Avenal Municipal Code Ch. 6 Oil and Gas Wells

Sections:

• 5-6.01 Findings and determinations.
• 5-6.02 Permits—Required—Applications—Issuance—Conditions.
• 5-6.03 Permits—Signatures.
• 5-6.04 Permits—License fees.
• 5-6.05 Permits—Bonds.
• 5-6.06 Restricted locations.
• 5-6.07 Restricted locations—Modifications—Standards of limitations. 5-6.01 Findings and determinations. The Council hereby deems it necessary to the public peace, health, safety, and interest that the drilling, boring, or otherwise sinking and/or operating or maintaining of gas or oil wells within the City be regulated as set forth in this chapter. 5-6.02 Permits—Required—Applications—Issuance—Conditions. (a) Required. No person, firm, or corporation, whether as a principal, agent, or otherwise, shall drill, bore, or otherwise sink, operate, or maintain any oil or gas well without a valid, current, and subsistent permit from the Council so to do first being had and obtained. (b) Applications. Applications for such permits shall be made to the Council in writing. Such applications shall state the name of the applicant, the definite location of the proposed well and appurtenant structures, the purpose for which the well is to be drilled, bored, or otherwise sunk or dug, and a statement that: (1) If such permit is granted, such well will be drilled, bored, or otherwise sunk or dug at the location shown in the application; and (2) The permit for the well and appurtenant structures contemplated, if granted by the Council, may contain a provision as a condition thereof that the well be located at the place so designated and that otherwise the permit shall lapse and become and remain void. Such applications shall be filed on application forms furnished by the City, and the Council hereby reserves the right to refuse to consider any application not so filed. (c) Applications—Accompanying data. Each such application shall be accompanied by two (2) duplicate maps or plats correctly showing the exterior boundaries of the properties covered by the leases under or pursuant to which the well applied for is to be drilled, together with the names and addresses of the lessors and the descriptions of the properties owned by each respective lessor. The application shall also describe the areas covered by any adjoining leases owned or drilled by the applicant or in which the applicant is interested. The Council deems that the public peace, health,

Title 5 PUBLIC WELFARE Avenal, California, Code of Ordinances Page 14 safety, interest, and convenience of the City require that the Council be fully advised with reference to such matters when considering such applications. The respective areas shall be designated either by colored boundary lines or by shading so as to accurately indicate the extent thereof respectively. (d) Issuance: Conditions. Any permit issued upon such application may contain a provision as a condition thereof that any misrepresentation of fact contained in such application shall be grounds for the revocation of the permit and that all the rights of the permittee therein named shall cease and terminate. (e) Duties of the City Clerk. The City Clerk shall attend to all details in connection with the presentation of such applications and the actual issuing of such permits. 5-6.03 Permits—Signatures. When the Council has authorized the issuance of any permit required by the provisions of this chapter, the permit shall be signed by the Public Works Director. 5-6.04 Permits—License fees. No fee shall be charged for any permit required by the provisions of this chapter, but each permittee shall pay, for each derrick, well, and/or operation referred to in, or authorized by, any such permit, an annual license fee or operating charge of five hundred dollars ($500.00). Such fee shall be payable annually in advance on the basis of a calendar year. Only the first annual charge shall be prorated. No such license fee or operating charge, or any part thereof, shall be refunded. Such license fee or operating charge shall continue to be paid for each well: (a) While drilling, mining, pumping, or other operations in or about the well continue, including the production therefrom of oil, gas or other hydrocarbon substances from a flowing well; (b) While the derrick remains standing; (c) Until the well referred to in such permit has been fully, completely, and satisfactorily abandoned in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Division of Oil and Gas of the Department of Natural Resources of the State and the rules and regulations of the City relating to the abandonment of such wells; and (d) Until the premises relating to such well have been cleaned and restored as nearly as reasonably possible to the same condition as that in which they existed at the time of the granting of such permit. The license fee or operating charge established for all wells shall become due and be payable on the date of the granting of such permits by the Council. The annual fees shall become due and payable on the first day of each and every calendar year. If any license fee or operating charge is not paid within fifteen (15) days after the license fee or operating charge becomes due and payable, a penalty shall accrue upon such license fee or operating charge in the sum of fifty dollars ($50.00). Unless such license fee and such penalty thereon is paid within fifteen (15) days after the date upon which such license fee and penalty become delinquent, the Council may declare any such permit forfeited, and all rights of the permittee thereunder shall cease and terminate. 5-6.05 Permits—Bonds. Every permittee shall, either before or at the time of securing the permit required by the provisions of this chapter, deliver to the City Clerk a bond, approved by the City Attorney as to form and by the Mayor as to sureties, for the principal sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) payable to the City, indemnifying the City against any loss which may be suffered by the City or to any public property therein located or to any public street, avenue, alleyway, or place within the City by reason of the drilling, redrilling, existence, operation, abandonment, or conduct of the well referred to in such permit, or the violation of the terms

Title 5 PUBLIC WELFARE Avenal, California, Code of Ordinances Page 15 and conditions of such permit, or the failure of the permittee to remove the derrick and/or its appurtenances, or any act, whether of commission or omission, on the part of the permittee or any agent or contractor employed in connection with the well referred to in the permit or any agent or contractor acting under direction of the permittee. A good and sufficient bond, as required by the provisions of this section, shall at all times be kept in full force and effect by the permittee upon any well for which such permittee has been granted a permit until the permittee has been released from such obligation by completion of the terms of the permit issued and a consent to such release has been granted by the Council. Unless such permittee keeps such bond in full force and effect, as set forth in this section, the Council may declare any such permit forfeited, and all rights of the permittee thereunder shall cease and terminate. 5-6.06 Restricted locations. No permit shall be granted to drill, bore, or otherwise sink, operate, or maintain any gas or oil well in such manner that the center of the well hole is or shall be: (a) Within two hundred (200) feet of any public street, sidewalk, or highway, except any alley, in public use prior to the commencement of drilling such well, and intersecting or lying within any block or other subdivision unit, unless otherwise permitted by the Council where the limits of the property will not permit such spacing, but in no event less than one hundred (100) feet from such public street, sidewalk, or highway; (b) Within two hundred (200) feet of the outer boundary of the parcel of land on which such well is located or, where several contiguous parcels of land uninterrupted by any street or sidewalk are operated as a single unit, the outer boundary of all parcels of land included within such unit, unless otherwise permitted by the Council where the limits of the property will not permit such spacing, but in no event less than fifty (50) feet of such outer boundary; (c) Within two hundred (200) feet of any steam boiler, building, or source of ignition, unless otherwise approved by the Council upon a property the limits of which will not permit such spacing, but in no event within less than fifty (50) feet of such boiler, building, or source of ignition; and (d) Within two hundred fifty (250) feet of any school building or other place of public assemblage, such as a church or public library. The provisions of this subsection shall not apply when any such property has been officially closed to public use and proof of such fact has been established to the satisfaction of the Council. No permit shall be granted for the drilling, maintaining, or constructing of any oil or gas well in any areas of the City except those areas which have been or shall be designated as unrestricted districts, as distinguished from those areas which have been or may be designated as residential or business districts. 5-6.07 Restricted locations—Modifications—Standards of limitations. With respect to the standards of limitations of the location of oil and gas wells as set forth in Section 5-6.06 of this chapter, the Council hereby retains the authority to modify and alter such standards of limitations from time to time as the public welfare and interest may, in the judgment of the Council, require; provided, however, the limitations of location fixed after the issuance of a permit and while the permit is valid and subsisting shall be deemed not to affect such permit.