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 and maintaining such public wastewater treatment works.

(Ord. 523; Code 2013)

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 (5) days at 20°C, expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/l).

(b)   “Normal Domestic Wastewater” shall mean wastewater that has a BOD concentration of not more than 300 mg/l and a suspended solid concentration of not more than 300 mg/l.

(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 include intercepting sewers, outfall sewers, sewage collection systems, individual systems, pumping, power, and other equipment and their appurtenances; extensions, improvement, remodeling, additions and alterations thereof; elements essential to provide a reliable recycled supply such as standby treatment units and clear well facilities; and any works, including site acquisition of the land that will be an integral part of the treatment process or is used for ultimate disposal of residues resulting from such treatment (including land for composting sludge, temporary storage of such compost, and land used for the storage of treated wastewater in land treatment systems before land application); 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 storm water 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).

(k)   “Water Meter” shall mean a water volume measuring and recording device.

(Ord. 523; Code 2013)

(a)   The user charge system shall generate adequate annual revenues to pay costs of annual operation and maintenance including replacement and costs associated with debt retirement of bonded capital associated with financing the treatment works which the City may by ordinance designate to be paid by the user charge system. That portion of the total user charge which is designated for operation and maintenance including replacement of the treatment works shall be established by this article.

(b)   That portion of the total user charge collected which is designated for operation and maintenance, including replacement purposes as established in section 15-304, 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 annually from the operation, maintenance and replacement revenue in the amount of $3,200.00 annually.

(c)   Fiscal year-end balances in the operation and maintenance account and the replacement account shall be carried over to the same accounts in the subsequent fiscal year, and shall be used for no other purposes than those designated for these accounts. Monies 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 monies will be returned to their respective accounts within the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the monies were borrowed.

(Ord. 523; Code 2013)

(a)   Each user shall pay for the services provided by the City based on his use of the treatment works as determined by water meter(s) acceptable to the City.

(b)   For residential contributors, monthly user charges will be based on average monthly water usage during the months of January, February, and March. If a residential contributor has not established a January, February and March average, his monthly user charge shall be the median charge of all other residential contributors.

For industrial and commercial contributors, user charges shall be based on water used during the current month. If a commercial or industrial contributor has a consumptive use of water, or in some other manner uses water which is not returned to the wastewater collection system, the user charge for that contributor may be based on a wastewater meter(s) or separate water meter(s) installed and maintained at the contributor’s expense, and in a manner acceptable to the City.

(c)   Each contributor shall pay a minimum monthly charge of $5.00, plus a monthly user charge rate of $1.00 per 1,000 gallons of water metered after the first 3,000 gallons of water metered for such month.

(d)   Any user which discharges any toxic pollutants which cause an increase in the cost of managing the effluent or the sludge from the City’s treatment works, or any user which discharges any substance which singly or by interaction with other substances causes identifiable increases in the cost of operation, maintenance, or replacement of the treatment works, shall pay for such increased costs. The charge to each such user shall be as determined by the responsible plant operating personnel and approved by the Governing Body.

(e)   The user charge rates established in this article apply to all users of the City’s treatment works.

(Ord. 523; Code 2013)

(a)   All users shall be billed monthly. Billings for any particular month shall be made within five days after the end of the previous month. Payments are due when the billings are made. Any payment not received by the 19th of the month shall be delinquent.

(b)   A late payment penalty of 10 percent of the user charge bill will be added to each delinquent bill for each 30 days of delinquency. When any bill is more than 30 days in default, rendition of water and/or sewer service to such premises shall be discontinued until such bill is paid following due notice and opportunity for hearing.

(Ord. 523; Code 2013)

(a)   The City will review the user charge system bi-annually, and revise user charge rates as necessary to ensure that the system generates adequate revenues to pay the costs of operation and maintenance including replacement and that the system continues to provide for the proportional distribution of operation and maintenance including replacement costs among users and user classes.

(b)   The City will notify each user at least annually, in conjunction with a regular bill, of the rate being charged for operation, maintenance including replacement of the treatment works.

(Ord. 523; Code 2013)