13.90.570 Pretreatment charges and fees

13.90.570 Pretreatment charges and fees.

The City may adopt reasonable fees for reimbursement of costs of setting up and operating the City’s pretreatment program which may include:

(1) Fees for wastewater discharge permit applications, including the cost of processing such applications;

(2) Annual permit fees will be charged at the amounts set forth by the State of Washington for permitting industrial facilities per Chapter 173-224 WAC. For users that do not fit into an existing category, the City reserves the right to place that user into a category that the City determines to be appropriate, or create a new category if the need exists;

(3) Fees for monitoring, inspection, and surveillance procedures, including the cost of collecting and analyzing a user’s discharge, and reviewing monitoring reports submitted by users;

(a) The expenses for sample analysis required by the user’s permit will be charged to the user. For analyses conducted by a third-party commercial laboratory, the permittee will be charged the actual fees charged by the laboratory. For analyses conducted by the City laboratory, the permittee will be charged the actual cost of the analyses, not to exceed fees established by locally available commercial laboratories.

(b) Any user establishing a pattern of noncompliance, or having a history of noncompliance, or suspected of being in noncompliance, may require additional monitoring visits as deemed appropriate by the Public Works Director. Any additional analysis performed which detects noncompliance will be billed directly to the user.

(5) Fees for reviewing and responding to accidental discharge procedures and construction;

(6) Fees for transferring a permit;

(7) Fees for permit modifications. Permit modification fees will only be charged in a case where the user’s operation requires a modification, or when a user requests a modification to the permit;

(8) Fees for a one-time batch discharge;

(a) Users having effluent concentrations in excess of established local limits, or limits included in authorized permits, may be billed a high strength waste surcharge or a charge for excessive maintenance and/or inspections to ensure compliance. Surcharge rates will be established by the Public Works Director, and based on cost of conveyance and treatment in the POTW.

(b) All fees or charges will be collected by direct billing. Unless the Public Works Director has been made aware of extenuating circumstances that would prevent prompt payment, all fees are payable within 30 days of the billing. Fees past due will be considered a violation of this chapter. Users not paying fees within 60 days of the billing period will be subject to termination of service. The Public Works Director may change existing or adopt new fees to comply with the actual cost of service.

(10) Fees for filing appeals;

(11) Fees to recover administrative and legal costs (not included in subsection (2) of this section) associated with the enforcement activity taken by the Public Works Director to address user noncompliance; and

(12) Other fees as the City may deem necessary to carry out the requirements contained herein. These fees relate solely to the matters covered by this chapter and are separate from all other fees, fines, and penalties chargeable by the City. [Ord. 4169, 2014; Code 1970 § 13.62.150.]