The purpose of this Part 5 is to establish procedures
for the installation, use and maintenance of sewage grinder pumps
and any associated force mains or low pressure laterals. It is hereby
declared that the enactment of this Part 5 is necessary for the protection,
benefit and preservation of the health, safety and welfare of the
inhabitants of Whitpain Township.
Unless the context specifically and clearly
indicates otherwise, the meaning of terms used in this Part 5 shall
be as follows:
DEPARTMENT
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
GRINDER PUMP
Any electric motor-driven, submersible, centrifugal pump
capable of macerating all material found in normal domestic sanitary
sewage, including reasonable amounts of objects such as plastics,
sanitary napkins, disposable diapers, rubber and the like, to a fine
slurry and pumping this material through a small diameter discharge.
Grinder pumps can be used as one component of an area-wide low pressure
sewer system or to deliver wastewater from a single building to a
gravity collector sewer system. In either case, the property owner's
system will include the low pressure lateral from the pump to the
Township's limit of responsibility for the publicly owned sewer system.
IMPROVED PROPERTY
Any property within the Township upon which there is erected
a structure intended for continuous or periodic habitation, occupancy
or use by human beings or animals and from which structure sewage
shall or may be discharged.
LOW PRESSURE SEWER SYSTEM
An alternative to a conventional gravity collector sewer
system that relies on individual grinder pumps to deliver wastewater
from buildings to a system of pressurized small diameter pipes that
serve an area of the municipality. The system is typically used where
gravity sewers are not cost effective and/or not feasible due to topography,
excessive rock or other reason.
MUNICIPALITY
Whitpain Township and the Board of Supervisors of Whitpain
Township of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
PROPERTY OWNER
Any person vested with ownership, legal or equitable, sole
or partial, of any property located in the Township.
SEWAGE
Any substance that contains any of the waste products or
excrement or other discharge from the bodies of human beings or animals
and any noxious or deleterious substance being harmful or inimical
to the public health or to animal or aquatic life or to the use of
water for domestic water supply or for recreation or any substance
which constitutes pollution under the Clean Stream Law (35 P.S. §§ 691.1
through 691.1001).
The connection of existing properties or proposed
land development to an existing or proposed sewerage system through
the use of sewage grinder pumps, their associated low pressure laterals
and/or force mains shall only occur after approval by the municipality
and compliance with the then-current Act 537 planning requirements
of the Department.
In addition to any other remedies provided in this Part
5, any violation of §
122-37 above shall constitute a nuisance and shall be abated by the municipality or the agency by either seeking mitigation of the nuisance or appropriate equitable or legal relief from a court of competent jurisdiction.
From and after the enactment of this Part 5,
it shall be the responsibility of any property owner whose property
is served in whole or in part by a grinder pump who shall convey his,
her or its property to another to disclose to the new owner, prior
to the sale of the property, that the property is served by such grinder
pump equipment and that the said grinder pump is in good operating
condition.
Any owner or owners who shall fail to disclose
to a new purchaser of any property which is served in whole or in
part by a grinder pump of the existence of the grinder pump and low
pressure installation equipment and the condition thereof and who
shall also fail to certify to the Township that proper notification
of the grinder pump service to the property in violation of this Part
5 shall be subject to a penalty of up to $500 for each such violation.
All such rules and regulations adopted by the
Township shall be in conformity with the provisions herein, all other
ordinances of the Township and all applicable laws and applicable
rules and regulations of administrative agencies of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania.