[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Health of the Borough of Hillsdale
5-16-1960 as Ord. No. 60-2. Amendments noted where applicable.]
The Board of Health does hereby find and determine as follows:
A.
The Pascack Brook is one of the tributaries leading to
the Oradell Reservoir, a source of water supply for numerous municipalities
in Bergen County, including, among others, the Borough of Hillsdale.
B.
The Pascack Brook if subject to frequent flooding, with
high waters rising over its banks and spreading for considerable distances
over nearby lands.
C.
Flooding of this nature constitutes a twofold danger
to public health: pollution of wells used as sources of private water supply;
and pollution of the Pascak Brook and Oradell Reservoir as the result of the
infiltration and overflow of septic tanks, cesspools, leaching fields and
private sewage disposal systems.
D.
By reason of its depressed topography and flat contours,
the area of the Borough of Hillsdale that is most subject to flooding is that
portion of the Borough of Hillsdale shown as the shaded area on the map entitled
"Flood Plain District, Borough of Hillsdale, Bergen County, New Jersey," hereto
annexed and hereby made part of this chapter. Said area is hereby designated
as the Flood Plain District.
E.
Within the Flood Plain District there are situate a number
of dwelling houses, many of which have over the course of years been converted
from summer homes into year-round residences. The Flood Plain District is
without a public water supply system and without a public sanitary sewer system,
and, as a result, all of said dwelling houses are dependent for their water
supply upon private wells and for their sewage disposal upon septic tanks,
cesspools, leeching fields and private sewage disposal systems.
F.
Any increase in number of private wells and private sewage
disposal systems within the Flood Plain District will directly and substantially
contribute toward the pollution of the sources of public and private water
supply hereinbefore mentioned.
For the reason enumerated in § 369-1 hereof, it is hereby declared that an emergency exists in the Flood Plain District.
[Amended 11-21-1960 by Ord.
No. 60-3]
For and during the existence of the emergency in the Flood Plain District,
no well, cistern or other private water supply shall be dug, constructed,
installed, enlarged or extended within said District, and no septic tank,
cesspool, leeching field or private sewage disposal system shall be constructed,
installed, enlarged or extended within said District unless every part thereof
which is not watertight shall be located above elevation fifty-six and five-tenths
(56.5) feet above mean sea level, and the area of the property is, in the
judgment of the Board of Health, adequate for the proper subsurface disposal
of wastes. Nothing herein shall be deemed or construed to prevent the repair,
maintenance or improvement of any water supply or sewage disposal facilities
lawfully in existence as of the effective date of this chapter.
Appeals for exceptions to the provisions of § 369-3 hereof shall be entertained by the Board of Health, but may be granted only upon demonstration by credible evidence of exceptional and unique circumstances and conditions, and upon affirmative proof that the property for which such exception is sought is not subject to the general flooding conditions described in § 369-1 hereof.
Any person violating any provision of this chapter, upon conviction
thereof, shall pay a fine of not less than five dollars ($5.) nor more than
five hundred dollars ($500.), in the discretion of the Magistrate.
