(1) No person shall inadvertently, intentionally, negligently or otherwise damage, injure or steal any of the pipes, valves, backflow prevention devices, meters, locks, seals or other property belonging to the city or used in connection with the city water system.

(2) In addition to any criminal and/or civil fines or penalties as contained within this subchapter, or applicable under state and/or federal law, any person causing such damage or injury shall be charged for all costs relating to such damage or injury, including those of third persons and including the cost of repairing such damage or injury, including labor, materials and overhead.

(3) Failure to pay all related charges shall be deemed a basis for discontinuance of water service, in addition to any other remedy available to the city under state, federal and/or local law.

(1) Service may be immediately discontinued when locks and/or seals have been tampered with or removed from a meter assembly, when water service has been turned on by someone other than an authorized city employee, or other unauthorized use of any of the city’s water system facilities.

(2) Theft of service shall result in the immediate termination and/or possible preclusion of water service to a property where the illegal use of water has been discovered.

(3) In addition to or in lieu of discontinuance of service, the city may impose a civil penalty as contained herein and/or seek criminal prosecution. Failure to pay any criminal or civil penalty assessed may in and of itself lead to a discontinuance of service or preclusion from future use of city water or water connection. (Ord. 2010-02, passed 06/14/2010; Ord. 2022-01, passed 06/13/2022)