Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 45, November 2, 2024
Section 155.55 - Thornwood water district(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 wells located on lands owned by the Thornwood (Water District and situated in the northerly part of the district between Broadway, Carrigan Avenue, Gramercy Place and Claremont Avenue, near a small tributary of Sawmill River, and in the northwesterly part of the district in the valley of the Sawmill River northeast of the Westchester County Parkway, which form or may form sources of the public water supply of the Thornwood Water District.(b) [Definitions.] (1) The term well wherever used in this section is intended to mean and refer to the wells now used as a source of this public water supply or to any additional well which may be constructed at this point for the purpose of this public water supply.(2) Wherever a linear distance of a structure or object from a well is mentioned in this section, it is intended to mean the shortest horizontal distance from the nearest point of the structure or object to any well.(c) Privies adjacent to any well. (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 well forming the source of the public water supply of the Thornwood Water District.(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 well forming the source of the public water supply of the Thornwood Water District.(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 distance prescribed by paragraph (1) of this subdivision and the limiting distance 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, shall be thoroughly covered, and that the least possible annoyance and inconvenience be caused to occupants of the premises and 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 well forming the source of the public water supply of the Thornwood Water District.(6) Whenever it shall be found that, owing to the character of the soil or of 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 well, 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 upon the surface of the ground or into the ground beneath the surface (except into watertight receptacles, the contents of which are to be removed as provided by paragraphs [4] and [5] of subdivision [c]) within 300 feet of any well forming the source of the public water supply of the Thornwood Water District.(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 upon the surface of the ground or into the ground beneath the surface (except into watertight containers, the contents of which are to be removed as provided by paragraphs [4] and [5] of subdivision [c]) within 100 feet of any well forming the source of the public water supply of the Thornwood Water District.(e) Animals, manure, compost, etc. (1) 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 well forming the source of the public water supply of the Thornwood Water District, 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 well 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 well forming the source of the public water supply of the Thornwood Water District.(2) No human excreta and no compost or other matter containing human excreta shall be thrown, placed, piled or spread upon the surface of the ground, nor shall such human excreta, 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 well; and no manure or compost of any kind, not containing human excreta, shall be placed, piled or spread upon the ground within a distance of 150 feet of any well forming the source of the public water supply of the Thornwood Water District.(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, maintained or allowed to remain upon the surface of the ground or buried beneath the surface within 300 feet of any well forming the source of the public water supply of the Thornwood Water District.(g) Trespassing. No trespassing shall be allowed upon the property of the Thornwood Water District upon which the wells of the public water supply of the Thornwood Water District are located and no person or persons shall enter in or upon such property except the board of water commissioners or any such board or person or persons who may be charged with the maintenance of the supply in the official performance of their duties of supervision or maintenance of the public water supply or except such other persons as may be authorized to enter said property by the board of water commissioners of the Thornwood Water District.(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 well forming the source of the public water supply of the Thornwood Water District.(i) Cemeteries. No interment of a human body shall be made within a distance of 300 feet of any well forming the source of the public water supply of the Thornwood Water District.(j) General clause. In addition to observing the foregoing requirements, all persons shall refrain from any act, although not heretofore specified, which may result in the contamination of any portion of the water supply of the Thornwood Water District.(k) Inspections. The board of water commissioners of the Thornwood Water District or such other board, person or persons as may be charged with the maintenance or supervision of the public water supply of the Thornwood Water District or their duly appointed representative shall make regular and thorough inspections of the area surrounding the wells for the purpose of ascertaining whether the above rules and regulations are being complied with, and it shall be the duty of said board of water commissioners 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 board of water commissioners to promptly notify the State Commissioner of Health of such violations. The board of water commissioners shall report to the State Commissioner of Health in writing annually, on the first 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 surroundings of the wells at the time of the last inspection.(l) 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 relate to a permanent source or act of contamination is hereby fixed at $100.N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 10 § 155.55