[Adopted 3-28-1962 by Ord. No. 205 (Ch. 18, Part 2, of the
1989 Code of Ordinances)]
All owners of property located within the Borough of Port Vue
and having access to and connected with the sewer system of the Borough
of Port Vue shall pay to the Borough an annual sewage treatment service
charge, payable in quarterly installments as herein provided, for
the treatment of sewage in accordance with the following schedule
and with regulations as provided herein.
[Amended 9-13-1963 by Ord. No. 222; 3-13-1964 by Ord. No. 228; 5-14-1965 by Ord. No. 248; 8-11-1967 by Ord. No. 262; 6-8-1976 by Ord. No.
302; 8-18-1981 by Ord. No. 337; 3-15-1983 by Ord. No. 354; 6-24-1987 by Ord. No. 382; 1-16-1990 by Ord. No. 404; 4-17-1990 by Ord. No.
409; 12-21-1999 by Ord. No. 485]
Sewage treatment service charges shall be as follows:
A.
Metered water consumers.
[Amended 12-23-2002 by Ord. No. 514; 3-7-2006 by Ord. No. 545; 3-6-2007 by Ord. No. 550; 4-1-2008 by Ord. No. 552; 3-4-2009 by Ord. No.
560; 11-4-2009 by Ord. No. 562; 4-5-2011 by Ord. No. 571]
(1)
All owners of property located within the Borough and provided with
metered water service, with exceptions hereinafter set forth, shall
pay a sewage treatment service charge to the Borough, or its agent,
based upon actual volumes of water consumed, at the minimum charge
for service of $56.70 per consumer for the first 4,000 gallons of
water or less consumed per quarter, and $9.95 per 1,000 gallons of
water, or any part thereof, in excess of 4,000 gallons of water consumed
per quarter. All billings shall be rendered quarterly. Multiple minimum
charges for services shall be billed metered consumers having two
or more families on one water meter based upon the number of family
units.
[1]
Editor's Note: This ordinance provided an effective date of
1-1-2015.
(2)
The volume of water to be used for billing service charges under this Subsection A(1) shall include metered water and, in addition, all water obtained from wells, springs, streams, etc., as determined:
[Amended 2-4-2015 by Ord.
No. 591]
(3)
When the word "owners" is used in this article, it shall include
schools, churches, hospitals, clubs, societies and all charitable
institutions and public/quasi-public corporations.
[Amended 2-4-2015 by Ord.
No. 591]
(4)
In the event that a delinquent account letter must be issued for
an account, the owner of said account will be charged $10 for each
delinquent account letter.
(5)
In the event that a property linked to an account must be posted
for water shutoff, the owner of said account will be charged $25 for
each posting.
B.
Property owners who exclude wastewaters from sewer system.
(1)
Exclusion from the sewer system of noncontaminated wastewaters may
be required by the Borough, or such exclusion may be optional with
the property owner if not required by the Borough. When such wastewaters
are excluded, the volume may be determined from meters installed and
maintained by the property owner, from estimates or measurements made
by the Borough, or the property owner may elect to measure the volume
of waste actually discharged to the sewer system as provided for below.
(2)
The Borough may require any industrial establishments, or the industrial establishment may elect to install, pay for, and maintain a meter approved by the Borough for measuring the volume of wastewaters discharged to the sewer system, in which case service charges shall be based upon the actual volume of waste discharged to the sewer system; said service charges shall be computed at the rates stipulated under Subsection A above.
(3)
Any premises used wholly or in any part for the manufacture, processing,
cleaning, laundering or assembly of any product, commodity or article
shall be defined as an industrial establishment for the service charge
purposes.
C.
Nonmetered water consumers.
(1)
All owners of residential property connected to the sewer system
having an unmetered private water supply and/or supplied with unmetered
water service by the Borough shall pay a flat service charge which,
in the aggregate, equals $25 per dwelling unit per quarter, or its
adjusted equivalent, for sewage treatment service charge periods as
hereinafter defined of less than one year.
(2)
For service charge purposes, a "dwelling unit" shall be defined as
any room, group of rooms, enclosure, etc., occupied or intended for
occupancy as a separate living quarters by persons living alone. Each
dwelling unit in a double house, in a row of connecting houses, or
in an apartment shall be billed as a separate entity.
(3)
All owners of nonresidential property connected to the sewer system
having an unmetered private water supply and/or supplied with unmetered
water service by the Borough, from time to time, shall pay a flat
service charge based upon estimated water consumption or waste volume
of the Borough then in effect.
D.
Strength-of-waste surcharge for industrial establishments. Industrial establishments as defined hereinbefore discharging sewage and/or wastes to the sewer system having an average suspended solids content greater than 250 parts per million (ppm) and a chlorine demand greater than 15 ppm shall pay a strength-of-waste surcharge of 1/10 of 1% for each part per million by which the suspended solids exceed 250 ppm, plus 1/2 of 1% for each part per million by which the chlorine demand exceeds 15 ppm. Surcharges shall be applicable to billing for sewage treatment service charges under Subsections A and B above. The strength of sewage and/or waste to be used for establishing the amount of surcharge shall be determined at least once annually, either by suitable sampling and analyses of the wastes for a three-day period, during which time the strength of waste being discharged or production is at a maximum; or by relating production and waste strength at the time of sampling to waste strength at maximum production if sampling is not performed at the time of maximum production; or from estimates; or from relationships of products produced to strengths of waste for those industries where such relationships have been established. In establishing waste strengths for surcharge purposes, analyses shall be made in accordance with procedures outlined in the latest edition of "Standard Methods for Analysis of Water and Sewage," published by the American Public Health Association.
E.
Minimum sewage treatment service charge for commercial and industrial
establishments. Service charges billed to commercial and industrial
establishments shall be not less than $3.60 per employee per annum
or its adjusted equivalent for service charge periods less than one
year, based upon the average number of persons employed per working
day during the service period for which the billing is rendered. In
no event, however, shall the total billing for any service period
be less than 50% of the maximum billing of any one of the three consecutive
preceding service periods. All nonresidential establishments, with
the exception of schools, churches, hospitals and charitable institutions,
shall be subject to the above stipulated minimum treatment service
charges.
F.
Minimum sewage treatment service for schools. Service charges billed
to schools shall be not less than $1.80 per pupil per annum or its
adjusted equivalent for sewer service periods less than one year,
based upon the average number of pupils enrolled on days when the
school is in session during the full school term immediately preceding
the date of each service charge billing rendered. Teachers shall be
counted as pupils for service charge billing purposes.
G.
Additional classifications. Additional classifications, service charges
or modifications of the above schedule may be established by the Borough
from time to time as deemed necessary.
A.
The schedule of sewage treatment charges set forth herein shall be
payable by all property owners connected to the system on the date
of the adoption of this article. In the event the property owner does
not reside at the premises, the property owner is required to provide
his or her current address to the Borough. In the event a property
owner moves away from the address where sewage treatment charges are
incurred, the property owner is required to provide the Borough with
an updated address within 10 days. All bills for sewage treatment
charges will be sent directly to the owner, whether or not they are
residing at the premises, who will be solely liable for all charges.
All new consumers connected to the sewer system hereafter will begin
to pay the service charges as of the date of connection. All billings
for treatment service shall be rendered in arrears of the sewage treatment
service period covered for the billing.
[Amended 6-7-2011 by Ord. No. 573]
B.
All bills for sewage treatment service shall be due and payable at
face value for a period of 21 days from the date of the bill; thereafter,
such bills shall be subject to a penalty of 5%. The Borough shall
have the power and authority to make all rules and regulations concerning
sewage treatment service billing mechanics deemed advisable.
C.
Each sewage treatment service charge hereby imposed shall be a lien
on the property served by the sewage system of the Borough of Port
Vue, and such lien may be filed in the office of the Prothonotary
and collected in the manner provided by law for the filing and collection
of taxes as municipal claims.
The funds received by the Borough from the collection of service
charges herein provided for shall be used only for the purpose of
defraying the expense of the Borough, as approved by the consulting
engineer, in the operation, maintenance, repair, alteration, inspection,
depreciation or other expense in relation to such sewer and sewage
system and for such payments as the Borough may be required to make
under its agreement with the McKeesport Municipal Authority for sewage
treatment service.
The duly authorized agents of the Borough shall have access
at all reasonable hours of the day to all parts of the premises to
which sewer service is supplied to make necessary inspections to enforce
the provisions of this article.
[Added 3-21-1989 by Ord. No. 396]
A.
The Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County, upon proper request
and direction of the Borough, shall be authorized to shut off the
water supply to certain premises until all overdue rentals, rates
and charges, together with any penalties and interest thereon, shall
be paid as the result of neglect or failure to pay for a specified
period, as set forth by law, any rental rate or charge for sewer or
sewage treatment service imposed by the Borough.
B.
Any and all fees and costs imposed upon the Borough by the Municipal
Authority of Westmoreland County in the shutting off and restoring
of service to such premises, which such fees and costs shall include
shutoff fees, restoration fees and mileage computed to and from the
subject premises, shall be assessed by the Borough against the serviced
premises, and such fees and costs shall constitute a lien on the property
serviced by the sewage system of the Borough. Such lien may be filed
in the office of the Prothonotary and collected in the manner provided
by law for the filing and collection of municipal claims or by an
action in assumpsit.
C.
This assessment of fees and costs shall constitute an additional
penalty for nonpayment of sewage charges. All penalties and costs
established in prior sections relative to delinquent sewage shall
remain in full force and effect.
[Amended 9-12-1989 by Ord. No. 401; 5-30-1990 by Ord. No. 412]
Any person, partnership, or corporation who shall violate any
provision of this article shall, upon conviction thereof, be sentenced
to pay a fine of not more than $600, and costs of prosecution, or,
in default of payment of such fine and costs, to undergo imprisonment
for not more than 90 days, provided each violation of any provision
of this article, and each day the same is continued, shall be deemed
a separate offense.
