[Adopted 7-8-1991 by Ord. No. 91-4]
A.
AUTHORITY
BUILDING DRAIN
BUILDING SEWER
DEPARTMENT
LOT
OCCUPIED UNIT
PERSON
PUBLIC SEWAGE SYSTEM
SEWAGE
SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT
STORM SEWER
TOWNSHIP
As used in this article, the following terms shall
have the meanings indicated, unless a different meaning clearly appears
from the context:
[Amended 5-24-2004 by Ord. No. 2004-4]
The Hilltown Township Water and Sewer Authority or such other
body politic and corporate, created pursuant to the Municipal Authorities
Act (53 Pa.C.S.A. § 5601 et seq.).
Part of the lowest horizontal piping of a drain system which
receives the discharge from soil, waste, and other drainage pipes
inside the walls of the building and conveys it to the building sewer,
beginning five feet outside the inner face of the building wall.
Piping carrying wastes from a building to the treatment or
holding tank or to the public sewer main.
Department of Environmental Protection of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania.
A part of a subdivision or a parcel of land used as a building
site or intended to be used for building purposes, whether immediate
or future.
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 within 150 feet from the public
sewage system 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.
Any natural person, partnership, association or corporation.
Whenever used in any clause prescribing and imposing a penalty, or
imposing a fine or imprisonment, or both, the term “person”
shall include the members of an association and the officers of a
corporation.
Sewer system and any treatment facility, or other appurtenant
facilities owned, operated, or maintained by the Hilltown Township
Water and Sewer Authority or any other legally created authority,
and approved by the Department under a permit issued pursuant to the
Clean Streams Law, Act of June 22, 1937, P.L. 1987, No. 394, 35 P.S.
§ 691.1 et seq. (1982), as hereafter amended, supplemented,
modified or reenacted by the General Assembly of Pennsylvania.
Any substance that contains any of the waste products or
excrementitious or other discharge from the bodies of human beings
or animals, and any noxious or deleterious substances 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.
Any arrangement of devices and structures used for treating
sewage.
Sewer which carries storm and surface waters and drainage,
but excludes sewage and industrial wastes.
Hilltown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
B.
In this article, the singular shall include the plural;
the plural shall include the singular; and the masculine shall include
the feminine and neuter.
A.
Property owner requirements.
[Amended 1-29-2007 by Ord. No. 2007-1]
(1)
All property owners whose primary building lines are within 150 feet
of any existing public sanitary sewer line shall not be required to
connect thereto; but shall be required to connect thereto in any of
the following instances:
(a)
All new construction requiring public sanitary sewer service;
(b)
All new building lots requiring public sanitary sewer service;
(c)
All conversions of buildings from a single or dual principal
residential use to a principal nonresidential use or multi-residential
use (more than two).
(d)
Any existing nonresidential or multi-residential (more than
two) structures determined to have failing existing on-site private
sanitary sewage facilities by either the Bucks County Department of
Health or by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
(2)
Exceptions. Single- and two-family residential:
(a)
Any single-family or two-family residential unit (owner-occupied)
structure determined to have a failing existing on-site private sanitary
sewage facility by either the Bucks County Department of Health and
PADEP shall have the option to remedy the failing on-site system to
the satisfaction of the Bucks County Department of Health and PADEP
with a new on-site system or elect to tie in to the public sanitary
sewage system.
(b)
Should a public sanitary sewer line be installed by a private
developer for the purpose of providing public sanitary sewer to that
developer's project, there is no requirement that any other property
owner along the path of such line tie into the line; nor shall any
other property owner desiring to tie into such line be precluded from
doing so upon receiving approval by the Hilltown Township Board of
Supervisors and the Township-approved municipal authority in whose
service district said property is located.
(c)
Hilltown Township hereby requires that the installation of public
sanitary sewer lines by a private developer shall include the installation
of sewer laterals to the right-of-way line of each lot adjacent to
the location of the said sewer main, or as otherwise directed by the
Board of Supervisors of Hilltown Township, without charge to the lot
owner along the route of the main extension of the proposed sewer
main for the development.
(3)
Where connection to any public sanitary sewer line is made, the owner
of the property for which the connection is made shall pay applicable
connection fees, tapping fees and usage charges to the Township-approved
municipal authority having ownership or scheduled to accept ownership
of the proposed sewer main, except as may be modified by the Hilltown
Township Board of Supervisors and the municipal authority involved.
B.
If the owner of any property, after 60 days’
notice from the Township to make connection of such property with
the public sewage system, shall fail to make such connection, the
Township or its authorized agents may make the connection and collect
the costs thereof in the manner provided by law.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Former Subsection C, connections to public
sewage systems, which immediately followed this subsection, was repealed
1-29-2007 by Ord. No. 2007-1. This ordinance also renumbered Subsection
D to Subsection C, respectively.
C.
The Township or its authorized agent, and agents of
the Authority, shall have access at all reasonable hours of the day
to all parts of the premises to which sewage service is supplied to
make necessary inspections.
A.
No unauthorized person shall uncover, make any connection
with or open into, use, alter or disturb any part of the public sewage
system or appurtenances thereto without first obtaining the appropriate
permit from the Township or Authority.
B.
No connection shall be made with the sewer system
except in compliance with this article, as amended, and the rules
and regulations of the Authority.
C.
All costs and expenses incident to the installation
and connection of the building sewer shall be borne by the owner.
D.
A separate and independent building sewer shall be
provided for every building. When more than one occupied unit, as
defined above, is contained in a separate structure, a single, common
connection to the lateral of the sewer system may be permitted for
accommodating all units contained in such structure, provided that
separate connections shall be required for each semidetached or row
type house or structure.
E.
All permit holders shall notify the Authority with
jurisdiction when the building sewer is ready for inspection and connection
with the public sewer, and the connection shall be made under the
supervision of the appropriate Authority.
F.
All excavations for building sewer installation and
connections shall be adequately guarded with barricades and lights
so as to protect the public from hazards. Streets, sidewalks, parkways
and other public property disturbed in the course of the work shall
be restored in the manner satisfactory to the Township and/or Authority.
Any person who violates or permits a violation
of this article shall, upon conviction in a summary proceeding brought
before a District Justice under the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal
Procedure, be guilty of a summary offense and shall be punishable
by a fine of not more than $1,000, plus costs of prosecution. In default
of payment thereof, the defendant may be sentenced to imprisonment
for a term not exceeding 90 days. Each day or portion thereof that
such violation continues or is permitted to continue shall constitute
a separate offense, and each section of this article that is violated
shall also constitute a separate offense.
