[Adopted 4-15-1980 as Ch. IX, Art. I, of the 1980 Code
of Ordinances]
A.
The Articles of Incorporation of Bucks County Water
and Sewer Authority provides, inter alia, that the Authority is organized
for the purpose of acquiring, holding, constructing, improving, maintaining
and operating, owning and leasing, either in the capacity of lessor
or lessee, sewers, sewer systems or parts thereof and sewerage treatment
works, including works for treatment and disposing of industrial waste
for the County of Bucks and for such other territories as it may be
authorized to serve.
B.
In carrying out the purposes so designated, the Authority
proposes to construct a sanitary sewage collection system and appurtenant
facilities, including an interceptor sewer along Cooks Run westward
through the Township of Doylestown and the Borough of New Britain
for use by certain portions of the Townships of Plumstead, Buckingham
and Doylestown, the major portion of which is known as the "Cross
Keys Area," all in accordance with plans and specifications prepared
by Gilbert Associates, Inc., Consulting Engineers, Reading, Pennsylvania,
and the Authority will operate and maintain the sewer system, as hereinafter
defined.
C.
The Authority has entered into an agreement dated
as of September 20, 1966 (the "treatment agreement"), with Chalfont-New
Britain Township Joint Sewerage Authority (the "Chalfont-New Britain
Authority"), whereby the Chalfont-New Britain Authority has agreed
to treat and dispose of sewage collected and transported in the sewer
system, as hereinafter defined, upon payment by the Authority of certain
charges.
D.
The Board of Supervisors of the Township of Doylestown,
in order to promote the health, safety and welfare of the people of
said Township and of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the purity
of its water, believing that the use thereof is unsafe and unsanitary,
deems it advisable to prohibit certain use of privies, cesspools,
septic tanks or similar receptacles for receiving sewage within the
portion of said Township now to be sewered, in that such use encourages
the spread of disease and impairs public health, and to require connections
to be made to the sewer system, as hereinafter defined, by the owners
of occupied buildings on property adjoining, abutting on or adjacent
thereto, in accordance with the rules and regulations which may from
time to time be adopted by the Authority or the Township when construction
of usable portions thereof have been completed by said Authority.
As used in this article, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
The Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, Bucks County,
Pennsylvania, as presently or hereafter constituted.
Each single dwelling unit, household unit, flat or apartment
unit, store, shop, office, business or industrial unit or family unit
contained within any structure erected and intended for continuous
or periodic habitation, occupancy or use by human beings or animals
and from which structure sanitary sewage is or may be discharged.
An individual, firm, company, association, society, corporation
or group.
Improved property which adjoins, abuts on or is adjacent
to the sewer system or any portion thereof or any public street, alley
or way in which there is a sewer line located.
[Amended 5-16-2000 by Ord. No. 287]
The normal waterborne fluid wastes from residences, commercial
establishments, institutions and industrial establishments, limited
to the wastes from kitchens, bathrooms, water closets, lavatories
and laundries.
Refers to that portion of Doylestown Township wherein public
sanitary sewer service is provided by the Authority and/or any improvements,
additions or extensions that hereafter may be made by the Authority
to the Township or to any part or parts of any or all thereof.
[Amended 5-16-2000 by Ord. No. 287]
The Township of Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, or
its duly constituted and elected Board of Supervisors or, in appropriate
cases, its authorized representatives.
Whenever a usable portion of the sewer system
in the Township is completed and ready for public use, the Township
shall cause notice of the fact to be given by advertisement published
once in one newspaper of general circulation in the Township, and
such advertisement shall state that that portion of sewer system may
be used by all persons owning occupied buildings on property accessible
to that portion of the sewer system, subject to the payment of any
connection charges and of annual sewer rentals in amounts as may,
from time to time, be fixed by the Authority.
[Amended 11-4-1991 by Ord. No. 208; 5-16-2000 by Ord. No.
287]
A.
All lots shall be required to connect to public sewers
unless the property owner can demonstrate by competent evidence to
the Township that the property is served by a satisfactorily functioning
and operating on-lot sanitary sewer system. The criteria to be applied
in the determination as to whether the property owner has met the
requirements as set forth in this section shall be based upon the
criteria set forth in the Sewage Enforcement Officer's manual published
by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, which was
last revised December, 1993, and also by the provisions of the Pennsylvania
Sewage Facilities Act[1] and the provisions of Chapters 71, 72 and 73 of the Pennsylvania Code.
[1]
Editor's Note: See 35 P.S. §750.1 et
seq.
B.
Except as modified by the provisions of § 136-4A, all persons owning any occupied building now erected upon property accessible to the sewer system shall, at their own expense, connect such building with the sewer system within 60 days after the date of publication specified in § 136-3, except persons whose properties are presently connected to an existing public sewer system such as that owned and operated by the Bucks County Sewer and Water Authority.
C.
Except as modified by the provisions of § 136-4A, all persons owning any property accessible to the sewer system upon which an occupied building is hereafter erected shall, at the time of the erection of such building and at their own expense, connect the same with the sewer system, except persons whose properties are presently connected to an existing public sewer system such as that owned and operated by the Bucks County Sewer and Water Authority.
D.
Except as modified by the provisions of § 136-4A, all persons owning any occupied building upon property which hereafter becomes accessible to the sewer system shall, at their own expense, connect such building with the sewer system within 60 days after notice to do so from the Township, except persons whose properties are presently connected to an existing public sewer system such as that owned and operated by the Bucks County Sewer and Water Authority. Where more than one occupied building, as hereinbefore defined, is contained in a separate structure, a single common connection to the lateral of the sewer system shall be permitted for accommodating all units contained in such structure, except that separate connections shall be required for each semidetached or row-type house or structure.
A.
It shall be unlawful for any person owning or occupying any property accessible to the sewer system to erect, construct or use or maintain or cause to be erected, constructed, used or maintained any privy, cesspool, sinkhole, septic tank or other receptacle on such premises or otherwise for receiving sanitary sewage after the expiration of the particular period specified in § 136-4 hereof or otherwise at any time to erect, construct, use or maintain any pipe, conduit, drain or other facility for the discharge of sanitary sewage into the gutters of the Township, the storm sewers in the Township or upon public or private property or otherwise, except into the sewer system.
B.
Any person who erects, constructs, uses or maintains
a privy, cesspool, sinkhole or septic tank on any property accessible
to the sewer system or otherwise erects, constructs, uses or maintains
any pipe, conduit, drain or other facility for the discharge of sanitary
sewage in violation of this article shall be deemed and shall be declared
to be erecting, constructing and maintaining a nuisance, which nuisance
the Township is hereby authorized and directed to abate in the manner
provided by law.
No connection shall be made to the sewer system
except in compliance with the ordinances and resolutions, as well
as such rules and regulations as may, from time to time, be enacted,
adopted, approved or promulgated by the Township or the Authority.
After the expiration of the particular periods specified in § 136-4 above, if any owner of an occupied building on property accessible to the sewer system shall fail to connect such building to the sewer system, as required by said § 136-4, the Township shall cause a copy of this article and a written or printed notice requiring such connection to be made, which notice shall further state that its requirements shall be complied with within 30 days from the date thereof, to be served upon the owner or owners of such property so failing to connect to said sewer system, either personally or by leaving the same with an adult member of the family with whom said owner or owners reside. If the owner or owners of such property have no residence or cannot be found in the Township, then a copy of this article and such notice shall be posted upon such property and a copy thereof left with the occupant of such property, if there be one, and shall further be mailed by registered United States mail to the owner or owners of his or their agent or attorney at his or their last known address. Upon failure of any owner of an occupied building or property accessible to the sewer system within the thirty-day period above mentioned to make such connection, the Township may make the same and collect the fee and cost thereof from the owner by a municipal claim or in an action of assumpsit, except that the terms of this section shall not apply to any owners whose properties are presently connected to an existing public sewer system such as that owned and operated by the Doylestown Borough Authority.
A.
Any person desiring to do plumbing intended to be
connected to the sewer system shall obtain from the Secretary of the
Township, in the form to be provided, a permit entitling the applicant
to engage in regular or particular work during the calendar year in
which the permit is granted, for which permit a fee shall be charged
in an amount fixed by resolution of the Board of Supervisors.[1] The permit thus granted is revocable at the will of the
Township, and the permit is renewable from year to year by endorsement
or may be exchanged for a new permit at the discretion of the Secretary
of the Township. No plumbing or connections shall be made without
such permit. Fees for connections to the sewer system shall be as
set by the Authority.
[Amended 11-4-1991 by Ord. No. 208]
B.
Any person who, for a period of at least one year
previous to the passage of this article, has been regularly engaged
in the plumbing business in the Township shall be deemed competent
to initially obtain a permit; and all other persons, firms or corporations
desiring to do plumbing business in the Township or to do a particular
piece of work to be connected with the sewer system shall exhibit
such evidence of competency as said Township, from time to time, may
require.
C.
Any person who shall neglect or refuse to take out
a permit or comply with the provisions of this article shall not be
deemed competent to perform any work intended to be connected with
the sewer system, and no work performed by such plumbers or other
persons shall be connected with the sewer system.
[Amended 11-4-1991 by Ord. No. 208]
The provisions of this article are declared to be for the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the Township, and persons violating any provisions of this article, upon conviction, shall be punishable as provided in § 1-13 of Chapter 1, General Provisions. Each thirty-day period during which such violation of such provision shall continue shall be deemed to be a separate offense. Each occupied building, as hereinbefore defined, whether or not the owners thereof shall be permitted to connect two or more occupied buildings or units by a single common connection to a lateral of the sewer system or shall be required to make separate connections for each occupied building or unit, shall constitute a separate and distinct unit under the provisions of this article, and the persons owning occupied buildings consisting of multiple units contained in the same structure who violate any of the provisions of this article shall be subject to the aforesaid fine for each and every one of such occupied buildings or units which are in violation of the provisions of this article.
