Point Boro Outlaws Continuously Running Pumps

Point Borough is turning off "continuous and ongoing" water discharge from homes, such as water pumped from basements, but is still allowing the emptying of swimming pools.

The Borough Council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to adopt an ordinance on second reading aimed at ending ongoing water discharge after getting complaints from neighbors on Cottage Place and Old Farm Road in the eastern section of town off Bay Avenue.

Eric Loveland, who lives on Old Farm Road off Cottage Place, asked council members on Tuesday night to adopt the ordinance to provide "relief" to his family and his neighbors.

Loveland told council members at the Aug. 20 meeting, when the matter was discussed and then tabled, that there is constant street and driveway flooding and that his young daughter has to ride her bicycle in the middle of the street.

He said the constant flooding of Old Farm and Cottage has nothing to do with Superstorm Sandy or even weather, but is being pumped out of a basement on Cottage Place on a constant basis and has been a problem for a few years, ever since the homeowner renovated his basement.

Loveland said Kevin Burke, the Borough Code Enforcement Officer, and other Borough officials had been on site when the flooding was bad and that he had been talking to council members since May about introducing an ordinance that would help give Burke the legal backing he needs to issue a violation notice.

Loveland also gave council a petition with 18 residents' names in favor of the ordinance.

Also at the Aug. 20 meeting were a number of pool owners who expressed a lot of concerns about whether the ordinance would impact their ability to empty their pools at the end of the summer seasons or create any other problems for them.

However, at the Tuesday night meeting, there appeared to be no pool owners present. No one objected publicly to the ordinance adoption.

Council passed the measure without discussion, in sharp contrast to the Aug. 20 meeting when the matter was discussed at length by residents and council members before it was tabled for some revision of language.

The ordinance expands the definition of "discharged water" and includes as "prohibited acts" of creating discharge as follows:

".....discharged water shall mean water that runs off the land's surface, is transmitted to the sub surface or is captured by separate storm sewers or other sewerage or drainage facilities or conveyed by snow removal equipment.

"Drainage of roofs and paved areas, yards and courts and other open areas on the premises, including but not limited to basements, pools, crawl spaces and sprinklers, shall be included herein.

"Water from these facilities shall not be discharged in a manner which is continuous and ongoing so as to create a significant and unreasonable interference with a right common to the general public, involves a significant and unreasonable interference with the public health, the public safety, the public peace, the public comfort or the public convenience."

At the Sept. 3 meeting the ordinance was passed on first reading. When asked after that meeting how the ordinance was revised, Council member Antoinette DePaola said a line describing the discharged water as "resulting from precipitation (including rain and snow)" was deleted.

Also, the word "significant" was inserted twice (in the last paragraph of the ordinance quoted above) to describe the type of "interference" that would be construed as problematic.

Language was changed so that "continuous and ongoing" and "significant" discharge of water from pumps could be regulated, while seasonal emptying of pools would not be prohibited.

DePaola said after the Sept. 3 meeting that Public Works Director Bob Forsyth has been on site talking to the owner of the home (with the basement pumping out water) about possibly installing a type of recharge system that will send the water back into his own yard.

"The owner was given a warning, he seems to be cooperating," DePaola said. "And that's all we want: cooperation."