[HISTORY: Adopted by the Borough Council of the Borough of New Hope
as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
[Adopted 8-9-1965 by Ord. No. 164
(Ch. 18, Part 1 of the 1990 Code)]
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, Bucks County, Pennsylvania,
as presently or hereafter constituted.
The Borough of New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, or the duly
constituted and elected municipal authorities thereof.
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.
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.
The public sanitary sewage collection system within the New Hope
Drainage Area, as shown in Schedule A, attached to and made part of the Lambertville
Agreement, and related facilities about to be constructed, among other things,
for certain portions of the Borough and any improvements, additions or extensions
that hereafter may be made thereto by the Authority or the Borough or to any
part or parts of any or all thereof.
Whenever the sewer system is completed and ready for public use, the
Borough shall cause notice of the fact to be given by advertisement published
once in one newspaper of general circulation in the Borough, and such advertisement
shall state that the sewer system may be used by all persons owning occupied
buildings on property accessible to 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.
A.Â
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 § 218-2.
B.Â
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 at their own expense, connect the same
with the sewer system.
C.Â
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 Borough.
D.Â
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.
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 Borough is hereby authorized and directed to
abate in the manner provided by law.
[Amended 8-13-1990 by Ord. No. 1990-2]
No sewage originating outside of the Borough and the contiguous area
shown in Schedule A, attached to and made part of the Lambertville Agreement,
shall be received into the sewer system without the written approval of Lambertville
Authority.
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 Borough or the Authority.
A.Â
After the expiration of the particular periods specified in § 218-3 of this article, if any owner of an occupied building on property accessible to the sewer system shall have failed to connect such property with the sewer system as required by said § 218-3, the Borough 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 the said owner or owners reside. If the owner or owners of such property have no residence, or cannot be found, in the Borough, then a copy of such article and such notice shall be posted upon such property and 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.
B.Â
Upon the 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 Borough may make the same and collect
the cost thereof from the owner by a municipal claim or in an action of assumpsit.
No connection shall be made to the sewer system without a written permit
from the Authority, and such connection shall be made under competent inspection
with standards equal to those imposed by the City of Lambertville.
[Amended 8-13-1990 by Ord. No. 1990-2]
Any person desiring to do plumbing intended to be connected to the sewer
system shall obtain from the Secretary of Borough Council, 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 a
permit fee as established from time to time by the Borough Council shall be
charged. The permit thus granted is revocable at the will of the Borough and
the permit is renewable from year to year by endorsement or by exchange for
a new permit at the discretion of the Secretary of Borough Council. No plumbing
or connections shall be made without such permit.
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
Borough shall be deemed competent to initially obtain a permit; and all other
persons, firms or corporations desiring to do plumbing business in the Borough
or to do a particular piece of work to be connected with the sewer system,
shall exhibit such evidence of competency as said Borough from time to time
may require.
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 8-13-1990 by Ord. No. 1990-2]
The provisions of this article are declared to be for the health, safety
and welfare of the citizens of the Borough and persons violating any provisions
of this article, upon conviction before any District Justice of Bucks County,
shall be fined not less than $25 nor more than $1,000 and costs, or in default
of payment thereof, shall be subject to imprisonment for a term not to exceed
30 days. Each thirty-day period during which such violation of such provisions
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.
In consideration of the public interest, Borough hereby grants to the
Authority all and every easement, right-of-way and any and all other rights
necessary or desirable on, over or under the public streets, sidewalks and
alleys in the Borough, for the purpose of construction of the sewer system
therein, without payment of any fee or charge. All of such construction to
be undertaken in accordance with plans and specifications, dated February
1965, as last revised April 1965, prepared by Albert C. Jones Associates,
Consulting Engineers, Cornwells Heights, Pa., and Mt. Holly, N.J.
[Adopted 6-11-1979 by Ord. No. 217
(Ch. 18, Part 2 of the 1990 Code)]
The purpose of this article is to establish procedures for the temporary
use and maintenance of holding tanks designed to receive and retain sewage
whether from residential or commercial uses, and it is hereby declared that
the enactment of this article is necessary for the protection, benefit and
preservation of the health, safety and welfare of the inhabitants of this
Borough.
Unless the context specifically and clearly indicates otherwise, the
meanings of terms used in this article shall be as follows:
The Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, a Pennsylvania Municipal
Authority.
New Hope Borough, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
A watertight receptacle which receives and retains sewage and is
designed and constructed to facilitate ultimate disposal of the sewage at
another site. Holding tanks include but are not limited to the following:
CHEMICAL TOILETA toilet using chemicals that discharge to a holding tank.
RETENTION TANKA holding tank where sewage is conveyed to it by a water carrying system.
VAULT PIT PRIVYA holding tank designed to receive sewage where water under pressure is not available.
Any property within the Borough 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.
Any person vested with ownership, legal or equitable, sole or partial,
of any property located in the Borough.
Any individual, partnership, company, association, corporation, or
other group or entity.
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.
The Authority is hereby authorized and empowered to undertake within
the Borough the control and method of authorizing temporary holding tanks
and providing for the disposal of holding tank sewage and the collection and
transportation thereof, provided that before any such temporary holding tanks
are permitted, the Borough shall receive from the Authority, the Department
of Environmental Resources, or any other appropriate agency, a written statement
that the property and owner have been approved for such holding tank use and
that such use is to be temporary.
The Authority is hereby authorized and empowered to adopt such rules
and regulations concerning sewage which it may deem necessary from time to
time in order to permit the temporary usage of holding tanks within New Hope
Borough.
All such rules and regulations adopted by the Authority shall be in
conformity with the provisions herein, all other ordinances of the Borough,
and all applicable laws, and applicable rules and regulations of administrative
agencies of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The Authority shall have the right and power to fix, alter, charge and
collect rates, assessments, and other charges in the area served by its facilities
at reasonable and uniform rates as authorized by applicable law.
The collection and transportation of all sewage from any improved property
utilizing a temporary holding tank shall be done solely by or under the direction
and control of the Authority, and the disposal thereof shall be made only
at such site or sites as may be approved by the Department of Environmental
Resources of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The owner of an improved property that utilizes a holding tank shall:
A.Â
Maintain the holding tank in conformance with this or
any applicable ordinance of this Borough, the provisions of any applicable
law, and the rules and regulations of the Authority and any administrative
agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
B.Â
Permit only the Authority or anyone acting under the
direction of the Authority to collect, transport, and dispose of the contents
therein.
[Amended 8-13-1990 by Ord. No. 1990-2]
Any person who violates any provisions of § 218-21 shall, upon conviction thereof by summary proceedings, be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than $1,000 and costs, or in default of payment thereof, shall be subject to imprisonment for a term not to exceed 30 days.
In addition to any other remedies provided in this article, any violation of § 218-21 above shall constitute a nuisance and may be abated by the municipality or the Authority by either seeking appropriate equitable or legal relief from a court of competent jurisdiction.
