ARTICLE V - BUILDING SEWERS AND CONNECTIONS

Sec. 1. No unauthorized person shall uncover, make any connections with or opening into, use, alter, or disturb any public sewer or appurtenance thereof without first obtaining a written permit from the Director of Public Works. Any person proposing a new discharge into the system or a substantial change in the volume or character of pollutants that are being discharged into the system shall notify the Director of Public Works at least forty-five (45) days prior to the proposed change or connection and shall comply with Maine Revised Statutes Annotated, Title 38, Chapter 3, Subchapter 1, Subsection 361, as amended.

Sec. 2. There shall be two (2) classes of building sewer permits: (a) for residential and (b) commercial service, for service to establishments producing industrial wastes. In either case, the owner or his agent shall make application on a special form furnished by the Director of Public Works. The permit application shall be supplemented by any plans, specifications, or other information considered pertinent in the judgment of the Director of Public Works. A permit and inspection fee of one dollar ($2.00) per gallon based on the Design Flows Tables 501.1 and 501.2 in the Maine Subsurface Wastewater Disposal Rules residential or commercial building sewer permit shall be paid to the Town at the time the application is filed.

Sec. 3. A sewer connection application shall be applied for and the fees shall be paid for, whenever a homeowner applies for a building permit that will increase the flows from that structure into the collection system.

Sec. 4. All cost and expense incident to the installation and connection of the building sewer shall be borne by the owner. The owner shall indemnify the Town from any loss or damage that may directly or indirectly be occasioned by the installation of the building sewer.

Sec. 5. A separate and independent building sewer shall be provided for every building requiring a sewer connection, except that where one building stands at the rear of another on an interior lot and no private sewer is available or can be constructed to the rear building through an adjoining alley, court, yard, or driveway, the building sewer from the front building may be extended to the rear building and the whole considered as one building sewer. A deed restriction shall be placed on both properties stating that they have joint ownership in the sewer connection and will maintain it jointly; and the owners of both properties shall be jointly and severally liable for any cost or expense of installation and connection as provided by Section 3 of this Article V.

Sec. 6. Old building sewers may be used in connection with new buildings only when they are found, on examination and test by the Director of Public Works, to meet all requirements of this Ordinance. The applicant shall pay for all cost for examination and testing.

Sec. 7. The size, slope, alignment, materials of construction of a building sewer, and the methods to be used in excavating, placing the pipe, jointing, testing, and back filling the trench, shall all conform to the requirements of the buildings and plumbing code or other applicable rules and regulations of the Town.

Sec. 8. Whenever possible, the building sewer shall be brought from the building at an elevation above the basement floor. In all buildings in which any building drain is too low to permit gravity flow to the public sewer, sanitary sewage carried by such building drain shall be lifted by a grinder pump or a solids handling pump and discharged to the building sewer.

Sec. 9. No person shall connect any roof downspout, exterior foundation drain, area drain, or other source of surface runoff or groundwater to a building sewer or building drain which in turn is connected directly or indirectly to a public sanitary sewer unless such connection is approved by the Director of Public Works for purposes of disposal of polluted surface drainage.

Sec. 10. The connection of the building sewer into the public sewer shall conform to the requirements of the building and plumbing code of other applicable rules and regulations of the Town. The connection of the building sewer into the public sewer shall be made at the curb fitting if provided or at the "Y" branch if such branch is available at a suitable location. On direction of the Director of Public Works, where no "Y" branch is available, a neat hole shall be cut, by machine, into the public sewer to receive the building sewer, with entry in the downstream direction at an angle of forty-five (45) degrees with an approved saddle or clamp-type fitting. Such connection shall be completely watertight at the location specified by the Director of Public Works or his Designee (" The Inspector") and shall be completed under the supervision and in the presence of the Inspector, and as directed by and to the satisfaction of the Inspector.

Sec. 11. The applicant for the building sewer permit shall notify the Director of Public Works twenty- four (24) hours before the building sewer is ready for inspection and connection to the public sewer. All inspections shall be performed during regular working hours. Any inspections requested after the regular working hours or on weekends will be assessed an additional inspection fee of one and one-half (1.5) times the Inspector’s normal rate and any other fees that may apply.

Sec. 12. All excavation for building sewer installation shall be adequately guarded with barricades and lights so as to protect the public from hazards. Streets, sidewalks, parkways, and/or other public property disturbed in the course of the work shall be restored in a manner satisfactory to the Town.

Sec. 13. When any building or other structure previously served by a connection to any public sewer or drain is demolished, destroyed, abandoned or altered so that any drain or portion of an abandoned plumbing system which is directly or indirectly connected to any public sewer or drain is no longer used and is not connected to the drainage system of the building or structure, the open end of such which discharged, directly or indirectly, into a public sewer or drain shall be promptly closed and sealed to the satisfaction of the Director of Public Works, so that no water or wastes not otherwise permitted to enter the public sewer or drain shall be so discharged therein. The Director of Public Works shall be notified of such abandonment or discontinuance, and of the closing and sealing of such drain, and shall be afforded an opportunity to see such work performed. All of said work shall be done by the person or party demolishing the building or structure or who alters the drainage of the premises so to make such closing and sealing necessary. In the event such person fails to perform said work, the work shall be done by the owner, lessee or tenant of the premises to the satisfaction of the Director of Public Works, all without expense to the Town.

Sec. 14. Unless exempted under subparagraph (B) below, every person seeking to, or required to, make connection with the public sewer system shall pay the charge under this section. Such charge is in addition to any other charge imposed by this Ordinance.

  1. The connection fee for each sewer unit charge imposed under Article XIII shall be $3,500. For those uses to be assigned a special charge under that Article, the connection fee shall be established by the Selectmen. Any person seeking to make connection shall fill out an appropriate form provided by the Director of Public Works. When the form has been approved and the fee paid, the Director of Public Works shall notify the Building Inspector. No building permit or occupancy permit may be issued until the fee has been paid.
  2. For any change of use within a building, or expansion or alteration to a building, which results in an increase in the sewer unit charge imposed under Article XIII, a connection fee is due for each additional sewer unit change.
  3. All connection fees generated by this section shall be placed in a non-lapsing fund, to be known as the "Water Pollution Control Facility Fund," to be used for improvements to or expansion of or replacement of the existing treatment plant and facilities.

Sec. 15. After the building sewer is connected to the public sewer the owner of the building sewer shall maintain the building sewer from the building to the public sewer.