TO: LINDA REICH, CITY MANAGER
FROM: HYE JIN LEE, PE, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS
SUBJECT
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Industrial User Sewer Discharge Allocation Agreement between the City of Chino, Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA), and Wing Lee Farms, Inc., to provide Wing Lee Farms, Inc., located at 13625 Yorba Avenue, with 401.754 Equivalent Dwelling Units (EDU).
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RECOMMENDATION
Approve a sewer discharge allocation agreement between the City of Chino, the Inland Empire Utilities Agency, and Wing Lee Farms, Inc., that will grant Wing Lee Farms, Inc. sewer capacity in an amount of 401.754 EDU; and authorize the City Manager to execute all necessary documents on behalf of the City.
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FISCAL IMPACT
The City of Chino collects the pass-through IEUA’s sewer connection fees. Any discharge volume overage or exceedance of agreed upon water quality threshold would result in additional IEUA charges based on the EDU rate, as established by resolution adoption of the IEUA Board of Directors in effect at the time exceedance is reported.
There is no direct fiscal impact to the City of Chino.
CITY OF CHINO MISSION / VISION / VALUES / STRATEGIC ISSUES
The recommendation detailed above further the City’s values and strategic issues that serve as key pillars on which identified priorities, goals, and action plans are built, by fostering:
• Responsible Long-Range Planning
• Public Service Excellence through Internal and External Partnerships
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BACKGROUND
Per the City of Chino Ordinance No. 90-28 (dated November 6, 1990) and the IEUA Regional Wastewater Ordinance, a jointly issued permit may be presented to authorized industrial categorized businesses to discharge wastewater to the local sanitary sewer system for conveyance and treatment under conditions of compliance and obligations to all federal, state, and local regulations. Authorized dischargers are required to purchase sewer capacity in the measurement of Equivalent Dwelling Units (EDU). “Equivalent Dwelling Unit” (EDU) is a unit of measure that is based on the typical volume and strength of the wastewater generated by a single-family home. EDUs essentially serve as a benchmark by which all other customer classifications are proportionally relative to. Wing Lee Farms, Inc. (WLF) is a poultry slaughter operation located at 13625 Yorba Avenue and has operated there since 2006. The following is a summary of events for this operation.
• In January 2006, WLF was issued its initial Industrial User Discharge Permit that allowed WLF to discharge at a rate up to 17,500 gallons per day (GPD) as a 6-month daily average or up to 19,000 maximum GPD.
• Neither the City, IEUA, nor WLF has been able to obtain any evidence that the sewer capacity was purchased or otherwise allocated to the WLF permitted operation.
• In January 2009, the Industrial User Discharge Permit was extended until December 2009 with no additional discharge capacity.
• In July 2009, the City and IEUA jointly issued an Industrial User Discharge Permit to WLF with a permit expiration date of July 2012 and an increase to its discharge from a daily maximum of 19,000 GPD to 37,000 GPD.
• The City issued three (3) 6-month extension letters in January 2013, May 2013 and August 2013. This series of extensions led to the issuance of an Industrial User Permit by the City and IEUA with an expiration date in December 2017.
• The new permit did not alter the limits of WLF’s discharge volume of 37,000 GPD. Based on this volume approximately 401.754 EDUs should have been purchased.
In addition to the absence of a documented EDU purchase, the City and IEUA also recognized that WLF exceeded volumes to the sewer system. During the 2017 permit cycle, the City of Chino Environmental Compliance Technicians' inspection reports began to observe that the wastewater treatment equipment (grease interceptor) was routinely at or exceeded its maximum operational volume. Occasionally, the grease interceptor appeared to be at risk of overflowing. Beginning in September 2018, City staff began calculating WLF’s industrial discharge volumes to the City’s sanitary sewer system. City staff calculated the discharge volumes based on water consumption data due to the absence of a wastewater metering device to monitor the discharge. The wastewater discharge calculation initially resulted in a six-month average daily rate of 42,800 GPD, surpassing the permissible discharge volume of 37,000 GPD. Beginning in December of 2018, City staff began calculating WLF’s daily discharge volumes. Wastewater discharge calculations demonstrated that WLF had discharged up to 80,237 GPD into the City’s sanitary sewer system more than twice the permissible rate during December 2018.
Three of the City’s businesses (WLF, American Beef Packers, and Diamond Wipes) categorized as industrial users of the Yorba Avenue sewer line between Schaefer Avenue to Edison Avenue were all discharging volumes of industrial wastewater to the system. The City and WLF prepared separate flow studies of the Yorba sewer line and reasonable points of connection to the IEUA trunk system in 2019. Each study examined the impact to the City’s sewer system and calculated the remaining capacity of the Yorba 10” sewer line. Both study reports confirmed that the existing sewer system was near its hydraulic capacity for wastewater. The Capital Improvement Program included the Yorba Avenue sewer line upgrade to a 15” pipe (SW211) and was completed in 2023. This sewer upgrade accommodates the current and future dischargers to the City’s sanitary sewer system.
In 2023, IEUA, Chino, and other member agencies in the region, within the Building Activity Report Subcommittee (BAR) endeavored to identify operations in the IEUA service areas that, similar to WLF, are operating without evidence of a purchase of capacity to discharge to the sanitary sewer system for regional wastewater treatment. This effort resulted in IEUA’s Regional Sewerage Technical Subcommittee, which is comprised of regional member agency personnel passing a policy that states: “In the case of a permitted industrial user facility that has limited or no records of EDU purchases with the Contracting Agency and/or IEUA, the listed capacity in their current discharge permit should be considered as being paid for after the following are considered on a case-by-case basis. Since the EDU formula is comprised of flow, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), and Total Suspended Solids (TSS), at a minimum the most current 1-year flow, BOD and TSS average should be considered through representative sampling for evaluating the facility’s EDU balance. Should there be other historical records that exist which refer to the past discharge practices, they shall also be considered. The local contracting agency shall verify the EDUs in question do not exceed the capacity of its collection system. The evaluation shall then be brought to the BAR Subcommittee for review and consideration prior to allocating EDUs. Upon approval by the BAR Subcommittee, the recommended allocation will be submitted to the Technical Committee for consideration and approval and an agreement documenting the EDU allocation shall be established between the facility, the Contracting Agency and IEUA.” The IEUA Technical Committee is comprised of regional member agency personnel.
WLF has been identified as an industrial user of the sewer system that cannot provide documentation of EDU purchase but possesses a discharge permit that references a discharge rate 37,000 GPD. Therefore, the City collaborated with IEUA to establish the provisions for the WLF EDU allocation agreement. The City team evaluated WLF’s water quality flow discharge, which includes the BOD and TSS, and determined that WLF’s current permitted industrial discharge of 37,000 GPD factors to an equivalent 401.754 EDUs. This evaluation has been reviewed and approved by IEUA’s Technical Committee. This allocation of EDUs is dedicated to this address and is non-transferable to any other address per IEUA ordinance which ties sewer use rights to allocated property.
ISSUES/ANALYSIS
The requirements made at the time of the IEUA Building Activity Report (BAR) Subcommittee review and the Technical Committee approval have been met by Wing Lee Farms, Inc. The City of Chino, IEUA, and WLF have reviewed and agreed to the specified allocation of 401.754 EDUs to 13625 Yorba Avenue. EDUs in the agreement are representative of WLF’s discharge to the sanitary sewer system.
Additionally, the City and IEUA adhered to the new policy established through the BAR Sub-Committee and approved by the TAC to allocate capacity to industrial facilities that discharge to the sanitary sewer system and possess permits that authorize the discharge with no records of EDU purchase.
City staff recommends that the City Council approve an allocation agreement that will grant Wing Lee Farms, Inc., sewer capacity of 401.754 Equivalent Dwelling Units.
Attachment: WLF EDU Allocation Agreement