[Adopted 10-10-1973 by Ord. No. 73-9 (Ch. 18, Part 1, of the
1983 Code of Ordinances)]
This article shall be known as the "Walnutport Holding Tank
Ordinance."
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
ENFORCEMENT OFFICER
A person or agency appointed by the Council of the Borough
of Walnutport to perform inspections and issue permits for holding
tanks.
HOLDING TANK
A watertight receptacle which receives and retains sewage
and is designed and constructed to facilitate ultimate disposal of
the sewage at another site.
PERSON
An individual, copartnership, association, or private corporation.
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 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.
Because a holding tank system of sewage disposal does not provide
for final on-lot treatment and disposal of the sewage and since such
tanks require regular service and maintenance to prevent their malfunction
and overflow, they shall only be used when the Council of the Borough
of Walnutport determines that a septic tank and tile field or aerobic
sewage treatment system cannot be used and when the said Council determines
that the refusal to grant permission to utilize a holding tank system
of sewage disposal would inflict unnecessary hardship upon the applicant.
Before any person shall erect, construct, and utilize a holding
tank in the Borough of Walnutport, he shall make application and obtain
a permit from the Council of the Borough of Walnutport.
All applications for a holding tank permit shall be made on
forms provided by the enforcement officer and shall be accompanied
by a permit application fee of $10.
After an application has been received by the enforcement officer,
along with the fee, the Council of the Borough of Walnutport shall
within 60 days of the receipt of said application either reject the
application or issue a permit. Should an application be rejected,
the reasons for such rejection shall be communicated to the applicant.
An inspection fee of $20 shall be paid by any person having
a holding tank permit to the Borough of Walnutport each and every
year beginning the year the permit is issued.
Any person issued a holding tank permit shall permit the enforcement
officer to come onto his property and inspect the holding tank at
such times as the enforcement officer deems reasonable and necessary.
Whenever the warning device shall be active, said tank shall
be emptied within three days of the initiation of said warning signal.
Whenever the enforcement officer informs a person issued a holding
tank permit that said tank or warning device is malfunctioning and
is in need of repair and maintenance, said person shall correct the
defect or problem within three days of the receipt of the notice of
the malfunction.
Should any person issued a permit violate the terms and provisions
of this article, said permit shall be revoked immediately by the Council
of the Borough of Walnutport; and, upon order of said Council, the
holding tank shall be removed from the property.
No permit for a holding tank sewage system shall be granted
by the Council of the Borough of Walnutport unless and until the applicant
for such a permit shall first provide to said Council, competent evidence
that he has fully complied with the Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities
Act (35 P. S. § 750.1 et seq.) and the Rules and Regulations
of the Department of Environmental Protection enacted pursuant to
said Act.
If at any time, the Borough of Walnutport, either through its
Council or through any Municipal Authority created in said Borough,
provides a sanitary sewage system to which any person having a holding
tank permit can connect then, in that event, and after written notice
to so connect by the appropriate Borough or Authority officials, said
person shall within 30 days of said notice connect to said sanitary
sewage system and discontinue the use of the holding tank sewage system.
At the expiration of thirty-day notice period, any permit previously
issued is deemed revoked and null and void.
For any and every violation of any provision of this article
the Borough may exercise any one or more of the following remedies:
A. Any person who violates or permits a violation of this article shall,
upon conviction in a summary proceeding brought before a Magisterial
District Judge under the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure,
be guilty of a summary offense and shall be punishable by fine of
not less than $100 not more than $1,000, plus cost 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.
B. Upon notice to the person violating this article by certified mail,
return receipt requested, to abate the violation and upon failure
of such person to do so within a period of three days from the date
of the receipt of said notice, the Borough of Walnutport shall take
such steps as are necessary to abate the violation and charge said
person violating this article with all costs thereof, together with
a collection fee of 10% or file a municipal claim or lien against
said person together with a collection fee of 10%, or by an action
of assumpsit without filing of a claim.
C. Institute proceedings in any court of equity having jurisdiction
to abate the violation.
[Adopted 3-5-1979 by Ord. No. 79-1 (Ch. 18, Part 2, of the
1983 Code of Ordinances)]
[Amended 3-21-1983 by Ord. No. 83-2]
Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the meaning
of the terms used in this article shall be as follows:
AUTHORITY ENGINEER
An Engineer employed by the Authority or an authorized member
of his staff.
BOROUGH
The Borough of Walnutport, Northampton County, Pennsylvania.
BOROUGH ENGINEER
An engineer employed by the Borough or an authorized member
of his staff.
LATERAL SEWER OR SERVICE CONNECTION
That part of the sewer system extending from a sewer to the
curbline or, if there shall be no curbline, to the edge of the street
abutting the property affected or, if no such lateral shall be provided,
then "lateral sewer" or "service connection" shall mean that portion
of, or place in, a sanitary sewer which is provided for the connection
of any service line.
NATURAL OUTLET
Any outlet into a watercourse, ditch, pond, lake or other
body of surface or groundwater.
OCCUPIED BUILDING
Each single dwelling unit, household unit, flat or apartment
unit, store, shop, office, business, commercial 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 and industrial
wastes, or either thereof, is or may be discharged, located in the
Borough.
OWNER
Any person vested with ownership, legal or equitable, sole
or partial, of any property situated in the Borough.
PERSON
Any individual, partnership, company, association, society,
corporation or group.
SANITARY SEWER
A sewer which is part of the sewer system and which carries
sanitary sewage and industrial waste permitted to be discharged into
the sewer system.
SERVICE LINE OR HOUSE CONNECTION
That part of the main house drain or sewer line extending
from a point five feet outside the outer building wall or foundation
wall to its connection with the lateral sewer.
SEWER SYSTEM
Sewer mains, lateral sewers from a sewer main to service
line or house connection, sewage ejector and/or pumping stations,
sewer force mains, and all appurtenant facilities operated by the
Borough in furnishing sewage service.
[Amended 3-21-1983 by Ord. No. 83-2]
A. No person shall uncover, connect with, make any opening into or use,
alter or disturb in any manner any sewer or the sewer system without
first making application for and obtaining a permit, in writing, from
the Authority, as agent for the Borough.
B. Application to the Authority for a permit required under this section
shall be made by the owner of the property to be served, in such form
as may be prescribed by the Authority. The application shall be accompanied
by the required connection charge and necessary tapping fee, imposed
by the Borough Council.
C. No person other than the Borough, the Authority, or their agents,
shall make or cause to be made the connection of any property with
a lateral sewer until such person shall have fulfilled each of the
following conditions:
(1) Such person shall have notified the Borough of the desire and intention
to connect to a lateral sewer;
(2) Such person shall apply for and obtain a permit as required by this
section;
(3) Such person shall have given the Borough at least 24 hours' notice
of the time when such service line is to be connected and such connection
made so that the Borough may inspect the service line and the work
of connection and perform necessary testing.
D. Payment of the above-mentioned connection charge and necessary tapping
fee shall entitle the applicant to have one lateral sewer installed
to the curbline of his property, but in no case longer than 50 feet,
at the expense of the Authority, including repairing. All additional
costs of constructing a longer lateral sewer, and all costs and expenses
in connecting such lateral sewer to a service line shall be borne
by the owner of the property to be connected, and such owner shall
indemnify and save harmless the Borough and the Authority from all
loss or damage that may be occasioned, directly or indirectly, as
a result of the construction which the owner is required to perform.
E. Whenever the surface of any public street, sidewalk or cartway is disturbed by the construction of a service line, it shall be the responsibility of the applicant for a connection to obtain necessary permits and permission from the Borough, or highway occupancy permits from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Unless otherwise required, all surfacing materials must be restored in kind, thickness and construction to the satisfaction of the Borough and of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, as the case may be. (See Chapter
390, Streets and Sidewalks, of the Code of the Borough of Walnutport.)
The Borough Engineer, the Authority Engineer, the Plumbing Inspector,
and other duly authorized representatives or employees of the Borough
bearing proper credentials and identification shall be permitted,
at all reasonable times, to enter upon any premises connected or about
to be connected or required to be connected to the sewer system for
the purpose of inspection, observation, measurement, sampling and
testing in accordance with the provisions of this article and the
Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code.
No person shall maliciously, willfully or negligently damage,
destroy, deface, block or otherwise tamper with any sewer or any other
structure or equipment which is part of the sewer system, or discharge
any substance into the sewer system contrary to or in violation of
the resolution of the Authority imposing sewer rates which, inter
alia, prohibits discharge of wastes into the sewer system and provides
for rules and regulations.
[Amended 3-21-1983 by Ord. No. 83-2]
A. Any person who shall violate any provision of this article other than §§
346-19 and
346-20 shall be served by the Borough with written notice stating the nature of the violation and providing a reasonable time limit for the satisfactory correction thereof. (The notice provided in §
346-17B above being deemed to be notice of a violation for this purpose in respect of violations of such section.) The offender shall within the period of time (if any, otherwise forthwith) stated in such notice, permanently cease all violations.
B. Any person who shall continue any violation beyond the time limit fixed as provided for in Subsection
A of this section shall be subject to a fine in an amount not less than $100 nor more than $1,000 for each violation, and, in default of payment of such fine and costs, imprisonment for a term not exceeding 90 days. A new and separate violation shall be deemed to have been committed for each day any violation continues beyond such time limit.
C. Any person who shall violate any provision of §§
346-19 and
346-20 shall, upon summary conviction, be subject to a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000 for each violation, together with costs of prosecution in each case or to imprisonment for a term not to exceed 90 days.
D. All fines and penalties imposed for violation of any provision of
this article shall be paid to the Treasurer of the Borough for the
use of the Borough.
E. Any person violating any of the provisions of this article, in addition
to becoming liable for a fine and penalty, shall become liable to
the Borough and/or Authority for any expense, loss or damage occasioned
by the Borough and/or Authority by reason of such violation.