§ 110-113. Use of public sewers required.

(a)

All premises shall be provided, by the owner thereof, with at least one toilet. All toilets shall be kept clean and in a sanitary working condition.

(b)

No person shall dispose of human excrement except in a toilet.

(c)

It shall be unlawful to discharge to any natural outlet within the county or in any area under the jurisdiction of the county any wastewater or other polluted waters, except where suitable treatment has been provided in accordance with this article.

(d)

Except as provided in this article, 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 wastewater.

(e)

The owners of all houses, buildings or properties used for human occupancy, employment, recreation or other purposes situated within the county jurisdiction and abutting on any street, alley or right-of-way in which there is or may be located a public sanitary sewer of the county are required at the expense of the owners to install suitable toilet facilities therein.

(f)

All sinks, dishwashing machines, lavatories, basins, shower baths, bathtubs, laundry tubs, washing machines and similar plumbing fixtures or appliances shall be connected to the public sewer, provided that where no sewer is available septic tanks or other private subsurface disposal facilities, approved by the health officer and county, may be used.

(g)

Customers shall be notified when sewer or water is available. Sewer service or potable water shall be considered available to an existing or new equivalent residential unit (ERU) when the individual unit or development is within a designated sewer or water service area and the development review committee (DRC) policy guidelines for service availability apply.

(h)

Sewer or potable water charges shall be in effect within 365 days of notification of the availability of sewer or water service or, if connection is made before the expiration of 365 days, upon actual connection.

(i)

(1) The county shall notify the owner of any on-site private sewer system of the availability of the central sewer system. No less than one year prior to the date the central sewer system will become available, the county shall notify the affected owner of the on-site private sewer system of the anticipated availability of the central sewer system and shall also notify the owner that the owner will be required to connect to the central sewer system within one year of the actual availability.

(2)

The owner shall have the option of prepaying the amortized value of required connection charges in equal monthly installments over a period not to exceed two years from the date of the initial notification of anticipated availability.

(j)

Any property served by a private sewer which is required to connect to the county's system or is required by state law to connect to an investor-owned utility located within the county's coastal area west of U.S. 19, which is also receiving bulk wastewater services from the county, shall properly abandon the private sewer when service is available and connect to the system in accordance with the requirements of this subsection and state law. The serving utility shall have the right to impose a lien for any and all connection charges, impact fees, service availability, and other approved fees in the event the same are not paid when due. In the event an investor-owned utility is unable to collect the connection charges or other fees from a property owner through available legal means, it may seek authorization from the board of county commissioners to foreclose upon the lien authorized hereunder.

(Code 1970, § 26-84; Ord. No. 87-10, § 4, 3-24-87; Ord. No. 93-19, § 2, 9-8-93; Ord. No. 94-15, § 1, 12-20-94; Ord. No. 96-18, § 1, 10-29-96; Ord. No. 96-21, § 1, 12-10-96)