The purpose of this chapter is to assist the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority with respect to the installation, tapping or connection fees, sewer rentals and charges; requirements for, inspection of and maintenance of grease traps; maintenance, repair and improvement of the public sewer system located in the Borough of Langhorne; and to establish penalties for violations of this chapter.
Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the meaning of terms used in this chapter shall be as follows:
The Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, as presently or hereafter constituted, which is designated as an authorized agent of the Borough.
The Borough authorizes the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, its employees or agents to conduct inspections of any component of the sewer system and to maintain, repair and construct components of the sewer system within the Borough.
A Borough employee or agent, properly certified pursuant to the Uniform Construction Code,[1] authorized to conduct inspections within the Borough.
The Borough of Langhorne, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Any structure or any portion thereof intended to be used wholly or in part for the purposes of carrying on a trade, business or profession, or for social, amusement, religious, educational, charitable or public purposes, and which contains plumbing for kitchen, toilet or washing facilities. Hotels, motels and boardinghouses or rooming houses shall be included in this definition.
The group of elected officials acting as the governing body of the Borough.
A structure or dwelling intended to be occupied as a whole by one family or an apartment intended to be occupied by one family or any other one-family living unit.
Any structure intended to be used wholly or in part for the manufacturing, fabricating, processing, cleaning, laundering or assembly of any product, commodity or article.
Written notification, given either by personal service or by registered mail, sent to the last-known address of such owner.
Each single-dwelling unit, household unit, flat or apartment unit, store, shop, office, business or industrial unit or family unit contained within any structure erected and intended for continuous or periodic habitation, occupancy or use by human beings or animals and from which structure sanitary sewage is or may be discharged.
Any individual, partnership, firm, company, association, society, corporation or group.
The standards described in § 345-6.
Improved property benefited, improved and accommodated by the sewer system.
Water carrying household and toilet wastes from residential, business, institutional, commercial or industrial establishments.
Refers to the public sanitary sewer collection system, together with appurtenant facilities and any temporary facilities or equipment, constructed by or for the Borough and any improvements, additions or extensions that hereafter may be made by the Authority or the Borough, or to any part or parts of any or all thereof. It shall include all temporary and permanent facilities at any time, and from time to time, owned or operated by the Authority, within the Borough and used or usable for, or in connection with, the collection of wastewaters.
The water carried from households and establishments during plumbing usage and toilet wastes from residential, commercial and industrial establishments, as well as any solid, liquid, or gaseous substance or waterborne wastes or form of energy rejected or escaping from any industrial, manufacturing, commercial, trade or business process or from the development, recovery or processing of natural resources which are suitable for discharge to the sewer system.
The Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority, its successors and assigns.
A fee may be imposed upon each owner of each property connecting to the sewer system. The tapping or connection fee for each connection made to such sewer system shall be determined by the Authority as required by law or regulations. The Authority may, from time to time, enact or approve rate and fee resolutions which shall apply to all properties within the Borough.
A fee may be imposed upon each owner of each property connected to the sewer system. Rental and usage fees for each connection made to such sewer system shall be determined by the Authority as required by law or regulations. The Authority may, from time to time, enact or approve rate and fee resolutions which shall apply to all properties within the Borough. The Borough and the Authority reserve the right to impose surcharges for excess strength wastewaters as circumstances render advisable.
When directed by the Borough or the Authority, industrial establishments shall install, pay for, and maintain a manhole and other devices as may be approved by the Borough or the Authority to facilitate observation, measurement and sampling of wastewaters discharged to the sewer system. The Borough, the Authority or their duly authorized representatives shall, at all reasonable times, be permitted to enter upon any and all properties for the purpose of inspecting, observing, measuring, and sampling wastewaters discharged to the sewer system. The owner of any industrial establishment that desires to connect to the sewer system or which is connected to the sewer system and plans to change its operations so as to materially alter the characteristics and volumes of wastewaters discharged thereto shall notify the Borough and the Authority in writing at least 10 days before making such connection or changing its operations.
A.
The Borough and the Authority reserve the right to refuse permission to connect to the sewer system, to compel discontinuance of use of the sewer system, or to compel retreatment of wastewaters by any user in order to prevent discharges deemed harmful, or to have a deleterious effect upon any portion of the sewer system or upon the facilities of the Authority.
B.
The discharge of roof water, stormwater, surface drainage, and building foundation drainage to the sewer system is expressly prohibited.
C.
No user shall introduce or cause to be introduced into the sewer system any pollutant or wastewater which causes pass through or interference. These general prohibitions apply to all users of the public sewer treatment whether or not they are subject to categorical pretreatment standards or any other national, state, or local pretreatment standards requirements.
D.
No user shall introduce or cause to be introduced into the public sewer treatment the following pollutants, substances or wastewater:
(1)
Having a temperature which causes the temperature at the introduction into the treatment plane to exceed 104° F. (40° C.).
(2)
Containing more than 100 parts per million by weight of fats, oils and grease.
(3)
Containing any garbage which has not been ground by household type or other suitable garbage grinders.
(4)
Containing any ashes, cinders, sand, mud, straw, shavings, metal, glass, rags, feathers, tar, plastics, wood, paunch manure, or any other solid or viscous substance capable of causing obstructions or other interferences with proper operation of the sewer system or sewers and facilities of the Authority.
(5)
Containing radioactive wastes or isotopes of such half-life or concentration as may exceed state or federal limits.
(6)
Containing any liquids, solids or gases which by reason of their nature or quantity are or may be sufficient, either alone or by interaction with other substances, to cause fire or explosion, or be injurious in any other way to the sewer system. At no time may two successive readings on an explosion hazard meter at the point of discharge in the sewer system (or at any point in the system) register greater than 5%, nor may any single reading register greater than 10% of the lower explosive limit (LEL) of the meter or with a close-cup flashpoint of less than 140° F. (60° C.) using the test methods specified in 40 CFR 261.21. Prohibited materials shall include, but are not limited to, gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil, naphtha, benzene, toluene, xylene, ethers, alcohols, ketones, hydrides, sulfides, or any other substance which the Borough, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection or the United States Environmental Protection Agency has classified as inflammable or explosive, a fire hazard or a hazard to the sewer system.
(7)
Containing any solid or viscous substances which may cause obstruction to the flow of the sewer system or any other interference with the sewer system, including any damage to the system, including but not limited to grease, garbage with particles greater than 1/2 inch in dimension, animal guts or tissues, paunch manure, bones, blood, hair, hides, spent lime, stone or marble dust, metals, glass, straw, shavings, grass clippings, rags, spent grains, spent hops, wastepaper, wood, plastics, gas, tar, asphalt residue, residue from refining or processing of fuel or lubricating oil, mud, glass grindings, or polishing wastes.
(8)
Containing any substance having a pH lower than 6.0 or higher than 9.0, or having any other corrosive property capable of causing damage or hazards to structures, equipment, or personnel of the sewer system or facilities of the Authority or any other sewage treatment plant facilities.
(9)
Containing toxic or poisonous substances, either singly or by interaction with other pollutants or substances, in sufficient quantity to injure or interfere with any sewage treatment process, to constitute hazards to humans or animals, or to create any hazard in waters, which receive treated effluent from sewage treatment plant facilities, to create a toxic effect in the receiving waters or the system, or to exceed the limitation set forth in a categorical pretreatment standard. Toxic wastes shall include, but not by way of limitation, wastes containing cyanide, chromium, copper, and nickel ions.
(10)
Containing any sludge, screenings, or other residues from the pretreatment of industrial wastes.
(11)
Containing gases, liquids or substances which imparts color which cannot be removed by the treatment process, such as, but not limited to, dye wastes and vegetable tanning solutions, which consequently imparts color to the treatment plant's effluent, thereby violating the Authority's NPDES permit.
(12)
Containing medical wastes, except as specifically authorized by the Executive Director of the Bucks County Water and Sewer Authority in a wastewater discharge permit.
(13)
Containing gases, liquids or substances which cause, alone or in conjunction with other sources, the treatment plant's effluent to fail a toxicity test.
(14)
Containing detergents, surface-active agents, or other substances which may cause excessive foaming in the public sewer treatment system.
(15)
Containing any noxious or malodorous gases, liquids or substances which, either singly or by interaction with other substances, are capable of creating a public nuisance.
(16)
Containing solids of such character and quantity that special and unusual attention is required for their handling.
E.
The Authority may, from time to time, enact or pass regulations, referred to as "The Rules and Regulations for the Use of the Sewer and Sewer Systems for Bucks County Water and Sewer," as amended from time to time, regarding discharge into the public sewer system which are more stringent that the requirements set forth above. In all cases, the more stringent requirements shall be applicable.
The Borough and the Authority reserve the right to require industry having large variations in rates of wastewater discharge to install suitable regulating devices for equalizing waste flows to the sewer system.
The Borough and the Authority's representatives shall have access at all reasonable times to water and any other meters used for establishing or determining water consumption, water excluded from the sewer system, and/or wastewaters discharged to the sewer system.
The Borough and the Authority reserve the right to impose surcharges for excess strength wastewaters as circumstances deem advisable.
The Borough and the Authority reserve the right to, and may from time to time, adopt, revise, amend and readopt such rules and regulations as it deems necessary and proper for the use and operation of the sewer system, and all such rules and regulations shall be and become a part of this chapter.
The above tapping and connection fees shall be payable upon application for permit to make connection to the sewer system. Sewer rentals shall commence as of the date a property connects to the sewer system. All sewer rental billings shall be rendered in arrears of the service provided for calendar quarter service periods on January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1 of each year a property is connected to the sewer system. Owners of property connected to the system for only a portion of a calendar quarter shall pay a pro rata sewer rental for the period of time actually connected during the quarter.
Quarterly charges for sewer service shall be subject to 5% penalty if not paid within 30 days after the date of the billing. If not paid within 60 days after becoming due, the Authority shall have the right to cut off sewer service from the delinquent premises and not to restore the same until all delinquent bills against the same and the cost of cutting off and restoring service shall have been paid. All persons connected to the sewer system must give the Borough and the Authority their correct address. Failure to receive bills will not be considered an excuse for nonpayment nor permit an extension of the period during which bills are payable at face. Payments made, as evidenced by the United States Post Office mark, on or previous to the end of the period during which the bills are payable at face will be deemed to be a payment within such period. All sewer rentals, together with all penalties thereon, not paid on or before the end of one year from the date of each bill shall be deemed to be delinquent. All delinquent sewer rentals and all penalties thereon shall be a lien on the property served and shall be entered as a lien against such property in the Office of the Prothonotary of Bucks County and shall be collected in the manner provided by law for the filing and collection of such liens.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. I)]
A.
The provisions of this article are declared to be for the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the Borough, and persons violating any provisions of this article shall, upon conviction in a summary proceeding under the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure, be guilty of a summary offense and shall be punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000, plus court costs and reasonable attorneys' fees incurred by the Borough in the enforcement proceedings. Upon judgment against any person by summary conviction, or by proceedings by summons on default of the payment of the fine or penalty imposed and the costs, the defendant may be sentenced and committed to the county correctional facility for a period not exceeding 30 days. Each ninety-day period during which such violation of such provisions shall continue shall be deemed to be a separate offense. Each occupied building required to make separate connections for each occupied building or unit shall constitute a separate and distinct unit under the provisions of this article and the persons owning occupied buildings consisting of multiple units contained in the same structure who violate any of the provisions of this article shall be subject to the aforesaid fine for each and everyone of such occupied buildings or units which are in violation of the provisions of this article.
B.
In addition to proceeding under any other remedy available at law or equity for violation of pretreatment standards and/or requirements, a publicly owned treatment works with an approved pretreatment program may assess a civil penalty upon an industrial user for the violation pursuant to the Publicly Owned Treatment Works Penalty Law, 35 P.S. § 752.4. The penalty may be assessed whether or not the violation was willful or negligent. The civil penalty shall not exceed $25,000 per day for each violation, regardless of jurisdictional boundaries. Each violation for each separate day shall constitute a separate and distinct offense under this section.