By Linda Seida, Staff Writer
LAMBERTVILLE — If you’ve got an illegal sewer connection, watch out.
The Lambertville Sewerage Authority wants to shut it down, and it wants to enter your home to do it.
The LSA has asked the City Council to pass an ordinance that will not only govern illegally rigged connections, but also confer the power to the LSA to make home inspections.
The LSA sent a letter to the council outlining these requests, which council members discussed Monday night. No one from the LSA was in attendance.
The letter requested city officials put an ordinance on the books to oversee what the LSA called “illicit connections.”
”They feel there are people out there that have illegally hooked up to the system,” Councilman Ronald Pittore said.
Currently, the LSA might be able to see a connection outdoors, a standpipe with a mushroom cap.
Alternately, if an indoor inspection is needed, the LSA can only ask a property owner for permission to enter a dwelling, Public Works Director Paul Cronce said.
The LSA is asking the city for “a little more bite to go to the homeowners,” Mr. Cronce said.
”There may be some constitutional issues here,” City Attorney Philip Faherty cautioned.
”You can’t just go into someone’s house,” Mr. Pittore said.
He called the LSA’s request “premature.”
The council took no action on the request other than to determine it needs more information. The council will ask the LSA for a sample ordinance and the location where such an ordinance is already in existence.
Both Mayor David Del Vecchio and Mr. Cronce said they were uncertain in which part of the city the illegal connections might exist. The LSA did not suggest a specific fine or penalty for property owners with illegal hookups.
A woman who answered the LSA phone Tuesday morning said Executive Director James Meehan is away this week and won’t return until Monday.

