A. “Assessment” means a financial burden placed upon a property for benefits received, directly or indirectly. An assessment is typically applied to property through a local improvement district and is collected by the city finance department; however, it can be established for collection upon use of the defined benefit.

B. “BOD” (denoting biochemical oxygen demand) means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure in five days at 20 degrees centigrade expressed in parts per million by weight.

C. “Building sewer” means that part of the lowest horizontal piping of the building sewer system which receives the discharge from wastewater pipes inside the building footprint and conveys it to the side sewer up to five feet outside of the building footprint. Building sewers are private sewers and are not part of the public system.

D. “Charge in lieu of assessment” means a charge made by the city on property which has not previously participated in the cost of a public sewer line directly serving the property.

E. “City of Auburn design and construction standards” means the requirements adopted under Chapter 12.04 ACC for storm drainage, sanitary sewer, street, and water design and construction.

F. “Commercial” means, for the purposes of this chapter, multiple dwelling units (as defined hereinafter) or businesses engaged in the manufacturing and/or sale of a commodity or commodities, or rendering of a service such as, but not limited to, hotels, motels, hospitals, industrial complexes, schools and colleges, convalescent homes, nursing homes, and retirement homes.

G. “Deduct meter” means an approved city water meter that is located upon a private water service serving a non-single-family residential development for the purpose of monitoring water consumption that does not enter into the sanitary sewer system. A deduct meter is not an irrigation meter, and shall not be used as such.

H. “Dwelling unit” means one or more rooms designed for or occupied by one family for living or sleeping purposes and containing kitchen facilities for use solely by one family.

I. “F.O.G. (FOG)” means fats, oils, and grease.

J. “FOG control plan” means a document, signed by the business owner, outlining FOG issues within the facility and how they are to be addressed.

K. “Grease trap” means an indoor hydromechanical grease interceptor, typically with a holding capacity of 55 gallons or less, designed for the purpose of removing and preventing fats, oils, and grease from entering the sanitary sewer system. Such traps are typically compact under-the-sink units that are near food preparation areas.

L. “Grease interceptor” means an outdoor gravity grease interceptor, typically with a holding capacity of 500 gallons or more, designed for the purpose of removing and preventing fats, oils, and grease from entering the sanitary sewer collection system. These devices are often below-ground units in outside areas and are built as two – or three-chamber baffled tanks.

M. “Irrigation meter” means an approved city water meter connected to a public water service to determine the amount of water being used for landscape watering.

N. “LID” or “local improvement district” means a method of assisting benefiting properties in financing needed capital improvements through formation of special assessment districts.

O. “Multiple dwelling units” means, for this chapter, two or more residential units connected to a single water service.

P. “Natural outlet” means any outlet (conveyance) into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake, or other body of surface or groundwater.

Q. “Nonpolar FOG” means FOG of mineral origin.

R. “Oil/water separator” means a pretreatment device, either coalescing plate or API separator, that prevents oil from being discharged into the sewer system.

S. “pH” means the measurement of acidity or alkalinity of sewage and is measured as the logarithm of the reciprocal of the weight of hydrogen-ion concentration in gram atoms per liter of solution.

T. “Polar FOG” means FOG of animal or vegetable origin.

U. “Premises” means property, including improvements, utilized under one ownership and/or under a single entity control with respect to the use of sewer services and the responsibility for payment thereof.

V. “Private sewage disposal system” means an integrated arrangement of components for premises not connected to the public sewer which conveys, stores, treats, or provides subsurface soil treatment and disposal of residential sewage on the property where it originates, including piping, treatment devices, other accessories, and the soil underlying the disposal component of the initial and reserve areas.

W. “Private sewer” means sewage conveyance facilities which are owned, operated, maintained and controlled by the property owner served by that system.

X. “Private side sewer” means the extension from the building sewer to the connector (tee or wye) on the public sewer mainline.

Y. “Public sewer” means any sewage conveyance facility which is operated, maintained and controlled by a public authority.

Z. “Public sewer mainline” means that portion of the public sewage conveyance system which includes manholes and pipe between manholes, which is owned, operated, and controlled by a public authority.

AA. “Residential customer equivalent (RCE)” means the term used by King County’s department of natural resources, wastewater treatment division, to define the capacity that is required by new development within the sanitary sewer system. Single-family homes are established as one RCE. RCEs for non-single-family homes and multifamily dwellings shall be calculated using King County guidelines. Multifamily residential units with individual water meters shall be classified as one RCE per family unit.

AB. “Sanitary sewer” means a wastewater conveyance facility to which storm, surface, and groundwater are excluded.

AC. “Septage” means the mixture of solid wastes, scum, sludge, and liquids pumped from the septic tanks, pump chambers, holding tanks, and other on-site sewer system components.

AD. “Sewage” means residential, business, industrial, and institutional wastewater.

AE. “Sewer” means a facility for conveying sewage.

AF. “Sewerage” means all facilities for collecting, transporting, pumping, treating, and disposing of sewage.

AG. “Sewer meter” is a city-approved device used to measure sewage that enters the sanitary sewer system.

AH. “Single-family residential” means, for this chapter, any isolated/detached building designed exclusively for occupancy of one family.

AI. “Storm drain” means a wastewater conveyance facility for storm, surface, and ground water.

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

AK. “UPC” means the Uniform Plumbing Code, including amendments, as adopted by the city.

AL. “Utility” means, for this chapter, the city of Auburn sewer utility or sewer division.

AM. “Watercourse” means a channel, either natural or manmade, in which a flow of water occurs, either continuously or intermittently. (Ord. 6704 § 1 (Exh. A), 2018; Ord. 6152 § 1, 2008; Ord. 5934 § 1, 2005; Ord. 5852 § 1, 2004; Ord. 5381 § 1, 2000; Ord. 5302 § 1, 1999; Ord. 5222 § 1 (Exh. B), 1999; Ord. 5212 § 1 (Exh. I), 1999; Ord. 4241 § 2, 1987.)