Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Chapter 752 of the acts of 1968 is hereby amended by striking out section 7 and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 7. The Board shall prevent the discharge into the sewers of substances which may damage or impair the sewage collection and sewage treatment system or interfere with its maintenance or operation. The Board shall have the right to enter any premises from which any sewer or drain is connected with any part of the sewerage system under its control or with any tributary sewerage or with the systems of any member city, town or sewer district, to determine the condition of said sewer, drain, sewage pumping station, trunk or treatment works, determine the amount and character of sewage, drainage or other wastes flowing therefrom, determine whether such sewage, drainage or other wastes does, or is likely to, damage or impair the sewerage system or the system of any member city, town or sewer district or interfere with its maintenance and operation, and inspect records required to be kept by regulation of the Board or other governmental entity. The Board shall, for the proper and reasonable operation of its works, make regulations as to the quantity and character of any sewage, drainage or other wastes discharged into any sewer under its control or any sewer tributary thereto, but such regulations shall not be less than those established by the division of water pollution control. Such regulations may impose federal, state and other industrial pretreatment requirements directly upon industrial and other users of the sewage collection systems tributary to the district's sewerage system and may require such industrial and other users to obtain discharge permits directly from the district. The district may charge permit application fees to recover the costs of processing permit applications and may directly bill industrial users to recover the district's annual cost of implementing an industrial pretreatment program. The district may enforce its regulations directly against industrial and other users of sewer systems tributary to district sewage works by court action seeking injunctive relief and penalties or by other action deemed appropriate by the district. Violation of district regulations is subject to a civil penalty up to ten thousand dollars, with each day of a continuing violation being a separate violation.