358.16 Power to provide for sewage disposal.

1. a. The board of trustees of any sanitary district organized under this chapter shall have power to provide for the disposal of the sewage thereof, including the sewage and drainage of any city or village within the boundaries of such district; to acquire, lay out, locate, establish, construct, maintain, and operate one or more drains, conduits, treatment plants, disposal plants, pumping plants, works, ditches, channels, and outlets of such capacity and character as may be required for the treatment, carrying off, and disposal of the sewage and industrial wastes and other drainage incidental thereto of such district; to lay out, establish, construct, maintain, and operate all such adjuncts, additions, auxiliary improvements, and works as may be necessary or proper for accomplishment of the purposes intended, and to procure supplies of water for operating, diluting, and flushing purposes; to maintain, repair, change, enlarge, and add to such facilities, improvements, and works as may be necessary or proper to meet the future requirements for the purposes aforesaid; and, when necessary for such purposes, any such facilities, improvements, and works and the maintenance and operation thereof may extend beyond the limits of such district, and the rights and powers of said board of trustees in respect thereto shall be the same as if located within said district, provided, no taxes shall be levied upon any property outside of such district; and provided further, that the district shall be liable for all damages sustained beyond its limits in consequence of any work or improvement authorized hereunder.

b. The board of trustees, however, may upon such petition of property owners representing at least twenty-five percent of the valuation of property not included within the district as constituted which seeks benefit from the operation of such sanitary district, include such property and the area involved within the limits of such sanitary district, and such added areas shall be subject to the same taxation as other portions of the district.

c. Nothing contained herein shall be construed to authorize or empower such board of trustees to operate a system of waterworks for the purpose of furnishing water to the inhabitants of the district, or to construct, maintain, or operate local municipal sewerage facilities, or to deprive municipalities within the district of their powers to construct and operate sewers for local purposes within their limits.

d. The board of trustees of such sanitary district may, however, upon petition of the council or governing body of any incorporated city within the sanitary district, contract with such city to undertake the operation of local municipal sewage facilities as part of the functioning of the sanitary district and make an agreement with such municipality for the levying of additional sewer or sewage disposal taxes, which taxes shall be levied by the municipality as now provided by law.

2. a. The board of trustees may require connection to the sanitary sewer system established, maintained, or operated by the district from any adjacent property within the district, and require the installation of sanitary toilets or other sanitary sewage facilities and removal of other toilet and other sewage facilities on the property. However, the board of trustees shall not regulate, restrict the use, or require the connection of a private sewage disposal facility previously approved by the county board of health pursuant to section 455B.172 without the prior approval of that board of health.

b. If the property owner does not perform an action required under paragraph “a” within a reasonable time after notice and hearing, the board of trustees may perform the required action and assess the costs of the action against the property for collection in the same manner as a property tax. The notice shall state the nature of the action and the time within which the action is required to be performed by the property owner, state the date, time, and place where the property owner will be heard by the board of trustees for the purpose of stating why the intended action should not be required, and shall be given by certified mail to the property owner as shown on the records of the county auditor not less than four nor more than twenty days before the date of the hearing.

c. However, in the event of an emergency when the delay of notice and hearing might cause serious loss or injury to persons or property within the district, the board of trustees may perform any action which may be required under this section without prior notice and hearing, and assess the cost as provided in this section, following notice to the property owner and hearing in the time and manner provided in paragraph “b”. In that event the board of trustees shall, by resolution, make a finding of the necessity to institute emergency proceedings under this section, and shall procure a certificate from a competent licensed professional engineer or licensed architect certifying that emergency action is necessary.

3. If any amount assessed against property pursuant to this section will exceed five hundred dollars, the board of trustees may permit the assessment to be paid in up to ten annual installments, in the manner and with the same interest rates as provided for assessments against benefited property under chapter 384, subchapter IV.

4. An assessment levied pursuant to this section, including all interest and penalties, is a lien against the property with respect to which action was taken from the date of filing the schedule of assessments until the assessment is paid. Assessments have equal precedence with ordinary taxes and are not divested by judicial sale.

5. The procedures for making and levying an assessment pursuant to this section and for an appeal of the assessment are the same procedures as provided in sections 384.59 through 384.67 and sections 384.72 through 384.75, except that any notice required in those sections to be published in a newspaper may be sent by certified mail to the owner of the property to be assessed as shown on the records of the county auditor in lieu of the publication. The references in those sections to the city council are applicable to the board of trustees.

[C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §358.16]

87 Acts, ch 197, §2; 2007 Acts, ch 126, §59; 2009 Acts, ch 72, §13, 14; 2010 Acts, ch 1069, §123; 2012 Acts, ch 1138, §99; 2017 Acts, ch 131, §7; 2018 Acts, ch 1041, §127

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