The Town, in order to comply with applicable
federal and state laws and regulations, and to provide an equitable
method for the payment of the cost of the construction, operation,
maintenance, and debt service of the Town sewer system and wastewater
treatment plant, establishes and imposes, pursuant to Town Law, Articles
12, 12-A and 12-C, and other applicable statutory authority, an annual
sewer rent charge and special assessment upon the real property of
the users of said system within the Town. In addition, the Town Board
is authorized and empowered to enter into such agreements with other
municipalities and persons or to enact necessary legislation to ensure
that users of said system located outside of the Town shall pay an
equitable portion of the cost of the system.
The Administrator shall classify property into
industrial and nonindustrial users depending upon the type of discharge
from the property. Any property discharging other than average domestic
sewage shall be subject to the provisions of this article governing
industrial users. Average domestic sewage shall be wastewater with
a maximum of the following characteristics:
A.
Sewer charges shall be determined quarterly on January
1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 of each year and billed as close
to said dates as is practicable. Special assessments shall be billed
annually with property tax bills.
B.
The sewer charge shall be determined on each of the
foregoing dates by multiplying the number of 1,000 gallons of water
(rounded to the nearest whole number) used by a user for the preceding
three months as determined by the Administrator, by the sewer rate
as determined by the administrator and approved by the Town Board.
The special assessment rate, per unit, shall be determined by dividing
the total estimated capital costs for the upcoming year (bond interest
and principle, capital fund contributions, or the sums attributed
to capital projects) by the estimated past year's water usage in 1,000
gallons. Each sewered property, or property within 100 feet of a Town
sewer, shall be assessed one unit. Each 75,000 gallons of water usage
or 100 feet of property frontage along the sewer shall represent one
unit, whichever is greater. Where the past year's water usage is not
available, Administrator shall estimate usage.
C.
In the case of a user who contributes an amount of sewage substantially less or greater than the amount of metered water used by the user, the Administrator shall determine a fair and equitable sewer charge and special assessment, taking into consideration the provisions of Article IV of this Part 2 and such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Administrator or Town Board. Substantial for the purposes hereof shall mean at least 15%.
D.
Any user aggrieved by a sewer charge or special assessment
shall present his grievance to the Town Board through the Administrator.
Such Board shall have the power to review such grievance and to affirm
or modify the sewer charge or special assessment. If the charge is
modified, the Board shall state its reasons, in writing, and shall
order that a refund be paid to the grievant.
[Amended 8-5-1998 by L.L.
No. 2-1998]
A bill for each quarterly sewer charge shall
be mailed on or about the dates set forth in the preceding section
to the last known user of each metered premises in the Town as shown
on the records of the Administrator. Payment of such bill at the office
of the Town Water/Sewer Department in the Town Hall shall be made
no later than 30 days from the date of the billing. Failure to timely
mail such bill or failure of any user to receive such billing shall
not be an excuse for nonpayment.
Penalties for late or nonpayment of an installment
of sewer rents and special assessments shall be 10% of the amount
due, and such penalty shall be added to the unpaid sewer rent in arrears
for 30 days or longer. If the sewer rent remains unpaid for 60 days
from the date due, the sewer service is subject to being discontinued
without notice. Penalties for late or nonpayment of an installment
of sewer rents and special assessments are hereby fixed as, and made
nonincidental with, those penalties fixed after late payment or nonpayment
of real property taxes as currently established and as amended from
time to time by the Town Board.
Sewer rents, special assessments and penalties
shall constitute a lien upon the real property within the Town to
the extent set forth in General Municipal Law § 425 and
Town Law § 198, and the Town may enforce the collection
of delinquent sewer rents and special assessments by any method authorized
by said sections.
Industrial users connected to the sewer system
by any means shall pay an industrial user charge for the utilization
of the treatment works for discharging industrial waste or other wastes
accepted for discharge. The industrial user shall consist of but not
be limited to the following charges:
A.
Operation and maintenance charges attributed to treatment
at the City of Cortland Wastewater Treatment Plant and conveyance
in the Town sewer collection system.
B.
Debt service charges attributed to treatment at the
City of Cortland Wastewater Treatment Plant. Computation of the applicable
industrial user charges shall be done by the Administrator using the
following formulas:
(1)  equation.tif.SM.png)
For operation and maintenance:
 equation.tif.png)
(2)  equation.tif.SM.png)
For debt service charges:
 equation.tif.png)
|
Where:
|
IC
|
=
|
Industrial share of operation and maintenance
cost
| |
|
OM
|
=
|
Annual operation and maintenance cost of treatment
plant
| ||
|
QP
|
=
|
Percentage of O&M attributable to flow
| ||
|
QI
|
=
|
Average daily discharge flow (mgd) from industry
| ||
|
QT
|
=
|
Average daily flow (mgd) at treatment plant
| ||
|
SP
|
=
|
Percentage of O&M attributable to SS
| ||
|
SI
|
=
|
Average daily discharge SS (lbs/day) from industry
| ||
|
ST
|
=
|
Average daily SS (lbs/day) at treatment plant
| ||
|
BP
|
=
|
Percentage of O&M attributable to BOD
| ||
|
BI
|
=
|
Average daily discharge BOD (lbs/day) from industry
| ||
|
BT
|
=
|
Average daily BOD (lbs/day) at treatment plant
| ||
|
NP
|
=
|
Percentage of O&M attributable to NOD
| ||
|
NI
|
=
|
Average daily discharge NOD (lbs/day) from industry
| ||
|
NT
|
=
|
Average daily NOD (lbs/day) at treatment plant
| ||
|
M
|
=
|
Any other parameter
| ||
|
ILS
|
=
|
Industrial share of local debt service
| ||
|
LD
|
=
|
Annual local debt payment
| ||
|
TQP
|
=
|
Percentage of treatment plant cost attributable
to Q
| ||
|
TSP
|
=
|
Percentage of treatment plant cost attributable
to SS
| ||
|
TBP
|
=
|
Percentage of treatment plant cost attributable
to BOD
| ||
|
TNP
|
=
|
Percentage of treatment plant cost attributable
to NOD
|
|
*The formula is based on a thirty-year payback,
although a lump sum payment can be made.
|
C.
A special assessment as described in § 171-43. The total industrial waste surcharge (IWS) is computed using the following equations:
(1)
The total local charge (TLC) is the sum of the operation
and maintenance charge (IC) and the debt retirement charge (ILS):
|
TLC = IC + ILS
|
(2)
The industrial waste surcharge (IWS) is the total
local charge less any taxes (TX) as provided by law paid by the user
which provides revenue for operating and/or paying the capital cost
of a treatment facility. If the taxes (TX) are greater than the total
local charges (TLC), there shall be no reimbursement:
|
IWS T= TLC = TX
|
The industrial waste surcharge shall be based
upon the measured or estimated constituents and characteristics of
the wastewater discharge of the user which may include, but not be
limited to: flow rate, biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended
solids and nitrogen. The wastewater constituents used to calculate
the industrial waste surcharge will be those determined by the Administrator.
Any data provided by the user may be used in addition to the data
obtained by the Administrator.
In applying the surcharge formulae, the Administrator
may represent the flow discharged into the system by:
A.
The amount of water supplied to the premises as shown
on the water meter, or water records if the premises is metered.
B.
The volume of wastewater discharged into the sewer
system as determined by measurements and samples taken at a monitoring
facility installed by the owner of the property served by the sewer
system.
C.
Allowance for water not discharged to the sewer system
will be made at the discretion of the Administrator.
D.
A figure determined by the Administrator by a combination
of the foregoing or by any other equitable method.
A.
The pollutant concentration of any wastewater shall usually be determined from representative samples discharged to the community sewers, taken by representatives of the Administrator at sampling stations as described in §§ 171-34 and 171-35, at any period, or time, or of such duration and in such manner as the Administrator may elect, or at any place or manner mutually agreed upon between the user and the Administrator. The intent of any sampling procedure is to establish the pollutant concentration in the wastewater discharge during an average or typical working day. This concentration may be derived according to the best judgment of the Administrator.
B.
The analysis of samples taken shall be performed in
a laboratory of the department, or a laboratory designated by the
Administrator, and the surcharge and/or acceptability of the wastes
shall be determined from said analysis.
C.
All surcharges shall be based on the analysis of the
wastes from any plant or premises related to the analysis of the total
volume of wastes received at the treatment plant. The average value
of the concentrations of pollutants measured during a calendar year
shall be used in calculating the industrial waste surcharge.
D.
Whenever the wastes discharged from a premises to
a public sewer might be expected to show appreciable variation during
the year due to manufacturing process or production variation due
to seasonal changes, the Administrator may average the results of
the two or more series of analysis taken to reflect these variations
and thereby determine an average pollutant concentration.
In the event that the pollutant concentration
of the waste discharged from a premises to a public sewer as determined
under the preceding section is disputed by a user, a program of resampling
and flow measurement with subsequent analytical determination may
be instituted as follows:
A.
The person must submit a request for resampling and
flow measurements of the wastes to the Administrator.
B.
A consultant of recognized professional standing in
the employ of the user must confer with representatives of the Administrator
in order that an agreement may be reached as to the various factors
which must be considered on a new sampling program.
C.
The consultant of recognized professional standing
employed by the user shall conduct a resampling and re-analysis program,
under the direction of the Administrator, for a period of not less
than 48 hours.
D.
The results of the resampling and re-analysis shall
be considered to be the current analysis of the wastes discharged
to the sewer system and shall be used for determining the acceptability
of the sampling and analysis results in question. The new results
shall be used in place of the results in question or in addition to
other data collected by the department for determining the industrial
waste surcharge and/or compliance with the requirements of this Wastewater
Discharge Law.
