[HISTORY: Adopted by the Borough Council of the Borough of
Walnutport as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where
applicable.]
[Adopted 10-10-1973 by Ord. No. 73-9 (Ch. 18, Part 1, of the
1983 Code of Ordinances)]
This article shall be known as the "Walnutport Holding Tank
Ordinance."
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
A person or agency appointed by the Council of the Borough
of Walnutport to perform inspections and issue permits for holding
tanks.
A watertight receptacle which receives and retains sewage
and is designed and constructed to facilitate ultimate disposal of
the sewage at another site.
An individual, copartnership, association, or private corporation.
Any substance that contains any of the waste products or
excrement or other discharge from the bodies of human beings or animals
and any noxious or deleterious substances being harmful or inimical
to the public health, or to animal or aquatic life, or to the use
of water for domestic water supply or for recreation.
Because a holding tank system of sewage disposal does not provide
for final on-lot treatment and disposal of the sewage and since such
tanks require regular service and maintenance to prevent their malfunction
and overflow, they shall only be used when the Council of the Borough
of Walnutport determines that a septic tank and tile field or aerobic
sewage treatment system cannot be used and when the said Council determines
that the refusal to grant permission to utilize a holding tank system
of sewage disposal would inflict unnecessary hardship upon the applicant.
A.
Capacity. A holding tank shall be large enough to hold a minimum
of three days' sewage waste or 1,000 gallons, whichever is larger.
B.
Construction. A holding tank shall be constructed of durable material
and shall be watertight.
C.
Warning device. The collection unit shall be equipped with a warning
device to indicate when the unit is within 75% of capacity. Such warning
device shall create an audible or visible signal at a location frequented
by the homeowner or responsible individual.
D.
Maintenance. Disposal of waste from a collection unit must be to
a site approved by the enforcement officer.
Before any person shall erect, construct, and utilize a holding
tank in the Borough of Walnutport, he shall make application and obtain
a permit from the Council of the Borough of Walnutport.
All applications for a holding tank permit shall be made on
forms provided by the enforcement officer and shall be accompanied
by a permit application fee of $10.
After an application has been received by the enforcement officer,
along with the fee, the Council of the Borough of Walnutport shall
within 60 days of the receipt of said application either reject the
application or issue a permit. Should an application be rejected,
the reasons for such rejection shall be communicated to the applicant.
An inspection fee of $20 shall be paid by any person having
a holding tank permit to the Borough of Walnutport each and every
year beginning the year the permit is issued.
Any person issued a holding tank permit shall permit the enforcement
officer to come onto his property and inspect the holding tank at
such times as the enforcement officer deems reasonable and necessary.
Whenever the warning device shall be active, said tank shall
be emptied within three days of the initiation of said warning signal.
Whenever the enforcement officer informs a person issued a holding
tank permit that said tank or warning device is malfunctioning and
is in need of repair and maintenance, said person shall correct the
defect or problem within three days of the receipt of the notice of
the malfunction.
Should any person issued a permit violate the terms and provisions
of this article, said permit shall be revoked immediately by the Council
of the Borough of Walnutport; and, upon order of said Council, the
holding tank shall be removed from the property.
No permit for a holding tank sewage system shall be granted
by the Council of the Borough of Walnutport unless and until the applicant
for such a permit shall first provide to said Council, competent evidence
that he has fully complied with the Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities
Act (35 P. S. § 750.1 et seq.) and the Rules and Regulations
of the Department of Environmental Protection enacted pursuant to
said Act.
If at any time, the Borough of Walnutport, either through its
Council or through any Municipal Authority created in said Borough,
provides a sanitary sewage system to which any person having a holding
tank permit can connect then, in that event, and after written notice
to so connect by the appropriate Borough or Authority officials, said
person shall within 30 days of said notice connect to said sanitary
sewage system and discontinue the use of the holding tank sewage system.
At the expiration of thirty-day notice period, any permit previously
issued is deemed revoked and null and void.
For any and every violation of any provision of this article
the Borough may exercise any one or more of the following remedies:
A.
Any person who violates or permits a violation of this article shall,
upon conviction in a summary proceeding brought before a Magisterial
District Judge under the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure,
be guilty of a summary offense and shall be punishable by fine of
not less than $100 not more than $1,000, plus cost of prosecution.
In default of payment thereof, the defendant may be sentenced to imprisonment
for a term not exceeding 90 days. Each day or portion thereof that
such violation continues or is permitted to continue shall constitute
a separate offense and each section of this article that is violated
shall also constitute a separate offense.[1]
B.
Upon notice to the person violating this article by certified mail,
return receipt requested, to abate the violation and upon failure
of such person to do so within a period of three days from the date
of the receipt of said notice, the Borough of Walnutport shall take
such steps as are necessary to abate the violation and charge said
person violating this article with all costs thereof, together with
a collection fee of 10% or file a municipal claim or lien against
said person together with a collection fee of 10%, or by an action
of assumpsit without filing of a claim.
C.
Institute proceedings in any court of equity having jurisdiction
to abate the violation.
[Adopted 3-5-1979 by Ord. No. 79-1 (Ch. 18, Part 2, of the
1983 Code of Ordinances)]
[Amended 3-21-1983 by Ord. No. 83-2]
Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the meaning
of the terms used in this article shall be as follows:
Walnutport Authority.
An Engineer employed by the Authority or an authorized member
of his staff.
The Borough of Walnutport, Northampton County, Pennsylvania.
An engineer employed by the Borough or an authorized member
of his staff.
That part of the sewer system extending from a sewer to the
curbline or, if there shall be no curbline, to the edge of the street
abutting the property affected or, if no such lateral shall be provided,
then "lateral sewer" or "service connection" shall mean that portion
of, or place in, a sanitary sewer which is provided for the connection
of any service line.
Any outlet into a watercourse, ditch, pond, lake or other
body of surface or groundwater.
Each single dwelling unit, household unit, flat or apartment
unit, store, shop, office, business, commercial or industrial unit,
or family unit contained within any structure, erected and intended
for continuous or periodic habitation, occupancy or use by human beings
or animals and from which structure sanitary sewage and industrial
wastes, or either thereof, is or may be discharged, located in the
Borough.
Any person vested with ownership, legal or equitable, sole
or partial, of any property situated in the Borough.
Any individual, partnership, company, association, society,
corporation or group.
A sewer which is part of the sewer system and which carries
sanitary sewage and industrial waste permitted to be discharged into
the sewer system.
That part of the main house drain or sewer line extending
from a point five feet outside the outer building wall or foundation
wall to its connection with the lateral sewer.
Sewer mains, lateral sewers from a sewer main to service
line or house connection, sewage ejector and/or pumping stations,
sewer force mains, and all appurtenant facilities operated by the
Borough in furnishing sewage service.
A.
It shall be unlawful for any owner of property who is required to connect to the sewer system pursuant to Subsection B below, to construct or maintain any privy, privy vault, cesspool, sinkhole, septic tank or similar receptacle intended or used for the disposal of sewage within the Borough, or, unless such discharge is pursuant to a permit issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, to discharge or permit the discharge of any sanitary sewage or industrial waste into any natural outlet in the Borough.
B.
Each owner of any occupied building situate on property abutting
on any street, alley or right-of-way in which there has been constructed
a sanitary sewer and where any part of such building is within 150
feet of said sewer and is accessible thereto, shall at his own expense
install suitable sanitary facilities therein and connect such facilities
directly with such sewer in accordance with the provisions of this
article within 90 days after the date of official notice to do so,
given in the manner provided by law. In the event any such owner shall
refuse or neglect to so connect within said ninety-day period, he
shall be deemed to be in violation of this article, and the proper
officers of the Borough, or their agents, may enter upon such property
and construct such connection or cause the proper officers or agents
of the Authority to enter upon such property and construct such connection.
In such case, the Borough Officers shall forthwith, upon completion
of the work, send an itemized bill of the cost of the construction
of such connection to such owner, which bill shall be payable forthwith.
In case of neglect or refusal by such owner to pay said bill, within
30 days thereafter, it shall be the duty of the Borough Officers to
file municipal liens. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions, no
owner of an occupied building shall be required to connect such building
to a sanitary sewer if the Board of the Authority determines that
connecting such building would result in an overloading of sewage
treatment facilities.
C.
No privy, privy vault, cesspool, sinkhole, septic tank or similar
receptacle shall be connected with the sewer system at any time. Each
privy and privy vault shall be abandoned and suitably cleaned and
filled with suitable fill. Each cesspool, sinkhole, septic tank or
similar receptacle shall be abandoned upon the making of connection
to the sewer system and, at the request of the Borough or Authority,
as agents for the Borough, shall be cleaned and filled under its direction
and supervision; and any such cesspool, sinkhole, septic tank or similar
receptacle not so abandoned and, if required by the Borough or the
Authority, as agents, cleaned and filled, shall constitute a nuisance
and such nuisance shall be abated as provided by law at the expense
of the owner of such property.
D.
There is hereby reserved to the Borough the right to refuse to any
person the privilege of connecting any occupied building to the sewer
system, or to compel discontinuance of the use of any sewer by any
person, or to compel the pretreatment of industrial wastes, in order
to prevent discharge into the sewer system of wastes which may be
deemed by the Authority, the Authority Engineer, the Borough or the
Borough Engineer, to be harmful to the sewer system or to have a deleterious
effect on sewage treatment processes or to be injurious to personnel
operating the sewer system.
[Amended 3-21-1983 by Ord. No. 83-2]
A.
No person shall uncover, connect with, make any opening into or use,
alter or disturb in any manner any sewer or the sewer system without
first making application for and obtaining a permit, in writing, from
the Authority, as agent for the Borough.
B.
Application to the Authority for a permit required under this section
shall be made by the owner of the property to be served, in such form
as may be prescribed by the Authority. The application shall be accompanied
by the required connection charge and necessary tapping fee, imposed
by the Borough Council.
C.
No person other than the Borough, the Authority, or their agents,
shall make or cause to be made the connection of any property with
a lateral sewer until such person shall have fulfilled each of the
following conditions:
(1)
Such person shall have notified the Borough of the desire and intention
to connect to a lateral sewer;
(2)
Such person shall apply for and obtain a permit as required by this
section;
(3)
Such person shall have given the Borough at least 24 hours' notice
of the time when such service line is to be connected and such connection
made so that the Borough may inspect the service line and the work
of connection and perform necessary testing.
D.
Payment of the above-mentioned connection charge and necessary tapping
fee shall entitle the applicant to have one lateral sewer installed
to the curbline of his property, but in no case longer than 50 feet,
at the expense of the Authority, including repairing. All additional
costs of constructing a longer lateral sewer, and all costs and expenses
in connecting such lateral sewer to a service line shall be borne
by the owner of the property to be connected, and such owner shall
indemnify and save harmless the Borough and the Authority from all
loss or damage that may be occasioned, directly or indirectly, as
a result of the construction which the owner is required to perform.
E.
Whenever the surface of any public street, sidewalk or cartway is disturbed by the construction of a service line, it shall be the responsibility of the applicant for a connection to obtain necessary permits and permission from the Borough, or highway occupancy permits from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Unless otherwise required, all surfacing materials must be restored in kind, thickness and construction to the satisfaction of the Borough and of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, as the case may be. (See Chapter 390, Streets and Sidewalks, of the Code of the Borough of Walnutport.)
The Borough Engineer, the Authority Engineer, the Plumbing Inspector,
and other duly authorized representatives or employees of the Borough
bearing proper credentials and identification shall be permitted,
at all reasonable times, to enter upon any premises connected or about
to be connected or required to be connected to the sewer system for
the purpose of inspection, observation, measurement, sampling and
testing in accordance with the provisions of this article and the
Pennsylvania Uniform Construction Code.[2]
No person shall maliciously, willfully or negligently damage,
destroy, deface, block or otherwise tamper with any sewer or any other
structure or equipment which is part of the sewer system, or discharge
any substance into the sewer system contrary to or in violation of
the resolution of the Authority imposing sewer rates which, inter
alia, prohibits discharge of wastes into the sewer system and provides
for rules and regulations.
[Amended 3-21-1983 by Ord. No. 83-2]
A.
Any person who shall violate any provision of this article other than §§ 346-19 and 346-20 shall be served by the Borough with written notice stating the nature of the violation and providing a reasonable time limit for the satisfactory correction thereof. (The notice provided in § 346-17B above being deemed to be notice of a violation for this purpose in respect of violations of such section.) The offender shall within the period of time (if any, otherwise forthwith) stated in such notice, permanently cease all violations.
B.
Any person who shall continue any violation beyond the time limit fixed as provided for in Subsection A of this section shall be subject to a fine in an amount not less than $100 nor more than $1,000 for each violation, and, in default of payment of such fine and costs, imprisonment for a term not exceeding 90 days. A new and separate violation shall be deemed to have been committed for each day any violation continues beyond such time limit.[1]
C.
D.
All fines and penalties imposed for violation of any provision of
this article shall be paid to the Treasurer of the Borough for the
use of the Borough.
E.
Any person violating any of the provisions of this article, in addition
to becoming liable for a fine and penalty, shall become liable to
the Borough and/or Authority for any expense, loss or damage occasioned
by the Borough and/or Authority by reason of such violation.
