(A) It shall be unlawful to discharge to any natural outlet any wastewater or other polluted waters, except where suitable treatment has been provided in accordance with subsequent provisions of this chapter and the city’s NPDES/SDS permit.
(B) Except as provided elsewhere in the city code, it shall be unlawful to construct or maintain any privy, privy vault, individual septic treatment system or other facility intended or used for the disposal of wastewater.
(C) The owner(s) of all houses, buildings or properties used for human occupancy, employment, recreation or other purposes from which wastewater is discharged, and which is situated within the city and adjacent to any street, alley or right-of-way in which there is now located, or may in the future be located, a public sanitary sewer of the city, shall be required at the owner’s expense to install a suitable service connection to the public sewer in accordance with provisions of this code; provided, said public sewer is within 100 feet of the property containing the structure generating the wastewater. All future buildings constructed on property adjacent to the public sewer shall be required to immediately connect to the public sewer. If sewer connections are not made pursuant to this section, an official 30-day notice shall be served instructing the affected property owner to make said connection; provided that, the city has sufficient evidence that the contractors working in the city are unable to complete all the building services, the city may accept a written contract with completion scheduled within the next 60 days as evidence of good faith by the property owner. In addition to any other remedies which the city may seek in order to enforce compliance with this section, for all owners connecting to the public sewer system after 1-1-2008, the owner(s) shall be required to pay a connection fee as set forth in the ordinance adopting a schedule of fines and fees on file in the city offices.
(D) In the event an owner shall fail to voluntarily connect to a public sewer in compliance with a notice given under division (C) above, the city may undertake to have said connection made and may assess the cost thereof against the benefitted property. Such assessment, when levied, shall bear interest at the rate determined by the City Council and shall be certified to the Auditor of the county and shall be collected and remitted to the city in the same manner as assessments for local improvements. The rights of the city shall be in addition to any remedial or enforcement provisions of this chapter.
(E) Failure of an owner to voluntarily connect to a public sewer in compliance with a notice given under division (C) above shall be deemed a public nuisance and a misdemeanor and shall be punishable, upon conviction thereof, in accordance with the laws of the state. The city may make the connection as a means of abating the nuisance and charge the cost back to the offending landowner with such cost to be collected as a user fee.
(F) The city may also petition the District Court for a court order requiring the owner to connect to the public central sewer system and ordering the owner to connect within a reasonable amount of time to be established by the court, or for an order authorizing the city to make the connection. In the event the city petitions the court for an order directing the connection, either by the owner or the city, the owner shall be liable for all costs of enforcement including court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees related to said action.
(G) Any owner, as defined in division (C) above, who is currently discharging to an on-site system conforming to the city requirements for on-site systems, may petition the city for a two-year extension for completing his, her or their connection to the public sewer, but in no event will the time extension be granted if the system is more than eight years old at the time connection is required pursuant to this chapter.
(Ord. 401, 1st Series, passed - -2010) Penalty, see § 50.99