[Ord. 833, 6/3/1996, § 1]
The foregoing recital clauses are declared to be a declaration
of purpose of this Part and are hereby incorporated by reference.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: The recitals are included in the original
of Ord. 833 and are on file in the Borough office.
[Ord. 833, 6/3/1996, § 2]
Terms used in this Part which are defined in the Pennsylvania
Hazardous Materials Emergency Planning and Response Act, 35 P.S. § 6022.101
et seq., or any subsequent amendments thereto, shall have the same
meaning as in the said Act unless defined differently herein.
The Borough of Emmaus.
Borough Council of Emmaus.
An occurrence involving a risk of harm and/or imminent threat
to private or public property, life or potential threat to the environment
or public health or safety.
Borough of Emmaus Fire Department;
Borough of Emmaus Ambulance Corps;
Borough of Emmaus Police Department; and similar emergency response
agencies from other municipalities responding to a request for assistance/aid
under a mutual aid agreement and Borough employees responding to an
emergency incident at the request of an emergency response agency.
All direct and indirect costs and expenses incurred/expended
by the Borough and/or any emergency service agency in connection with
any emergency incident including, but not limited to, the following:
The cost of labor calculated by determining the actual hourly
wage rate plus the hourly cost of fringe benefits (and including overtime
rates, if applicable) normally paid by the Borough to Borough personnel
involved in responding to any emergency incident or, in the case of
emergency response agency volunteer personnel, as determined by the
Borough Manager, taking into account the funds expended to train and
properly equip each such volunteer, times the number of hours worked
by each such volunteer, less one hour, in response to any emergency
incident.
The cost of all nonreusable materials and all contaminated or
consumed materials utilized in connection with any emergency incident.
The cost of all equipment, calculated by estimating the number
of hours of the useful life of such equipment and dividing the same
into the replacement cost plus the maintenance cost of said equipment
and then multiplying the result by the number of hours such equipment
was "in service" in response to any emergency incident.
The administrative cost of record keeping, information processing
and assembly/compilation of a bill of cost.
The reasonable attorney's fees and costs (including witness
fees) of pursuing enforcement/collection action for emergency service
cost against responsible parties.
The following person(s) or business entities shall, for the
purpose of this Part, be deemed responsible parties:
The owner of any petroleum, petroleum distillate or by-product,
hazardous material or chemical and the common carrier, including pipeline
owner, of any such material.
The owner of the real property on which any petroleum, petroleum
distillate or by-product, hazardous material or chemical is spilled,
released, dumped, deposited or stored.
The owner of real property on or in which there occurs an unfriendly
fire and/or a building, well, trench or sinkhole collapse requiring
rescue efforts or otherwise threatening life, property or the environment
and to which there is a response by an emergency response agency.
Any person(s) and/or legal entity or entities found to be legally
responsible in any court of competent jurisdiction for the causation
of any emergency incident.
[Ord. 833, 6/3/1996, § 3]
The occurrence of unfriendly fires, hazardous material, petroleum
and chemical type spills, releases, fires and the unexpected collapse
of wells, trenches, buildings and sinkholes requiring rescues or otherwise
threatening life, property or the environment are all declared to
be an emergency incident.
[Ord. 833, 6/3/1996, § 4]
The responsible party/parties shall be liable for and shall
reimburse the Borough for all of the direct and indirect emergency
service costs incurred/expended by any Borough emergency service agency
for labor, materials, equipment used in connection with any emergency
incident.
[Ord. 833, 6/3/1996, § 5]
The Borough may enforce this Part by having its Solicitor file
civil action against any responsible parties in any court of competent
jurisdiction for the recovery of emergency service costs.
[Ord. 833, 6/3/1996, § 6]
1.
The Borough Manager shall assemble/compile a bill of costs for each
emergency incident as follows:
A.
Within 30 days after rendering services in connection with an emergency
incident, or as soon thereafter as possible, the chief operating officer
for each involved emergency response agency shall submit to the Borough
Manager an itemized bill of costs calculated in accordance with the
provisions of this Part.
B.
The Borough Manager shall review all such bills of cost, correct
any errors or duplications and compile a final documented total bill
of cost.
2.
Upon compilation of a complete bill of costs, the Borough Manager
shall, within 45 days of the emergency incident, or as soon thereafter
as possible, render an itemized billing statement to the responsible
party/parties for the total amount of all submitted bills of cost
plus 15% for administrative expense.
3.
If the responsible party/parties have not paid the Borough bill of
costs within 45 days from the date same was billed, the Borough Manager
shall take appropriate enforcement/collection action against the responsible
party/parties.
4.
As an alternative to the foregoing procedure, the chief executive
officer of any Borough emergency response agency which responded to
an emergency incident may prepare, or cause to be prepared, an itemized
bill of costs compiled in accordance with this Part for his or her
emergency response agency only and submit the same directly to any
responsible party for payment or submission for third party payment.
However, any Borough emergency response agency which latter elects
to submit a direct cost billing to a responsible party shall not,
without the consent of the Borough Manager of the Borough, thereafter
be entitled to submit such cost billing to the Borough for collection
efforts in the event of nonpayment, partial payment or dispute concerning
responsibility for payment or the amount of the cost billing.
[Ord. 833, 6/3/1996, § 7]
1.
All monies received/recovered by the Borough under the provisions
of this Part in connection with an emergency incident shall be deposited
in a special Borough emergency services cost recovery account and,
upon completion of cost recovery efforts, the Borough Manager shall
disburse the funds recovered as follows:
A.
Fifteen percent of the total refunds shall be allocated to the Borough
general fund to reimburse the Borough for the administrative costs
incurred in effectuating and administering the cost recovery, except
that if the Borough refers a bill of costs to its Solicitor for collection
litigation, the Borough shall be reimbursed, in addition to the aforesaid
15% of the total funds recovered, the full amount of all legal services,
costs and fees incurred in connection with the legal services performed
by its Solicitor.
B.
The balance of the funds recovered shall be disbursed, with explanation,
to the emergency response agencies which submitted bills of costs
in proportion to the amounts of each such bill of costs which was
recoverable and recovered, and if the total amount recovered was less
than the full amount of the total of the bills of costs, the disbursement
to each emergency response agency shall be as determined appropriate
by the Borough Manager with explanation to each emergency response
agency.
