A.
(Reserved)
B.
Users outside the city. All persons owning, having or occupying lots,
parcels or tracts of land which are not situate within the corporate
limits of the City of Gloversville or the City of Johnstown, but which
have on said lots, parcels or tracts of land buildings or structures
of any kind which are connected to or serviced by the city-owned sanitary
sewer and wastewater treatment system, shall pay to a sewer assessment
district a sewer user charge which can be no lower than and must be
calculated in the same manner as a similarly situated user located
within the city. The sewer assessment district must pay over to the
city those funds it collects based on the sewer user charge system
set forth below. The sewer assessment district must have a monitoring
facility located at the point where all of the flow from its constituent
sewer users converges with the city sanitary sewer line. This monitoring
facility must consist of a sewer flow measuring device and provisions
for monitoring of BOD 5, suspended solids and TKN, in the event that
the monitoring of such waste characteristics is required by the Joint
Sewer Board. In the event that any parcel is serviced directly by
the city in the absence of a sewer assessment district, payment shall
be made directly to the city, and said user shall be subject to all
of the terms and conditions of this chapter.
A.
In general. Revenues for retiring debt service, capital expenditures, planning costs, operation and maintenance of the jointly owned wastewater facilities shall be derived from the sewer user charge. For purposes of this Article, all sewer users shall be designated as either MCI-A major contributing industry as defined in § 59-3 or non-MCI's which shall include all residential, commercial, industrial or other users which do not meet the criteria of § 59-3. Sewer user charges shall be levied on MCI and non-MCI users.
B.
MCI users specifically. Annual user charges for a major contributing industry shall be based on those factors which significantly influence the costs of the treatment facilities. The volume of flow and quantities of BOD 5, suspended solids and TKN shall be measured and analyzed in accordance with § 59-47. The amount the MCI user must pay shall be calculated annually by the Gloversville-Johnstown Joint Sewer Board utilizing the sewer user charge system as set forth hereafter.
C.
Non-MCI users specifically. Annual user charges for non-MCI users
shall be based on volume of flow only since wastewater characteristics
of their wastes are similar. Charges for BOD 5, suspended solids and
TKN shall be imputed to and incorporated in the volume charge by the
Joint Sewer Board. The volume of wastewater shall be determined by
metered water consumption. The amount the non-MCI user must pay shall
be calculated annually by the Gloversville-Johnstown Joint Sewer Board
utilizing the sewer user charge system as set forth hereafter.
A.
Flow measurement. The measurement of volume of major contributing industrial waters or wastes discharged to the sewer system shall be accomplished on a continuous basis in accordance with a protocol to be established by the Joint Sewer Board. Where the user has a monitoring facility constructed in accordance with § 59-32B, the volume of wastewater discharged will be that as determined by the measurements and samples taken at such monitoring facility. Users utilizing the flow monitoring equipment in a wastewater monitoring station to determine the value of flow for billing purposes shall pay a wastewater flow monitoring fee of $30 monthly. Where no such facility is provided, measurement of water discharged shall be determined by metered water consumption. Data thus collected shall be used to compute the flow charge.
B.
Flow measurement of non-MCI wastewater volume. Flow measurement of
non-MCI waste volume of wastewater received from a non-MCI user may
be determined using metered wastewater discharge upon that user's
compliance with the following:
(1)
The measurement of volume of wastewater discharge shall be accomplished
on a continuous basis in accordance with a protocol to be established
by the Joint Sewer Board.
(3)
The user shall pay a wastewater flow monitoring fee of $360 per year.
One-half of said fee shall be payable with each semiannual sewer billing.
C.
Other waste characteristics. The measurement of BOD 5, suspended solids, TKN and other waste characteristics shall be through sampling of MCI waters or wastes in accordance with § 59-39 and the MCI's discharge permit and shall be performed by the Joint Sewer Board. Data thus collected shall be used to compute the BOD 5 charge, the suspended solids charge and the TKN charge.
D.
Malfunctioning monitoring facility/missing data. In the event of
the malfunction of any monitoring equipment or water meter or the
loss of monitoring or meter data during any billing period or one
or more occurrences during a billing period where peak flow in the
monitoring station exceeds the user's permit limit for peak flow;
or whenever under low flow conditions the average daily flow, with
a given flume size is as follows, the Joint Sewer Board shall have
the right to utilize flow, BOD 5, suspended solids and TKN data from
the previous and following billing periods and water meter data from
the billing period and to extrapolate from said data and the MCI user's
operational days a fair and equitable sewer use billing for the period
in questions.
|
Size of Flume
(inches)
|
Gallons per Day
|
|---|---|
|
9
|
Less than 64,700
|
|
6
|
Less than 32,300
|
|
3
|
Less than 19,400
|
E.
Split samples. Upon request, split samples of all samples collected
for billing purposes will be provided to the MCI user. The MCI user
must provide its own suitable containers for this purpose. The Joint
Sewer Board may, upon request, provide suitable containers for this
purpose and shall be authorized to charge the user, on his next sewer
bill, for said containers.
A.
All users shall be entitled to a hearing before the Joint Sewer Board
concerning their sewer bill. Said hearing shall be presided over by
the Chairman of the Sewer Board and shall be held pursuant to procedures
to be adopted by the Sewer Board in its rules and regulations. There
shall be a presumption that all sewer bills are fair and accurate.
The burden of proof of rebutting this presumption shall be with the
MCI user requesting the hearing. The Sewer Board shall have the authority
to hear all evidence regarding sewer billings which is relevant, competent
and material. The Sewer Board, in making a decision, may accord greater
weight to analytical data of waste characteristics which is derived
from a sample or split sample which is taken by the equipment in a
monitoring station and which is analyzed by a laboratory licensed
by the State of New York to analyze water samples in a manner and
time framework consistent with the standard sampling procedure established
by the Joint Sewer Board, than to other evidence not obtained in the
aforesaid manner. In the event that the state certifies certain laboratories
to analyze wastewater samples, this certification shall be substituted
as the standard in the foregoing subsection.
B.
In order to assert surcharging as the grounds for disputing a bill,
the MCI user must notify the Joint Sewer Board within 24 hours of
its occurrence.
C.
Any request for a review of a sewer bill must be made in writing
to the Joint Sewer Board within 30 days of the receipt of the sewer
bill.
A.
General provisions.
(1)
Sewer revenue collected for any fiscal year shall not be less than
the actual expenditure of the Joint Sewer Board for all costs allocable
to that fiscal year. Sewer user charges are established to pay costs
incurred as allocated to two major categories:
B.
Components of user charge.
(1)
Annual allocation of plant capacity. The capacity of the sewage treatment
plant is a function of the ability of the plant operating within its
design parameters to receive influent of flow, BOD 5, suspended solids
and TKN and to treat said influent so that the plant's effluent will
be within the State Pollution Discharge Elimination System (SPDES)
permit. On or before April 30 of each year, the Joint Sewer Board
shall allocate plant capacity and charges to users as follows:
(a)
MCI users. The sewer user charge for MCI's consists of four
component parts: The capital portion, the O & M portion, the infiltration/inflow
portion and the monitoring portion.
[1]
Allocated capacity. Allocated capacity for purposes of determining
the capital portion of the rate shall be as follows: flow, BOD 5,
suspended solids and TKN contributions shall be determined using annual
average workday loading allocations, as defined in the rules and regulations
of the Sewer Board, issued for each MCI user in their industrial wastewater
discharge permit.
[2]
Anticipated plant usage/rate. The O & M portion of the rate
for this class of user shall be determined by the Joint Sewer Board
by the making of an estimate based upon past usage of the sewer treatment
plant by the MCI's and all available data which reflects on probable
future usage. This calculation shall be known as "anticipated plant
usage."
(b)
Non-MCI users. The sewer user charge for non-MCI's consists
of three component parts, the capital portion, the O & M portion
and the infiltration/inflow portion.
[1]
The capital portion of the rate for this class of users shall
be based on a prorated share of the total allocated capacity which
reflects the contribution of this class of users.
[2]
The O & M portion of the rate for this class of user shall
be a prorated share of the total cost to operate the plant for the
year in question, based upon relative loadings of MCI's and non-MCI's
in the aggregate.
(c)
Retroactive adjustments. Annual retroactive adjustments to billings
shall be made as follows: Any O & M fund balance existing at the
end of each calendar year will be allocated to the two user groups,
MCI's and non-MCI's, in the same percentage as their contribution
to the sewage treatment plant during the year being adjusted.
[1]
MCI users. The MCI portion of the fund balance shall be allocated
to individual MCI users in the same percentage as their contribution
to the sewage treatment plant during the year being adjusted. Beginning
in the first month after adoption of the new sewer rate by the Joint
Sewer Board, a deficiency billing or credit in the amount 1/12 of
each user's total deficiency billing or credit will be added to each
of the next 12 monthly sewer bills for that MCI user.
[2]
Non-MCI users. The non-MCI portion of the fund balance shall
be allocated by increasing or decreasing the O & M portion of
the sewer rate for this group so as to recover any deficiency or return
any credit through billings for the following year.
(2)
Infiltration and inflow (I/I) for MCI and non-MCI users. A sanitary
sewer and wastewater treatment system experiences a certain percentage
of its total flow which is not accounted for by the sum of total metered
water and/or metered sewage flow of all users. This unaccounted for
contribution to flow is called infiltration and inflow. For the purpose
of determining the annual allocation of plant capacity, infiltration
and inflow shall be determined by the Joint Sewer Board based upon
all available flow data. I/I costs will be assessed as follows:
(a)
Forty-five percent of the I/I figure as determined by the Joint
Sewer Board shall be assessed on the basis of the volume of flow estimated
to be contributed by each user during the year and costs for treating
this portion of the I/I shall be incorporated in the volume rate of
the sewer charge system for both MCI's and non-MCI's.
(b)
Fifty-five percent of the I/I figure as determined by the Joint
Sewer Board will be assessed on the basis of the number of connections
to the sanitary sewer. The foregoing I/I calculation shall result
in a charge separate from the sewer use rate. This charge shall be
known as the I/I fee. The charge per connection shall be the same
for all MCI and non-MCI users, and it shall be determined by the Joint
Sewer Board on an annual basis.
(3)
Scheduled compliance monitoring, MCI users only.
(a)
In general. Scheduled industrial monitoring is necessary to
meet the general requirements of the Gloversville and Johnstown Pretreatment
Program. Each year the Joint Sewer Board shall establish a sampling
schedule for the following pollutants:
(c)
Monitoring charges.
[1]
The Joint Sewer Board shall have the authority to determine the frequency and extent to which MCI users in either class defined in § 59-49B(3)(b) are monitored for the pollutants enumerated in § 59-49B(3)(a).
[2]
The Joint Sewer Board shall have the authority to assess a charge, which shall be known as the "monitoring fee," to each class of MCI user based upon the cost of performing the analyses for pollutants enumerated in § 59-49B(3)(a) and the frequency they are performed.
[3]
This monitoring fee shall be added to the I/I fee to be assessed
to each MCI user. Where an MCI user has more than one sampling point,
a separate fee shall be charged for each sampling point.
C.
Assessing capital costs. Capital costs are assessed proportionally
to flow, BOD 5, suspended solids and TKN, as these factors influence
the cost of each project or improvement at the wastewater treatment
plant.
(1)
Project cost percentages. For all projects which are bonded or anticipated
to be bonded, the Joint Sewer Board shall determine what percentage
of the total project costs shall be assessed to flow, BOD 5, suspended
solids and TKN.
(2)
Annual allocation of capital costs.
(a)
Debt service. Annual debt service costs shall be assessed to
flow, BOD 5, suspended solids and TKN using the project cost percentages
determined by the Joint Sewer Board.
(b)
Ancillary costs. All ancillary costs related to project which
are bonded or anticipated to be bonded shall be assessed to flow,
BOD 5, suspended solids and TKN in the same proposition as the sum
of all debt service costs.
D.
Assessing operation and maintenance (O & M) costs. O & M
costs are assessed proportionately to flow, BOD 5, suspended solids
and TKN factors which influence the cost of operation and maintenance.
(1)
Annual allocation of O & M costs.
(a)
The Joint Sewer Board shall determine annually what percentage of each major category in the wastewater facility O & M budget shall be assessed to flow, BOD 5, suspended solids and TKN. The costs of scheduled industrial monitoring as required in § 59-49B(3) and as determined by the Joint Sewer Board shall not be included in this allocation.
(b)
Administrative, billing and ancillary costs. All other O &
M costs shall be assessed to flow, BOD 5, suspended solids and TKN
in the same proportion as the wastewater facility O & M costs
in the preceding subsection.
(2)
Annual O & M charge rate. The annual O & M charge rate shall be determined by dividing the allocated O & M costs computed in § 59-49D(1) by the anticipated plant usage computed in § 59-49B(1)(a)[2] and § 59-49B(1)(b). Retroactive adjustments will be made according to § 59-49B(1)(c).
E.
Annual adoption of new rates.
(1)
New rates will be adopted annually by Joint Sewer Board resolution
after a public hearing, on at least five days' public notice, held
by the Joint Sewer Board on or before April 30 of each year in accordance
with the foregoing sewer user charge system.
(2)
It shall be the obligation of the Joint Sewer Board to provide that
each sewer user be notified at least once per year in conjunction
with their regular bill of the sewer grant and that portion of the
user charges which are attributable to wastewater treatment services.
F.
Surcharge; exceeding permitted flows and loadings. In addition to
other penalties as set forth in this chapter, the following penalties
shall apply.
(1)
In general. Consistent with § 59-28 of this chapter, the rules and regulations of the Gloversville - Johnstown Joint Sewer Board and the wastewater discharge permit issued to each MCI, no MCI may exceed the allocated capacities for Flow, BOD 5, suspended solids or TKN which have been assigned to them in their discharge permit without the imposition of a surcharge, as follows:
(a)
Exceeding any permitted annual allocated capacity shall result in a mandatory adjustment of the violating MCI's discharge permit, together with the imposition of a surcharge to the MCI's sewer bill which shall be equivalent to a recalculation of the capital charges based on the actual usage plus a 25% penalty of the difference between the permit discharge and the actual discharge. The adjusted actual discharge shall be equal to the MCI user's actual discharge less any discharges for which a surcharge to the MCI user's sewer bill has previously been paid under Subsection F(1)(b) of this section.
(b)
Exceeding any maximum monthly limit as set forth in the MCI
user's discharge permit and rules and regulations of the Sewer Board
shall result in the imposition of a surcharge to the MCI's sewer bill
equivalent to 75% of the difference between the permit discharge and
the actual discharge for that month.
A.
All MCI's shall be billed on a monthly basis with the I/I fee and
monitoring fee in the first billing of the fiscal year.
B.
All non-MCI's shall be billed on a semiannual basis, with the I/I
fee equally divided between the two billings.
C.
(Reserved)
D.
A 5% penalty will be assessed on all sewer bills unpaid 30 days after
billing and an additional penalty of 1% shall be added for each additional
thirty-day period thereafter.
The foregoing sewer use charge system set forth in Article IX shall take precedence over any terms or conditions of agreements or contracts which are inconsistent with the requirements of Section 204 (b)(1)(A) of the Federal Clean Water Act and USEPA regulations 40 CFR 35.2 140.
