Alpine County Municipal Code Art. I General Regulations and Enforcement

These rules and regulations shall be known as the “Rules and Regulations of the Alpine County Air Pollution Control District.” (Ord. 325 Rule 1.1, 1972)

Except as otherwise specifically provided in these rules and, except where the context otherwise indicates, words used in this chapter are used in exactly the same sense as the same words are used in the Health and Safety Code.

1. “Agricultural burning” means open outdoor fires used in agricultural operations in the growing of crops or raising of fowls or animals, forest management, or range improvement.

2. “Air contaminant” means and includes smoke, charred paper, dust, soot, grime, carbon, aerosols, noxious acids, fumes, gases, odors, or particulate matter, or any combination thereof.

3. “Atmosphere” means the air that envelops or surrounds the earth.

4. “Board” means the air pollution control board of the Alpine County air pollution control district, which is the board of supervisors.

5. “Combustible waste” means any solid or liquid combustible waste material containing carbon in a free or combined state.

6. “Combustion contaminants” are particulate matter discharged into the atmosphere from the burning of any kind of material containing carbon in a free or combined state.

7. “Control officer” means the air pollution control officer of the Alpine County air pollution control district.

8. “District” means the Alpine County Air Pollution Control District.

9. “Hearing board” means the hearing board of the Alpine County Air Pollution Control District.

10. “Incinerator” means any furnace or similar enclosed fire-chamber, with or without a draft control, used for burning refuse or other waste material.

11. “Institutional facility” means any-hospital, boarding home, school, corporation yard, or like facility.

12. “Multicomponent system” means a collection, or combination, of mutually dependent articles, structures or devices customarily or necessarily started, operated and taken out of service as a unit.

13. “Open outdoor fire” means complete or partial burning or smoldering of any combustible refuse or other material of any type, directly exposed to the atmosphere, whether or not enclosed in a fireproof container, where the products of combustion are not channeled through a flue.

14. “Particulate matter” means any material, except uncombined water, which exists in a finely divided form as a liquid or solid at standard conditions.

15. “Person” means any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, corporation, company, contractor, supplier, installer, user or owner, or any state or local governmental agency or public district or any officer or employee thereof.

16. “Process weight” is the total weight of all materials introduced into any specific process which process may cause any discharge into the atmosphere. Solid fuels charged will be considered as part of the process weight, but liquid and gaseous fuels and combustion air will not. The process weight rate will be derived by dividing the total process weight by the number of hours in one complete operation from the beginning of any given process to the completion thereof, excluding any time during which the equipment is idle.

17. “Regulation” means one of the major subdivisions of rules of the county Air Pollution Control District.

18. “Residential rubbish” means refuse originating from residential uses and includes wood, paper, cloth, cardboard, tree trimmings, leaves, lawn clippings, and dry plants.

19. “Rule” means a rule of the county Air Pollution Control District.

20. “Section” means section of the Health and Safety Code of the state, unless some other statute is specifically mentioned.

21. Shall and May. As used in this chapter, “shall” is mandatory, “may” is permissive.

22. “Standard conditions” means a gas temperature of sixty degrees Fahrenheit and a gas pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch absolute. Results of all analyses and tests shall be calculated and reported at this gas temperature and pressure.

23. “Variance” means an authorization by the hearing board to permit some act contrary to the requirements specified by these rules and regulations. (Ord. 325 Rule 1.2, 1972)

A. All information, analyses, plans or specifications, that disclose the nature, extent, quantity or degree of air contaminants which any article, machine, equipment or other contrivance will produce, which the Air Pollution Control District requires any applicant to provide before such applicant builds, erects, alters, replaces, operates, sells, rents or uses such article, machine, equipment or other contrivance, are public records.

B. All air monitoring data, including data compiled from stationary sources, are public records.

C. Trade secrets are not public records under this section. “Trade secrets,” as used in this section, may include, but are not limited to, any formula, plan, pattern, process, tool, mechanism, compound, procedure, production, data, or compilation of information which is not patented, which is known only to certain individuals within a commercial concern who are using it to fabricate, produce or compound an article of trade or a service having commercial value, and which gives its user an opportunity to obtain a business advantage over competitors who do not know or use it. (Ord. 325 Rule 1.3, 1972)

These rules and regulations shall be enforced by the air pollution control officer, pursuant to all applicable law. The pursuit of any one such remedy shall not be deemed an election of remedies. All available remedies may be pursued individually, collectively, concurrently, or consecutively, at the option of the air pollution control officer. (Ord. 325 Rule 1.4, 1972)

The clerk of the hearing board shall, on the petition of the air pollution control officer, or may, upon receipt of a petition from any other interested person, which adequately establishes sufficient facts to support a violation, notice a hearing to determine the existence of any alleged violation of any statute, rule, or regulation prohibiting or limiting the discharge of air contaminants into the atmosphere. Each notice shall include the nature of the alleged violation, the time and place of the hearing and shall inform the alleged violator that he has the right to counsel at the proceedings, the right to compel attendance of witnesses on his behalf, the right to cross-examine witnesses, and the right to procure a court reporter to record and/or transcribe the proceedings, all at his own expense. All such petitions shall be set for hearing or dismissed within thirty days of receipt of same. Hearings shall be set no sooner than ten days and no later than sixty days from the date of service of such notice. Whenever the hearing board finds that any person is in violation of any such statute, rule or regulation, the air pollution control board may issue its order of abatement. (Ord. 325 Rule 1.5, 1972)