Lake Wales staff propose minor wording changes to industrial pretreatment ordinance after FDEP review

City of Lake Wales staff told the commission that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) requested minor wording and procedural changes to the city's industrial pretreatment ordinance to match conditions in the wastewater treatment plant operating permit.

Staff member, City staff, said the changes apply to Division 3 in the utilities section of the ordinance and largely clarify how daily discharge will be determined, which contributing facilities must obtain city operating permits, limits on sludge shipments and the official date for submission of required reports. "They wanted us to state what was gonna be the method to determine the daily discharge," the staff member said, adding the FDEP asked the city to adopt specific terminology (for example, replacing "non significant contributors" with "unpermitted users").

The staff member said the ordinance language previously added to comply with a 2022 permit renewal (Ordinance 2022-49) was reviewed by FDEP, which returned a set of minor edits the department wanted adopted. The staff member noted Oakley is currently one of the few entities holding a city industrial operating permit and that the updated wording will make clear who else may need a permit.

The changes also set the official submission date for permit reports as the U.S. Postal Service postmark date, where the city previously did not specify an official submittal date. The staff member described the requested edits as clarifying and limited to language that will "make it a little bit more clearer to the industrial users that it may affect."

The transcript supplied to the record contains the staff explanation and the text highlights showing FDEP's requested edits; a formal motion or vote on the ordinance changes is not specified in the portion of the transcript provided.