Chapter 13.01
DEFINITIONS AND GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sections:
13.01.030 General conditions of service.
13.01.040 Application of sewer service.
13.01.010 Purpose and policy.
A. It shall be the policy of the City of Dillingham to construct and operate a system of municipal sanitary sewers in order to protect and promote the public health, safety, and welfare and to provide for the safe disposal of domestic sewage.
B. This title sets forth requirements for waste discharges into the sewerage system including connections to the system, user rates, inspection and enforcement procedures, and other matters appropriate to the operation and regulation of the system. It enables the city to comply with applicable state and federal laws required by the Clean Water Act, as amended, and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit regulations (40 CFR Part 122).
C. The Dillingham city council shall prescribe rules and procedures for the operation and management of the sewerage system. (Ord. 88-05, 1988).
13.01.020 Definitions.
Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the meaning of terms used in this ordinance shall be as follows:
A. “BOD” (denoting Biochemical Oxygen Demand) means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure in five days at twenty degrees Celsius, expressed in milligrams per liter.
B. “Building drain” means that part of the lowest horizontal piping of a drainage system that receives the discharge from soil, waste, and other drainage pipes inside the walls of the building and conveys it to the building sewer, beginning five feet outside the inner face of the building wall.
C. “Building sewer” means the extension from the building drain to the public sewer or other place of disposal.
D. “Combined sewer” means a sewer receiving both surface runoff and sewage.
E. “Commercial wastewater” means the liquid wastes from commercial establishments such as retail stores, offices, stores, and schools. Commercial establishments include all those not classified as residential dwelling units or industrial users.
F. “Garbage” means solid wastes from the domestic and commercial preparation, cooking, and dispensing of food and from the handling, storage, and sale of produce.
G. “Industrial wastewater” means the liquid wastes from industrial manufacturing processes, trade, or business as distinct from sanitary sewage.
H. “Natural outlet” means any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake, or other body of surface water or ground water.
I. “Person” means any individual, firm, company, association, society, corporation, or group.
J. “pH” means the logarithm of the reciprocal of the weight of hydrogen ions in grams per liter of solution.
K. “Privy” means a structure that receives urine and excrement that is not waterborne.
L. “Prohibited substance” means any surface water runoff, hydrocarbons, flammable or explosive substances, sludge, spoils, nondomestic wastewater, septage, heavy metals, radioactive material, or other toxic or hazardous wastes.
M. “Properly shredded garbage” means the wastes from the preparation, cooking, and dispensing of food that have been shredded to such a degree that all particles will be carried freely under the flow conditions normally prevailing in public sewers, with no particle greater than one-half inch in any dimension.
N. “Public sewer” means a sewer controlled by a public authority in which all owners of abutting properties have equal rights.
O. “Sanitary sewer” means a sewer that carries sewage and to which stormwaters, surface waters, and ground waters are not intentionally admitted.
P. “Septage” means sludge from a septic tank or partially digested sludge from an Imhoff tank, sludge digestion tank, or facultative lagoon.
Q. “Septic tank” means a watertight, covered receptacle designed and built to receive domestic wastewater, separate floating and settling solids from the liquid, anaerobically digest organic matter, store digested solids through a period of detention, and allow clarified liquids to discharge for final disposal.
R. “Sewage” means a combination of the water-carried wastes from residences, business buildings, institutions and industrial establishments.
S. “Sewerage system” means all facilities for collecting, pumping, treating and disposing of sewage.
T. “Sewage treatment plant” means any arrangement of devices and structures used for treating sewage.
U. “Sewer” means a pipe or conduit for carrying sewage.
V. “Shall” is mandatory; “may” is permissive.
W. “Storm drain” (sometimes termed “storm sewer”) means a sewer that carries stormwater and surface water and drainage but excludes sewage and industrial wastes.
X. “Superintendent” means the authorized deputy, agent, or representative of the city.
Y. “Suspended solids” means solids that either float on the surface of or are in suspension in water, sewage or other liquids and are removable by laboratory filtering.
Z. “Watercourse” means a channel in which a flow of water occurs either continuously or intermittently. (Ord. 88-05, 1988.)
13.01.030 General conditions of service.
A. All property owners shall comply with the requirements of this section within six months after sanitary sewer service be comes available to the parcel.
B. Where sewer service is available, no person shall receive water utility service who has not previously made a required application for a sewer service connection.
C. Customers accepting sewer service must agree to abide by the rules and regulations set forth in this code, including those alterations or amendments that may be made from time to time.
D. All owners of property receiving sewer service are obligated to pay for such service in accordance with the applicable rate schedule set forth by the Dillingham city council.
E. Failure to receive a sewer billing for any given period of time does not relieve the customer of the responsibility for full payment for service provided.
F. The city may inspect the monitoring facilities of any discharger to determine compliance with the requirements of this title. The user shall allow the city or its representatives, upon presentation of credentials of identification, to enter upon the premises of the user at all reasonable hours for the purposes of inspection, sampling, or records examination. The city will have the right to set upon the discharger’s property such devices as are necessary to conduct sampling, inspection, compliance monitoring, and/or metering operations.
G. The customer is responsible for all frozen sewer connections and extensions, unless otherwise provided for in this title.
H. The city will be responsible for the cost of rodding and/or thawing to eliminate a sewer blockage only when it is determined that the backup and/or freezing was caused by a main line plug or if, after excavation, it is determined that a line failure in either a sewer connection or the main line created the backup. In such case, liability shall be limited to reimbursement for use of a power rodder or for stream thawing performed by a licensed, bonded rodding service or contractor only. (Ord. 88-05, 1988; Ord. 95-05 § 1, 1995; Ord. 08-06 § 2, 2008.)
13.01.040 Application of sewer service.
A. Only the owner of real property receiving sewer service shall be permitted to apply for sewer services to their property. Applications for connection to the sewer system are covered in Section 13.12.010.
B. Application to have sewer service provided to a property shall be made in writing to the city on the city’s form. By receiving service to a property the property owner is agreeing to abide by and accept all of the provisions of this chapter and any regulations adopted pursuant to this chapter.
C. The owner of real property receiving sewer services shall be responsible for payment of all charges for sewer service provided to their real property.
D. Upon written notice on the city’s form, the city will send the sewer bills to a tenant on the real property receiving sewer service. The city will accept payment from the tenant but this in no way will reduce or eliminate the owner’s primary responsibility for the payment of sewer services. (Ord. 08-06 § 3, 2008.)