A. Purpose. The purpose of this section is to protect the public potable water supply of the City of George from the possibility of contamination or pollution by compliance with the provisions of the State Building Code as now adopted or hereafter amended requiring the prevention of cross connections which could allow contaminants to backflow from a customer's private water system into the city system.

B. Rules and Regulations. The public works director is instructed to adopt all necessary rules and regulations relating to the connection of water system to the city system to insure compliance with the State Building Code and all other state and federal regulations relating to the provision of safe potable water through the city system. These rules shall be reasonable and shall accomplish the purposes of this ordinance in the protection of the public potable water system within the city and in any area outside the city where city water is delivered.

C. Appeals. Any person disputing the rules and regulations adopted by the public works director shall make a written request for a hearing before the mayor to explain the reason the citizen believes the rules of the city are not in compliance with this ordinance and all applicable laws affecting the delivery of potable water to the citizens of the city. On the basis of such a hearing, the public works director may issue amended rules and regulations if it is determined the city's rules or regulations are not complete or are out of date or not in compliance with all applicable laws regulating the delivery of potable water to the citizens of the city.

D. Violations. Any person violating any of the rules of the city relating to cross connection control to protect the integrity of the city potable water system, shall immediately have their water service physically disconnected from the city system to protect the public until such time as they can come into compliance with city regulations. The public works director shall have the power to allow a non-conforming connection to continue for a short period of time if the connection does not pose an immediate danger to the city water system and if the property owner is moving quickly to correct the situation to the satisfaction of the director.

Additionally, any person found to be in violation of this section, shall be responsible to repay, to the city, all costs incurred in resolution of the improper connection including a fifteen percent (15%) addition to all actual costs for overhead reimbursement to the water utility. Any person found to be in violation of this section by the public works director is deemed to have committed a civil infraction and shall be punished by a C-1 penalty, together with all penalties and assessments.

E. Installations. All private water system hookups, requiring a cross connection device to be installed, shall have such device installed by a qualified installer in compliance with city, state and federal rules. The entire cost of installation shall be borne by the property owner.

F. Inspections. Cross connection devices currently require periodic inspections at least annually. The number of inspections required may increase as a result of further state or federal rules or regulations. If the number of inspections increases, this ordinance shall be deemed to require those increased numbers or types of inspections. Those inspections shall be performed by a qualified person. [Ord. 1997-04, June 1997.]