(A) No unauthorized person shall uncover, make any connection with or opening into, use, alter, or disturb any public sewer or appurtenance thereof without first obtaining written permit from the superintendent as required by Article IV of this chapter.
(B) All costs and expenses incident to the installation, connection and inspection 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.
(C) A separate and independent building sewer shall be provided for every building; except where one building stands at the rear of another on an interior lot and no private sewer is available or can be constructed to the rear building through an adjoining alley, courtyard or driveway, the building sewer from the building may be extended to the rear building and the whole considered as one building sewer.
(D) Old building sewers may be used in connection with new buildings only when they are found, on examination and tested by the superintendent, to meet all requirements of this chapter. All others must be sealed to the specifications of the superintendent.
(E) Building sewers shall conform to the following requirements:
(1) The minimum size of a building sewer shall be four (4) inches;
(2) The minimum depth of a building sewer shall be eighteen (18) inches;
(3) Four (4) inch building sewers shall be laid on a grade greater than one-eighth (1/8) inch per foot. Larger building sewers shall be laid on a grade that will produce a velocity when flowing full of at least two (2.0) feet per second;
(4) Slope and alignment of all building sewers shall be neat and regular;
(5) Building sewers shall be constructed only of (a) cast iron soil pipe with compression joints; (b) Schedule 40 polyvinyl chloride pipe with solvent welded or with rubber compression joints; or (c) such other materials of equal or superior quality as may be approved by the superintendent. Under no circumstances will cement mortar joints be acceptable;
(6) A cleanout shall be located five (5) feet outside of the building and one (1) at each change of direction of the building sewer which is greater than forty-five (45) degrees. Additional cleanouts shall be placed not more than seventy-five (75) feet apart in horizontal building sewers of four (4)-inch nominal diameter and not more than one hundred (100) feet apart for larger pipes. Cleanouts shall be extended to or above the finished grade level directly above the place where the cleanout is installed. A “T” (tee) or “Y” (wye) and one-eighth (1/8) bend shall be used for the cleanout base. Cleanouts shall not be smaller than four (4) inches on a four (4)-inch pipe;
(7) Connections of building sewers to the public sewer system shall be made the appropriate existing wye or tee branch using compression type couplings or collar type rubber joint with corrosion resisting or stainless steel bands. Where existing wye or tee branches are not available, connections of building services shall be made by either removing a length of pipe and replacing it with a wye or tee fitting or cutting a clean opening in the existing public sewer and installing a tee-saddle or tee-insert of a type approved by the superintendent. Where connections are made with pipe of different inside or outside diameter, proper watertight gasketed or sleeved transition connections shall be used. All such connections shall be made gastight and watertight;
(8) The building sewer may be brought into the building below the basement floor when gravity flow from the building to the sanitary sewer is at a grade of one-eighth (1/8) per foot or more if possible. In cases where basement or floor levels are lower than the ground elevation at the point of connection to the sewer, adequate precautions by installation of check valves or the backflow prevention devices to protect against flooding shall be provided by the owner. 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 at the expense of the owner;
(9) The methods to be used in excavating, placing of pipe, jointing, testing, backfilling the trench or other activities in the construction of a building sewer that have not been described above shall conform to the requirements of the building and plumbing code or other applicable rules and regulations of the city or to the procedures set forth in appropriate specifications of the ASTM and Water Pollution Control Federal Manual of Practice No. 9. Any deviation from the described procedures and materials must be approved by the superintendent before installation;
(10) An installed building sewer shall be gastight and watertight.
(F) All excavations for building sewer installation 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 in a manner satisfactory to the city.
(G) No person shall make connection of roof downspouts, exterior foundation drains, areaway drains, basement drains or other sources of surface or groundwater to a building sewer or building drain which in turn is connected directly or indirectly to a public sanitary sewer.
(Ord. 91-11 Art. IV § C, 1991)
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Cross reference:
Penalty for violation, see § 30.999