitchens, restaurants and food stores, and all burnable rubbish such as paper, cardboard, rags, floor sweepings, excelsior, boxes or barrels of wood when broken up and similar small articles of burnable nature.
Groundwater means subsurface water in the zone of saturation of the earth's crust. The top of this zone of saturation is commonly defined as the water table.
Hazardous wastes means materials or combinations of materials which require special management techniques because of their acute and/or chronic effects on air and water quality; on fish, wildlife, or other biota; and on the health and welfare of the public. These materials include but are not limited to volatile, chemical, biological, explosive, flammable, radioactive and toxic materials.
Infectious wastes means those wastes resulting from the operation of medical clinics, hospitals, abattoirs, and other facilities producing waste which may consist of, but are not limited to, human and animal parts, or contaminated bandages, pathological specimens, hypodermic needles, contaminated clothing, and surgical gloves.
Institutions means churches, synagogues, temples or any eleemosynary organizations, schools, whether public, private or parochial, all hospitals, and all nursing homes.
Intermediate cover means a layer of compacted earth one foot in depth applied to a partially completed landfill where final cover is not to be applied within one year of cell completion.
Leachate means a liquid that has percolated through solid waste or has been generated within solid waste in a landfill and contains dissolved or suspended materials that may be contaminated.
Lift means a completed horizontal series of cells.
Litter means any uncontainerized manmade or manused waste which, if deposited within the city otherwise than in a litter receptacle, tends to create a danger to the public health, safety, and welfare or to impair the environment. Litter may include but is not limited to any garbage, trash, refuse, confetti, debris, grass clippings, or other lawn or garden waste, newspaper container or other construction material, motor vehicle part, furniture, oil, carcass of a dead animal, or nauseous or offensive matter of any kind, or any object likely to injure any person or create a traffic hazard.
Litter receptacle means any container which is designed to receive litter and to prevent the escape of litter deposited therein.
Littering means the act of discarding, dropping, or scattering litter or small quantities of waste matter carried on or about the body in a place other than a place or container for the proper disposal thereof and includes waste matter which escapes or is allowed to escape from a container, receptacle, or package.
Manufacturing or trade refuse consists of special or unusual waste resulting from manufacturing processes.
Milled refuse means a refuse that has been mechanically grounded, shredded or pulverized.
Monitoring wells means strategically located shallow and deep wells from which water samples are drawn for analysis of possible contaminants and from which direction of groundwater flow may be determined.
Premises means any real property, or improvements thereon, including that portion of any lot abutting a public street over which the city has an easement for right-of-way or utility service.
Private property means all property, including but not limited to vacant land or any lands, building or other structure designed or used for residential, commercial, business, industrial, institutional or religious purposes, together with any yard, grounds, walk, driveway, fence, porch steps, vestibule, mailbox or other structure appurtenant thereto.
Public property means any and all streets, sidewalks, boulevards, alleys or other public ways, lakes, rivers, watercourses or fountains and any and all public parks, squares, spaces, grounds, and buildings.
Putrescible wastes means materials capable of decomposition, causing environmental nuisance and/or obnoxious odors.
Recycling means the reuse of solid waste in manufacture, agriculture, power production, or other process.
Refuse means garbage, rubbish, ashes, animal and vegetable waste from animal quarters, and all other waste matter, except sewage, from any public or private establishment, institution, or residence.
Residential unit means a structure occupied by one individual or a family, related by blood or marriage. Double houses, apartments, etc., are considered multiple residential units and each unit a separate charge entity.
Resource recovery means the process by which materials, excluding those under control of the Atomic Energy Commission, which still have useful physical or chemical properties after serving a specific purpose are reused or recycled for the same or other purposes, including use as an energy source.
Rubbish means all nonputrescible waste matter, except ashes from any public or private establishment, institution or residence.
Sanitary landfill means a disposal facility employing an engineered method of disposing of solid waste on land in a manner which minimizes environmental hazards by spreading the solid wastes in thin layers.
Solid waste means garbage, rubbish, refuse, or other discarded solid or semisolid materials resulting from domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural activities and governmental operations, excluding solids or dissolved material in domestic sewage or other significant pollutants in water resources such as silt, dissolved or suspended solids in industrial wastewater effluents, dissolved materials in irrigation return flows, or other common water pollutants.
Solid waste management means any solid waste disposal area, volume reduction plant, or other facility, the purpose of which is resource recovery or the disposal, recycling, processing or storage of solid waste.
Trash consists of nonburnable rubbish such as ashes, bottles, tin cans, crockery, scrap metal as well as yard rubbish, cut grass, clippings of vines, shrubs and plants and tree branches when prepared as provided in sections 138-39 through 138-43.
Volume reduction plant includes, but is not limited to, incinerators, pulverizers, compactors, shredding and bailing plants, transfer stations, composting plants and other plants which accept and process solid waste for recycling or disposal.
Waste management means the process by which solid waste is collected, transported, stored, separated, processed, or disposed of in any other way according to an orderly, purposeful and planned program.
White goods means inoperative and discarded refrigerators, ranges, washers, water heaters and other similar domestic and commercial appliances or large and bulky items.
Working face means that portion of a sanitary landfill where waste is discharged, spread and compacted prior to placement of daily cover.
(Code 1956, §§ 28-4, 28-39)
Cross reference
Definitions generally, § 1-2.