[Ord. No. 793 §1]
It is determined and declared to be necessary and conducive to the protection of the public health, safety, welfare and convenience of the City to collect charges from all users who contribute wastewater to the City's treatment works. The proceeds of such charges so derived will be used for the purpose of operating and maintaining the public wastewater treatment works.
[Ord. No. 793 §2]
Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the meaning of terms used in this Chapter shall be as follows:
BOD (denoting the Biochemical Oxygen Demand)
The quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure in five (5) days at 20 degrees C, expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/l).
NORMAL DOMESTIC WASTEWATER
Wastewater that has a BOD concentration of not more than 204 mg/l and a suspended solids concentration of not more than 240 mg/l.
OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE
All expenditures during the useful life of the treatment works for materials, labor utilities, and other items which are necessary for managing and maintaining the sewage works to achieve the capacity and performance for which such works were designed and constructed.
REPLACEMENT
Expenditures for obtaining and installing equipment, accessories, or appurtenances which are necessary during the useful life of the treatment works to maintain the capacity and performance for which such works were designed and constructed. The term "operating and maintenance" includes replacement.
RESIDENTIAL CONTRIBUTOR
Any contributor to the City's treatment works whose lot, parcel of real estate, or building is used for domestic dwelling purposes only.
SHALL
Is mandatory; MAY is permissive.
SS (Donating Suspended Solids)
Solids that either float on the surface of or are in suspension in water, sewage, or other liquids and which are removable by laboratory filtering.
TREATMENT WORKS
Any devices and systems for the storage, treatment, recycling, and reclamation of municipal sewage, domestic sewage, or liquid industrial wastes. These include intercepting sewers, outfall sewers, sewage collection systems, individual systems, pumping, power, and other equipment and their appurtenances; extensions improvement, remodeling, additions and alterations thereof; elements essential to provide a reliable recycled supply such as standby treatment units and clear well facilities; and any works, including site acquisition of the land that will be an integral part of the treatment process or is used for ultimate disposal of residues resulting from such treatment (including land for compositing sludge, temporary storage of such compost, and land used for the storage of treated wastewater in land treatment systems before land application); or any other method or system for preventing, abating, reducing, storing, treating, separating, or disposing of municipal waste or industrial waste, including waste in combined storm water and sanitary sewer systems.
USEFUL LIFE
The estimated period during which a treatment works will be operated.
USER CHARGE
That portion of the total wastewater service charge which is levied in a proportional and adequate manner for the cost of operation, maintenance, and replacement of the wastewater treatment works.
WATER METER
A water volume measuring and recording device, furnished and/or installed by the City of Palmyra or furnished and/or installed by a user and approved by the City of Palmyra.
[Ord. No. 793 §3]
A. 
The user charge system shall generate adequate annual revenues to pay costs of annual operation and maintenance including replacement which the City may by ordinance designate to be paid by the user charge system. That portion of the total user charge which is designated for operation and maintenance including replacement of the treatment works shall be established by this Chapter.
B. 
That portion of the total user charge collected which is designated for operation and maintenance including replacement purposes as established in Section 620.050 shall be deposited in a separate non-lapsing fund known as the Operation, Maintenance and Replacement Fund and will be kept in two (2) primary accounts as follows:
1. 
An account designated for the specific purpose of defraying operation and maintenance costs (excluding replacement) of the treatment works (Operation and Maintenance Account).
2. 
An account designated for the specific purpose of insuring replacement needs over the useful life of the treatment works (Replacement Account). Deposits in the Replacement Account shall be made annually, from the operation, maintenance and replacement revenue in the amount of four thousand five hundred and thirty-two dollars ($4,532.00) annually.
[Ord. No. 793 §4]
Fiscal year-end balances in the Operation and Maintenance Account and the Replacement Account shall be carried over to the same accounts in the subsequent fiscal year, and shall be used for no other purposes than those designated for these accounts. Monies which have been transferred from other sources to meet temporary shortages in the Operation, Maintenance and Replacement Funds shall be returned to their respective accounts upon appropriate adjustment of the user charge rates for operation, maintenance, and replacement. The user charge rate(s) shall be adjusted such that the transferred monies will be returned to their respective accounts within the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the monies were borrowed.
[Ord. No. 793 §5]
A. 
Each user shall pay for the services provided by the City based on his use of the treatment works as determined by water meter(s) acceptable to the City.
1. 
For residential customers, monthly user charges will be based on actual monthly water usage, as recorded by the potable water meter.
2. 
For industrial and commercial contributors, user charges shall be based on water used during the current month. If a commercial or industrial contributor has a consumptive use of water, or in some other manner uses water which is not returned to the wastewater collection system, the user charge for that contributor may be based on a wastewater meter(s) or separate water meter(s) installed and maintained at the contributor's expense and in a manner acceptable to the City.
3. 
Appendix A is on file in the City Clerk's office.
A monthly charge of ninety cents ($.90) which covers costs of billing and collection and treatment of infiltration/inflow, shall be included in the minimum charge per month as set by the City of Palmyra. In addition, each contributor shall pay a minimum of forty cents ($.40) per one thousand (1,000) gallons of water (or wastewater) as defined in the previous Section, as part of the user charge rate. Forty cents ($.40) per one thousand (1,000) gallons will cover all costs for operation and maintenance including replacement. As part of the minimum user charges, the City Council may add a charge to recover costs associated with debt retirement of bonded capital associated with financing the treatment works.
4. 
Appendix A is on file in the City Clerk's office.
For those contributors who contribute wastewater, the strength of which is greater than normal domestic sewage, a surcharge in addition to the normal user charge will be collected. The surcharge for operation and maintenance including replacement is:
$0.075 per pound BOD
$0.064 per pound SS
5. 
Any user which discharges any toxic pollutants which cause an increase in the cost of managing the effluent or the sludge from the City's treatment works, or any user which discharges any substances which singly or by interaction with other substances causes identifiable increases in the costs of operation, maintenance or replacement of the treatment works, shall pay for such increased costs. The charge to each such user shall be as determined by the responsible plant operating personnel and approved by the City Council.
6. 
The user charge rates established in this Section apply to all users, regardless of their location, of the City's treatment works. No credit for BOD/SS removals below the standard strengths will be allowed.
[Ord. No. 793 §6]
All users shall be billed monthly. Billings for any particular month shall be made within thirty (30) days after the end of the month. Payments are due when the billings are made. Any payment not received within thirty (30) days after billing is made shall be delinquent.
[Ord. No. 793 §7]
A late payment penalty of ten percent (10%) of the user charge bill will be added to each delinquent bill for each thirty (30) days of delinquency. When any bill is thirty (30) days in default, rendition of water and/or sewer service to such premises shall be discontinued until such bill is paid following due notice and opportunity for hearing.
[Ord. No. 793 §8]
The City will review the user charge system at least every two (2) years, and revise user charge rates as necessary to insure that the system generates adequate revenues to pay the costs of operation and maintenance including replacement and that the system continues to provide for the proportional distribution of operation and maintenance including replacement costs among users and user classes.
[Ord. No. 793 §9]
The City will notify each user at least annually, in conjunction with a regular bill, of the rate being charged for operation maintenance including replacement of the treatment works.