Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 45, November 2, 2024
Section 120.4 - Village of Herkimer(a) [Application.] The rules and regulations hereinafter given, duly made and enacted in accordance with the provisions of sections 70, 71 and 73 of chapter 45 of the Consolidated Laws (Public Health Law), as amended by chapter 395 of the Laws of 1928, shall apply to all natural and artificial reservoirs on Mill Creek and to all watercourses and drainage areas tributary thereto or ultimately discharging into said reservoirs, such bodies of water being sources of the public water supply of the village of Herkimer, Herkimer County, New York.(b) [Definitions.] (1) The term reservoir wherever used in this section is intended to mean and refer to the intake reservoir on Mill Creek, which is tributary to or which serves as a source of the aforesaid public water supply and to any additional reservoir which may be constructed or used for the purpose of this public water supply.(2) The term watercourse wherever used in this section is intended to mean and include every spring, pond (other than artificial reservoirs and filter basins), stream, ditch, gutter or channel of any kind, the waters of which, when running whether continuously or occasionally, eventually flow or may flow into the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(3) Wherever a linear distance of a structure or object from a reservoir or from a watercourse is mentioned in this section, it is intended to mean the shortest horizontal distance from the nearest point of the structure or object to the high-water mark of a reservoir or to the edge, margin or precipitous bank forming the ordinary high-water mark of such watercourse.(c) Privies adjacent to any reservoir or watercourse.(1) No privy, privy vault, pit or other receptacle of any kind, placed or used for either the temporary storage or the permanent deposit of human excreta, shall be constructed, located, placed, maintained or allowed to remain within 150 feet of any reservoir or 100 feet of any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(2) No privy, privy vault, pit, cesspool or other receptacle, which is not watertight, placed or used for the permanent deposit of human excreta, shall be constructed, located, placed, maintained or allowed to remain within 300 feet of any reservoir or within 200 feet of any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(3) Every privy, privy vault, pit or other receptacle of any kind, placed or used for the temporary storage of human excreta, located between the limiting distances prescribed by paragraph (1) of this subdivision and the limting distances prescribed by paragraph (2) of this subdivision, shall be arranged in such a manner that all excreta shall be received in a suitable watertight receptacle or removable container which shall be emptied as set forth in paragraphs (4) and (5) of this subdivision.(4) Whenever the aforesaid watertight receptacles or removable containers become filled within six inches of the top, said receptacles or containers shall be emptied or removed and the contents disposed of as hereinafter provided, in order to maintain the privy or receptacle in proper sanitary condition and effectually prevent any overflow upon the soil or upon the foundation or floor of the privy. In effecting this removal the utmost care shall be exercised that none of the contents be allowed to escape while being transported from the privy or receptacle to the place of disposal hereinafter specified and that the contents or the removable containers while being transported be thoroughly covered and that the least possible annoyance and inconvenience be caused to occupants of the premises or the adjacent premises.(5) Unless otherwise specifically ordered or permitted by the State Commissioner of Health, the excreta collected in the aforesaid watertight receptacles or removable containers permitted under paragraph (3) of this subdivision shall, when removed, be disposed of by burying in trenches or pits and covered with not less than 12 inches of soil in such a manner as effectually to prevent their being washed over the surface of the ground by rain or melting snow and at a distance of not less than 500 feet from any reservoir or within 300 feet of any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(6) Whenever it shall be found that, owing to the character of the soil or the surface of the ground or owing to the height or flow of subsoil or surface water or other special local conditions, excremental matter from any privy or aforesaid receptacle or from any trench or place of disposal may, in the opinion of the State Commissioner of Health, be washed over the surface of the ground or through the soil in an imperfectly purified condition into any reservoir or watercourse, then the said privy or receptacle for excreta or the said trench or place of disposal shall, after due notice to the owner thereof, be removed to such greater distance or to such place as shall be considered safe and proper by the State Commissioner of Health.(d) Sewage, sink wastes, garbage, etc. (1) No bath water, laundry wastes, sewage or other excremental matter from any water closet, privy, cesspool or other source shall be thrown, placed, led, conducted, discharged or allowed to escape or flow in any manner, either directly or indirectly, into any reservoir or any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer, nor shall any such liquid or solid matters be thrown, placed, led, conducted, discharged or allowed to escape or flow onto the surface of the ground or into the ground beneath the surface (except into watertight receptacles or removable containers, the contents of which are to be removed as provided by paragraphs [4] and [5] of subdivision [c]) within 300 feet of any reservoir or 200 feet of any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(2) No garbage, putrescible matter, kitchen or sink wastes, refuse or waste matter from any garage, dairy or cheese factory nor water in which milk cans, utensils, clothing, bedding, carpets or harness have been washed or rinsed nor any polluted water or liquid of any kind shall be thrown or discharged directly or indirectly into any reservoir or any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer, nor shall any such liquid or solid refuse or waste matter be thrown or discharged upon the surface of the ground or into the ground beneath the surface within 150 feet of any reservoir or 100 feet of any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(3) No clothing, bedding, carpet, harness, vehicle, receptacle, utensil nor anything that pollutes water shall be washed, rinsed or placed in any reservoir or any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(e) Bathing, animals, manure, compost, etc. (1) No person shall be allowed to bathe in any reservoir or watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer. No animal or poultry shall be allowed to stand, wallow, wade or swim nor be washed or watered in any reservoir tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer. No watering place shall be maintained in such a way as to pollute with muddy leachings or excremental matter any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(2) No stable for cattle or horses, no barnyard, hogyard, pigpen, poultry house or yard, no hitching place or standing place for horses or other animals and no manure pile or compost heap shall be constructed, located, placed, maintained or allowed to remain within 150 feet of any reservoir or 50 feet of any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer, and none of the above named objects or sources of pollution shall be constructed, located, placed, maintained or allowed to remain where or in such a manner that the drainings, leachings or washings from the same may enter any reservoir or any watercourse without first having passed over or through such an extent of soil as to have been properly purified, and in no case shall it be deemed that proper purification has been secured unless the aforesaid drainings, leachings or washings shall have percolated over or through the soil in a scattered, dissipated form and not concentrated in perceptible lines of drainage for a distance of not less than 150 feet from any reservoir or 50 feet from any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(3) No human excreta and no compost or other matter containing human excreta shall be thrown, placed or allowed to escape into any reservoir or watercourse nor be placed, piled or spread upon the surface of the ground at any point on the watershed tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer, nor shall such human excreta or compost or other matter containing human excreta be buried in the soil unless covered with not less than 12 inches of soil nor within a distance of 500 feet of any reservoir or 300 feet of any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer; and no manure or compost of any kind shall be placed, piled or spread upon the ground within a distance of 150 feet of any reservoir or 50 feet of any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(4) No decayed or fermented fruit or vegetables, roots, grain, cider mill wastes or other vegetable refuse of any kind shall be thrown, placed, discharged or allowed to escape or pass into any reservoir or watercourse, nor shall they be thrown, placed, piled, maintained or allowed to remain in any such place that the drainings, leachings or washings therefrom may flow by open, blind or covered drains or channels of any kind into any reservoir or watercourse without first having passed over or through such an extent of soil as to have been properly purified, and in no case shall it be deemed that proper purification has been secured unless the aforesaid drainings, leachings or washings shall have percolated over or through the soil in a scattered, dissipated form and not concentrated in perceptible lines of drainage for a distance of not less than 150 feet from any reservoir or 50 feet from any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(f) Dead animals, offal, industrial wastes. No dead animal, bird, fish or any part thereof nor any offal or polluted industrial wastes of any kind shall be thrown, placed, discharged or allowed to escape or to pass into any reservoir or any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer, nor shall any such material or refuse be so located, placed, maintained or allowed to remain that the drainings, leachings or washings therefrom may reach any reservoir or any watercourse without having first percolated over or through the soil in a scattered, dissipated form and not concentrated in perceptible lines of drainage for a distance of 500 feet from any reservoir or for a distance of 300 feet from any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(g) Fishing, boating and ice cutting. No boating or fishing of any kind and no ice cutting or any trespassing whatever shall be allowed in or upon the waters or ice of any reservoir tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer, except by duly authorized employees of the village of Herkimer in the performance of their duties of supervision and maintenance of the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(h) Camps. No camp, tent, building or other structure for occupancy by transients or for the housing of laborers engaged in construction work or for any other use, except as a private camp or dwelling maintained by a person for his own personal use or for the use of his family and friends, shall be located, placed or maintained within a distance of 500 feet of any reservoir or within 300 feet of any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(i) Cemeteries. No interment of a human body shall be made within a distance of 500 feet of any reservoir or within 300 feet of any watercourse tributary to the public water supply of the village of Herkimer.(j) Inspections. The municipal commission of Herkimer or such other board, person or persons as may be charged with the maintenance or supervision of the public water supply of the village of Herkimer or the duly appointed representatives of any such board shall make regular and thorough inspections of the reservoirs, watercourses and drainage areas tributary thereto for the purpose of ascertaining whether the above rules and regulations are being complied with, and it shall be the duty of said municipal commission of Herkimer to cause copies of any rules and regulations violated to be served upon the persons violating the same with notices of such violations; and if such persons served do not immediately comply with the rules and regulations it shall be the further duty of the municipal commission of Herkimer to promptly notify the State Commissioner of Health of such violations. The municipal commission of Herkimer shall report to the State Commissioner of Health in writing annually, on the first day of January, the results of the regular inspections made during the preceding year, stating the number of inspections which have been made, the number of violations found, the number of notices served and the general condition of the watershed at the time of the last inspection.(k) Penalty. In accordance with section 70 of chapter 45 of the Consolidated Laws (Public Health Law), as amended by chapter 395 of the Laws of 1928, the penalty for each and every violation of or noncompliance with any of these rules and regulations which related to a permanent source or act of contamination is hereby fixed at $100.N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 10 § 120.4