The borough’s public works team will no longer provide regular repairs and maintenance to the 30 sewage grinder pumps located on private property that serve only one house each. In cases of emergency, however, the borough will still be able to provide repairs or even replace a broken pump.
The ordinance will go into effect on June 30.
The reason for the ordinance change, which the assembly unanimously approved after a lengthy public hearing on Feb. 25, is both legality and liability. Borough Attorney Robe Luce explained that the borough’s current practice violates state law.
“Public resources can only be used for public purposes,” he wrote to the assembly.
Grinder pumps are often used to connect private sewer lines to the municipal line when a gravity-fed system is not possible. For example, if the municipal sewage line is at a higher elevation than a home, that property would likely rely on a pump to lift the sewage to the public line.
The liability aspect of the problem is slightly less straightforward. The borough’s liability insurance only covers work on private property in the case of emergencies. So, if a public works employee was injured while performing routine maintenance on a station, the borough would not be covered by its insurance. However, if the incident occurred while fixing an emergency, the borough would be covered.
“It’s not so much a cost thing as it is a liability thing,” Borough Manager Mason Villarma said. “It’s no different than if an employee went to work on somebody’s sump pump or clogged sewer line on private property.”
Currently, 30 homes rely on grinder pumps, a figure that Public Works Director Tom Wetor said was never meant to get that high.
“I’ve said to the last three borough managers, ‘This is definitely a concern of ours. … If we have a major blowout or we have a major leak, or we have somebody get hurt working on one of these things, who’s going to cover the liability for that?’”
Villarma added that in addition to the liability issues, there is a practical aspect to walking away from routine repairs.
“We have two members of our public works team right now,” Villarma said. “As we replace critical infrastructure on St. Michaels Street and McKinnon Street … it’s important that their attention turns toward those projects.”
There is, however, a loophole in the liability exception for emergency work. If a pump on private property breaks, the property owner is responsible for finding a contractor to make repairs. But if they are without a functioning sewage line and there are no private contractors in town to fix the problem, the property owner could then turn to the borough, as the maintenance would be considered an “emergency.”
Villarma added that in this situation, City Hall would likely implement a call-out fee. The price tag for the potential fee was not discussed at the assembly meeting.
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