Users who, at their own expense, install a meter which measures water not entering the sanitary sewer system shall be eligible for deduction of that water from their water bills beginning May 1 through September 30.
A. Any such meter shall be of approved design, shall be registered with the City Water Department prior to use, and shall be used only by the user to whom it is registered and at the service location to which it is assigned.
B. Thereafter, the user shall bring said meter to the City Water Department's office in October where it may be read and those readings utilized to determine any meter usage since the initial reading in May.
C. The City Water Department shall then credit the user's sewer account by subtracting the previous reading from the current reading as taken from the meter and multiplying the difference by the sewer charge and then deducting 100% of that product from the next billing cycle.
D. The City Water Department shall have authority over the installation of the meters used for deduction and from time to time may test the accuracy of said meters. Any necessary repairs to or replacement of such meters shall be at users expense.
E. No deductions shall be granted for users of the meter deduction program who are delinquent in their payments to the city for such service.
F. Any person who is not in good standing with the city at the time shall be ineligible for the meter deduction program.
G. 1. The City Water Department may make adjustments downward in readings of water usage for sewer billing when there is evidence of a water leak; extensive watering of grass, flowers, shrubs and/or trees; and filling and maintaining a swimming pool. The city's "history" of water usage may be used to substantiate adjustments. EXTENSIVE is defined as three or more units of CCF usage, 30 units of DCF usage or 22 units of CGL usage beyond what the "history" shows to be the norm. A CCF unit is 748 gallons, a DCF unit is 74.8 gallons and a CGL unit is 100 gallons. Further, three units of CCF usage, 30 units of DCF usage or 22 units of CGL usage beyond a customer's typical usage during only one billing cycle will qualify for an adjustment. When there is sufficient history, adjustments shall be made by averaging the water usage for a minimum of three months before the abnormal usage, and then using that average for figuring the monthly bill(s). When there is insufficient history, the norm for billing may be established by using either the water consumption of the months immediately following the period for a requested adjustment or the Environmental Protection Agency's rule of thumb that each individual in a household will use 2,992 gallons of water a month, i.e., four units CCF, 40 units of DCF or 30 units CGL.
2. The period of time for "extensive" watering of grass, flowers, shrubs and trees and the filling and maintaining of swimming pools is defined as from May through September. Requests for adjustments may be made at any time; however, only one adjustment per year will be made.
The City Water Department shall reserve the right to deny anyone the privilege of using the meter deduction program.
Decisions made by the City Water Department personnel may be appealed to the Water Committee. All decisions made by the Water Committee shall be final.
(Ord. 2023-3, 2023)