(A) Purpose. It is the purpose of this section to provide for the equitable recovery of costs from users of the city's wastewater treatment system, including costs of operation, maintenance, administration, bond service costs, capital improvements and depreciation.
(B) Types of charges and fees. The charges and fees as established in the city's schedule of charges and fees may include, but not be limited to:
(1) Fees for applications for discharge;
(2) Inspection fee and tapping fee;
(3) Sewer charge;
(4) Surcharge fee;
(5) Industrial wastewater discharge permit fee;
(6) Fees for industrial discharge monitoring; and
(7) Other fees as the city may deem necessary to carry out the requirements of this chapter.
(C) Fees for applications for discharge. A fee may be charged when a user or prospective user makes application for discharge as required by § 18-205.
(D) Inspection fee and tapping fee. An inspection fee and tapping fee for a building sewer installation shall be paid to the city at the time the application is filed. Fees shall cover the costs of inspecting new and/or existing plumbing within subject building establishments as well as inspection of building sewers, property sewers and sewer service lines and connections to the public sewers. The inspection fee and tapping fee shall be set by the City Council.
(E) Sewer charge.
(1) Determination of costs. The City Council shall establish monthly rates and charges for the use of the wastewater system and for the services supplied by the wastewater system. The charges shall be based upon the cost categories of administration costs (including billing and accounting costs), operation and maintenance costs of the wastewater collection and treatment system (including replacement) and debt service costs. The sewer charge shall have two components, namely: user charge and debt service costs.
(2) User charge.
(a) The user charge shall reflect the costs of administration and operation and maintenance (including replacement) of the public sewerage facilities.
(b) Each user shall pay its proportionate share of administration and operation and maintenance (including replacement) costs based on volume of flow.
(c) The City Manager of the sewerage facilities shall review not less often than every two years the sewage contributions of users, the total costs of administration and operation and maintenance (including replacement) of the sewerage facilities and the user charge system. The City Manager shall recommend to the City Council the user charge (if necessary) to accomplish the following:
1. Maintain the proportionate distribution of administration, operation and maintenance costs among users as provided herein; and
2. Generate sufficient revenue to pay the total administration, operation and maintenance costs (including replacement) of the sewerage facilities.
(d) All flow to the sewerage facilities not directly attributable to the users (i.e., infiltration/inflow) shall be distributed among all users of the sewerage facilities based upon the volume of flow of the users.
(e) Each user shall be notified at least annually (in conjunction with a regular bill) of the rate and that portion of the sewer user charge which is attributable to administration, and operation and maintenance of the sewerage facilities.
(3) Debt service costs. The sewer charge shall also contain a component to reflect the costs of debt service incurred in conjunction with capital expenditures that have previously been made or may be made in the future to improve, upgrade or extend the public sewerage facilities.
(4) Adjustments. The volume of water purchased which is used in the calculation of sewer use charges may be adjusted by the City Manager if a user purchases a significant volume of water for a consumptive use and does not discharge it to the public sewers (i.e., filling swimming pools, industrial heating and humidifying equipment and the like). The user shall be responsible for documenting the quantity of waste discharge to the public sewer.
(F) Surcharge fees.
(1) Should a user of the wastewater system be determined by the City Manager to be discharging wastewater into the system with an average biochemical-oxygen demand (BOD) content in excess of 300 mg/l by weight, and/or an average suspended solids (SS) content in excess of 300 mg/l by weight, the users shall pay a surcharge based upon the excess strength of their wastes.
(2) The costs of treatment for each pound of BOD and SS removed by the sewerage facilities shall be reviewed at the end of each fiscal year and appropriate surcharge rates applied to the sewage billing. These rates shall be in effect until the next annual rate review.
(3) When either or both the BOD and SS quantities discharged into the treatment works is in excess of those described in division (F)(1) above, the following formula shall be used to compute the appropriate surcharge fees with the total applied to the monthly bill of affected users:
[A(C-300) + B(D-300)] 8.34 x E x F = Surcharge Payment
1000 ($/Month)
Where:
A = Surcharge Rate for BOD in $/lb = $**/lb
B = Surcharge Rate for SS in $/lb = $**/lb
C = Industrial User's BOD Concentration in mg/l
D = Industrial User's SS Concentration in mg/l
E = Industrial User's Flow to sewerage facilities in 1000 gallons/day
F = Number of Days in Month
** See Rate Schedule for applicable charges.
(4) No reduction in sewage service charges, fees or taxes shall be permitted because of the fact that certain wastes discharged to the sewerage facilities contain less than 300 mg/l of BOD or 300 mg/l of SS.
(5) If it is determined by the city that the discharge of other loading parameters or wastewater substances are creating excessive operation and maintenance costs within the wastewater system, whether collection or treatment, then the monetary effect of the a parameter or parameters shall be borne by the discharger of the parameters in proportion to the amount of discharge.
(G) Industrial wastewater discharge permit fees. A fee may be charged for the issuance of an industrial wastewater discharge permit in accordance with § 18-205.
(H) Fees for industrial discharge monitoring. Fees may be collected from industrial users having pretreatment or other discharge requirements to compensate the city for the necessary compliance monitoring and other administrative duties of the pretreatment program.
(I) Billing. The billing for normal domestic wastewater services shall consist of monthly billing in accordance with the rates specified by the city, subject to net and gross rates.
(1989 Code, § 18-209)