ARTICLE II. SEWERS
Section 1. Plans of Sewers:
The location of all sewers and drains and other structures and works shall be shown on plans and will be on file at all times with the Board of Public Works.
The Board shall establish a Schedule of fees that shall include a Sewer Connection Permit fee. The property owner or his agent shall make application on a special form furnished by the Town. The Permit applications shall be supplemented by plans, specifications or other information considered pertinent in the judgment of the Board.
A Registered Professional Engineer shall prepare all plans and specifications at the discretion of the Board. All permit applications requiring an application under 314 CMR 7.00 Massachusetts Sewer Extension shall be prepared by a Registered Professional Engineer. All costs incurred by the Board in reviewing applications and supporting information shall be borne by the applicant.
The owner or his agent shall make application on a form furnished by the Town. The permit application shall be supplemented by plans, specifications or other information considered pertinent in the judgment of the Board. A permit and inspection fee (to be determined by the Board) for an industrial building sewer permit shall be paid to the Town at the time the application is filed. A separate permit application shall be submitted, and a separate permit and inspection fee shall be paid for each separate connection to the Town’s sanitary sewer system.
Drain Layers License Regulations
1) Only a licensed drain layer shall accomplish any connection to the Town’s sanitary sewer system or storm drain system.
2) Licenses are valid for up to one year and will expire on June 30th of each year regardless of when it was obtained. Renewals shall be submitted by July 1st.
3) The Board of Public Works may issue a drain installer’s license to any individual meeting the following criteria. The burden of proof that an applicant meets said criteria rests solely on the applicant.
a) The applicant has a septic system installer license issued by the Town of Essex ~ Board of Health, OR
The applicant is a Massachusetts licensed plumber authorized by the Commonwealth to lay drain to its terminus, OR
The applicant is any party authorized by the Commonwealth to lay drain to its terminus.
b) The applicant provides a certificate of casualty and liability insurance with $500,000/$1,000,000 limits with the Town of Essex named as an additional insured.
c) The applicant provides a construction bond or current surety in the amount of $5000 for any work performed on Town owned property.
4) The Board of Public Works shall reserve the right to revoke or suspend any drain installer’s license, if in the Board’s opinion, an installer’s quality of workmanship is substandard and is therefore detrimental in any way to the Town’s sanitary sewer or storm drain system. Said detrimental workmanship shall include but is not limited to work which will result or has resulted in infiltration/inflow or which will physically damage or has physically damage the Town’s sanitary sewer or storm drain system. Any action by the Board to revoke or suspend any drain installer’s license shall be made in writing and shall not be effective until after the license holder’s right for a hearing before the Board has expired. To request a hearing, the drain installer
must inform the board in writing within seven calendar days of the installer’s receipt of the Board’s order of revocation/suspension that they wish to exercise said right. At the hearing, the installers may offer the Board testimony as to why the pending revocation/suspension orders should be withdrawn. The Board shall either act to revoke or suspend the license or withdraw its order.
a) Revoked licenses may be reapplied for only after one year and may be granted at the sole discretion of the Board.
b) Suspended licenses will be dealt with on an individual basis.
5) A drain layers license shall be required for any of the following work:
a) Installation, connection or repairs of Town sanitary sewer lines.
b) Installation, connection or repairs of a private sanitary sewer line that connects with the Town sanitary sewer line.
c) Installation, connection or repairs of Town storm water drain lines.
d) Installation, connection or repairs of a private storm water system that connects with the Town storm water system.
6) An individual licensed, as a drain layer must be present at all times while any and all work covered under these regulations is being performed.
7) It is the responsibility of the drain layer on site holding the license to be certain all required permits are obtained.
8) DPW employees working in an official status on Town systems and certain Town hired contractors that work on the sewer and storm water system may be granted exemption from this requirement.
Each building served by a separate sewer. One or more separate and independent building sewer(s) shall be provided for every building; except where a building stands at the rear of another on the same lot and no private sewer is available or can be constructed to the rear building through an adjoining alley, court, yard, or driveway. In such cases, the building sewer from the front building may be extended to the rear building and the whole considered as one (1) building sewer.
This common building sewer shall be considered as two sewer connections. The arrangements for the construction of the sewer(s) shall be provided for by easement between the property owners. The technical requirements for the construction of the sewers shall be subject to the review and approval of the Board.
The building sewer shall conform to Section II-5.
The applicant for the building sewer permit shall notify the Board (or its agents) when the building sewer is ready for inspection and connection to the public sewer. The connection shall be inspected by the Board or its representative before the work has been backfilled. The Board or its representative may require the excavation of any work backfilled prior to inspection.
A road-opening permit is required for all work within a public right of way. The applicant shall also supply an as-built drawing with suitable ties to permanent reference points identifying:
a) the building sewer’s junction with the building drain
b) the building sewer’s junction with the Town Sewer System
c) any and all bends in the building sewer
d) any underground utilities within 20 feet of either side of the building sewer.
In the event a well is a source of a person’s water and the person is connected to the public sewer, said person shall notify the Board and the Board shall install a water meter on the well water supply pipe at the owner’s expense. The Board shall record water usage from this meter as the basis for billing sewer use fees to the property owner.
State law reference-Similar provisions, M.G.L. c. 83, 2.
Section 2. Acceptance of septage and holding tank sewage prohibited:
Acceptance of septage or holding tank (tight tank) sewage in the Town’s sewer system is prohibited. Sewage evacuated from grinder pumps and lift stations and held in temporary storage by the Town for pump maintenance purposes may be re-introduced to the Town Sewer System. Violation of this section will be punished to the fullest extent allowed by these regulations (see Article VIII, Enforcement & Penalties).
Section 3. Form of required notice:
Whenever notice is required of a party to this article, it shall be by certified mail, unless otherwise specified.
Section 4. Building sewers and connections:
Required connections. Mandatory connection of buildings to the public sanitary sewer of the Town shall be governed by applicable Board of Health regulations and 310 CMR 15:00, et. seq.
State law references-Municipal authority to require sewer connections, M.G.L. c. 83, 10, 11, 310 CMR 15:00 et seq.
Permit. No unauthorized person shall uncover, make any connections with or opening into, or use, alter, or disturb any public sewer or appurtenance thereof without first obtaining a written permit from the Board. 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 Board at least forty-five (45) days prior to the proposed change or connection, and in the case of industrial users, apply or reapply for an Industrial Sewer Discharge Permit.
Classification of permits: Fee. There shall be two (2) classes of building sewer permits:
a) For residential and commercial service; and
b) For service to establishments producing industrial wastes.
Buildings served by grinder pumps: All buildings served by grinder pumps supplied by the Town shall execute and file with the Town a “Grant of Sewer Easement for Grinder Pump Sewer Connection” to construct, inspect, repair, remove, replace, operate, and maintain the grinder pump and associated pipes and equipment.
Costs borne by owner. All costs and expense incident to the installation and connection of the building sewer shall be borne by the owner. The cost of any building sewer from the building to a grinder pump unit shall be the responsibility of the Owner. The cost of providing an electrical connection to the grinder pump panel 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.
State law reference-Municipal authority to assess cost of laying out a particular sewer, M.G.L. c. 83, 24.
Use of old building sewer. Old building sewers or any portions thereof shall not be used.
Methods and materials for connections. Sewer service connections shall be laid at such depth and gradient and in such location as the Board may determine. The minimum gradient allowable shall be one-quarter inch per foot. No sewer service connection shall service more than one (1) building unless otherwise approved by the Board in writing. Sewer service connections shall be constructed of SDR 35 polyvinyl chloride with watertight joints and laid in accordance with standard construction practices. When completed the inside of a sewer service connection shall be left smooth and clean. The building sewer shall be constructed of a minimum of schedule 80 PVC pipe when the sewer underlies vehicular traffic or other situations involving heavy loading or when buried less than 4 (four) feet deep. Alternate
materials or jointing systems must be approved by the Board.
No alteration of, or connection with, any service connection shall be made until application is made to and approved by the Board.
State law reference-Municipal authority to regulate the construction and alteration of sewer connections, M.G.L. c. 83, 10.
All excavations required for the installation of a building sewer shall be open trench work unless otherwise approved by the Board. Pipe laying and backfill shall be performed in accordance with ASTM Specification C12-64, except that no backfill shall be placed until the work has been inspected.
All pipe joints and connections shall be made watertight. Joints for polyvinylchloride sewer pipe shall conform to ASTM specifications D3212-86 and F477-76 (1985, or latest revision). All joints between pipe and metals shall be made with approved pre-molded gasket material.
The connection of the building sewer into the public sewer shall be made at the building sewer connection provided during the construction of the sewer. Connection to the sewer by any other means is strictly prohibited without the express written authorization of the Board.
Construction standards. The size, slope, alignment, materials of construction of a building sewer and the methods to be used in excavating, placing of the pipe, jointing, testing, and backfilling the trench shall all conform to the requirements of the buildings and plumbing code or other applicable rules, this Regulation and other regulations of the Town.
Elevation of building sewers. Whenever possible, the building sewer shall be brought to the building at an elevation below the first 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 an approved means and discharged to the building sewer.
Illegal connections. No person shall make connection of roof downspouts, exterior foundation drains, areaway drains, sump pump discharges or other sources of surface runoff or ground water to a building sewer or building drain which in turn is connected directly or indirectly to a public sanitary sewer.
State law reference-Separate systems for drainage of water and sewage required, M.G.L. c. 83, 5.
Connection standards.
Inspections. The connection of the building sewer into the public sewer shall be inspected for conformance with the requirements of the building and plumbing code or other applicable rules and regulations of the Town. Measures to correct non-conformance shall be the sole responsibility of the property owner.
Connections. All such connections shall be made gastight and watertight. Any deviation from the prescribed procedures and materials must be approved by the Board before installation. All sewer service connections shall be inspected by an inspector or agent appointed by the Board. The owner or his authorized representative shall so arrange his work to require the service of the inspector for as short a time as practicable. No trench shall be filled in until the pipe laid therein has been inspected and approved by the inspector.
Notice for inspections. The applicant for the building sewer permit shall notify the Board when the building sewer is ready for inspection and connection to the public sewer. Requests for inspection shall be made a minimum of 1 working day prior to the desired inspection time and date.
State law reference-Municipal authority to require inspection of all materials used in making sewer connections, M.G.L. c. 83, § 10.
Ownership; responsibility for cost of connections. Sewer service connections from the sanitary sewer to the street sideline shall be built only under the direction of the Board or its designee, and shall be owned, repaired and maintained only by the Town, under the direction of the Board. Connections from the street sideline to a building or from a grinder pump unit to a building shall be constructed, paid for, owned and maintained by the owner of the property. The Board may, at its discretion, require any person owning property so connected to excavate, repair and maintain the privately-owned portion of the connection at the property owner’s expense, and to pay to the Town those costs incurred by the Town in repairing and maintaining the Town-owned portion of the connection if said Town-owned portion has been
damaged by the property owner.
State law reference-Owners of land to pay for actual cost of construction of a particular sewer from the street line to a house or building, M.G.L. c 83, § 3.
Responsibility for maintenance of building sewers. Owners are responsible for maintenance of building sewers.
Section 5. Secondary Water Meters:
Secondary water meters (i.e. meters in addition to the meter measuring incoming water which will all be discharged to the sewer system) the may be allowed, at the Board’s discretion, to measure flow which does not discharge into the Town Sewer System. Such flow may include but is not limited to:
a) irrigation systems
b) swimming pools
c) exterior spigots used for lawn, garden, and landscape purposes
d) yard hydrants on farms
e) water incorporated in consumable goods shipped off-site
f) water used in devices which ultimately evaporate it to the atmosphere
g) spigots used to serve dock purposes at marinas.
The Board shall supply and install all secondary water meters at the property owner’s expense.
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