Division I. Sewage Disposal System

Chapter 13.04
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Sections:

13.04.010    Short title.

13.04.020    Index.

13.04.030    Purpose and policy.

13.04.040    Specific definitions.

13.04.050    Preplanning assistance.

13.04.010 Short title.

This division shall be known as the “sewage disposal system ordinance” and may be so cited and pleaded and shall be cited herein as “this division.” (Ord. 3 § 10.010, 1973)

13.04.020 Index.1

Chapter 13.04    General Provisions

13.04.010    Short title

13.04.020    Index

13.04.030    Purpose and policy

13.04.040    Specific definitions

13.04.050    Preplanning assistance

Chapter 13.08    Permits

13.08.010    Permits

13.08.020    Application for permit

13.08.030    Application approval or disapproval

13.08.040    Permit issuance

13.08.050    Permit time limits and extensions

13.08.060    Permit denial

13.08.070    Permit suspensions and revocation

13.08.080    Permits public record

13.08.090    Fees for issuance of permits

13.08.100    Fee for on-site preliminary inspection

13.08.110    Exemption from fee

13.08.120    Inspection

13.08.130    Exemptions

Chapter 13.12    Water-Carried Sewage Disposal

13.12.010    Minimum standards

13.12.020    Nuisance abatement

Chapter 13.16    Reserved for Expansion

Chapter 13.20    Nonwater-Carried Sewage Disposal Facilities

13.20.010    Nonwater-carried sewage disposal facilities

Chapter 13.24    Occupancy

13.24.010    Occupancy

Chapter 13.28    Penalties

13.28.010    Notice of violation

13.28.020    Stop work order

13.28.030    Criminal penalty

13.28.040    Criminal penalty not exclusive remedy

13.28.050    Jurisdiction

13.28.060    Appeals

13.28.070    Enforcement

Chapter 13.32    Reserved for Expansion

Chapter 13.36    Construction, Repeal of Conflicting Ordinance, Authority

13.36.010    Construction

13.36.020    Repeal of conflicting ordinances

13.36.030    Effective date

13.36.040    Authority

(Ord. 3 § 10.020, 1973)

13.04.030 Purpose and policy.

The purpose of this division is to promote the public health and welfare by providing a regulatory program in connection with subsurface sewage disposal systems and nonwater-carried sewage disposal facilities and services related thereto that will assure proper conservation of ground water, assure the availability of both adequate and safe water for domestic use, prevent pollution of ground and surface water, existing water supplies and recreational and food-producing areas, minimize disease transmission potential and prevent nuisances and public health hazards. (Ord. 3 § 10.030, 1973)

13.04.040 Specific definitions.

The following definitions shall be applicable to this division:

(1) “Absorptive facility” means a system of open-jointed or perforated piping, alternate distribution units or other seepage system for receiving the flow from septic tanks or other treatment units and designed to distribute effluent for oxidation and absorption by the soil within the zone of aeration.

(2) “Building” means any structure containing plumbing fixtures.

(3) “County” means Crook County.

(4) “Department” means Crook County health office.

(5) “Director” means the Crook County health officer or his authorized representative.

(6) “Domestic sewage system” means any system for domestic sewage disposal other than a subsurface sewage disposal system.

(7) “Dwelling” means any residence or abode including mobile home.

(8) “Effluent sewer” means that part of the system that conveys treated sewage from a septic tank or other treatment facility to an absorptive facility.

(9) “Free water” means water that is free to move through a soil mass under the influence of gravity and is considered that water below the uppermost limits of the water table.

(10) “Intermittent stream channel” means a major gully, dry wash, ravine, or stream channel in which water flows during runoff period or during storm runoff period.

(11) “Nonabsorptive formations” means soils containing 40 percent or more clay, a permeability rate less than 0.63 inches per hour, cemented hardpans, cobbled or crevassed bedrock or bedrock.

(12) “Nonwater-carried sewage disposal facility” includes, but is not limited to, earth pit privies, vault privies and chemical toilets.

(13) “Owner” means the owner or owners of the freehold of the premises or lesser estate therein, a mortgagee or vendee in possession, or an assignee of rents, receiver, executor, trustee, lessee or other person in control of the premises.

(14) “Person” means the state, any individual, public or private corporation, political subdivision, government agency, municipality, industry, copartnership, association, firm, trust, estate or any other legal entity whatsoever.

(15) “Public health hazard” means a condition which presents a significant potential for public exposure to human illness, disorders or disability from, but not limited to, pathogenic viruses, bacteria, parasites, toxic chemicals or radioactive isotopes.

(16) “Septic tank” means a watertight receptacle which receives the discharge of sewage from a sanitary drainage system and which is so designed and constructed as to separate solids from liquids, digest organic matter through a period of detention, and allow liquids to discharge into the soil outside of the tank through an absorption facility.

(17) “Sewage” means the water-carried human and animal wastes, including but not limited to kitchen, bath and laundry wastes from residences, buildings, industrial establishments and other places, together with such ground water infiltration, surface waters or industrial waste as may be present.

(18) “Sewage disposal service” means any of the following:

(a) The construction, installation, alteration, repair or extension of a subsurface sewage disposal system or parts thereof.

(b) The pumping out or cleaning of subsurface sewage disposal systems or nonwater-carried sewage disposal system or parts thereof.

(c) The disposal of materials derived from activities described in subsection (b) of this defintion.

(d) All “work” as described in subsection (22) of this section.

(e) The construction of drain and sewage lines from five feet outside a building or structure to the service lateral at the curb or in the street or alley, or other disposal terminal holding human or domestic sewage.

(19) “Subsurface sewage disposal system” means the combination of a building sewer, septic tank or other treatment unit and effluent sewer and absorption facility.

(20) “Usable land” means that square footage of any lot that is free from easements of any kind or public and private road rights-of-way.

(21) “Water table” means the elevation of the upper surface of the zone of saturation at which the hydrostatic pressure is equal to atmospheric pressure.

(22) “Work” means excavating, moving, erecting, constructing, creating, changing, altering or adding to a sewage disposal system of any building, dwelling or other sewage disposal facility.

(23) “Zone of aeration” means the unsaturated zone that occurs below the surface of the ground and the point at which the upper limit of the water table exists. (Ord. 3 § 10.040, 1973)

13.04.050 Preplanning assistance.

The director shall be available to aid citizens by rendering his opinion concerning the suitability of a site for a proposed subsurface sewage disposal system. The director’s opinion shall be rendered on the current situation of the site in question. All subdivisions or land partitioning shall be required to obtain an opinion from the director, prior to final platting, and this opinion shall become part of the plat. In any approved development where lots are later cut into smaller parcels, each smaller lot shall be evaluated on its own merit.

Once a formerly approved individual lot is divided, the previous approval shall be considered nullified. Also, any subsequent physical changes in the site may invalidate the director’s opinion. (Ord. 3 § 10.050, 1973)


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Code reviser’s note: This section was accurate as of the 2004 codification, but will not be updated to reflect future changes to this division.