(a) Tapping or Opening Sewer Without Permit. No person shall cut, break, pierce or tap any public sewer or appurtenances thereof, or introduce any tube, pipe, trough or conduit into any public sewer or appurtenance thereof without a written permit from the Council.
(b) Sewer Taps Only by Authorized Persons. No person, except those persons duly employed or authorized by the City or by the Council for such purpose, shall tap the City’s sewer mains.
(c) Sewer Tap Construction.
(1) All costs and expenses incidental to the installation and connection of the building sewer shall be borne by the owner(s). The owner(s) shall indemnify the City from any loss or damage that may directly or indirectly be occasioned by the installation of the building sewer.
(2) A separate and independent building sewer shall be provided for every building; except where one building stands at the rear of another or an interior lot and no private sewer is available or can be constructed to the rear building through an adjoining alley, court, yard, or driveway, the sewer from building may be extended to the rear building and the whole considered as one building sewer, but the City does not and will not assume any obligation or responsibility for damage caused by or resulting from any such single connection aforementioned.
(3) Old building sewers may be used in connection with new buildings only when they are found, on examination and test by the Manager, to meet all requirements of this article.
(4) 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 Code or other applicable rules and regulations of the City. In the absence of code provisions or in amplification thereof, the material and procedures set forth in appropriate specifications of the ASTM and WPCF Manual of Practice No. 9 shall apply.
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.
(5) No person (s) shall make a connection of roof downspouts, 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 unless such connection is approved by the Manager for purposes of disposal of polluted surface drainage.
(6) The connection of the building sewer into the public sewer shall conform to the requirements of the Building and Plumbing Code or other applicable rules and regulations of the City for the procedures set forth in appropriate specifications of the ASTM and the SPCF Manual of Practice No. 9. All such connections shall be made gastight and watertight and verified by proper testing. Any deviation from the prescribed procedures and materials must be approved by the Manager before installation.
(7) The applicant for the building sewer permit shall notify the Manager when the building sewer is ready for inspection and connection to the public sewer. The connection and testing shall be made under the supervision of the Manager or his representative.
(8) 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.
(d) Approval of Connections by City Inspector. No sewer service shall be connected until the plumbing and connections incident thereto shall have been inspected and approved by an inspector of the Council. No sewer service line shall be connected to the sanitary sewer system if that service line will contain flows other than sanitary wastewater. Roof drains, yard and area drains, footer drains, or any line other than that which serves a sanitary plumbing system is prohibited from connection to the City system.
(e) Unauthorized Connections Prohibited. No person shall connect to or turn on any sewer service, or cut-in, interconnect, tap or make any alterations to any main or distribution or collection pipe of the City’s sewer system or permit any connection or tapping to be made to the sewer system on his premises or the premises occupied by him, or knowingly use the sewer service from connections in violation of any of the provisions of this section or any rules or regulations adopted by the Council with respect thereto.
Roof drains, yard and area drains, footer drains, or any line carrying flow other than exclusively sanitary wastewater is prohibited from connection to the sanitary sewer system.
(f) Establishment of Schedule of Rates and Charges; Use of Water Meters. For the payment of the proper and reasonable expense of operation, repair, replacement, improvements, additions, betterments, extensions and maintenance of the sewer system and for the payment of the sums required to pay the principal and interest of all sewer revenue bonds as they become due, the Council shall enact and may from time to time amend a schedule of just and equitable rates or charges for the use of and service rendered by the municipal sewer system and works of the City, which schedule of rates or charges shall be based upon the metered amount of water supplied the premises; and each schedule shall be maintained on file in the office of the City while it is in effect.
Until such time as the Council adopts a schedule of rates or charges pursuant to the foregoing provisions of this subsection (f), the rates and charges in effect immediately prior to the effective date of this article shall continue in full force and effect.
(g) Established Rates Applicable to Premises Subsequently Served. The rates or charges so established for any class of users or property served shall be extended to cover any additional premises hereafter served which fall within the same class, without the necessity of any hearing or notice.
(h) City Subject to Established Rates or Charges. The City shall be subject to the established charges and rates, or to charges and rates established in harmony therewith, for services rendered the City and shall be deemed to be a part of the revenues of the sewage system and works and be applied as provided for the application of such revenues.
(i) Authority Vested in Council for Billing and Collection. All rates or charges provided for by this section shall be billed and collected monthly by the Council or by persons or agencies authorized by the Council. All bills shall be considered due and payable on or before the tenth day following the date rendered.
(j) Lien for Enforcement of Collection of Billed Rates or Charges. All such rates or charges, if not paid when due, shall be a lien upon the premises served by such system or works, and if such rates or charges are not paid within thirty days after due, then the amount thereof, together with a penalty of ten percent (10%) and a reasonable attorney’s fee, may be recovered by the Council in a civil action in the name of the City. In connection with such action, such lien may be foreclosed against such lot, parcel of land or building, in accordance with the laws relating thereto.
(k) Industrial Use of Sewers. Where the character of sewage from any manufacturing or industrial plant, building or premises is such that it imposes a burden upon the sewer system in addition to the burden imposed by the average sewage entering the sewer system, such additional charge shall be made therefor as the Council shall deem to be fair and equitable to meet the additional cost of collection, treatment and disposal of such sewage; and the Council may, if it deems advisable to do so, compel the owner, tenant or occupant of such manufacturing or industrial plant, building or premises to treat such sewage in such manner as shall be specified by the Council before discharging into the sewer system.
(l) Duration of Liability for Sewer Service. Liability for service shall begin for a user on the date of connection to the sewer system; and such liability shall continue thereafter unless such premises are disconnected from the sewer system with the approval of the Council. After such liability begins, no allowance shall be made for vacant houses unless request in writing to have the sewer system shut off is received by the Council, nor will any allowance be made for any shut-off period which is less than thirty days.
(m) User's Responsibility to Keep Sewer Clean. The owner, tenant or occupant of the property shall be continuously responsible for maintaining and keeping the sewer pipe leading to and between the plumbing system of his premises to the City’s connecting sewer clean and free from obstruction, and shall not cause, suffer or permit any article or thing, liquid as well as solid, to be introduced into the pipe which causes a stoppage thereof. In the event of any such obstructions or stoppage, the Council shall have the right to cut off the water connection, which shall not be reconnected until such sewer pipe is cleaned and maintained properly; and in the further event of the failure of such user to remedy such obstruction or stoppage, the Council shall have the right to enter upon said premises and make necessary repairs, the costs and expenses of which shall be included as part of the charges against such premises.
(n) Leaks. No allowance or adjustment of any sewer bill shall be made for water leaks of any nature occurring on the user's side of the meter if the water so leaked enters the sewer.
(o) City Not Liable for Damage. Neither the City nor the Council shall be liable for any damage resulting from bursting of any sewer main, service pipe or valve, or from discontinuing the operation of its sewer valve, or from discontinuing the operation of its sewer collection, treatment and disposal facilities, for repairs, extensions or connections, or from the accidental failure of the sewage collection, treatment and disposal facilities from any cause whatsoever. In cases of emergency, the Council shall have the right to restrict the use of its sewage collection, treatment and disposal facilities in any reasonable manner for the protection of the City and its sewer system.
(p) Tampering with Sewer Appurtenances. No person shall turn, lift, remove, raise or tamper with any cover or any manhole, basin, inlet or other appurtenance of any public sanitary and/or storm sewer without a written permit from the City, or of any combined sewer or sanitary sewer without a written permit from the Council.
(q) Entering Sewer. No person, other than one employed by the City while on duty, shall enter any public sanitary and/or storm sewer or appurtenance thereof without a written permit from the City, or shall enter any public combined sewer or sanitary sewer without a written permit from the Council.
(r) Injury to Sewer. No person shall break or damage any public sewer or appurtenance or part thereof. (Ord. 89-001. Passed 1-9-89.)
(s) Plugging Required. Upon the discontinuance of the use of the City sewage system at any premises, including discontinuance caused by abandonment of any premises, tearing down any building, non-use or any other cause, the property owner shall cause the connection to the sewer main of the City to be plugged to resist breakage and be watertight enough to prevent any leakage of any fluids. All such plugging shall be subject to inspection and approval by the Inspector of the City Water/Sewage Board, provided that no permit fee, inspection fee or other fee shall be charged for such inspection. If the owner of the property fails to plug the sewer connection within thirty days of the time the owner is notified in writing by the Inspector to plug the sewer service line, the City shall proceed to plug the service line and bill the owner for the costs. The cost may be collected by the City and a civil action filed in court. The collection of the costs in a civil action shall not prevent the filing of an action for a fine for violation of this subsection (s). (Ord. 285. Passed 6-3-85.)