Any of the following enforcement remedies and penalties, to be applied independently or in a sequence as deemed necessary, shall be available to the City in response to violations of this chapter.
(A) Notice of violation/citation. Enforcement proceedings for this subchapter shall be initiated by the issuance of a notice of violation (NOV) by the Code Enforcement Board.
(1) Any violation of a provision contained in this Chapter 53 is hereby classified as a civil offense, pursuant to KRS 65.8808 and §§ 34.40 thru 34.77 of this Code of Ordinances; and such classification is intended, and shall be construed, to provide an additional or supplemental means of obtaining compliance with these provisions, and nothing contained herein shall prohibit the enforcement of these provisions by any other means authorized by law.
(2) Civil fines for violations of this Chapter 53 shall be as set forth in §§ 34.51 and 34.74 of this Code of Ordinances and amendments thereto.
(3) Each abovementioned provision of this Chapter 53 violated shall be considered a separate fineable offense. If two or more provisions of this Chapter 53 are violated, the fines shall be cumulative and may be enforced under the same citation. Each day a violation exists shall be considered a separate offense without issuance of a separate citation.
(B) The city may also obtain injunctions or abatement orders to insure compliance with this chapter or pursue administrative remedies.
(C) Legal proceedings, notification of Kentucky Division of Water. The Code Enforcement Board may pursue appropriate legal proceedings for the enforcement of this chapter, and the city shall be entitled to recover its costs expended and reasonable attorney's fees in such proceedings. If the person, property, or facility has or is required to have a stormwater discharge permit from KDOW, the city shall notify the appropriate state authorities of the violation.
(D) Revocation of permit, improvement or development plans. Permits, improvement plans or development plan approvals may be revoked for any substantial departure from the approved plans thereby resulting in an illicit discharge as defined herein.
(E) Stop work orders. For violations involving active construction sites, the Code Enforcement Board may issue a stop work order and require that all activities cease, except those actions that are necessary to eliminate the illicit discharge.
(F) Suspension of MS4 access due to illicit discharges in emergency situations. The City-may, without prior notice, suspend MS4 discharge access when such suspension is necessary to stop an actual or threatened discharge that presents or may present imminent and substantial danger to the environment, to the health or welfare of persons, to the MS4, or to waters of the United States. If the violator fails to comply with a suspension order issued in an emergency, the City may take such steps as deemed necessary to prevent or minimize damage to the MS4. or waters of the United States, or to minimize danger to persons.
(G) Suspension of MS4 access due to the detection of illicit discharge. Any entity discharging to the MS4 or any conveyance in violation of this chapter may have its MS4 access terminated in such termination would abate or reduce an illicit discharge. The city shall require the violator to disconnect access to the ms4 at their cost or take corrective action to eliminate the source of the illicit discharge. Reinstatement of MS4 access to premises terminated pursuant to this chapter without the prior approval of the City constitutes a violation.
(H) Cost of abatement of a violation. Any person causing a violation of this chapter which requires the city to expend public funds for the response to the violation, its abatement or the cleanup or removal of any prohibited discharges, pollutants or hazardous materials shall be liable to the city for all recoverable fees and costs incurred by the city for such response, cleanup and removal. This shall include but not be limited to personnel costs of any city departments, or designated contractor costs, replacement costs of supplies and equipment contaminated as a result of the discharge, proper disposal of contaminated materials, cleanup, evacuation and administrative and other expenses, including legal expenses, incurred in recovering such costs. Any such illegal discharges shall be considered a public health hazard and the city shall have a lien against the property for its recoverable costs if these costs are not paid within qo days of invoice.
(Ord. 2019-02, passed 3-12-19)