A. Permit, General: No unauthorized persons shall uncover, make any connections with or opening into, use, alter or disturb any public sewer or appurtenance thereof without first obtaining a written permit from the City.
B. Permit, Application: There shall be two (2) classes of building sewer permits: 1) for residential and commercial service, and 2) for service to establishments producing industrial wastes. In either case, the owner or an agent of the owner shall make application on a special form furnished by the City. The permit application shall be supplemented by any plans, specifications or other information considered pertinent. A permit and inspection fee shall be paid to the City at the time the application is filed.
C. Connection Costs: All costs and expense incident to the installation and connection of the building sewer shall be borne by the owner. The owner shall indemnify the City from any loss or damage that may directly or indirectly be occasioned by the installation of the building sewer.
D. Number Of Connections: A separate and independent building sewer shall be provided for every building.
E. Reuse Of Old Connection: Old building sewers may be used in connection with new buildings only when they are found, on examination and test by authorized City personnel, to meet all the requirements of this Chapter.
F. Construction: The size, slope, alignment, materials of construction of a building sewer and the methods to be used in excavating, placing of the pipe, jointing, testing and backfilling the trench shall all conform to the requirements of the Building and Plumbing Codes 1 or other applicable rules and regulations of the City and the current regulations of the Minnesota Water Pollution Control Agency. In the absence of code provisions or in application thereof, the materials and procedures set forth in appropriate specifications of the ASTM, Ten States Standards, and WPCF Manual of Practice No. 9 or as approved by authorized City personnel shall apply.
G. Location: Whenever possible, the building sewer shall be brought to the building at an elevation below the basement floor. In all buildings in which any building drain is too low to permit gravity flow to the public sewer, sanitary sewage carried by such building drain shall be lifted by an approved means and discharged to the building sewer.
H. Restrictions: No person shall make connection of roof downspouts, exterior foundation drains, areaway drains or other sources of surface runoff or groundwater to a building sewer or building drain which in turn is connected directly or indirectly to a public sanitary sewer.
I. Building Codes: The connection of the building sewer into the public sewer shall conform to the requirements of the Building and Plumbing Codes or other applicable rules and regulations of the City and State of Minnesota, of the procedures set forth in appropriate specifications of the ASTM, Ten States Standards and the WPCF Manual of Practice No. 9. All such connections shall be made gastight and watertight. Any deviation from the prescribed procedures and materials must be approved by authorized City personnel before installation.
J. Inspection: The applicant for the building sewer permit shall notify the City when the building sewer is ready for inspection and connection to the public sewer. The connection shall be made under the supervision of authorized city personnel.
K. Safety And Restoration: All excavations for building sewer installations shall be adequately guarded with barricades and lights so as to protect the public from hazard. Streets, sidewalks, parkways and other public property disturbed in the course of the work shall be restored to their original condition or to a better condition in a manner satisfactory to the city 2 . A street cutting permit shall be required for all excavations made in the areas of city streets, sidewalks, parkways and other paved areas.
L. Maintenance Responsibility: It shall be the responsibility of the owner to maintain the building sewer from the building up to and including the wye where the building sewer is connected with the public sewer. If the maintenance of the building sewer requires excavation of a public street, the owner shall notify the engineering department and obtain an excavation permit prior to excavating a public street. If the problem with the building sewer is at the wye connecting the building sewer with the public sewer, the wastewater division of the city's engineering department shall be notified of that fact and shall inspect and verify that the problem is at the wye. If the problem is at the wye, the city shall pay one- half (1/2) of the cost of the maintenance; provided, however, that the city must review and approve the bill of the contractor hired by the owner to repair the building sewer. The contractor hired by the owner to repair the building sewer shall follow the other requirements of section 7-2-3 relating to new construction which are applicable to maintenance work.
M. Payment For Costs As Special Assessment:
1. Although the cost of maintaining a building sewer is that of the owner, except as provided in subsection L of this section, the city will allow the homeowner to pay for the cost of the maintenance of a building sewer as a special assessment under the following conditions:
a. The maintenance involves excavation of a public street.
b. The owner's share of the cost of the maintenance is in excess of five hundred dollars ($500.00).
c. The wastewater division of the city's engineering department has reviewed and approved the bill from the contractor hired by the owner.
d. The owner petitions the city to assess their share of the cost within seven (7) days of the completion of the repair work.
2. If the above conditions are met, the city will initially pay the costs and spread as an assessment the principal amount of the owner's costs over ten (10) equal annual installments, with the interest rate on the assessment being set in the year the work is completed at the rate set for similar special assessments in that calendar year.
N. Infiltration/Inflow Elimination During Construction: During any new construction, renovation, or demolition the connection(s) to the sanitary sewer shall be protected through the use of a cover plug in order to eliminate the potential for inflow to enter the sanitary sewer system. Any such water collected shall not be allowed to enter the sanitary sewer system at any time.
O. Sump Pump Requirements For New Construction: All new buildings with groundwater sump systems are required, prior to final inspection by city code personnel, to have the sump pump installed. (1987 Code; amd. Ord. 92-7, 5-26-1992; Ord. 94-2, 2-22-1994; Ord. 2022-12, 5-23-2022)
Notes
| 1 | |
| 2 | 1. See also chapter 4, title 8 of this code. |