Subd. 1. Plumbing requirements.
a. Supervision. No plumbing shall be done except under direct supervision of a master plumber when connecting with a public sewer.
b. Registration of master plumber.
(1) Registration required. Permits for building sewers shall be taken out by a master plumber and before a permit is issued, the master plumber shall first register with the City Administrator/Clerk of his or her intent to carry on the occupation within the city and connect building sewers to the municipal sanitary sewer system.
(2) Registration fee. The registration fee shall be as provided in § 1301.02 of this code.
(3) Performance guarantee and insurance. Conditions of the registration shall be:
(a) Procure and post with the City Administrator/Clerk a construction performance guarantee in the amount determined by the City Engineer, but not less than $2,000, conditioned upon faithful performance of contracts;
(b) Maintain insurance against damages to public property or injury or death to persons resulting from the building sewer construction, which policies shall indemnify and save harmless the city and all of its officers and personnel against any claim, demand, damages, actions or cause of action arising out of or by reason of the doing of the work or activities related or incident thereto and from any costs, disbursements or expenses of defending the same. The property damage insurance coverage shall be in the amount of $25,000 or more, and the public liability insurance for injury or death to persons shall be in the amount of $100,000 and $200,000. Proof of the insurance shall be filed with the City Administrator/Clerk, and the policy shall provide that the city shall be notified immediately of any termination or modification of the insurance. Should the insurance coverage hereinbefore provided be inadequate in amount, then the master plumber shall self-indemnify and save harmless the city and all of its officers and personnel in like manner.
(4) Term and revocation of registration. The licensing shall be renewable annually on or before December 31 and may be revoked by the City Council for cause.
c. Inspections. No permit shall be issued by the Sewer Inspector for existing structures until plumbing has been inspected and found to be in the condition as to safely and adequately accept the use to the public sanitary sewers.
Subd. 2. Separate building sewers. A separate and independent building sewer shall be provided for every building, except where one building stands in the rear of another or an interior lot, and no public sewer is available or can be constructed to the rear building. In this case, the building sewer from the front building may be extended to the rear building and the whole considered as one building sewer except for rate purposes.
Subd. 3. Joint building sewers. A joint building sewer may be constructed to serve more than one parcel of land upon prior approval being given by the City Council.
a. Petition for joint building sewer. The owners of the parcels to be served shall petition the Council for approval, attaching to the petition a layout of the proposed joint building sewer showing the location of the buildings to be served as well as the location of the proposed line.
b. Manhole. A manhole shall be located at the juncture of the building sewers.
c. Easements filed; examination fee. Sewer easements granting to the owners of the parcels of land served the right to use the joint building sewer shall be filed with the City Administrator/Clerk and a perpetual easement for maintenance and repair running in favor of the city granting to the city the right to maintain and repair the joint building sewer from the manhole to the street shall be properly executed and filed with the City Administrator/Clerk. An additional fee of $75 shall be required to cover the cost of the city to examine title and approve the easements.
Subd. 4. Building sewer construction specifications.
a. Location. No building sewer pipe shall be laid within ten feet of any well.
b. Materials of construction.
(1) Building sewers shall be of extra heavy duty cast iron pipe, polyvinyl chloride pipe or plastic pipe approved by the Sewer Inspector.
(2) When building sewer pipe shall come within 20 feet of any well, it shall be of heavy duty cast iron construction.
c. Size. The minimum size of building sewers shall be a four inch heavy cast iron pipe, four inch PVC Pipe (ASTM specification No. D-1784) with a minimum wall thickness of .125 and conform to requirements of Type 1, Grade 1 or four inch ABS (ASTM specification No. D-1788), Type 1 or Type 4.
d. Cleanouts. Change in direction of building sewers shall require location of the cleanout with the provision that the cleanout shall be located at least every 75 feet.
e. Fittings. All fittings shall be approved by the Sewer Inspector.
f. Joints. Joints shall comply with the following specifications: polyvinyl chloride sewer pipe shall be pipe meeting requirements for Type 1, Grade 1 of the “Tentative Specifications for Rigid Polyvinyl Chloride Compounds” ASTM designation D-1784 and the joints for both PVC and ABS shall be bell and spigot with solvent cement. All joints and connections shall be made gastight and watertight.
g. Installations. Whenever possible, the building sewer shall be brought to the building at an elevation below the basement floor. No building sewer shall be laid parallel to or within three feet of any bearing wall which might thereby be weakened. The depth shall be sufficient to afford protection from frost. The building sewer shall be laid at a uniform grade and in straight alignment insofar as possible.
h. Sewage lift. In all buildings in which any building drain is too low to permit gravity flow to the public sewer, sanitary sewage carried by the drain shall be lifted by approved artificial means and discharged to the building sewer. In those instances where the public sanitary sewer system was intentionally designed not to allow gravity flow to the public sewer from the then existing buildings, the city will provide and install a sump pump.
i. Connections to public sewer.
(1) The connection of the building sewer into the public sewer shall be made at the “Y” branch, if the branch is available, at a suitable location. If the public sewer is 12 inches in diameter or less and no properly located “Y” branch is available, the owner shall, at his or her expense, install a “Y” branch in the public sewer at the location and manner specified by the Sewer Inspector. Where the public sewer is greater than 12 inches in diameter and no properly located “Y” branch is available, a neat hole may be cut into the public sewer to receive the building sewer with entry in the downstream directions at an angle of about 45 degrees.
(2) A 45 degree ell may be used to make the connection with the spigot and so cut as not to extend past the inner surface of the public sewer. The invert of the building sewer at the point of connection shall be at the same or at a higher elevation than the invert of the public sewer. A smooth, neat joint shall be made and the connection made secure and watertight. Special fittings may be used for the connection only when approved by the Sewer Inspector.
Subd. 5. Excavations.
a. Trenching and backfilling. All excavating required for the installation of a building sewer shall be open trench work unless otherwise approved by the Sewer Inspector. Pipe laying and backfill shall be performed in accordance with rules and regulations of the city. No backfill shall be placed until the work has been inspected and approved by the duly authorized city official. Tunneling may be permitted but no tunnel shall exceed six feet in length and the pipe shall be installed so as to permit inspection of all joints.
b. Barricades and lights. All excavations for building sewer installations shall be adequately guarded with barricades and lights so as to protect the public from hazard.
c. Repair and restoration of public ways. Streets, sidewalks, parkways and other public property disturbed during sewer installations or connections of the building sewer to the public sewer shall be restored in a manner satisfactory to the Public Works Director.
Subd. 6. Inspections, connections to public sewers. The applicant for the building sewer and connection permit shall notify the Sewer Inspector when the building sewer is ready for inspection and connection to the public sewer. The connection shall be made under the supervision of the Sewer Inspector and in the manner as is required by the Sewer Inspector.
Subd. 7. Liability of owner. All costs and expenses incidental 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.
(1987 Code, § 904.08) (Ord. 64, passed 5-8-1972; Am. Ord. 263, passed 12-14-1992; Am. Ord. 569, passed 8-26-2019)