(A) It is determined and declared to be necessary and conducive to the protection of the public health, safety, welfare and convenience of the city to collect charges from all users who contribute wastewater to the city’s treatment works. The proceeds of such charges so derived will be used for the purpose of operating, maintaining and retiring the debt for such public wastewater treatment works.
(B) For the purpose of this section, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
CONTRIBUTOR. For the purpose of billing, the person or company responsible for the metering device used to bill user charges.
NORMAL DOMESTIC WASTEWATER. Wastewater that has BOD concentration of not more than 200 mg/l, a suspended solids concentration of not more than 200 mg/l and a total kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) concentration of not more than 75 mg/l.
OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE. All expenditures during the useful life of the treatment works for materials, labor, utilities and other items which are necessary for managing and maintaining the sewage works to achieve the capacity and performance for which such works were designed and constructed.
PRETREATED WASTE. Pretreated wastewater requiring only secondary treatment and disinfection.
REPLACEMENT. Expenditures for obtaining and installing equipment, accessories or appurtenances that are necessary during the useful life of the treatment works to maintain the capacity and performance for which such works were designed and constructed. The term “operation and maintenance” includes REPLACEMENT.
RESIDENTIAL CONTRIBUTOR. Any contributor to the city’s treatment works whose lot, parcel of real estate or building is used for domestic dwelling purposes only.
SHALL. The act referred to is mandatory; MAY is permissive.
TREATMENT WORKS. Any devices and systems for the storage, treatment, recycling and reclamation of municipal sewage, domestic sewage or liquid industrial wastes. These include intercepting sewers, outfall sewers, sewage collection systems, individual systems, pumping, power and other equipment and their appurtenances; extensions, improvement, remodeling, additions and alterations thereof; elements essential to provide a reliable recycled supply such as standby treatment units and clear well facilities; and any works, including site acquisition of the land, that will be an integral part of the treatment process or is used for ultimate disposal of residues resulting from such treatment, including land for composting sludge, temporary storage of such compost and land used for the storage of treated wastewater in land treatment systems before land BOD application; or any other method or system for preventing, abating, reducing, storing, treating, separating or disposing of municipal waste or industrial waste, including waste in combined storm water and sanitary sewer systems.
USEFUL LIFE. The estimated period during which a treatment works will be operated.
USER CHARGE. The portion of the total wastewater service charge that is levied in a proportional and adequate manner for the cost of operation, maintenance and replacement of the wastewater treatment works.
WATER METER. A water volume measuring and recording device, furnished and/or installed by the city, or furnished and/or installed by a user and approved by the city.
(C) The user charge system shall generate adequate annual revenues to pay costs of annual operation and maintenance including replacement and costs associated with debt retirement of bonded capital associated with financing the treatment works that the city may by ordinance designate to be paid by the user charge system. This section shall establish that portion of the user charge that is designated for operation and maintenance, including replacement of the treatment works.
(D) The portion of the total user charge collected which is designated for operation and maintenance including replacement purposes, as established in this section, shall be deposited in a separate non- lapsing fund known as the operation, maintenance and replacement fund and will be kept in two primary accounts as follows:
(1) An account designated for the specific purpose of defraying operation and maintenance costs, excluding replacement, of the treatment works (Operation and Maintenance Account); and
(2) An account designated for the specific purpose of ensuring replacement needs over the useful life of the treatment works (Replacement Account). Deposits in the Replacement Account shall be made annually from the operation, maintenance and replacement revenue in the amount required by the capital improvement program.
(E) Fiscal year-end balances in the Operation and Maintenance Account and the Replacement Account shall be carried over to the same accounts in the subsequent fiscal year and shall be used for no other purposes than those designated for these accounts. Moneys that have been transferred from other sources to meet temporary shortages in the Operation, Maintenance and Replacement Fund shall be returned to their respective accounts upon appropriate adjustment of the user charge rates for operation, maintenance and replacement. The user charge rates shall be adjusted such that the transferred moneys will be returned to their respective accounts within the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the moneys were borrowed.
(F) Each user shall pay for the services provided by the city based on his or her use of the treatment works as determined by water meters acceptable to the city.
(G) For residential contributors, user charges will be based on water usage during a designated billing cycle as evidenced by meter readings. For industrial and commercial contributors, user charges shall be based on water used during a designated billing cycle. If a commercial or industrial contributor has consumptive use of water or in some other manner uses water which is not returned to the wastewater collection system, the user charge for that contributor may be based on a wastewater meter or separate water meter installed and maintained at the contributor’s expense and in a manner acceptable to the city.
(H) Base charge and flow charge. Effective with the first billing after January 1 of each year shown herein, each user shall pay the following user charge rates of:
2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
City contributors (except pretreated waste) | |||
Base charge per month per meter | $23.99 | $24.23 | $24.47 |
Flow charge per 100 cubic feet | $3.11 | $3.14 | $3.17 |
Pretreated wastes (requires only secondary treatment): | |||
Base charge per month per meter | $3.00 | $3.03 | $3.06 |
Flow charge per 100 cubic feet | $2.04 | $2.06 | $2.08 |
(I) Other charges.
(1) The base charge shall be charged on each meter being used to register wastewater flow.
(2) Effective with the first billing after January 1 of each year shown herein, a discharger of high strength waste greater than normal domestic (200 mg/l BOD, 200 mg/l SS and 75 mg/l TKN) shall pay the following charges:
(a) For each day the discharge permit is exceeded: $1,000 and/or a single charge of $1,000 for exceeding the monthly average limit;
(b) A sampling charge for each day the city performs wastewater sampling as spelled out in the user’s discharge permit, shall be at the sample testing approved by resolution of the City Council; and
(c) For those contributors who contribute wastewater, the strength of which is greater than normal domestic sewage, a surcharge in addition to the normal user charge will be collected. The surcharge for operation and maintenance, including replacement and debt is as follows:
2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
SS per pound | $0.364 | $0.367 | $0.371 |
BOD per pound | $0.606 | $0.612 | $0.618 |
TKN per pound | $0.394 | $0.398 | $0.402 |
(J) Any user which discharges any toxic pollutants which cause an increase in the cost of managing the effluent or the sludge from the city’s treatment works or any user which discharges any substance which singly or by interaction with other substances causes identifiable increases in the cost of operation, maintenance or replacement of the treatment works shall pay for such increased costs. The charge to each user shall be as determined by the responsible plant operating personnel and approved by the City Council.
(K) The user charge rates established in this section apply to all users, regardless of their location, of the city’s treatment works.
(L) Billing for surcharges will be done from laboratory tests performed by the city water pollution control plant. Procedures used for these tests will conform to those methods contained in 40 C.F.R. part 136 and amendments.
(M) The city shall review the system’s revenues and expenditures every year and shall revise user charge rates as necessary to ensure that the system generates adequate revenues to pay the costs of operation and maintenance including replacement and that the system continues to provide for the proportional distribution of operation and maintenance including replacement costs among users and user classes.
(2013 Code, § 28-50) (Ord. 14531, passed 3-25-1996; Ord. 14572, passed 6-23-1997; Ord. 14691, passed 4-22-2002; Ord. 14780, passed 4-24-2006; Ord. 14855, passed 4-13-2009; Ord. 14914, passed 12-10-2012; Ord. 14945, passed 3-14-2016; Ord. 15020, passed 5-24-2021)