The City, in order to comply with applicable federal and state
laws and regulations and to provide an equitable method of payment
of the cost and construction, operation, maintenance and debt service
of the City sewer system and wastewater treatment plant, establishes
and imposes, pursuant to General Municipal Law Article 14-F and other
applicable statutory authority, an annual sewer rent charge upon real
property of the users of said system within the City. In addition,
the Common Council is authorized and empowered to enter into such
agreements with other municipalities and persons or to enact necessary
legislation to ensure that users of said system located outside of
the City shall pay an equitable portion of the cost of the system.
The Administrator shall classify property into industrial and
nonindustrial users, depending upon the type of discharge from the
property. Any property discharging other than average domestic sewage
shall be subject to the provisions of this article governing industrial
users. Average domestic sewage shall be wastewater with a maximum
of the following characteristics:
|
Characteristic
|
Maximum Amount
(mg/l)
|
|---|---|
|
Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)
|
200
|
|
Carbonaceous oxygen demand (COD)
|
375
|
|
Nitrogenous oxygen demand (NOD)
|
185
|
|
Suspended solids
|
250
|
|
Oil and grease
|
40
|
A.
Sewer charges shall be determined and billed quarterly on January
1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 of each year.
B.
The sewer charge shall be determined on each of the foregoing dates
by multiplying the number of 100 cubic feet of water (rounded to the
lowest whole number), used by a user for the preceding three months
as determined by the City Water Board, by the annual sewer rate determined
by the Administrator and approved by the Common Council. The rate
shall be determined by dividing the total annual budget for operation
and maintenance and local debt of the wastewater treatment facility
by the average estimated metered water usage within the City and from
those areas outside the City which utilize the wastewater treatment
plant.
C.
On or before October 15 of each year, the Administrator shall determine
the rate per 100 cubic feet of metered water to be charged for sewer
service during the next calendar year. As soon as practicable after
determining such rate, the Administrator shall give notice thereof
in the official newspapers of the City and further notice of at least
10 days that a public meeting will be held before the Common Council
at its next regular meeting to consider approval of such rate.
D.
In the case of a user who contributes an amount of sewage substantially less or greater than the amount of metered water used by the user, the Administrator shall determine a fair and equitable sewer charge, taking into consideration the provisions of Article III of this chapter and such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the agency. "Substantial," for the purposes hereof, shall mean at least 15%.
E.
Any user aggrieved by the sewer charge shall present their grievance
to the Wastewater Treatment Plant Board appointed by the Mayor with
the approval of the Common Council. Such Board shall have the power
to review such grievance and to affirm or modify the sewer charge.
If the charge is modified, the Board shall state its reasons in writing
and shall order that a refund be paid to the grievant. Any grievant
dissatisfied with the Board's decision may appeal to the Common Council
which shall promptly act thereon.
A bill for each quarterly sewage charge shall be mailed on or
about the dates set forth in the preceding section to the last known
user of each metered premises in the City as shown on the records
of the City Water Board. Payment of such bill at the office of the
City Water Board in City Hall shall be made no later than 30 days
from the date of the billing. Failure to timely mail such bill or
failure of any user to receive such billing shall not be an excuse
for nonpayment. Any payments not received by the Water Board or any
other designated place of payment within 30 days of the billing date
shall be subject to a late fee of 10% of the amount of such bill which
shall be added to the amount of the next bill.
Capital costs attributable to the construction of the wastewater
treatment plant shall be recovered by a special benefit assessment
against all real property within the City in such manner and in such
amounts as the Director of Administration and Finance and the Common
Council shall determine, and in accordance with law.
Penalties for late or nonpayment of an installment of sewer
rents are hereby fixed as, and made nonincidental with, those penalties
fixed after late payment of real property taxes as currently established
and as amended by the Common Council.
Sewer rents shall constitute a lien upon real property within
the City to the extent set forth in General Municipal Law § 452,
and the City may enforce the collection of delinquent sewer rents
by any method authorized by said section.
[Amended 12-3-2013 by L.L. No. 3-2016]
A.
Industrial users connected to the sewer system by any means shall
pay an industrial user charge for the utilization of the treatment
works for discharging industrial wastes or other wastes accepted for
discharge. The industrial user charge shall consist of but not be
limited to the following charges:
B.
Computation of the applicable industrial user charge shall be done
by the Administrator using the following formulas:
|
For operation and maintenance charges:
|
|
IC = QI\QT x OM
x BM
|
|
For local debt service charges:
|
|
ILS = QI\QT x
LD x BM
|
|
Where:
| |||
|
IC
|
=
|
Industrial share of operation and maintenance costs
| |
|
QI
|
=
|
Average daily flow (mgd) from industry
| |
|
QT
|
=
|
Average daily flow (mgd) at treatment plant
| |
|
OM
|
=
|
Quarterly operation and maintenance costs
| |
|
ILS
|
=
|
Industrial share of local debt
| |
|
LD
|
=
|
Quarterly local debt payment
| |
|
BM
|
=
|
Billing multiplier
| |
|
The billing multiplier shall be derived using the following
method:
|
|
Category A
|
Category B
|
Category C
|
Category D
| |
|
Less than
|
Less than
|
Less than
|
Greater than
| |
|
BOD
|
150
|
250
|
500
|
500
|
|
TSS
|
120
|
200
|
300
|
300
|
|
TKN
|
15
|
25
|
35
|
35
|
|
Phosphorus
|
4
|
6
|
25
|
25
|
|
Billing multiplier
|
0.85
|
1.00
|
1.15
|
Formula
|
|
Values for the listed parameters will be determined according to § 289-36. The category will be determined by the limits in the table above. The industry will be classified into the lowest category commensurate with the parameter values. If any one parameter is exceeded by 50% or any two parameters are exceeded by 25% or any three parameters are exceeded by 10% for a quarter, then the next category will be used. An industry falling into Category C may elect either the table multiplier or the formula in Category D. The Administrator will automatically use the lesser value, but in no instance shall the billing multiplier be less than 0.85.
|
|
The formula for calculating the billing multiplier for Category
D, or upon election Category C, is as follows:
|
 |
|
Where:
| |||
|
BM
|
=
|
Billing multiplier, minimum value 0.85
| |
|
BI
|
=
|
Average daily discharge BOD5 (mg/l) from
industry
| |
|
SI
|
=
|
Average daily discharge TSS (mg/l) from industry
| |
|
NI
|
=
|
Average daily discharge TKN (mg/l) from industry
| |
|
PI
|
=
|
Average daily discharge Total Phosphorus (mg/l) from industry
| |
[Amended 12-3-2013 by L.L. No. 3-2016]
The industrial waste surcharge is based upon the measured or
estimated constituents and characteristics of the wastewater discharge
of the user which may include, but is not limited to, flow rate, biochemical
oxygen demand, total suspended solids, nitrogen and phosphorus. The
wastewater constituents used to calculate the industrial surcharge
will be those determined by the Administrator. Any data provided by
the user may be used in addition to the data obtained by the Administrator.
In applying the surcharge formulas, the Administrator may represent
the flow discharged into the sewer system by:
A.
The amount of water supplied to the premises as shown on the water
meter, or water records if the premises is metered.
B.
The volume of wastewater discharged into the sewer system as determined
by measurements and samples taken at the monitoring facility installed
by the owner served by the sewer system.
C.
Allowance for water not discharged to the sewer system will be made
at the discretion of the Administrator.
D.
A figure determined by the Administrator by a combination of the
foregoing or by any other equitable method.
A.
The pollutant concentration of any wastewater shall usually be determined from representative samples discharged to the community sewers, taken by representatives of the Administrator at sampling stations as described in §§ 289-21 and 289-22, at any period or time, or at any place or manner, or of such duration and in such manner as the Administrator may elect, or at any place or manner mutually agreed upon between the user and the Administrator. The intent of any sampling procedure is to establish the pollutant concentration in the wastewater discharge during an average or typical working day. This concentration may be derived, according to the best judgment of the Administrator.
B.
The analysis of samples taken shall be performed in a laboratory
of the Department, or a laboratory designated by the Department, and
the surcharge and/or acceptability of the wastes shall be determined
from said analysis.
C.
All surcharges shall be based on the analysis of the wastes from
any plant or premise related to the analysis of the total volume of
wastes received at the treatment plant. The average value of the concentrations
of pollutants measured during a calendar year shall be used in calculating
the industrial waste surcharge.
D.
Whenever the wastes discharged from a premises to a public sewer
might be expected to show appreciable variation during the year due
to manufacturing process or production variation due to seasonal changes,
the Administrator may average the results of the two or more series
of analysis taken to reflect these variations and thereby determine
an average pollutant concentration.
A.
In the event that a pollutant concentration of the waste discharged
from a premises to a public sewer as determined under the preceding
section is disputed by a user, a program of resampling and flow measurement
with subsequent analytical determination may be instituted as follows:
(1)
The person must submit a request for resampling and flow measurements
of the wastes to the Administrator.
(2)
A consultant of recognized professional standing in the employ of
the user must confer with representatives of the Administrator in
order that an agreement may be reached as to the various factors which
must be considered on a new sampling program.
(3)
The consultant of recognized professional standing employed by the
user shall conduct a resampling and reanalysis program, under the
direction of the Administrator, for a period of not less than 48 hours.
B.
The results of the resampling and reanalysis shall be considered
to be the current analysis of the wastes discharged to the sewer system
and shall be used for determining the acceptability of sampling and
analysis results in question. The new results shall be used in place
of the results in question or in addition to other data collected
by the Department for determining the industrial waste surcharge and/or
compliance with the requirements of this chapter.
The Mayor is authorized to have any City department, agency,
officer or employee, including the Wastewater Treatment Board and
its officers or members, to assist the Administrator and agency to
implement this chapter.
