The purpose of the chapters of this Code of Ordinances pertaining to Sanitary Sewers is to establish rules and regulations governing the treatment and disposal of sanitary sewage within the City in order to protect the public health, safety, and welfare.

   For use in these chapters, unless the context specifically indicates otherwise, the following terms are defined:

   1.   “Authorized City representative” means the City Administrator or any designated representative.

   2.   “Basic user charge” means a charge levied on each user for administrative costs and debt retirement.

   3.   “B.O.D.” (denoting Biochemical Oxygen Demand) means the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter under standard laboratory procedure in five days at 20 degrees Celsius, expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/l).

   4.   “Building drain” means that part of the lowest piping of a drainage system which receives the discharge from soil, waste, and other drainage pipes inside the walls of the building and conveys it to the building sewer, or other approved point of discharge, beginning two feet outside the building wall.

   5.   “Building sewer” means the extension from the building drain to the public sewer or other place of disposal.

   6.   “Combined sewer” means a sewer which is designed and intended to receive wastewater, storm, surface, and groundwater drainage.

   7.   “DNR” means the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

   8.   “Easement” means an acquired legal right for the specific use of land owned by others.

   9.   “Effluent criteria” are defined in any applicable “NPDES Permit.”

   10.   “EPA” means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

   11.   “Federal Act” or “Act” means the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et. seq.) as amended by the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (Pub. L. 92-500 and Pub. L. 93-243), and any other amendments to said public laws.

   12.   “Federal grant” means the U.S. government participation in the financing of the construction of treatment works as provided for by Title II - Grants for Construction of Treatment Works of the Act and implementing regulations.

   13.   “Floatable oil” means oil, fat, or grease in a physical state such that it will separate by gravity from wastewater by treatment in an approved pretreatment facility. A wastewater shall be considered free of floatable fat if it is properly pretreated, and the wastewater does not interfere with the collection system.

   14.   “Garbage” means solid wastes from the domestic and commercial preparation, cooking, and dispensing of food, and from the handling, storage, and sale of produce.

   15.   “Industrial wastes” means any liquid, solid, or gaseous substance discharged, permitted to flow or escaping from any industrial manufacturing, commercial, or business establishment or process or from the development, recovery, or processing of any natural resource as distinct from sanitary sewage.

   16.   “Major contributing industry” means an industrial user of the publicly owned treatment works that:

      A.   Has a flow of 25,000 gallons or more per average workday; or

      B.   Has a flow greater than five percent of the flow carried by the municipal system receiving the waste; or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the treatment plant; or

      C.   Has in its waste a toxic pollutant in toxic amounts as defined in standards issued under Section 307(a) of the Federal Act; or

      D.   Is found by the permit issuance authority, in connection with the issuance of the NPDES permit to the publicly owned treatment works receiving the waste, to have significant impact, either singly or in combination with other contributing industries, on that treatment works or upon the quality of effluent from that treatment works.

   17.   “Milligrams per liter” means a unit of the concentration of water or wastewater constituent. It is 0.001 g of the constituent in 1,000 ml of water. It has replaced the unit formerly used commonly, parts per million, to which it is approximately equivalent, in reporting the results of water and wastewater analysis.

   18.   “Natural outlet” means any outlet into a watercourse, pond, ditch, lake, or other body of surface or groundwater.

   19.   “NH 3 ” or “NH 3 N” (Denoting Ammonia) means that portion of nitrogen in the form of protein or intermediate decomposition products which is determined by standard laboratory procedures for analysis of ammonia nitrogen, expressed in milligrams per liter (mg/l).

   20.   “NPDES Permit” means any permit or equivalent document or requirements issued by the administrator, or where appropriate, by the director after enactment of the Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments of 1972, to regulate the discharge of pollutants pursuant to Section 402 of the Federal Act.

   21.   “pH” means the logarithms (Base 10) of the reciprocal of the hydrogen-ion concentration expressed by one of the procedures outlined in “Standard Methods.”

   23.   “Ppm” means parts per million by weight.

   24.   “Pretreatment” means the treatment of wastewater from sources before introduction into the wastewater treatment works.

   25.   “Properly shredded garbage” means the wastes from the preparation, cooking, and dispensing of food that have been shredded to such a degree that all particles will be carried freely under the flow conditions normally prevailing in public sewers, with no particle greater than one-half inch in any dimension.

   26.   “Public sewer” means a sewer provided by or subject to the jurisdiction of the City. It also includes sewers within or outside the corporate boundary that serve one or more persons and ultimately discharge into the City sanitary sewers, even though those sewers may not have been constructed with City funds.

   27.   “Sanitary sewer” means a sewer which conveys sewage or industrial wastes, or a combination of both, and into which storm, surface, and groundwaters or unpolluted industrial wastes are not intentionally admitted.

   28.   “Sewage” is used interchangeably with “wastewater.”

   29.   “Sewer” means a pipe or conduit for conveying sewage or any other waste liquids, including storm, surface, and groundwater drainage.

   30.   “Sewer connection charge” means the amount to be paid prior to making or altering a new connection to a public sewer by a user.

   31.   “Sewerage” means the system of sewers and appurtenances for the collection, transportation, and pumping of sewage.

   32.   “Significant noncompliance” means:

      A.   Chronic violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined here as those in which 66 percent or more of wastewater measurements taken during a six-month period exceed the daily maximum limit or average limit for the same pollutant parameter by any amount;

      B.   Technical Review Criteria (TRC) violations, defined here as those in which 33 percent or more of wastewater measurements taken for each pollutant parameter during a six-month period equals or exceeds the product of the daily maximum limit or the average limit multiplied by the applicable criteria (1.4 for BOD, TSS, fats, oils and grease, and 1.2 for all other pollutants except pH);

      C.   Any other discharge violation that the City believes has caused, alone or in combination with other discharges, interference or pass through (including endangering the health of City personnel or the general public);

      D.   Any discharge of pollutants that has caused imminent endangerment to the public or to the environment, or has resulted in the City’s exercise of its emergency authority to halt or prevent such a discharge;

      F.   Failure to provide, within 30 days after the due date, any required reports, including baseline monitoring reports, 90-day compliance reports, periodic self-monitoring reports and reports on compliance schedules;

      G.   Failure to accurately report noncompliance;

      H.   Any other violation(s) which the City determines will adversely affect the operation or implementation of the local pretreatment program.

   33.   “Slug” means any discharge of water, sewage, or industrial waste, which in concentration of any given constituent or in quantity of flow, exceeds for any period of duration longer than 15 minutes more than five times the average 24-hour concentration or flows during normal operation.

   34.   “Standard methods” means the examination and analytical procedures set forth in the most recent edition of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater published jointly by the American Public Health Association, the American Water Works Association, and the Water Pollution Control Federation.

   35.   “Storm sewer” means a sewer which carries storm, surface, and groundwater drainage, but excludes sewage and industrial wastes, other than unpolluted cooling water.

   36.   “Stormwater runoff” means that portion of the precipitation that is drained into the sewers.

   37.   “State Act” means the, Chapter 445B of the Code of Iowa, et. seq.

   38.   “State grant” means the State participation in the financing of the construction of treatment works as provided for by the Code of Iowa.

   39.   “Surcharge” means the assessment in addition to the user charge and basic user charge which is levied on those persons whose wastes are greater in strength than the concentration values established.

   40.   “Suspended solids” means solids that either float on the surface of, or are in suspension in, water, sewage, or industrial waste, and which are removable by a laboratory filtration device. Quantitative determination of suspended solids shall be made in accordance with procedures set forth in Standard Methods.

   41.   “Unpolluted water” means water of quality equal to or better than the effluent criteria in effect or water that would not cause violation of receiving water quality standards and would not be benefited by discharge to the sanitary sewers and wastewater treatment facilities provided.

   42.   “User charge” means a charge levied on users of treatment works for the cost of operation and maintenance, including replacement.

   43.   “Wastewater” means the spent water of a community. From this standpoint, of course, it may be a combination of the liquid and water-carried wastes from residences, commercial buildings, industrial plants and institutions, together with any groundwater, surface water, and stormwater that may be present.

   44.   “Wastewater facilities” means the structures, equipment, and processes required to collect, carry away, and treat domestic and industrial wastes and transport effluent to a watercourse.

   45.   “Wastewater treatment works” means an arrangement of devices and structures for treating wastewater, industrial wastes, and sludge. Sometimes used as synonymous with “waste treatment plant” or “wastewater treatment plant” or “pollution control plant.”

   46.   “Water quality standards” are defined in the Iowa Administrative Code, Chapter 16.

   47.   “Watercourse” means a channel in which a flow of water occurs, either continuously or intermittently.

   It is unlawful for any person to place or deposit or permit to be deposited in any unsanitary manner on public or private property within the City, or in any area under the jurisdiction of the City, any human or animal excrement, garbage, or other objectionable waste.

   It is unlawful to discharge to any natural outlet within the City, or in any area under its jurisdiction, any sewage or other polluted waters, except where suitable treatment has been provided in accordance with the provisions of these chapters.

   Except as hereinafter provided, it shall be unlawful to construct or maintain any privy, privy vault, septic tank, cesspool, or other facility intended or used for the disposal of sewage.

   The owners of all houses, buildings, or properties used for human occupancy, employment, recreation, or other purposes, situated within the City and abutting on any street, alley, or right-of-way in which there is now located, or may in the future be located, a public sanitary sewer of the City, are hereby required to install, at each such owner’s expense, suitable toilet facilities therein and to connect such facilities directly with the proper public sewer, in accordance with the provisions of these Sanitary Sewer chapters, within 90 days after the date of official notice to do so, provided that said public sewer is within 400 feet of the property line.

   All costs and expenses incident to the installation, connection, and maintenance of the building sewer from the public sewer main to the building, including interior piping, shall be borne by the owner. The owner shall indemnify the City from any loss or damage that may directly or indirectly be occasioned by the installation of the building sewer.

   Where a public sanitary sewer is not available in accordance with Section 95.06, the building sewer shall be connected to a private sewage disposal system approved by the County Department of Health. When a public sanitary sewer becomes available, the building sewer shall be connected to said sewer within 60 days.

   No person shall maliciously, willfully, or negligently break, damage, destroy, or tamper with any structure, appurtenance, or equipment which is a part of the sewerage system and wastewater treatment works. Any person violating this provision shall be subject to immediate arrest under charge of disorderly conduct.

   The authorized City representative and other duly authorized employees of the City, the State Department of Natural Resources, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, bearing proper credentials and identification, shall be permitted to enter all properties for the purposes of inspection, observation, measurement, sampling, and testing in accordance with the provisions of these Sanitary Sewer chapters. The authorized City representative or other persons noted above shall have no authority to inquire into any processes including metallurgical, chemical, oil refining, paper, or other industries beyond that point having a direct bearing on the kind and source of discharge to the sewers or waterways or facilities for waste treatment.

   While performing the necessary work on private property referred to in Section 95.10 hereof, the authorized City representative or duly authorized employees of the City, the State Department of Natural Resources, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shall observe all safety rules applicable to the premises established by the owner or occupant which are not in conflict with their regulatory duties and the owner or occupant shall be held harmless for injury or death to City employees or other persons noted above and the City, State Department of Natural Resources, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shall indemnify the owner or occupant against loss or damage to its property by City employees or other persons noted above and against liability claims and demands for personal injury or property damage asserted against the owner or occupant and growing out of any gauging and sampling operation, except as such may be caused by negligence or failure of the owner or occupant to maintain safe conditions.

   The authorized City representative and other duly authorized employees of the City bearing proper credentials and identification shall be permitted to enter all private properties through which the City holds a duly negotiated easement for the purposes of, but not limited to, inspection, observation, measurement, sampling, repair, and maintenance of any portion of the sewerage system and wastewater treatment works lying within said easement. All entry and subsequent work, if any, on said easement shall be done in full accordance with the terms of the duly negotiated easement pertaining to the private property involved.

   Any person found to be violating any provision of these chapters shall be served by the City with written notice stating the nature of the violation and providing a reasonable time limit for the satisfactory correction thereof. The offender shall, within the period of time stated in such notice, permanently cease all violations. The City may revoke any permit for sewage disposal as a result of any violation of any provision.

   Any person who continues any violation beyond the time limit provided for in Section 95.13 is guilty of a simple misdemeanor, and each day in which any such violation shall continue shall be deemed a separate offense.

   Any person violating any of the provisions of these chapters shall become liable to the City, including any expense, loss, or damage accrued by the City by reason of such violation.

   Whoever is convicted of violating the provisions contained in these Sanitary Sewer chapters, when the same has not been repealed by statute, shall be guilty of a simple misdemeanor and the continued violation shall be deemed a nuisance which may be abated in the same manner as another nuisance deferred by the City ordinance and the costs recovered.

   The provisions contained in these Sanitary Sewer chapters shall take precedence over any terms or conditions of agreements or contracts which are inconsistent with the requirements of Section 204(b)(1)(A) of the Act and 40 CFR 35.2140 of the May 12, 1983, Federal Register.