A. 
Right of entry; inspection and sampling. Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant shall have the right to enter the premises of any user, without notice, to determine whether the user is complying with all requirements of this Part 1 and any wastewater discharge permit or order issued hereunder. Users shall allow Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant ready access to all parts of the premises for the purposes of inspection, sampling, records examination and copying and the performance of any additional duties.
(1) 
Where a user has security measures in force which require proper identification and clearance before entry into its premises, the user shall make necessary arrangements with its security guards so that, upon presentation of suitable identification, Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant will be permitted to enter without delay for the purposes of performing specific responsibilities.
(2) 
Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant shall have the right to set up on the user's property or require installation of such devices as are necessary to conduct sampling and/or metering of the user's operations.
(3) 
Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant may require the user to install monitoring equipment as necessary. The facility's sampling and monitoring equipment shall be maintained at all times in a safe and proper operating condition by the user at its own expense. All devices used to measure wastewater flow and quality shall be calibrated to ensure their accuracy.
(4) 
Any temporary or permanent obstruction to safe and easy access to the facility to be inspected and/or sampled shall be promptly removed by the user at the written or verbal request of Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant and shall not be replaced. The costs of clearing such access shall be borne by the user.
(5) 
Unreasonable delays in allowing Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant access to the user's premises shall be a violation of this Part 1.
(6) 
When it would be impractical or cause undue hardship on the user to situate the monitoring facility on the user's premises, the municipality may allow the facility to be constructed in the public street or sidewalk area and located so that it will not be obstructed by landscaping or parked vehicles. There shall be ample room in or near such sampling manhole or facility to allow accurate sampling and preparation of samples for analysis. The facility, sampling and measuring equipment shall be maintained at all times in a safe and proper condition at the expense of the user.
B. 
Search warrants. If Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant has been refused access to a building, structure or property, or any part thereof, and is able to demonstrate probable cause to believe that there may be a violation of this Part 1 or that there is a need to inspect and/or sample as part of a routine inspection and sampling program of Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant designed to verify compliance with this Part 1 or any permit or order issued hereunder, or to protect the overall public health, safety and welfare of the community, then Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant may seek issuance of a search warrant from the District Justice in whose jurisdiction the property is situate.
Information and data on a user obtained from reports, surveys, wastewater discharge permit applications, wastewater discharge permits and monitoring programs and from Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant's inspection and sampling activities shall be available to the public without restriction, unless the user specifically requests and is able to demonstrate to the satisfaction of Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant that the release of such information would divulge information, processes or methods of production entitled to protection as trade secrets under applicable state law. Any such request must be asserted at the time of submission of the information or data. When requested and demonstrated by the user furnishing a report that such information should be held confidential, the portions of a report which might disclose trade secrets or secret processes shall not be made available for inspection by the public, but shall be made available immediately upon request to governmental agencies for uses related to the NPDES program or pretreatment program, and in enforcement proceedings involving the person furnishing the report. Wastewater constituents and characteristics and other "effluent data," as defined by 40 CFR 2.302, will not be recognized as confidential information and will be available to the public without restriction.
[Amended 4-3-2012 by Ord. No. 155-8]
Ambler shall publish annually, in a newspaper of general circulation that provides meaningful public notice within the jurisdiction served by the POTW, a list of the users which, during the previous 12 months, were in significant noncompliance with applicable pretreatment standards and requirements. The term "significant noncompliance" shall mean:
A. 
Chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined here as those in which 66% or more of wastewater measurements taken during a six-month period exceed (by any magnitude) a numeric pretreatment standard or requirement, including instantaneous limits, as defined in 40 CFR 403.3(1);
B. 
Technical review criteria (TRC) violations, defined here as those in which 33% or more of wastewater measurements taken for each pollutant parameter during a six-month period equal or exceed the product of the numeric pretreatment standard or requirement including instantaneous limits, as defined in 40 CFR 403.3(l), multiplied by the applicable criteria (1.4 for BOD, TSS, fats, oils and grease, and 1.2 for all other pollutants except pH);
C. 
Any other violation of a pretreatment standard or requirement as defined by 40 CFR 403.3(l) (daily maximum, long-term average, instantaneous limit, or narrative standard) that Ambler determines has caused, alone or in combination with other discharges, interference or pass-through (including endangering the health of Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant personnel or the general public);
D. 
Any discharge of pollutants that has caused imminent endangerment to the public health or welfare or to the environment or has resulted in Ambler's exercise of its emergency authority to halt or prevent such a discharge;
E. 
Failure to meet, within 90 days of the scheduled date, a compliance schedule milestone contained in a wastewater discharge permit or enforcement order for starting construction, completing construction, or attaining final compliance;
F. 
Failure to provide, within 45 days after the due date, any required reports, including baseline monitoring reports, reports on compliance with categorical pretreatment standard deadlines, periodic self-monitoring reports, and reports on compliance with compliance schedules;
G. 
Failure to accurately report noncompliance; or
H. 
Any other violation(s), which may include a violation of best management practices, which Ambler determines will adversely affect the operation or implementation of the local pretreatment program.
A. 
The Borough of Ambler and the Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant, in conjunction with Whitpain Township, are fully empowered to undertake all enforcement remedies set forth below in order to assure user compliance with all state and federal laws and regulations. The enforcement actions described herein will be undertaken pursuant to Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant's duly adopted and EPA-approved Enforcement Response Guide, a federally mandated statement of policy which provides fair and even application of all enforcement remedies to users in violation, such document being available at all times for public inspection. In addition, Ambler and the Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant retain each and every right and power granted pursuant to the Publicly Owned Treatment Works Penalty Law, also known as "Act 9 of 1992,"[1] in addition to any amendments thereto.
[1]
Editor's Note: See the Publicly Owned Treatment Works Penalty Law, 35 P.S. § 752.1 et seq.
B. 
Surcharge in lieu of enforcement remedy. With respect to conventional pollutants, Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant may, from time to time and at its discretion, adopt a policy whereby certain specifically identified conventional pollutants are permissibly discharged to the Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant for removal at the Plant, with the cost of such removal to be borne by the discharger. Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant may expand or limit the list of conventional pollutants to which this surcharge system applies based upon the plant's capacity/ability to effectively remove particular conventional pollutants. In the event that a conventional pollutant is within the scope of the surcharge system as it exists at the time of discharge, then such conventional pollutant discharge shall not be considered a violation of this Part 1. However, any failure to pay the surcharge cost for the plant's removal of the pollutant shall itself be considered a violation of this Part 1 and subject to enforcement action, in addition to all generally held rights of collection.
When Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant finds that a user has violated, or continues to violate, any provision of this Part 1, a wastewater discharge permit or order issued hereunder or any other pretreatment standard or requirement, Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant may serve upon that user a written notice of violation. The specific manner in which such notice of violation shall issue, and the terms and conditions pursuant to which the user shall respond or correct the violation complained of, shall be as set forth in the Enforcement Response Guide. When the notice of violation includes a plan for dissatisfactory correction and prevention of the violation, submission of such plan in no way relieves the user of liability for any violations occurring before or after receipt of the notice of violation. Nothing in this section shall limit the authority of Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant to take any action, including emergency action or any other enforcement action, without first issuing a notice of violation.
Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant may enter into consent orders, assurances of voluntary compliance or other similar documents establishing an agreement with any user responsible for noncompliance. Such documents will include specific action to be taken by the user to correct the noncompliance within a time period specified by the document. Such documents shall have the same effect as the administrative orders authorized elsewhere in §§ 122-27.9 through 122-27.16 of this Part 1 and shall be judicially enforceable.
A. 
Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant may order a user who has violated, or continues to violate, any provision of this Part 1, a wastewater discharge permit or order issued hereunder or any other pretreatment standard or requirement to appear before Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant and show cause why the proposed enforcement action should not be taken. Notice shall be served on the user specifying the time and place for the meeting, the proposed enforcement action, the reasons for such action and a request that the user show cause why the proposed enforcement action should not be taken. The notice of the meeting shall be served personally or by registered mail at least 10 days prior to the hearing. Such notice may be served on any authorized representative of the user. A show cause hearing shall not be a bar against, or prerequisite for, taking any other action against the user.
B. 
Any hearing conducted pursuant to this section shall be presided over by the Ambler Joint Wastewater Treatment Plant Committee (hereinafter "Committee"), composed of five persons, one person designated by each member municipality, why the proposed enforcement action should not be taken. In the event that any municipality fails to designate a hearing participant, then the Borough of Ambler shall designate an individual to so serve. The Committee may itself conduct a hearing and take the evidence or may designate any of its members or any officer or employee of Ambler or Ambler Wastewater Treatment Plant to:
(1) 
Issue, in the name of the Committee, notices of hearings requesting the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of evidence relevant to any matter involved in such hearings.
(2) 
Take the evidence.
(3) 
Transmit a report of the evidence and hearing, including transcripts and other evidence, together with recommendations to the Committee for action thereon.
C. 
At any hearing held pursuant to this Part 1, testimony taken must be under oath and recorded stenographically. The transcript, so recorded, will be made available to any member of the public or any party to the hearing upon payment of the usual charges thereof.
D. 
After the Committee has reviewed the evidence, it may issue an order, through the Manager (who shall actually issue the order), to the user responsible for the discharge directing that, following a specified time period, the sewer service be discontinued unless adequate treatment facilities, devices or other related appurtenances shall have been installed on existing treatment facilities, devices or other related appurtenances are properly operated. Further orders and directives, as are necessary and appropriate, may be issued.
E. 
Any user aggrieved by the enforcement of this Part 1 may take an appeal to the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in accordance with the provisions of the Local Agency Law, 2 Pa.C.S.A. § 105 et seq., and have a hearing thereon if the appeal is taken within 15 calendar days of the user's receipt of any order or notice under the applicable section. The hearing shall be conducted in accordance with the procedures set forth in § 122-13C hereof.