How wastewater amounts are measured for private wells and some businesses

(a) Dischargers using private wells or other private water sources will be required to install, at their own expense, water meters approved by the director for measuring the supplemental water quantity or, alternatively, they will be required to install, at their own expense and at the appropriate location, a calibrated flume, weir, flow meter, or similar device approved by the director for measuring wastewater quantity. A flow recording and totalizing register will also be required, and measurements to verify the quantities of waste flows will be performed on a random basis by the department. Residential users not served by the city water system shall be charged on the basis of the monthly base charge rates provided for in Appendix 43-A . (b) Because of landscape irrigation or consumptive usage, some nonresidential users may discharge substantially less than 80 percent of their metered water usage to the sanitary sewer system. Those users may, upon request to the director, be permitted to have the amount of water being discharged to the sewer determined by one of the methods listed below. The specific method to be used will be selected by the director based on considerations of cost of installation and anticipated accuracy of the method. (1) Method one. The user shall install and maintain at the user’s expense a calibrated flume, weir, flow meter, or similar device approved by the director as to type and location to measure the user’s wastewater discharge. In the latter case, a flow meter and totalizing register will be required and measurements to verify the quantity of wastewater flow will be performed on a random basis by the director. The property owner shall install at the owner’s expense a suitable vault for installing the flow meter. The vault shall be located on the user’s sewer lateral or building sewer at a location approved by the director, and the department shall be granted access rights. (2) Method two. The user shall install and maintain at the user’s expense a water meter for submetering the water discharging to the public sewer. The property owner shall at the owner’s expense do any necessary plumbing subject to department inspection to separate the types of water use and provide for the meter to be located adjacent to the primary water meter and within the public right-of-way or at a location approved by the director. (3) Method three . If the director determines that it is impractical for a user to employ method one or method two as a result of physical difficulty or excessive cost, the director may permit the user to estimate the amount of wastewater reasonably anticipated to be discharged to the public sewer. The user’s estimate may be based upon average historical water use during wet weather periods or upon any other reasonable basis, and may be based upon flow meter tests if practical. The director shall review the data submitted by the user and may modify the user’s estimate, where appropriate. The decision of the director shall be final if method three is used. If a user is not satisfied with the determination under method three, the user shall have the right to require at the user’s expense use of method one or method two for determination of the amount of wastewater discharge to the public sewer. )