§ 13.08.020. Definitions.

The following definitions shall apply to this chapter.

"Acre" means 43,560 square feet of land, excluding easements or rights-of-way.

"Administrator" means the city manager or designee.

"Applicant" means the owner, or owner's representative, of a property requesting connection to the public sanitary sewerage system owned by the City of Willcox.

"Approved" or "approval" means approved in writing.

"Area under development" means the area of land for which physical improvements are planned and for which sewer service is requested by the applicant.

"A.R.S." means Arizona Revised Statutes.

"Assignment" means the conveyance of sewer connection fee credits by the credit holder to a subsequent purchaser of all or any part of the area under development specified in the credit agreement.

"Augmentation" means the construction of public sewerage facilities adjacent to or to replace existing public sewerage facilities for the purpose of increasing the capacity of the public system.

"Base sewerage/facility size" means the minimum capacity sewerage facility which is required to convey or treat the predicted peak wet weather wastewater flow from the area under development.

"(BOD) biochemical oxygen demand test" means a procedure that measures the rate of oxygen use under controlled conditions of time and temperature.

"CCF" means 100 cubic feet.

"Chemical oxygen demand (COD)" means the chemically oxidizable material in wastewater as represented by the reduction of dichromate ion, measured in accordance with "standard methods."

"City" means the City of Willcox.

"City manager" means the City Manager of Willcox, or designee.

"Commercial/industrial" means a property zoned or used for recognized commercial and industrial uses. Commercial/industrial uses service stations, barber shops, beauty salons, hospitals, utilities, car washes, medical and dental laboratories, pet clinics, bakeries, industries, manufacturing, machinery and meat packing.

"Connection fee" means the fee paid to the City of Willcox for permission to connect to the public sewerage system, as set forth by resolution.

"Connection fee credit" means a credit for eligible engineering and construction costs of oversizing public sanitary sewerage facilities to be applied against an applicant's sewer connection fees.

"Credit agreement" means an agreement between an applicant and the City of Willcox for reimbursement for the costs of over-sizing public sewerage facilities by connection fee credits.

"Department" means the City of Willcox Public Services Department.

"Director" means the Director of Public Services for the City of Willcox.

"Disposal systems" means a system for disposing of wastes, either by surface or underground methods, and includes sewerage systems, treatment works, disposal wells, and other system.

"Fixture unit" means a unit of measure which expresses the load-producing effects of different kinds of plumbing fixtures on the plumbing system.

"Flow through" means sewers within a development which provide capacity for other future upstream development. Future sections of the same development are not considered future upstream development.

"Individual disposal system" means a privately owned and maintained device of system for the treatment or disposal of sewage from a single housing unit.

"Improvement district" means a district formed under the provisions of A.R.S. Title 11, Chapter 5, Article 1.

"Industrial" or "commercial wastes" means the liquid, gaseous, or solid wastes produced as a result of any industrial or commercial operation.

"Milligrams per liter (mg/l)" means a weight-to-volume relationship; for dilute agueous solutions, the milligram per liter relationship is closely equivalent to parts-per-million.

"Multi-family residence" means a residential complex designed for use by more than one family unit, including apartments, mobile home or manufactured home developments, schools, school dormitories, churches, townhouses, and condominium projects, excepting commercial/industrial components thereof. For other establishments or portions of establishments which provide overnight accommodations, those that provide private bathroom facilities with access only from the individual guest rooms shall be considered to be included in this category for purposes of fee determination, and those establishments or portions of establishments which do not fit this criteria shall be considered to be commercial for purposes of fee determination.

"Non-participating rate fee" means the rate charged an applicant for connection to the public sewerage system which is not defined as a participating rate connection fee.

"Off-site sewerage improvements" means all sewerage construction necessary to connect "on-site" facilities to an existing public sanitary sewer system as required by the department.

"On-site sewerage improvements" means all sewerage facilities within any plat, improvement plan, development plan or other development.

"Over-sizing" means the increase in size of a public sewerage facility which is required to serve property not owned by those who will construct the sewerage facility.

"Owned" means including processing options to purchase.

"Participating rate connection fee" means the rate charged an applicant for connection to the public sewerage system when the owner of the property to be served constructs the following types of improvements to the public sewerage system:

a.

A public outfall sewer serving the units in an area under development when the existing public sewerage system capable of serving the unit is more than 300 feet from the property boundary of the development.

b.

More than 300 feet of augmentation of existing public sewer, or an equivalent value of augmentation of other sewerage facilities, serving the units within an area under development.

c.

Public sewers serving units within the development, which provide flow-through capacity an stubbed-out points of connection at the boundary of the development for future connection by other property not owned by the developer.

d.

Sewerage facilities which are eligible for a rebate.

e.

Sewerage facilities which are eligible for a credit.

f.

Sewerage facilities which are not required to serve the development.

"Person" means the State of Arizona, a municipality, county or other political subdivision of the State of Arizona, a cooperative, institution, corporation, company, firm, partnership or individual person.

"Pollution" means contaimination or other alteration of the physical, chemical, or biological properties of any waters of the substance into any waters, onto, or under any land within the City of Willcox that creates a nuisance or renders such waters or land harmful or injurious to public health, safety, or welfare, to domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, recreational, or other lawful beneficial uses, or to livestock, wild animals, birds, fish or other aquatic life.

"Private sanitary sewer system" means a sewer constructed at the expense of the property owner in accordance with the Uniform Plumbing Code as adopted by the City of Willcox or in accordance with construction plans approved by the City of Willcox. The ownership and responsibility for maintenance and operation of the private sewer systems rests with the owner of the private property or an authorized homeowner's association. The limits of said responsibility extends from the actual point of its connection to the public sewer system through to the plumbing fixtures within the connected building.

"Public sanitary sewerage system" means the system owned by the City of Willcox including all gravity sewer mains, sewage lift stations and pressure mains, treatment and disposal facilities, and all appurtenances required to collect, transport, treat, store and discharge the liquid and solid phases of wastewater. The city engineer or his designated representative is authorized to decide whether a new sanitary sewerage system will be accepted into the public system.

"Rebate" means the repayment to a developer by the City of Willcox of the cost of a public sewerage facility installed by the developer. The repayment shall be funded from non-participating rate connection fees paid by other developments which connect to the rebate-eligible facility.

"Rebate line" means a lien constructed to provide service to an area under development which also provides at least 51 percent of its capacity to currently unsewered properties which did not participate in the cost of its construction.

"Renters (third parties)" are those persons who have made legal arrangements to use or occupy residential or commercial units subject to this section of the City Code.

"Residual capacity" means the remaining capacity in a sewerage facility after the predicted peak wet weather flow from the development constructing the facility has been subtracted from the theoretical full flow capacity of the facility.

"Sewage" means the wastes from toilets, baths, sinks, lavatories, laundries, and other plumbing fixtures in residences, institutions, public and business buildings, mobile homes, and other places of human habitation, employment, or recreation.

"Sewage service rental" as used in this chapter, means that rental charged for each unit of service connected with the sewer system of the city.

"Single-family residence" means a building designed to be used as a home and shall be the only dwelling located on a parcel of ground with the usual accessory buildings. This single residential dwelling may be a mobile or manufactured home.

"Standard methods" means 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.

"Subdivisions" means the division of a parcel of land into four or more lots or parcels for the purpose of transfer of ownership or development, or, if a new street is involved, any division of a parcel of land, provided that a division of land for agricultural purposes into lots or parcels of five acres or more and not involving a new street shall not be deemed a subdivision. The terms includes resubdivision, and, when appropriate to the context, shall relate to the process of subdividing or to the land subdivided.

"Total solids" means the total solids content of wastewater which is all the matter that remains as residue from a sample upon evaporation at 103 degrees to 105 degrees C.

"Transfer" means the ability to use connection fee credits on any property owned by the credit-holder in the City of Willcox except as otherwise specified or limited in a credit agreement.

"Unit" means a unit of development, either dwelling, fixture, or building, which can be identified as an individual entity for purposes of wastewater flow calculations and connection fee assessment.

"Unit of service" as used in this chapter, means each separate occupancy, house, store or building so situated upon any lot or lots within the city that is now served by the city's sewer system, or, in the opinion of the city staff or regulatory board, could be served separately from any other occupancy, residence, house, store or building upon the same lot or lots, irrespective of the number of residences, houses, stores or buildings upon said lot or lots, even though two or more of said occupancies, residences, houses, stores or buildings are held or owned by the same person or persons; and that the determination of the city staff or regulatory board as to whether any house, occupancy, residence, store or building comes within the meaning of this chapter so as to require a separate sewage connection, shall be final; provided, however, that the owner or occupant of said premises shall have the right to appeal from any such decision of the city staff or regulatory board to the city council at its next regular meeting, and that in the event of any such appeal being taken, the determination of the mayor and city council shall be final.

"Wastewater" means sanitary sewage and other water-borne discharges from units of development.

"Wastewater treatment facility" means any plan, disposal field, lagoon, pumping station, incinerator, or other works used to treat or stabilize sewage or industrial wastes.

"Waters of the city" means all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, drainage systems, and all other bodies or accumulations of water, surface and underground, natural or artificial, public or private which are contained with, flow through, or border upon the City of Willcox or any portion thereof.

(Ord. NS126, 1986; Ord. NS148, § 1, 1991; Ord. NS309, § 2, 2011)