[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Supervisors
of the Township of Middle Smithfield 7-10-2001 by Ord. No. 106. Amendments noted where
applicable.]
This chapter shall be known and may be cited
as the "Middle Smithfield Township Grease Trap Ordinance."
Unless the context specifically and clearly
indicates otherwise, the meaning of terms and phrases used in this
chapter shall be as follows:
Any room, group of rooms, building or enclosure used or intended
for use in the operation of one business enterprise for the sale and
distribution of any product, commodity, article or service or used
or intended for use for any social, amusement, religious, educational,
charitable or public purpose and containing plumbing facilities for
kitchen, toilet or washing facilities.[1]
Any room, group of rooms, house trailer or other enclosure
occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters by
a family or other group of persons living together or by persons living
alone.
Any establishment where food, foodstuff or beverages is served
to, or provided for human consumption, with or without charge, including,
among others, hotels, restaurants, cafes, cafeterias, clubs, boardinghouses,
ice cream parlors, soda water or soft drink fountains and bars or
taverns.
Any establishment where food, food products and beverages
are manufactured, processed, packaged or bottled, or sold for consumption
off the premises of the seller, including, among others, bakeries,
beverage distributors, bottlers, candy and confectionery manufacturers,
dairies, frozen food locker plants, wholesalers and retailers and
operators of vending machine services.
A device installed in a sanitary waste pipe for the purpose
of collecting grease and preventing it from continuing to travel in
the waste piping system. Grease traps may be installed internally,
in the inside of a building at the various grease-producing plumbing
fixtures and equipment, or they may be installed externally, outside
of the building.
The rules and regulations promulgated by Middle Smithfield
Township and the Middle Smithfield Township Sewer Department, which
rules and regulations establish best management practices ("BMPs")
for food service operators to ensure that they properly maintain their
grease traps.
[Added 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
Any property upon which there is erected a structure intended
for continuous or periodic habitation, occupancy or use by human beings
or animals and from which structure sanitary sewage and/or industrial
wastes shall be or may be discharged.
Any room, group of rooms, building or other enclosure used
or intended for use, in whole or in part, in the operation of one
business enterprise for manufacturing, fabricating, processing, cleaning,
laundering or assembling any product, commodity or article or from
which any process waste, as distinct from sanitary sewage, shall be
discharged.
Any solid, liquid or gaseous substance or water-borne wastes
or form of energy rejected or escaping in the course of any industrial,
manufacturing, trade or business process or in the course of the development,
recovery or processing of natural resources, as distinct from sanitary
sewage.
Any room, group of rooms, building or other enclosure which
does not constitute a commercial establishment, a dwelling unit or
an industrial establishment.
The Middle Smithfield Township Sewer Department, acting by
and through the Board of Supervisors of Middle Smithfield Township
or, in appropriate cases, acting by and through its authorized representative(s).
[Added 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
Any person vested with ownership, legal or equitable, sole
or partial, of any improved property.
Any individual, partnership, company, association, society,
corporation, trust, governmental body, political subdivision, municipality,
municipality authority or other group or entity.
Normal water-carried household and toilet wastes from any
improved property, including such ground, surface or storm water as
may be present.
A device installed in a sanitary waste pipe for the purpose
of separating and collecting oily and/or flammable wastes, sands,
heavy solids, glass, rags, feathers and/or other similar materials,
which may have a detrimental effect on the operation of the sewer
system or sewage treatment facility, and preventing them from continuing
to travel in the waste piping system.
All facilities, as of any particular time, for collecting
and transporting sanitary sewage and/or industrial wastes, acquired,
constructed, owned and operated by the Sewer Department.
[Amended 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
All facilities, as of any particular time, for transporting,
treating and disposing of sanitary sewage and/or industrial wastes,
owned and operated by the Sewer Department.
[Amended 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
Any pipe or conduit constituting a part of the sewage collection
system used or usable for sewage collection purposes.
See definition for "Middle Smithfield Township Sewer Department."
[Added 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
The sewage collection system and the sewage disposal system.
The Township of Middle Smithfield, Monroe County, a Pennsylvania
municipality, acting by and through its Board of Supervisors or, in
appropriate cases, acting by and through its authorized representative.
[1]
Editor's Note: The former definition of "authority," which
immediately preceded this definition, was repealed 5-13-2010 by Ord.
No. 174. See now the definition of "Middle Smithfield Township Sewer
Department."
A.Â
The provisions of this chapter are intended to apply
to all existing and future users of the sewer system. Existing users
shall have 90 days from the adoption of this chapter to construct
such facilities and take such measures as may be necessary to bring
their establishments in conformance with this chapter.
B.Â
Future users of the sewer system shall be in compliance
with this chapter at the time connection is allowed to the system.
Neither separators nor grease traps are required
for dwelling units. If, however, groups of dwelling units utilize
a common kitchen facility or dining facility, then the provisions
of this chapter shall be applied.
[Amended 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
All users currently connected to the sewer system
and all future users who apply for connection to the sewer system
in the future are required to provide information and documentation
to the Sewer Department sufficient so that the Sewer Department may
determine whether a separator or grease trap is required.
The following wastes are prohibited from being
deposited into the public sanitary sewer system: solid or viscous
substances which may cause obstruction to the flow in a sewer or other
interference with the operation of the wastewater treatment facilities
such as, but not limited to, grease, garbage with particles greater
than 1/2 inch in any dimension, animal guts or tissues, paunch manure,
bones, hair, hides, spent lime, stone or marble dust, metal, glass,
straw, shavings, grass clippings, rags, spent grains, spent hops,
waste paper, wood, plastics, gas, tar, asphalt residues, residues
from refining or processing of fuel or lubricating oil, mud, glass
grindings, polishing wastes, fur, ashes, incinerator residue, dredged
spoil, solid waste, construction materials, rock, sand, cellar dirt,
feathers, wood, wax, cinders or medical waste.
A.Â
Grease traps shall be provided when, in the opinion
of the Sewer Department, they are necessary for the proper handling
of liquid wastes containing floatable grease in such amounts as to
cause obstruction to the flow in a sewer or other interference with
the operation of the wastewater treatment facilities. In general,
grease traps shall be required at eating and drinking places and food
or beverage manufacturing, processing and merchandising establishments.
[Amended 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
B.Â
All interceptors shall be of a type and capacity approved
by the Sewer Department and shall be located as to be readily and
easily accessible for cleaning and inspection. All systems shall be
designed, constructed and operated in accordance with the manufacturer's
specifications.
[Amended 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
C.Â
Grease traps shall be equipped with devices to control
the rate of water flow so that the manufacturer's rating is not exceeded.
The minimum capacity of a grease trap shall be such that the grease
retention capacity measured in pounds of grease shall be at least
two times the total flow-through rating measured in gallons per minute.
D.Â
All grease traps shall be from a manufacturer with
a minimum of five years of experience in the manufacturing of grease
traps and/or shall conform to the Plumbing and Drainage Institute
(PDI) Standard G101.
A.Â
Separators shall be provided when, in the opinion
of the Sewer Department, they are necessary for the proper handling
of liquid wastes containing oil, sand, any flammable wastes or other
harmful ingredients in such amounts as to cause obstruction to the
flow in a sewer or other interference with the operation of the wastewater
treatment facilities.
[Amended 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
B.Â
All separators shall be of a type and capacity approved
by the Sewer Department and shall be located as to be readily and
easily accessible for cleaning and inspection. All systems shall be
designed, constructed and operated in accordance with the manufacturer's
specifications.
[Amended 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
C.Â
Separators required. At repair garages, gasoline stations
with grease racks, grease pits, or work racks, and at factories where
oily and flammable liquid wastes are produced, separators shall be
installed into which all oil-bearing, grease-bearing or flammable
wastes shall be discharged before emptying in the building drainage
system or other point of disposal.
D.Â
Separation of liquids. A mixture of treated or untreated
light and heavy liquids having various specific gravities shall be
separated in any approved receptacle.
E.Â
Design of oil and liquid separators. Liquid separators
shall be designed as provided below:
(1)Â
Overall requirements. Oil separators shall have a
depth of not less than two feet below the invert of the discharge
drain. The outlet opening of the separator shall have not less than
an eighteen-inch water seal.
(2)Â
Garages and service stations. Where automobiles are
serviced, greased, repaired, washed or where gasoline is dispensed,
separators shall have a minimum capacity of six cubic feet for the
first 100 square feet of area to be drained, plus one cubic foot for
each additional 100 square feet of area to be drained into the separator.
Parking garages in which servicing, repairing or washing is not done,
and in which gasoline is not dispensed, shall not require a separator.
Areas of commercial garages which are used for storage of automobiles
only are not required to be drained through a separator.
F.Â
Sand separators. Separators for sand, grit and similar
heavy solids shall be so designed and located as to be readily accessible
for cleaning and shall have a water seal of not less than six inches.
Sand and grit separators shall be required at all locations where
cars or trucks are washed and shall have a minimum capacity of 500
gallons at such locations.
G.Â
Laundries. Commercial laundries shall be equipped
with separators having a wire basket or similar device, removable
for cleaning, that will prevent passage into the drainage system of
solids 1/2 inch or larger in size, string, rags, buttons or other
materials detrimental to the public sewage system.
H.Â
Bottling establishments. Bottling plants shall discharge
their process wastes into a separator which will provide for the separation
of broken glass or other solids, before discharging waste into the
drainage system.
I.Â
Slaughterhouses. Slaughtering room and dressing room
drains shall be equipped with approved separators. The separator shall
prevent the discharge into the drainage system of feathers, entrails
and other materials that cause clogging.
J.Â
Venting of separators. Separators shall be so designed
that they will not become air bound if tight covers are used. Each
interceptor or separator shall be vented when subject to loss of trap
seal.
A.Â
The owner of each improved property shall be responsible
for all costs associated with the installation, operation, maintenance
and replacement of separators and/or grease traps. These costs shall
include the cost of properly disposing of the accumulated material.
B.Â
If a separator or grease trap at an improved property
was not installed or malfunctions due to lack of maintenance, lack
of cleaning or any other reason and such lack of installation or failure
shall cause blockages, sewage back-ups, sewage overflows or in any
other manner damages or interferes with the operation of the sewer
system, then the owner of the improved property shall be responsible
to pay for all costs required to repair and clean the sewer system.
Such costs shall include, but shall not be limited to, cleaning costs,
pumping costs, engineering costs, legal fees and administrative costs.
[Amended 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
A.Â
The Sewer
Department shall have the right to inspect the grease traps and/or
separators to ensure that the systems are in working order and that
the systems are being property maintained and cleaned. The Sewer Department
shall have the right to inspect the cleaning records at the time the
inspection occurs.
B.Â
Refusal to schedule any inspection will be considered a refusal to comply with the rules and regulations of the Middle Smithfield Township Grease Trap Ordinance and the Middle Smithfield Township Sewer Department Grease Trap Management Program which will be treated as a violation and subject to the penalties as set forth in § 110-14, Violations and penalties.
[Amended 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
The owner of an improved property which utilizes
a grease trap and/or separator shall at all times keep the system
in good working condition. The traps or separators shall be cleaned
periodically to keep them in good working order. All traps or separators
shall be cleaned at least once every three months. The records shall
include the date of disposal, the means of disposal, the name and
signature of the person responsible for supervising the cleaning of
the separators and grease traps and the proper disposal of the accumulated
material. Forms are furnished by the Middle Smithfield Township Sewer
Department and must be completed by the owner of each business establishment,
and said owner shall transmit a copy of the cleaning records to the
Sewer Department. Records of each cleaning shall be maintained by
the establishment for a period of three years.
[Amended 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
All material which is removed from the separators
and/or grease traps shall be properly disposed of by the owner. Under
no circumstances shall accumulated material be allowed to enter into
the sanitary sewer system. Any removal and hauling of the collected
materials not performed by owner's (owners') personnel must be performed
by currently licensed waste disposal firms. All grease haulers shall
be properly licensed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as required,
and supply the Middle Smithfield Township Sewer Department with a
copy of the hauler's manifest.
[Amended 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
The Sewer Department may exercise any of its
rights under this chapter through one or more agents, including the
township, all subject to the control of the Sewer Department.
A.Â
Any person who violates or permits a violation of
this chapter, upon being found liable therefor in a civil enforcement
proceeding before a district justice, shall pay a fine of not more
than $600 per violation, plus all court costs, including reasonable
attorney's fees incurred by the township in the enforcement of this
chapter. Each day the violation exists shall constitute a separate
offense. In any case where a penalty for a violation has not been
timely paid, and the person against whom the penalty was imposed is
found to have been liable therefor in civil proceedings, the violator
shall be liable for the penalty imposed, including additional daily
penalties for continuing violations, plus court costs and reasonable
attorney's fees incurred by the township in the enforcement proceedings.
If the violator neither pays nor timely appeals the judgment, the
township may enforce the judgment pursuant to the applicable rules
of civil procedure.
B.Â
The township shall be exempt from the payment of costs
in any civil case brought to enforce this chapter.
C.Â
In addition to or in lieu of a civil action before
a district justice, the township may enforce this chapter in equity.
The appropriate officers or agents of the township are hereby authorized
to seek equitable relief, including injunctions, to enforce compliance
herewith.
[Amended 5-13-2010 by Ord. No. 174]
The Sewer Department reserves the right, from
time to time, to adopt modifications of, supplements to or amendments
of this chapter.
