No person shall uncover, make any connections with, or opening into, use, alter, disturb, or discharge into any public sewer or appurtenance thereof without first obtaining a written permit from the Administrator or Town Board where designated.
There shall be two classes of building sewer permits: for residential and commercial services; and for service to establishments producing industrial wastes. In either case, the owner or his or her agent shall make application on a special form furnished by the Administrator. The permit application shall be accompanied by plans, profiles, specifications or other information considered pertinent by the Administrator. All permit applications for service to establishments producing industrial wastes shall be subject to Town Board approval after a public hearing. A permit and inspection fee for a residential or commercial building sewer permit or for an industrial building sewer permit in the amount prescribed in a fee schedule adopted by the Town Board shall be paid to the Sewer District at the time that the application is filed.
All costs and expenses in installing and connecting a private sewer system or building sewer to the Town sewer system after completion of the Town sewer system shall be borne by the owner. The owner shall indemnify the Sewer District for any loss or damage that might be occasioned by the installation and connection of such public sewer system or building sewer.
A separate and independent building sewer shall be provided for every building except where one building stands at the rear of another on a separate interior lot, and no sewer is available or can be constructed to the rear building through an adjoining alley, court, yard, or driveway, the building sewer from the front building may be extended to the rear building, and the whole considered as one building sewer; but each shall be considered a separate unit for the purpose of sewage service charges.
Existing building sewers may be used in conjunction with new buildings only when they are found, upon inspection and testing by the Administrator, to meet all requirements of this chapter, and any other specifications adopted by the Administrator.
The size, slope, alignment, materials or construction of a building sewer, appurtenances, and the methods to be used in excavating, placing of the building sewer pipe, jointing, testing, and backfilling the trench, shall conform to the requirements of the specifications for the installation of building sewers as adopted by the Town Board and all applicable provisions of any other rules and regulations of the Town of Gardiner, or of the County of Ulster, and the State of New York, whichever requirement is more strict. In the absence of any requirements, or in amplification thereof, the materials and procedures set forth in appropriate specifications of the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM), and Water Pollution Control Federation (WPCF), Manual of Practice No. 9, shall apply. All connections of building sewers to a public sewage system shall be gastight and watertight. Any deviations from the prescribed materials and construction procedures must be approved by the Administrator prior to installation.
Whenever possible, the building sewer shall be brought to the building at an elevation below the basement floor. In all buildings in which any building drain is too low to permit gravity flow to the public sewer, sewage carried by such building drain shall be lifted by a method approved by the Administrator and discharged to a gravity flow building sewer.
No person shall make a connection of roof downspouts, exterior foundation drains, areaway drains, or other sources of surface runoff or groundwater, to a building sewer or building drain, which in turn is connected to a public sewer.
The applicant for the connection of any building sewer to a public sewer system owned or maintained by the Sewer District shall notify the Administrator when the building sewer is ready for inspection and connection to the public sewer. In no case shall any underground portions of the building sewer be covered, or connection to the public sewer made, without the approval and/or supervision of the Administrator, or his or her representative. Permission to activate the building sewer will be given only after satisfactory final inspection has been made, and approval given by the Administrator.
All excavations for building sewer excavations shall comply with all federal, state and local safety regulations, and shall be adequately guarded with barricades and lights so as to protect the public from hazard. Streets, sidewalks, parkways, and other public property disturbed in the course of work shall be restored in a manner satisfactory to the Administrator and appropriate municipal authorities.
Building sewers shall be maintained, serviced, and repaired by the owner of the property served from the building drain to the point of intersection of the building drain and the public sewer. In the event that a property is unable to discharge sewage into the public sewer, it will be presumed that the fault is in the private building sewer unless contrary facts are in evidence. Evidence of willful damage to a building sewer being served by a public sewer shall be considered a violation of this chapter.
Before any building whose building sewer is connected to a public sewer is demolished, the owner thereof shall conform to the requirements established by the Administrator. The cutoff or plugging of the building sewer shall be done with the permission, and under the supervision of, the Administrator.