[HISTORY: Adopted by the Cayuga County Legislature 11-10-1998 by L.L. No. 6-1998. Amendments noted where applicable.]
A. 
The Cayuga County Legislature has been duly empowered under the laws of the State of New York to formulate, promulgate, adopt and publish laws preserving the security and well-being of the citizens of Cayuga County.
B. 
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) has issued state pollutant discharge elimination system (SPDES) permits for wastewater discharge to the City of Auburn, the Village of Port Byron, the Village of Weedsport, and the Village of Cayuga. The SPDES permits issued to these municipalities do not require year-round disinfection of wastewater discharges, thereby allowing the possibility of municipal discharges of undisinfected wastewater to certain water bodies of Cayuga County at various times throughout the year.
C. 
The Cayuga County Legislature has taken notice of well-established and accepted scientific evidence that the discharge of undisinfected and/or untreated wastewater to water bodies exposes downstream residents and users of those water bodies to potential health hazards in the form of communicable disease-bearing organisms and microorganisms. The Legislature also recognizes that the potential threat of downstream residents' exposure to disease-bearing fauna in undisinfected and/or untreated municipal wastewater discharges is exacerbated by a) the threat of widespread downstream flooding, which has been documented to occur in Cayuga County on a repeated basis at various times throughout the year, and b) the fact that periods of heavy precipitation and flooding in the County will tend to trigger high municipal wastewater flow conditions, which will in turn trigger overflow conditions leading to undisinfected wastewater discharges into floodwaters or onto ground leading to water bodies within the County.
The Cayuga County Legislature wishes to minimize County residents' exposure to undisinfected and untreated wastewater discharges, thereby minimizing the potential spread of communicable disease and related health hazards arising from such discharges. Accordingly, the Legislature finds that the imposition of a County-wide, year-round municipal wastewater disinfection requirement will be an effective means of eliminating undisinfected wastewater discharges, which is consistent with the Cayuga County Sanitary Code.
Notwithstanding any other provision of the Cayuga County Sanitary Code, New York State SPDES program or any permit issued pursuant thereto, no County, city, village, town, town district, or any state department, agency or authority, or any municipal or governmental entity shall discharge, cause, or allow to be discharged undisinfected sewage or undisinfected wastewater into Owasco Lake. For the purposes of this chapter, "Owasco Lake" shall be defined to include the waters extending from the mouth of the Owasco Lake Inlet to that portion of the Owasco Lake Outlet extending south from the State Dam.
A. 
All discharges from all municipal wastewater treatment plants located within Cayuga County shall be disinfected on a year-round basis to reduce fecal coliform levels in the discharge to less than 200 colonies per 100 ml.
B. 
The requirement of year-round disinfection shall be implemented in accordance with the following timetable based upon the total daily discharge volumes of the respective municipal wastewater treatment plants:
Total Daily Discharge Volume
(gallons per day)
Deadline to Begin Year-Round Disinfection
Over 10,000,000
January 1, 2000
5,000,000 to 10,000,000
January 1, 2001
Below 5,000,000
January 1, 2002
The municipal wastewater treatment plant operator or a designated substitute must notify the Cayuga County Health Department as soon as possible (but in no event more than two hours) after learning that undisinfected and/or untreated sewage or wastewater has been or will be discharged onto the ground surface or into any body of water in the County.
A. 
Violations of this chapter shall be within and added to the jurisdiction of the Cayuga County Board of Health. Its procedure for conducting hearings on allegations of a violation of the Public Health Law shall apply to prosecutions under this chapter.
B. 
First prosecutions under this chapter shall be punishable by a fine not less than $500 nor more than $2,500. Each twenty-four-hour period that the discharge continues after the violator has had reasonable notice to remediate and fails to do so without good cause shall constitute a new and separate violation for purposes of imposition of the fine stated above. Second prosecutions shall be punishable by fine double that allowed for a first prosecution and third and subsequent prosecutions by triple that of the first prosecution.
C. 
The Cayuga County Board of Health shall monitor the activities of municipalities with discharge points that could result in a violation of this chapter. In doing so, it shall adopt regulations requiring said municipalities to report such information as is needed to so monitor said activities. The regulations and any amendments thereto shall be enforceable as to a particular municipality 10 days after it has been sent written notice thereof.
D. 
In addition to the provisions set forth above, any violation of this chapter may, at the discretion of the Cayuga County Board of Health, be enforced utilizing any other enforcement provision contained in the New York State Public Health Law or utilizing any other applicable law.
To the extent that the provisions of any other portion of the Cayuga County Sanitary Code conflicts with or is less restrictive than the provisions of this chapter, this chapter shall control.