Chapter 83

Section 1. A city or town may lay out, construct, maintain and operate a system or systems of common sewers and main drains in public or private ways for a part or the whole of its territory as they adjudge necessary for the public convenience or the public health with such conne…

Section 10. A city, town or sewer district may, from time to time, prescribe rules and regulations regarding the use of common sewers to prevent the entrance or discharge therein of any substance which may tend to interfere with the flow of sewage or the proper operation of the s…

Section 11. The board of health of a town may require the owner or occupant of any building upon land abutting on a public or private way, in which there is a common sewer, to connect the same therewith by a sufficient drain, and such owner or occupant who fails to comply with su…

Section 12. If a city council or a town accepts this section or has accepted corresponding provisions of earlier laws, the board of health may require the owner or occupant of an estate which drains into a private drain in a public or private way to put such drain in good repair …

Section 13. The supreme judicial court and the superior court shall have jurisdiction in equity to restrain the unlawful use of common sewers or the placing or depositing of materials therein or the violation of regulations regarding the use thereof made under section ten, and to…

Section 14. A person who enters his particular drain into a main drain or common sewer, or who by more remote means receives benefit thereby for draining his land or buildings, shall pay to the town a proportional part of the charge of making and repairing the same, and of the ch…

Section 15. The city council of a city or a town may adopt a system of sewerage for a part or the whole of its territory, and may provide that assessments under section fourteen shall be made upon owners of land within such territory by a fixed uniform rate or a rate based upon a…

Section 15A. Any city at any meeting of the proper municipal authority, or any town at a town meeting, may, from time to time, redetermine the uniform rate or uniform unit fixed under section 15, or under any special law, and charged to abutters for, or to the existing and potent…

Section 15B. A city or town may assess and collect estimated sewer assessments in connection with the construction of water pollution collection, pumping, treatment and disposal facilities. The total amount of such estimated sewer assessments shall not exceed one-half of the muni…

Section 15C. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, a city or town that accepts this section may assess and collect interest on an unpaid balance of a sewer betterment assessment at a rate up to 2 per cent above the net rate of interest chargeable to the city…

Section 15D. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, a city or town that accepts this section may apportion all future sewer assessments or unpaid balances of assessments over a period not to exceed 30 years, and may structure the payments so that the amounts …

Section 16. The aldermen of any city or the sewer commissioners, selectmen or road commissioners of a town, may from time to time establish just and equitable annual charges for the use of common sewers and main drains and related stormwater facilities, which shall be paid by eve…

Section 16A. If the rates and charges due to a city, town, municipality, or sewer district, which accepts this section and sections sixteen B to sixteen F, inclusive, and by its clerk, files a certificate of such acceptance in the proper registry of deeds, and files a copy of sai…

Section 16B. Such lien shall take effect by operation of law on the day immediately following the due date of such rate or charge, and, unless dissolved by payment or abatement, shall continue until such rate or charge has been added to or committed as a tax under section sixteen…

Section 16C. If a rate or charge for which a lien is in effect under section sixteen B has not been added to or committed as a tax and remains unpaid when the assessors are preparing a real estate tax list and warrant to be committed by them under section fifty-three of chapter f…

Section 16D. Except as otherwise provided, the provisions of chapters fifty-nine and sixty shall apply, so far as pertinent, to all rates and charges certified to the assessors under section sixteen C. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, upon commitment as a tax or …

Section 16E. An owner of real estate aggrieved by a charge imposed thereon under sections sixteen A to sixteen F, inclusive, in addition to such remedy as he may have under section ten of chapter one hundred and sixty-five, may apply for an abatement thereof by filing a petition …

Section 16F. An owner of real estate who, in order to prevent the imposition of a lien thereon or to discharge the same, has paid charges for sewer connections furnished to a tenant or other person who was bound to pay the same, may recover from such tenant or other person in an …

Section 16G. In a city, town or district which accepts the provisions of this section, the board responsible for assessing charges for the use of the common sewers under section sixteen of chapter eighty-three or any other provision of law, shall, upon the application of the owne…

Section 17. The aldermen of any city except Boston or a town in which main drains or common sewers are laid may determine that a person who uses such main drains or common sewers in any manner, instead of paying an assessment under section fourteen, shall pay for the permanent pr…

Section 18. The city council of a city or a town which itself is, or the officers of which are, entitled, under sections fourteen to seventeen, inclusive, or under any special act, to assess upon land the whole or a part of the cost of laying, making, maintaining or repairing mai…

Section 19. The aldermen of a city or the sewer commissioners, selectmen or road commissioners of a town may extend the time for the payment of such assessments upon land which is not built upon until it is built upon or for a fixed time; but interest at the rate of four per cent…

Section 1A. Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 1 and 3 to the contrary, any municipality or sewer district adopting this section is hereby authorized to lay out, construct, maintain and operate a system or systems of common sewers and main drains in public or private ways…

Section 1B. At the commencement of operation of the municipalities' sewer system authorized by section 1A, the owner of land abutting upon a private or public way in which a common sewer has been laid shall be required by the board or officer having charge of the maintenance and …

Section 1C. After commencement of operations of the sewer system authorized pursuant to section 1A, additional connections shall be permitted within the final area of concern by such board or officer having charge of the maintenance and repair of sewers, subject to available capa…

Section 1D. Notwithstanding the provisions of chapters 80 and 83 to the contrary, a municipality acting under section 1A may make assessments upon owners of land abutting upon a private or public way in which a common sewer has been laid only at the time of actual connection to t…

Section 1E. Every decision by the board or officer having charge of sewers permitting or denying a connection to the sewer system pursuant to sections 1A to 1D, inclusive, shall be made in writing. Any person aggrieved by such a decision may appeal said decision within 30 days of…

Section 1F. In carrying out the provisions of sections 1A to 1E, inclusive, a municipality shall not discriminate against any person on the grounds of race, color, marital status, physical disability, age, sex, sexual orientation, religion, ancestry or national origin in any mann…

Section 1G. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, a municipality with a comprehensive water resources management plan under review or approved by the department of environmental protection may establish and maintain a separate account into …

Section 1H. Notwithstanding section 7 of chapter 44, a municipality or sewer district adopting section 1A may borrow and assess betterments for a term not to exceed 50 years or the useful life as approved by the department of environmental protection, whichever is shorter, for th…

Section 2. Plans and descriptions of all main drains and common sewers belonging to a town, with a true record of the charges of making and repairing said drains and sewers and of all assessments therefor, shall be kept in the office of the town clerk or in such other office of t…

Section 20. The owners of land or parts thereof not liable to assessment, or not in fact assessed, may use the common sewers for the disposal of their sewage from such land only on payment of such reasonable amount as the aldermen or the sewer commissioners, selectmen or road com…

Section 21. If land abuts upon more than one way, assessments for sewers based wholly or in part upon frontage shall be assessed upon the frontage upon one such way and upon so much of the frontage upon such other way as is not exempted by the board whose duty it is to make the a…

Section 22. If an ordinance or by-law provides that any drain or sewer laid in any land or way, public or private, which is opened or proposed to be opened for public travel and accommodation shall be a main drain or common sewer, and such drain or sewer is laid in a private way …

Section 23. A town by vote of its town meeting or a city by vote of its board of aldermen or city council shall determine whether it shall pay the whole or a portion of the cost of laying out and constructing main drains or of a system or systems of sewerage and sewage disposal, …

Section 24. The owner of any land benefited by the laying out of a particular sewer from the common sewer to the boundary of the way shall pay to the town for the permanent privilege of using the same such reasonable amount as the aldermen or the sewer commissioners, selectmen or…

Section 25. The aldermen of a city or the selectmen or road commissioners of a town may, if in their judgment the public convenience so requires, establish sidewalks in the public ways thereof and determine the grade of each such sidewalk and the materials with which it shall be …

Section 26. In the order for the construction of a new sidewalk or the reconstruction of a sidewalk with material of more permanent character than that with which it was originally constructed, the board making the order may provide for the assessment of a reasonable amount, not …

Section 27. Whenever the aldermen of a city or the sewer commissioners, selectmen or road commissioners of a town lay out or determine to construct a sewer or drain in a public way, or in a way opened or dedicated to the public use which has not become a public way, or adopt an o…

Section 28. The provisions of chapter eighty relative to the apportionment, division, reassessment, abatement and collection of assessments, and to interest, shall apply to assessments made under this chapter.

Section 29. Notwithstanding any provision in any special act to the contrary, any lien for sewer, drain or sidewalk assessments or for betterment assessments of any other nature created pursuant to the provisions of any special act shall continue in effect until the land subject …

Section 3. The board or officers of a city or town having charge of the repair and maintenance of sewers may, upon request of the owner of land and payment by him of the actual cost thereof, construct a particular sewer from the street line to a house or building. A town may appr…

Section 3A. The board or officers of a city or town having charge of the repair and maintenance of sewers may at the request of the owner of land and payment by him of the actual cost thereof repair a break in a sewer laid in a private way and remove any sewerage flowing from suc…

Section 4. The department of highways, county commissioners, and the officers having charge of highways in any city or town may construct ditches or drains for the purpose of properly draining any highway, and may carry water away from any highway and over or through any land as …

Section 5. In this section surface or storm water and such other waters as shall be specified by the department of public health shall be designated as waters and all other waters and sewage shall be designated as sewage. When a town has provided both a drain for waters and a sew…

Section 6. A town, with the approval of the department of environmental protection, after a public hearing by said department of all parties interested, of which notice shall be given by publication in one or more newspapers, may purchase land within its limits, or take the same …

Section 7. If the department of environmental protection determines upon examination that a filter bed or other works for the treatment, purification and disposal of sewage causes the pollution of a stream, pond or other water, or is likely to become a source of nuisance or creat…

Section 8. No person shall dig up or make an excavation in a public way for the laying, altering or repairing of a drain or sewer without obtaining a written permit from the board or officer having charge of the maintenance and repair of sewers in the town in which such way is si…

Section 9. Whoever, by himself, his agents or servants, deposits in or along any ditch or drain constructed under section four any material which will obstruct the flow of water therein shall be punished by a fine of ten dollars, and shall be liable in tort to the commonwealth, t…