COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 444
(By Senators Snyder, Minear, Kessler, Love, Buckalew,
Schoonover and Macnaughtan)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported March 2, 1998.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section twenty-two, article eighteen,
chapter eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to municipal
authority; and authority to compel sewer connections outside
corporate limits.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty-two, article eighteen, chapter eight of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 18. ASSESSMENTS TO IMPROVE STREETS, SIDEWALKS AND SEWERS;
SEWER CONNECTIONS AND BOARD OF HEALTH; ENFORCEMENT OF DUTY TO
PAY FOR SERVICE.
PART XII. CONNECTION TO SEWERS; BOARD OF HEALTH;
ENFORCEMENT OF DUTY TO PAY FOR SERVICE.
§8-18-22. Connection to sewers; board of health; penalty.
The owner or owners of any lot or parcel of land abutting on
any street, alley, public way or easement in any municipality on
which a public municipal sewer is now located or may hereafter be
constructed and laid (whether constructed and laid under the
provisions of this article or any other provisions of law) upon
which lot or parcel of land any business or residence building is
now located or may hereafter be erected, not connected with a
public sewer, may be required and compelled by the municipality or
by the board of health to connect any such building with such
sewer: Provided, That a municipality may not require any such
landowner to connect to the municipal sewer system where the
landowner has, within five years before the construction of the
system, installed a functional septic or other waste disposal
system meeting the approval of the board of health. Notice so to
connect shall be given by the municipality or by the board of
health to the owner and to the lessee or occupant of such building.
Each day's failure to comply with such notice and connect with such
sewer by such owner or owners, after thirty days from the receipt
of such notice, shall be a misdemeanor and a separate and new
offense under this section, and each such offense shall be
punishable by a fine of not less than five nor more than twenty- five dollars. Jurisdiction to hear, try, determine and sentence
for any violation of this section is hereby vested in the police or municipal court thereof, or, where no police court exists, in the
mayor thereof.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to empower municipalities
to compel connections to municipal sewer service for businesses or
residences located outside corporate limits.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.)