Lebanon tightens sewer discharge rules with new pretreatment enforcement plan
Lebanon Utilities, Indiana · Meeting date: November 4, 2026 · Published: November 5, 2026
Lebanon Utilities’ Service Board has advanced a comprehensive overhaul of sewer-use rules, including tighter discharge standards, expanded fats, oils and grease provisions, and a formal escalation process for industrial-user violations. The measures are designed to align wastewater controls with current state requirements, the utility’s NPDES permit and treatment-plant capacity.
Key points
- The board unanimously approved Resolution 2026-13, recommending that the Common Council adopt a revised sewer use ordinance for the publicly owned treatment works and sewer system.
- The updated ordinance consolidates prior rules, tightens discharge standards, codifies the fats, oils and grease programme, and addresses wastewater hauling, connections, charges, surcharges and pretreatment requirements.
- The board also unanimously adopted Resolution 2026-14, establishing an enforcement response plan with violation categories, investigation procedures, escalating enforcement actions and administrative fines for industrial users.
- Utility staff said IDEM reviewed the technical requirements collaboratively and approved the ordinance document pending Utility Service Board and Common Council approval.
Full report
Lebanon Utilities is moving to tighten the rules governing what can enter its sewer system, pairing a proposed revised sewer use ordinance with a newly adopted enforcement framework for industrial dischargers.
The Utility Service Board unanimously approved Resolution 2026-13 on 4 November, recommending that Lebanon’s Common Council approve and adopt the revised sewer use ordinance. The board then unanimously adopted Resolution 2026-14, making an enforcement response plan effective as part of the utility’s wastewater-treatment-plant pretreatment programme.
Staff said the ordinance update had been under development since February and was intended to remove provisions open to differing interpretations. The overhaul also accounts for city growth, strengthens the utility’s fats, oils and grease, or FOG, programme, and ensures discharge limits reflect what the wastewater treatment plant can handle following its expansions.
A board member said the discharge standards had been tightened and brought into compliance with the most recent state standards. The ordinance consolidates and updates previous sewer regulations and establishes uniform requirements for system users. Its provisions include utility authority and administration, right of entry for enforcement, waste rejection, design and construction standards, connection requirements, accepted waste types, discharge requirements, wastewater hauling and sanitary-sewage requirements, FOG controls, charges and surcharges, and pretreatment requirements.
The enforcement response plan turns those rules into a defined compliance process. It identifies officials responsible for enforcement, outlines how the utility will investigate noncompliance, and sets out consistent escalating responses to industrial-user violations. The plan also includes categories of violation, an enforcement-response guide and a schedule of administrative fines. It is a guidance and policy document that coordinates with, but is not incorporated into, the sewer use ordinance.
The utility operates under an NPDES permit requiring it to maintain a pretreatment programme and an enforcement response plan. Staff said IDEM had reviewed the revised requirements through a collaborative process, commenting on the utility’s proposed standards and local operational provisions. IDEM approved the document pending the Utility Service Board and Common Council actions.
The board’s wastewater oversight representative described Lebanon’s existing pretreatment programme as excellent, crediting utility staff, consultant Wessler Engineering and industrial customers for their cooperation. The new measures, the member said, would add new legal requirements to that programme.
The revised ordinance will take effect upon adoption and publication as required by law, if approved by the Common Council. The enforcement response plan is effective upon passage of the board resolution, with staff authorised to implement it in accordance with the sewer use ordinance and applicable law.
This summary was generated by AI based on the source document and may contain errors.
Source: Lebanon Utilities Service Board Meeting, Lebanon Utilities