King City Municipal Code Ch. 15.48 Water Well Regulations

The purposes of this chapter are:

(a) To regulate the construction, maintenance, repair, reconstruction, abandonment and destruction of wells so as to protect the quality of underground waters by preventing or minimizing the pollution or contamination thereof, thereby promoting the public health, safety and welfare; and

(b) To comply with Article 4 (commencing at Section 13800) of Chapter 10, Division 7 of the Water Code, relating to well standards.

(Ord. 356 § 1, 1973; Ord. 772 § 5, 2019)

(a) As used in this chapter, unless otherwise apparent from the context:

Words used in the present tense include the future as well as the present. Words used in the masculine gender include the feminine and neuter. The singular number includes the plural and the plural the singular.

“Person”

means any individual, firm, partnership, association, corporation or governmental agency.

“Health officer”

means the city manager or designee, including, but not limited to, the health officer of the county of Monterey and/or his or her designee.

“Well” or “water well”

means any artificial excavation constructed by any method for the purpose of extracting water from, or injecting water into, the underground. This definition shall not include:

(A)

Oil and gas wells, or geothermal wells constructed under the jurisdiction of the Department of Conservation, except those wells converted to use as water wells; or

(B)

Wells used for the purpose of dewatering excavation during construction, or stabilizing hillsides or earth embankments.

“Contamination,” “pollution,” and “nuisance”

have the meanings ascribed to them by Section 13050 of the Water Code.

“Shall” is mandatory, and “may”

is permissive.

(b) Section headings, when contained herein, shall not be deemed to govern, limit, modify or in any manner affect the scope, meaning or intent of the provisions of any section.

(Ord. 356 § 2, 1973; Ord. 772 § 5, 2019)

(a) No person shall construct, repair, reconstruct, abandon or destroy any well unless a written permit has first been obtained from the health officer pursuant to this chapter.

(b) No person to whom such a permit has been issued shall fail to comply with all of the terms and conditions thereof and with the standards specified in this chapter.

(c) No person other than a contractor licensed in accordance with the provisions of the contractors’ license law (Chapter 9, Division 3, of the Business and Professions Code) shall perform any construction, repair, reconstruction or destruction of a well, unless exempted by that law.

(Ord. 356 § 3, 1973; Ord. 772 § 5, 2019)

(a) Application for a permit pursuant to this chapter shall be:

(1) Made in writing to the health officer, in such form as the health officer may prescribe, setting forth such information as the health officer may reasonably require to secure the purposes of this chapter;

(2) Signed by the applicant and accompanied by a filing fee of twenty-five dollars no part of which shall be refundable.

(b) Any permit which is issued may contain and be subject to such terms and conditions as the health officer finds necessary to carry out the purposes of this chapter. The health officer shall deny an application for a permit if, in the health officer’s judgment, its issuance would tend to defeat the purposes of this chapter.

(c) Every permit issued pursuant to this chapter shall expire and become null and void if the work authorized thereby has not been completed within one year following its issuance. Upon expiration, no further work shall be done unless and until a new permit has been obtained.

(Ord. 356 § 4, 1973; Ord. 772 § 5, 2019)

(a) The health officer may suspend or revoke any permit issued pursuant to this chapter whenever the health officer finds that the permittee has violated any of the provisions of this chapter or has misrepresented any material fact in the permittee’s application, or any supporting documents, for such permit. Prior to ordering any such suspension or revocation the health officer shall give the permittee an opportunity for a hearing thereon, after reasonable notice.

(b) No person whose permit has been suspended or revoked shall continue to perform the work for which the permit was granted until, in the case of suspension, such permit has been reinstated by the health officer.

(c) Upon suspending or revoking any permit the health officer may order the permittee to perform any work reasonably necessary to protect the underground waters from pollution or contamination if any work already done by the permittee has left a well in such condition as to constitute a hazard to the quality of the underground waters. No permittee shall fail to comply with any such order.

(Ord. 356 § 5, 1973; Ord. 772 § 5, 2019)

The health officer shall have the power, in specific cases, to grant a variance from any provision of the standards incorporated into this chapter by reference whenever the health officer finds that special circumstances exist in a particular case and that practical difficulties or unnecessary hardship would result from the strict interpretation and enforcement of any such standard, and that the granting of such a variance would not tend to defeat the purposes of this chapter.

(Ord. 356 § 6, 1973; Ord. 772 § 5, 2019)

Chapter II and Appendices E, F, and G of the California Department of Water Resources Bulletin No. 74-90, “Water Well Standards,” dated February, 1968, and California Water Code Section 13711, “Cathodic Protection Well Standards,” copies of both of which are on file as required by law, are adopted and incorporated into this chapter by reference, with the following modification to paragraph A of Section 8 of Part II of said Bulletin No. 74-90.” The minimum distance between all wells and any subsurface sewage leaching field or septic tank shall be one hundred feet.

(Ord. 356 § 7, 1973; Ord. 772 § 5, 2019)

(a) Nothing contained in this chapter shall be deemed to excuse any person from compliance with the provisions of Article 3 (commencing at Section 13750) of Chapter 10, Division 7 of the Water Code, relating to notices and reports.

(b) Upon completion of a well the owner or the owner’s authorized representative shall file with the health officer a copy of the well driller’s detailed log, referred to in Section 13751 of the Water Code.

(Ord. 356 § 8, 1973; Ord. 772 § 5, 2019)

(a) Any person whose application for a permit has been denied, or granted conditionally, or whose permit has been suspended or revoked, may appeal to the city council in writing, within ten days after any such denial, conditional granting, suspension or revocation. Such appeal shall specify the grounds upon which it is taken. The clerk of the city shall set such appeal for hearing at the earliest practicable time, and shall notify the appellant and the health officer, in writing, of the time so set at least five days prior to the hearing.

(b) After such hearing the city manager or designee, including, but not limited to, the board of supervisors for the county of Monterey, may reverse, wholly or partly, or may modify the order or determination appealed from.

(Ord. 356 § 9, 1973; Ord. 772 § 5, 2019)

The health officer shall enforce and administer this chapter, and shall have the right to enter upon any premises at all reasonable times to make inspections and tests for the purpose of such enforcement and administration. If any such premises is occupied the health officer shall first present proper credentials and request entry, and if same is unoccupied the health officer shall first make a reasonable effort to locate the owner or other person having charge or control of same and request entry. If such entry is refused the city manager or designee, including, but not limited to, the health officer, shall have recourse to such remedies as are provided by law to secure entry. The fees and costs for enforcement of this section may be billed to the owner(s) who refused entry by the city manager or designee, including, but not limited to, the health officer and/or board of supervisors for the county of Monterey.

(Ord. 356 § 10, 1973; Ord. 772 § 5, 2019)

(a) Every person, other than a governmental agency, who violates any of the provisions of Section 15.48.030(c), 15.48.040(b) or (c), 15.48.050, or 15.48.080(b), is guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof is punishable by imprisonment in the County Jail for not more than six months, or by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or by both. Each separate day, or portion thereof, during which any such violation continues shall be deemed a separate offense.

(b) Every well which is so constructed or maintained as to cause contamination or pollution is a public nuisance dangerous to health, and may be abated in the manner provided by law.

(c) The enforcement remedies specified in this section are cumulative, and the pursuit of one of them shall not preclude the pursuit of others, whether mentioned in this chapter or not.

(Ord. 356 § 11, 1973; Ord. 772 § 5, 2019)