11.16.010 Required.
11.16.020 Maintenance of leaking, filthy or defective privies.
11.16.030 Tubs to be emptied daily.
11.16.040 Sewer connection.
11.16.050 Construction of privy vaults not connected with sewers.
11.16.060 Defective water closets.
11.16.070 Cleaning.
11.16.080 Enforcement.
11.16.090 Water closet requirements.

11.16.010 Required.

Each occupied building and each building intended for occupancy within the city shall be furnished with suitable and lawful privy vaults or water closets.
(1948 C. Ch. 53 § 1: 1960 C. § 502.010.)

McQuillin:

24.263, 24.264 Water closets, cesspools and privy vaults

11.16.020 Maintenance of leaking, filthy or defective privies.

Any owner, lessee, tenant or agent of any building or lot of ground in the city who shall maintain or allow to exist about or on such building or lot of ground any privy, privy vault, commode, cesspool or water closet which shall be found in an overflowing, leaking, full, filthy, stinking, insecure, defective or unlawful condition shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
(1948 C. Ch. 53 § 2: 1960 C. § 502.020.)

11.16.030 Tubs to be emptied daily.

The owner or occupant of any premises where tubs or other vessels are used in a privy shall not permit such tubs or other vessels to remain more than one day without being emptied.
(1948 C. Ch. 53 § 3: 1960 C. § 502.030.)

11.16.040 Sewer connection.

Every water closet or privy constructed and used in any dwelling house or building not connected with some public, district, joint-district or private sewer adjoining the ground on which the building is erected and properly connected with the sewer system of the city shall be deemed a nuisance, except as provided in Section 11.16.050.
(1948 C. Ch. 53 § 4: 1960 C. § 502.040.)

11.16.050 Construction of privy vaults not connected with sewers.

On all premises not so situated as to be accessible to the sewerage system of the city, the privy vaults shall be constructed as follows:

The vaults shall be sunk under the ground not less than six nor more than eight feet, and shall be walled up with brick or stone, laid in hydraulic cement mortar, with bottom of same material, and shall be so constructed that the outside wall shall be at least two feet distant from the line of any adjoining lot, street or alley and at least fifty feet from any residence. The walls shall be carried one foot above the surface of the ground and shall be built to exclude all water from the surface, from the roof of any building and from the city waterworks. Whenever the contents of such privy vaults reach to within three feet of the top of the wall, they shall be emptied and their contents removed, and it shall be unlawful to build or maintain any privy vault situated as described in this section otherwise than as herein provided.
(1948 C. Ch. 53 § 5: 1960 C. § 502.050.)

Cases:

Part of city ordinances requiring each dwelling unit to have a bath connected to hot and cold water held unconstitutional as applied. City of St. Louis v. Brune, 515 S.W. 2d 471 (1974).

11.16.060 Defective water closets.

Whenever the health commissioner is of the opinion that any water closet is not properly connected with the sewer system of the city, or when, in his opinion, the condition of any water closet is such as to be dangerous to the health of the citizens, he shall order the owner, lessee or agent of the property on which is located such water closet to replace, repair or properly connect such closet with the sewer system of the city in accordance with this Code and any ordinances. Any owner, lessee or agent receiving such order and failing to comply with the same shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. All orders to owners, lessees or agents to connect, replace or repair water closets under the provisions of this section shall be served by the City Marshal in the same manner as writs of summons are required to be served in civil cases.
(1948 C. Ch. 53 § 6: 1960 C. § 502.060.)

11.16.070 Cleaning.

Privy vaults within the City shall be emptied and thoroughly cleaned by licensed vault cleaners only, upon a permit obtained from the Board of Public Service. No privy shall be emptied at any other time than between the hours of nine o'clock p.m. and four o'clock a.m. unless by special permission or order of the Health Commissioner. The cleaning of all vaults or privies shall be done in such manner and time as is or may be prescribed by this Code or any ordinance and without creating a nuisance, and in as inodorous a manner and as free from foul odors and gases as possible.
(1948 C. Ch. 53 §§ 7, 8: 1960 C. § 502.070.)

For vault cleaners, see Ch. 8.108.

11.16.080 Enforcement.

It is hereby made the duty of all sanitary and police officers to report and prosecute any and all violations of this chapter.
(1948 C. Ch. 53 § 9: 1960 C. § 502.090.)

11.16.090 Water closet requirements.

Whenever connection with a sewer is possible all privy vaults, school sinks and other similar receptacles used to receive fecal matter, urine or sewerage shall be completely emptied and their contents removed, and the holes disinfected to the satisfaction of the Health Commissioner and then filled. In place of such abolished privy vaults or other similar receptacles, individual water closets shall be provided. The water closet appliances shall be of durable nonabsorbent material, properly sewer connected, with individual traps and with properly connected flush tanks providing an ample flush of water to cleanse the bowl thoroughly and with suitable provisions to prevent freezing. Every such water closet shall be located in a compartment not less than two feet, six inches wide, completely separated from every other closet, and such compartment shall be ventilated by means of a window or transom not less than two square feet in area. The floors of such water closet compartment shall be water tight. No woodwork shall enclose the space underneath the seat of water closets. A separate water closet shall be provided for each family or apartment in every existing tenement house or on the lot on which such tenement house is built, and the head of each family so provided with such water closet shall be responsible for the misuse of the same. No water closet shall be maintained in any cellar of any tenement house without a special permit from the Board of Public Service, upon application therefor approved by the Health Commissioner.
(1948 C. Ch. 53 § 10: 1960 C. §§ 502.100, 502.110.)

Cases:

Part of city ordinance requiring each dwelling unit to have a bath connected to hot and cold water held unconstitutional as applied. City of St. Louis v. Brune, 515 S.W. 2d 471 (1974).

Ordinances requiring privy vaults to be removed and replaced by water closets held within power of city of St. Louis. City of St. Louis v Nash, 260 S.W. 985 (1924), City of St. Louis v. Hoevel Real Estate and Building Co., 59 S.W. 2d 617 (1933).

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