It is determined and declared to be necessary and conducive to the protection of the public health, safety, welfare and convenience of the city to collect charges from all users who contribute wastewater to the city’s treatment works. The proceeds of such charges so derived will be used for the purpose of operating, maintaining and retiring the debt for such public wastewater treatment works.
(Code 1984)
Unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the meaning of terms used in this article shall be as follows:
(a) BOD (denoting Biochemical Oxygen Demand) - shall mean the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure in five days at 20 degrees Centigrade, expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/1).
(b) Normal Domestic Wastewater - shall mean wastewater that has a BOD concentration of not more than 300 mg/1 and a suspended solids concentration of not more than 300 mg/1.
(c) Operation and Maintenance - shall mean all expenditures during the useful life of the treatment works for materials, labor, utilities and other items which are necessary for managing and maintaining the sewage works to achieve the capacity and performance for which such works were designed and constructed.
(d) Replacement - shall mean expenditures for obtaining and installing equipment, accessories or appurtenances which are necessary during the useful life of the treatment works to maintain the capacity and performance for which such works were designed and constructed. The term operation and maintenance includes replacement.
(e) Residential Contributor - shall mean any contributor to the city’s treatment works whose lot, parcel of real estate or building is used for domestic dwelling purposes only.
(f) Shall - is mandatory; May - is permissive.
(g) SS (denoting Suspended Solids) - shall mean solids that either float on the surface of or are in suspension in water, sewage or other liquids and which are removable by laboratory filtering.
(h) Treatment Works - shall mean any devices and systems for the storage, treatment, recycling and reclamation of municipal sewage, domestic sewage or liquid industrial wastes. These included intercepting sewers, outfall sewers, sewage collection systems, individual systems, pumping power and other equipment and their appurtenances extensions, improvement, remodeling, additions and alterations thereof; and any works, including site acquisition of the land that will be an integral part of the treatment process or any other method or system for preventing, abating, reducing, storing, treating, separating or disposing of municipal waste or industrial waste, including waste in combined stormwater and sanitary sewer systems.
(i) Useful Life - shall mean the estimated period during which a treatment works will be operated.
(j) User Charge - shall mean that portion of the total wastewater service charge which is levied in a proportional and adequate manner for the cost of operation, maintenance and replacement of the wastewater treatment equipment as defined in subsection (d) of this section.
(Ord. 461, Art. 2)
(a) The user charge system shall generate adequate annual revenues to pay costs of annual operation and maintenance including replacement and costs associated with financing the treatment works which the city may by ordinance designate to be paid by the user charge system.
(b) That portion of the total user charge collected which is designated for operation and maintenance, including replacement purposes so established in Section 15-405 shall be deposited in a separate non-lapsing fund known as the operation, maintenance and replacement fund and will be kept in two primary accounts as follows:
(1) An account designated for the specific purpose of defraying operation and maintenance costs (excluding replacement) of the treatment works (operation and maintenance account).
(2) An account designated for the specific purpose of ensuring replacement needs over the useful life of the treatment works (replacement account). Deposits in the replacement account shall be made at least annually from the operation, maintenance and replacement revenue in the amount of $1, 150.00 annually.
(c) Fiscal year-end balances in the operation and maintenance account may be transferred to the general fund account, whoever, the replacement account shall be carried over to the same account in the subsequent fiscal year and shall be used for no other purposes than those designated for this account. Moneys which have been transferred from other sources to meet temporary shortages in the operation, maintenance and replacement shall be returned to their respective accounts upon appropriate adjustment of the user charge rates for operation, maintenance and replacement. The user charge rate(s) shall be adjusted such that the transferred moneys will be returned to their respective accounts within the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the moneys were borrowed.
(Ord. 461, Art. 3)
Application for sewer service shall be filed with the city clerk on a form to be supplied by the city.
(Ord. 461, Art. 5)
(a) Each user shall pay for the services provided by the City and acceptable to the City.
(b) All users of the sewer system (except extra-strength users and users discharging toxic pollutants) shall pay the monthly charge of $40.00
(c) Extra-strength users (commercial; those which contribute a greater than normal amount of strength of water) shall be calculated by the monthly rate of a $5.60 base rate plus 50% of the monthly water usage charge.
(d) Any user which discharges any toxic pollutants which cause an increase in cost to the City shall pay for such increased costs. The charge to each such user shall be as determined by the City’s engineer.
(e) Annual Base Rate Escalator. The base rate charge will be increasing annually on January 1st beginning in 2023, by three percent (3%).
(Ord. 679, Sec. 1; Ord. 797; Ord. 809; Ord. 821; Ord. 836; Ord. 877; Ord. 913; Code 2022)
Statements for sewer service charges herein established shall be sent monthly and shall be paid on or before the 1st day of the month following the month or portion thereof in which the service was utilized by the customer. If any statement be not paid by the 15th day of the month, a delinquent charge of five percent of the amount of the bill shall be added thereto and collected therewith. In the event any person, firm, corporation or organization shall neglect, fail or refuse to pay the service charges fixed hereby, such charges shall constitute a lien upon the real estate served by the connection to the sewer, and shall be certified by the city clerk to the county clerk to be placed on the tax roll for collection, subject to the same penalties and collected in like manner as other taxes are by law collectible.
(Ord. 461, Art. 5; Code 1992)
The sewer service charges shall be reviewed annually and adjusted, if needed, to reflect actual treatment works operation and maintenance costs including replacements. The adjusted rates shall be in proportion to each user’s contribution to the total wastewater loading of the treatment works. Each user shall be notified annually with the regular bill the user charges which are attributable to the wastewater treatment service.
(Ord. 461, Art. 6)