[Ord. 141, 10/9/1974]
The purpose of this Part is to establish procedures for the
use and maintenance of holding tanks designed to receive and retain
sewage whether from residential or commercial uses, and it is hereby
declared that the enactment of this Part is necessary for the protection,
benefit and preservation of the health, safety and welfare of the
inhabitants of this Township.
[Ord. 141, 10/9/1974]
Unless the context specifically and clearly indicates otherwise,
the meaning of terms used in this Part shall be as follows:
A watertight receptacle which receives and retains sewage
and is designed and constructed to facilitate ultimate disposal of
the sewage at another site. "Holding tanks" include, but are not limited
to, the following:
CHEMICAL TOILET (often referred to as a "portable john")A toilet using chemicals that discharge to a holding tank.
RETENTION TANKA holding tank where sewage is conveyed
to it by a water-carrying system.
VAULT PIT PRIVYA holding tank designed to receive
sewage where water under pressure is not available.
Any property within the Township upon which there is erected
a structure intended for continuous or periodic habitation, occupancy
or use by human beings or animals and from which structure sewage
shall or may be discharged.
Any individual, group of individuals, partnership, company,
association, corporation or any other group or entity vested with
ownership, legal or equitable, sole or partial, of any property located
in the Township.
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 substance 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.
Northampton Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
[Ord. 141, 10/9/1974]
The Board of Supervisors of the Township is hereby authorized
and empowered to undertake within the Township the control and methods
of holding tank sewage disposal and the collection and transportation
thereof.
[Ord. 141, 10/9/1974]
The Board of Supervisors of the Township is hereby authorized
and empowered to adopt by ordinance or resolution such rules and regulations
as it may deem necessary from time to time to effect the purposes
herein. All such rules and regulations adopted by the Board of Supervisors
of the Township shall be in conformity with the provisions herein,
all other ordinances of the Township and all applicable laws and applicable
rules and regulations of administrative agencies of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania, including the Bucks County Board of Health.
[Ord. 141, 10/9/1974]
The Board of Supervisors of the Township shall have the right
and power to fix, alter, charge and collect rates, assessments and
other charges in the area served by its facilities at reasonable and
uniform rates as authorized by applicable law.
[Ord. 141, 10/9/1974; as amended by Ord. 561, 4/25/2012]
1.
The collection and transportation of all sewage from any improved
property utilizing a holding tank shall be done solely by or under
the direction and control of the Northampton, Bucks County, Municipal
Authority, and the disposal thereof shall be made only at such site
or sites as may be approved by the Department of Environmental Protection
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
2.
No person, persons, company or other entity shall have the right
to collect, transport and/or dispose of any sewage from any property
utilizing a holding tank in Northampton Township unless done in accordance
with this Part.
[Ord. 141, 10/9/1974]
1.
The owner of an improved property that utilizes a holding tank shall:
A.
Maintain the holding tank in conformance with this Part and any other
applicable ordinance of this Township, the provisions of any applicable
law and the rules and regulations of the Township and any administrative
agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, including the Bucks County
Board of Health.
B.
Permit only such person, persons, company or other entity licensed
by the Bucks County Board of Health to collect, transport and/or dispose
of the contents therein.
[Ord. 141, 10/9/1974; as amended by Ord. 545, 12/23/2009, § I]
1.
The purpose of this Part is to permit limited use of holding tanks,
chemical toilets, retention tanks and vault pit privies in accordance
with the provisions of this section:
A.
Chemical toilets, also known as "portable johns," are to be used
to provide temporary sewage facilities where a building is under construction
or at a site where large numbers of persons gather to witness an event
or affair on a single occasion or for a short time, i.e., at a sporting
event, parade or other similar affair. Chemical toilets and portable
johns are not designed for permanent use where the structure upon
the premises has been completed; in such situations the property shall
either be connected into the public sanitary sewers or be connected
to a cesspool or septic tank system approved by the Bucks County Board
of Health.
B.
Holding tanks, retention tanks and vault pit privies are to be permitted
only in those locations where a sanitary sewer system is in the process
of construction and such tank or privy is designed as a temporary
disposal system until the public sewers being constructed in that
area are completed and operable. Such tanks or privies may also be
permitted by the Board of Supervisors in a development where flowing
sewers are constructed but not connected to the public sewer system.
The purpose of such tanks or privies would be to serve the improved
properties in such development until such time as the connection to
the public system can be completed.
C.
It is understood that the prior approval of such tanks or systems
must be granted by the Township of Northampton and the Bucks County
Board of Health and that the owner desiring approval of such system
must also present to the Township and the Bucks County Board of Health
satisfactory evidence that such tanks or privies will be systematically
mapped and the effluent therefrom discharged into a public system.
The owner shall further produce satisfactory proof that the Municipal
Authority or proper public body owning the public sewerage system
into which such effluent is to be discharged has contracted with the
owner to accept such discharge.
D.
Permanent on-lot holding tanks are permitted to serve institutions
or commercial establishments with a sewage flow of less than 800 gallons
per day. In the event that public sewer is ever available, the property
must connect and meet all applicable requirements of the Northampton
Bucks County Municipal Authority.
[Ord. 141, 10/9/1974]
1.
The following regulations shall apply in the design of any holding
tanks or privy vaults:
A.
Such tanks or vaults shall be designed by a registered professional
engineer whose seal shall appear on the plan.
B.
The tank shall be provided with both visual and audible capacity
warning devices. The visual warning device shall be installed outside
the building serviced by such tank or vault and located in such a
location as to be visible to the traveling public from the public
highway. The audible device shall be located inside the building in
such a location as to be readily audible to occupants of said building.
C.
The tank, if it is a steel, aluminum or other metal-type tank, shall
be firmly anchored in the ground by metal straps to concrete foundations
for the purpose of not permitting said tank to float upward or to
float above the foundations.
[Ord. 141, 10/9/1974]
[Ord. 141, 10/9/1974; as amended by Ord. 211, 5/9/1984, § 108-35; by Ord. 285, 2/22/1989; and by Ord. 561, 4/25/2012]
Any person, firm or corporation who shall violate any provision
of this Part, upon conviction thereof in an action brought before
a magisterial district judge in the manner provided for the enforcement
of summary offenses under the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure,
shall be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than $1,000 plus costs
and, in default of payment of said fine and costs, to a term of imprisonment
not to exceed 90 days. Each day that a violation of this Part continues
or each section of this Part which shall be found to have been violated
shall constitute a separate offense.
