§ 35.929-1 - Approval of the user charge system.

The Regional Administrator may approve a user charge system based on either actual use under paragraph (a) of this section or ad valorem taxes under paragraph (b) of this section. The general requirements in §§35.929-2 and 35.929-3 must also be satisfied.

(a) User charge system based on actual use. A grantee's user charge system based on actual use (or estimated use) of waste water treatment services may be approved if each user (or user class) pays its proportionate share of operation and maintenance (including replacement) costs of treatment works within the grantee's service area, based on the user's proportionate contribution to the total waste water loading from all users (or user classes). To insure a proportional distribution of operation and maintenance costs to each user (or user class), the user's contribution shall be based on factors such as strength, volume, and delivery flow rate characteristics.

(b) User charges based on ad valorem taxes. A grantee's user charge system (or the user charge system of a subscriber, i.e., a constituent community receiving waste treatment services from the grantee) which is based on ad valorem taxes may be approved if it meets the requirements of paragraphs (b)(1) through (b)(7) of this section. If the Regional Administrator determines that the grantee did not have a dedicated ad valorem tax system on December 27, 1977, meeting the requirements of paragraphs (b)(1) through (b)(3) of this section, the grantee shall develop a user charge system based on actual use under §35.929-1(a).

(1) The grantee (or subscriber) had in existence on December 27, 1977, a system of ad valorem taxes which collected revenues to pay the cost of operation and maintenance of waste water treatment works within the grantee's service area and has continued to use that system.

(2) The grantee (or subscriber) has not previously obtained approval of a user charge system on actual use.

(3) The system of ad valorem taxes in existence on December 27, 1977, was dedicated ad valorem tax system.

(i) A grantee's system will be considered to be dedicated if the Regional Administrator determines that the system meets all of the following criteria:

(A) The ad valorem tax system provided for a separate tax rate or for the allocation of a portion of the taxes collected for payment of the grantee's costs of waste water treatment services;

(B) The grantee's budgeting and accounting procedures assured that a specified portion of the tax funds would be used for the payment of the costs of operation and maintenance;

(C) The ad valorem tax system collected tax funds for the costs of waste water treatment services which could not be or historically were not used for other purposes; and

(D) The authority responsible for the operation and maintenance of the treatment works established the budget for the costs of operation and maintenance and used those specified amounts solely to pay the costs of operation and maintenance.

(ii) A subscriber's system based on ad valorem taxes will be considered to be dedicated if a contractual agreement or a charter established under State law existed on December 27, 1977, which required the subscriber to pay its share of the cost of waste water treatment services.

(4) A user charge system funded by dedicated ad valorem taxes shall establish, as a minimum, the classes of users listed below:

(i) Residential users, including single-family and multifamily dwellings, and small nonresidential users, including nonresidential commercial and industrial users which introduce no more than the equivalent of 25,000 gallons per day of domestic sanitary wastes to the treatment works:

(ii) Industrial and commercial users;

(A) Any nongovernmental user of publicly owned treatment works which discharges more than 25,000 gallons per day (gpd) of sanitary waste; or a volume of process waste, or combined process and sanitary waste, equivalent to 25,000 gpd of sanitary waste. The grantee, with the Regional Administrator's approval, shall define the strength of the residential discharges in terms of parameters including, as a minimum, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and suspended solids (SS) per volume of flow. Dischargers with a volume exceeding 25,000 gpd or the weight of BOD or SS equivalent to that weight found in 25,000 gpd of sanitary waste are considered industrial users.

(B) Any nongovernmental user of a publicly owned treatment works which discharges wastewater to the treatment works which contains toxic pollutants or poisonous solids, liquids, or gases in sufficient quantity either singly or by interaction with other wastes, to contaminate the sludge of any municipal systems, or to injure or to interfere with any sewage treatment process, or which constitutes a hazard to humans or animals, creates a public nuisance, or creates any hazard in or has an adverse effect on the waters receiving any discharge from the treatment works.

(iii) Users which pay no ad valorem taxes or receive substantial credits in paying such taxes, such as tax exempt institutions or governmental users, but excluding publicly owned facilities performing local governmental functions (e.g., city office building, police station, school) which discharge solely domestic wastes.

(5) The grantee must be prepared to demonstrate for the Regional Administrator's approval that its system of evaluating the volume, strength, and characteristics of the discharges from users or categories of users classified within the subclass of small nonresidential users is sufficient to assure that such users or the average users in such categories do not discharge either toxic pollutants or more than the equivalent of 25,000 gallons per day of domestic wastewater.

(6) The ad valorem user charge system shall distribute the operation and maintenance costs for all treatment works in the grantee's jurisdiction to the residential and small nonresidential user class, in proportion to the use of the treatment works by this class. The proportional allocation of costs for this user class shall take into account the total waste water loading of the treatment works, the constituent elements of the wastes from this user class and other appropriate factors. The grantee may assess one ad valorem tax rate to this entire class of users or, if permitted under State law, the grantee may assess different ad valorem tax rates for the subclass of residential users and the subclass of small nonresidential users provided the operation and maintenance costs are distributed proportionately between these subclasses.

(7) Each member of the industrial and commercial user class described under paragraph (b)(4)(ii) of this section and of the user class which pays no ad valorem taxes or receives substantial credits in paying such taxes described under paragraph (b)(4)(iii) of this section shall pay its share of the costs of operation and maintenance of the treatment works based upon charges for actual use (in accordance with §35.929-1(a)). The grantee may use its ad valorem tax system to collect, in whole or in part, those charges from members of the industrial and large commercial class where the following conditions are met:

(i) A portion or all of the ad valorem tax rate assessed to members of this class has been specifically designated to pay the costs of operation and maintenance of the treatment works, and that designated rate is uniformly applied to all members of this class:

(ii) A system of surcharges and rebates is employed to adjust the revenues from the ad valorem taxes collected from each user of this class in accordance with the rate designated under paragraph (b)(7)(i) of this section, such that each member of the class pays a total charge for its share of the costs of operation and maintenance based upon actual use.