The city may soon may have more muscle to force people to stop hooking up to non-stormwater sewers without a permit.
That’s thanks to unanimous passage by the City Plan Commission of an ordinance amendment that adds to the city’s ability to inspect, monitor, and prevent illicit discharges and illegal connections to the municipal separated storm sewer system.
City Engineer Giovanni Zinn argued before the commissioners at their monthly meeting last week that the new ordinance would “allow the city to order an offending party to cease the illicit discharge, and to work on compliance” with the muscle of new legal authority.
Zinn said that there have been no recent egregious examples of illegal hook ups that prompted the proposed new legislation. Instead, the new ordinance is the fulfillment of a requirement inherent in a permit that the city has received from the state.
Outflow pipe into the Quinnipiac River, at the bottom left of photo.
The formal City Plan staff report states: “This ordinance is designed to minimize the contamination of New Haven’s water bodies through monitoring, inspection and resolution of illegal non-storm water discharges into our storm water systems… The city’s Municipal Small Separate Storm Water System (MS4) permit from the State of Connecticut requires passage of an ordinance prohibiting illegal discharges… It gives the city power to enforce the prohibition and to force the offending party to remedy the situation.”
Westvillian Adam Marchand, the aldermanic representative on the City Plan Commission, asked Zinn if the new ordinance has real teeth.
“There are civil and criminal penalties,” Zinn replied, though he could not supply the details.
“It would be most appropriate to have the details for the [Board of Alders] Legislation Committee,” Marchand suggested.
Repair Those Elevators Faster
That committee is the next stop for the ordinance before it goes on to the full Board of Aldermen for a final vote.
That’s also the next stop for another new ordinance amending the city code. This amendment addresses failure to properly maintain or repair in a timely fashion elevators in multifamily housing, with an eye to protect the life and safety of disabled people.
Zinn also presented this amendment, although it originated from the city’s Department of Services for Persons with Disabilities
The background info that City Plan staff supplies the commissioners cited reports from home health servicers and therapists as well as disabled residents about the hardships and potential safety issues when elevators in buildings with disabled people are left unrepaired for extended periods.
The consequences include, for example, that a disabled person might not be able to make a doctor visit, go to the pharmacy, vote, or meet a child coming home from school.
Here’s the propelling finding from the City Plan staff report regarding buildings where disabled people live above the first floor: “After reviewing the existing city ordinances and state codes and speaking with LCI [Livable City Initiative], the Commission on Disabilities concluded that the city does not have adequate, viable enforcement tools to ensure that if an accessible feature such as an elevator breaks down, landlords will make repairs promptly and that improper or inadequate maintenance does not cause repeated failures.”
This ordinance also passed unanimously en route to the Legislation Committee.
