(a) The Director of Public Service may issue orders to enforce this chapter.
(b) The Director may issue Industrial User (IU) Permits in a form acceptable to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to require compliance with any requirement of this chapter. These IU permits shall include: applicable pretreatment standards, local, State and Federal discharge limits, reporting requirements specifying the terms and conditions under which the users may use the sewage works, limitations on wastewater strength, effluent limitations, discharge reporting requirements, self-monitoring requirements, methods of collecting samples, sampling techniques, the terms under which samples are to be analyzed, pretreatment standards, orders on sampling access points, standard conditions, and any other term, condition, or limitation deemed appropriate by the Director of Public Service.
(c) No person shall violate any term, provision or condition of such order issued by the Director. The Director shall have the authority to assess a penalty for each violation of such order for at least one thousand dollars ($1,000) per day. Each day of violation or any part thereof, shall constitute a separate offense. This provision shall not be construed to prohibit the Director from assessing fines in an amount less than one thousand dollars ($1,000) if the circumstances, in the estimation of the Director, warrant the lesser fine.
(d) Prior to the assessment, the Director shall notify the violator of the violation, in writing, and shall schedule a time and place to allow the violator to appear and respond to the allegations. Should the Director find that a violation has occurred, the Director shall notify the user of the assessment and its amount. The user shall remit payment to the Director, Division of Wastewater, within thirty days from the notice of the assessment.
(e) Assessments shall be recoverable by the City in the same manner as other debts owed to the City.
(f) In addition to the assessment provided herein, the City may recover reasonable attorneys' fees, and costs, and other expenses of litigation by appropriate suit at law against the person found to be violating the order. The City may also recover special expenses, including, but not limited to, equipment rental, chemicals and labor necessary to ensure the proper operation and maintenance of the wastewater facilities.
(g) In determining the amount of the assessment to be levied, the Director shall consider the offender's history of prior enforcement actions, the severity of the infraction and the existence of any mitigating factors.
(h) Any final order of assessment constitutes a final appealable order pursuant to Ohio R.C. Chapter 2506. However, the failure of any person to appear and respond to the allegations before the Director shall constitute a waiver of that person's right of appeal.
(Ord. 91-59. Passed 10-21-91; Ord. 12-44. Passed 12-17-12.)