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AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 43-10 OF THE DULUTH CITY CODE, 1959, AS AMENDED AUTHORIZING THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES TO EXECUTE CERTAIN DOCUMENTS PERTAINING TO THE WLSSD.
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CITY PROPOSAL:
The city of Duluth does ordain:
Section 1. That Section 43-10 of the Duluth City Code, 1959, as amended, is hereby amended to read as follows:
Sec. 43-10. WLSSD charges apportioned under domestic equivalent system.
(a) At such time as the WLSSD wastewater treatment works presently under construction becomes operational, Ccharges made to the city by the WLSSD for the cost of the city's proportionate share of the operation, maintenance, including replacement and debt service of the WLSSD wastewater facilities, shall be distributed among the users within the city in accordance with the current WLSSD ordinance distributing those costs among its constituent users. domestic equivalent classification system, a copy of which is on file in the office of the city clerk. Revisions to the WLSSD domestic equivalent classification system may be approved by council resolution.
(b) Upon receipt of a wastewater treatment capacity allocation permit or similar document allocating to the city its proportionate costs of WLSSD’s waste water treatment system, said document shall be sent to the director of public works and utilities who shall review it and forward it to the city council with the director’s recommendation to approve or to disapprove said allocation document. Unless the city council shall, at its next regularly-scheduled meeting, direct the Director to the contrary, the director shall thereafter execute or refuse to execute said document in accordance with the director’s recommendation or, if different, the council’s direction.
Section 2. That this ordinance shall take effect 30 days after its passage and publication.
Statement of Purpose
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE: The purpose of this ordinance is to allow the director of public works and Utilities to sign off on the WLSSD’s waste wastewater treatment capacity allocation permit.
Periodically, the WLSSD does a study to determine the treatment capacity of the District and to allocate that capacity to the various users based on their historic contributions of wastewater to the system and on treatment needs of those loads The District then issues a document called a wastewater treatment capacity allocation permit to allocate the capacity to each of its user jurisdictions which the users are required to sign off on. Once approved, the Permit serves as a basis for allocation the operating and capital costs of the District to the users. The Permit amount also serves as a ceiling for any user’s effluent flow into the system. A copy of the WLSSD ordinance establishing the permitting and charging system is attached.
The Permit and the allocation system are technical in nature and are most appropriately handled at the administrative level. The purpose of this ordinance would be to empower the director of public works and utilities to perform the necessary technical analysis and to sign off on the Permit, subject to review by council and its ability to give direction if deemed necessary.