A.
In 1988 the Borough water reclamation facility was approaching its permitted discharge limit of 400,000 gallons per day monthly average. At the time that the average daily flow reached 80% of the permitted discharge limit, the Borough was required to impose a sewer connection ban and to establish a program of controls to ensure that the permitted capacity of the water reclamation facility is not exceeded. By adoption of Resolution No. 114-88, the Borough did impose a connection ban in November 1988 which was approved by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
B.
In July of 1989 the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) imposed its own connection ban due to the inability of the then-existing water reclamation facility to meet revised effluent quality standards. The Borough was ordered to make additions and improvements to the treatment facilities to ensure compliance with the revised standards. Over the years from 1990 through 1993, the Borough made additions and improvements costing over $4,000,000. As a result, the treatment facility met all applicable effluent quality standards, and on December 8, 1993, the NJDEP rescinded its sewer connection ban. Despite the rescission of the NJDEP sewer connection ban, the preexisting sewer ban imposed by the Borough continued to be mandated by discharge limitations and the water reclamation facility has been closely monitored through the years to ensure that the allowed discharge limitations fall within applicable regulations.
C.
As part of its ongoing efforts to monitor and control the amount of treated effluent discharge, the Borough of Mendham has completed a program of sewer pipe and manhole rehabilitation financed through Bond Ordinance No. 9-09, entitled "Bond Ordinance Providing for the Improvement of the Sanitary Sewerage Collection System in and by the Borough of Mendham, in the County of Morris, New Jersey, Appropriating $1,600,000 Therefor and Authorizing the Issuance of $1,600,000 Bonds or Notes of the Borough for Financing such Appropriation." The rehabilitation work has resulted in a reduction of nonsewage infiltration averaging 100,000 gallons of flow per day, creating available sewage treatment capacity. A portion of the newly available capacity must be retained by the Borough for municipal projects, potential school expansions, and other possible uses of the water reclamation facility over which the Borough does not have regulatory jurisdiction, leaving 30,000 gallons per day potentially available for allocation to new construction, the expansion of existing uses, and the like, subject to revision of such amount based on changing circumstances.
D.
In determining to release the new sewage treatment allocation of 30,000 gallons per day, the Borough remains mindful that the consequences of exceeding the water reclamation facility's New Jersey Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NJPDES) permit discharge limits could result in mandatory water quality studies, an increase in the size of the facility and modifications to the facility to provide improvements in the quality of the effluent. The cost of such actions could be prohibitive to the present users of the sewerage system. It is therefore determined, and will remain, the purpose and intent of the Borough to impose such controls on future service connections to the sewerage system as are deemed reasonably necessary to comply with the mandate(s) of the NJDEP.