[Adopted effective 5-20-1993]
The Walpole Board of Health adopts the following regulation pursuant
to authorization granted by MGL c. 111, §§ 31 and 122. The
regulation shall apply, as specified herein, to all applicable facilities,
existing and new, within the Town of Walpole.
For the purposes of this regulation, the following words and phrases
shall have the following meanings:
COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL FACILITY
A public or private establishment where the principal use is the
supply, sale, and/or manufacture of services, products, or information, including
but not limited to manufacturing, processing, or other industrial operations;
services or retail establishments; printing or publishing establishments;
research and development facilities; small or large quantity generators of
hazardous waste; laboratories, hospitals.
DEPARTMENT
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
DISCHARGE
The accidental or intentional disposal, deposit, injection, dumping,
spilling, leaking, incineration, or placing of toxic or hazardous material
or waste upon or into any land or water so that such hazardous waste or any
constituent thereof may enter the land or waters of the commonwealth. "Discharge"
includes, without limitation, leaking of such materials from failed or discarded
containers or storage systems and disposal of such materials into any on-site
leaching structure or sewage disposal system.
FLOOR DRAIN
An intended drainage point on a floor constructed to be otherwise
impervious which serves as the point of entry into any subsurface drainage,
treatment, disposal, containment, or other plumbing system.
LEACHING STRUCTURE
Any subsurface structure through which a fluid that is introduced
will pass and enter the environment, including, but not limited to, dry wells,
leaching catch basins, cesspools, leach fields, and oil/water separators that
are not water-tight.
OIL/WATER SEPARATOR
A device designed and installed so as to separate and retain petroleum
based oil or grease, flammable wastes as well as sand and particles from normal
wastes while permitting normal sewage or liquid wastes to discharge into the
drainage system by gravity. Other common names for such systems include MDC
traps, gasoline and sand traps, grit and oil separators, grease traps, and
interceptors.
TOXIC OR HAZARDOUS MATERIAL
Any substance or mixture of physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics
posing a significant, actual, or potential hazard to water supplies or other
hazards to human health if such substance or mixture were discharged to land
or water of the Town of Walpole. "Toxic or hazardous materials" include, without
limitation, synthetic organic chemicals, petroleum products, heavy metals,
radioactive or infectious wastes, acids and alkalis, and all substances defined
as "toxic or hazardous" under MGL c. 21C and c. 21E or Massachusetts hazardous
waste regulations (310 CMR 30.000), and also include such products as solvents,
thinners, and pesticides in quantities greater than normal household use.
With the exception of discharges that have received (or have applied
and will receive) a Department-issued permit prior to the effective date of
this regulation, no floor drain(s) shall be allowed to discharge, with or
without pretreatment (such as an oil/water separator), to the ground, a leaching
structure, or septic system in any industrial or commercial facility if such
floor drain is located in either:
A. An industrial or commercial process area,
B. A petroleum, toxic, or hazardous materials and/or waste
storage area, or
C. A leased facility without either Subsection
A or
B of this section, but in which the potential for a change of use of the property to a use which does have either Subsection
A or
B is, in the opinion of the Board of Health or its agent, sufficient to warrant the elimination of the ground discharge at the present.
The effective date of this regulation is the date posted on the front
page of the regulation, which shall be identical to the date of adoption of
the regulation.
A. Existing facilities:
(1) Owners/operators of a facility affected by this regulation
shall comply with all of its provisions within 120 days of the effective date.
(2) All applicable discharges to the leaching structures
and septic systems shall be discontinued immediately through temporary isolation
or sealing of the floor drain.
B. New facilities:
(1) As of the effective date of the regulation, all new construction
and/or applicable change of use within the Town of Walpole shall comply with
the provisions of this regulation.
(2) Certification of conformance with the provisions of this
regulation by the Board of Health shall be required prior to issuance of construction
and occupancy permits.
(3) The use of any new oil/water separator shall comply with the same requirements as for existing systems, as specified above in §
644-5B.
Failure to comply with provisions of this regulation will result in
the levy of fines of not less than $200, but no more than $1,000. Each day's
failure to comply with the provisions of this regulation shall constitute
a separate violation.
Each provision of this regulation shall be construed as separate to
the end that, if any provision, or sentence, clause or phrase thereof, shall
be held invalid for any reason, the remainder of that section and all other
sections shall continue in full force and effect.