(a) Excessive Infiltration Prohibited. The City shall have the right to prohibit, and does hereby prohibit, excessive infiltration into the City sewer system of surface and ground waters. From time to time, the City may inspect the sewers of any owner or municipality to ascertain the extent of such infiltration. Where such infiltration is found, the City has the right to cause the owner and/or municipality to correct or repair the defects found therein. If the owner and/or municipality fails or refuses to correct the defects causing excessive infiltration, the City, in addition to the other rights it has at law, reserves the right to correct the defects and charge the owner and/or municipality the costs and expenses for such corrections, which charges, if not paid, shall be liened against the owner and/or municipality as herein set forth. However, the City is required to give the owner and/or Municipality a written notice of its intention to correct the defective condition at least thirty days before the City incurs expenses and costs for the correction of such defective condition.
(b) Storm, Roof, Surface or Water Discharges. The sanitary sewer discharge from the sanitary sewer system of the user and/or owner and/or municipality into the City sewer system shall not contain stream, storm, roof, surface or other water, the discharge from tile drains, or any industrial waste chemicals or other matter in violation of these provisions, unless otherwise permitted, authorized or approved by the City and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or any duly constituted board, commission or department thereof.
(c) Municipalities to Prevent Infiltration. If the sewer system of any municipality transports sewage or water for both storm and sanitary purposes, the municipality, as a condition for having its system connected or continued to be connected to the City sewer system, shall undertake changes and improvements to the municipality's sewer system in such manner as shall be approved by the City's consulting engineer so as to divert, for purposes of elimination, the storm and/or surface water and thus prevent such water from entering the City sewer system. For the purpose of this subsection, the municipality agrees to permit the City's consulting engineer and the City's inspector to inspect the sewer system of the municipality at all reasonable times to determine the amount of sanitary sewage discharging into the City sewer system from the sanitary sewer system operated by the municipality.
(d) Metering of and Charges for Excessive Infiltration. To determine if there is excessive infiltration or storm sewer discharge flowing into the City sewer system, the City may install flow meters at the connection points where any municipality's sewer system is connected to the City sewer system. From the reading of the flow meters shall be deducted a volume of sewage equivalent to the volume of sewage contributed by each customer located along the municipality's sewer system so connected to the City sewer system. The difference shall be deemed equivalent to the infiltration and/or storm sewer flow from the municipality. If the municipality refuses or fails to repair or correct the defects causing such excessive flow into the City sewer system, the City may charge the municipality itself for the collection, transportation and treatment of such excessive flow, as though the municipality itself were a "customer" or "user" of the City sewer system, under the rates then in effect.
(e) Responsibility for Damages Caused by Infiltration. Any user or municipality which willfully permits or causes the excessive infiltration of surface waters and/or storm sewer flow into any sewer system, which directly or indirectly flows into the City sewer system, shall be responsible for the damages to the City sewer system resulting therefrom, and, in addition, shall be responsible for any penalties that the City is required to pay for violating environmental control laws, where such excessive infiltration or storm sewer flow is the cause of the violation giving rise to the penalties imposed upon the City.
(Ord. 4543. Passed 9-26-90.)