Marin County Municipal Code Ch. 5.16 Reduction Plants

When used in this chapter the following terms shall, unless the context otherwise indicates, have the following respective meanings:

The word "person" means an individual, a corporation, a partnership, an association, a joint stock company, a trust, or any unincorporated organization.

The term "gas" includes all types of gas, vapors, steam, and also includes air carrying particles.

The term "reduction" or "reducing" includes every part of the process whereby any animal, fish or vegetable matter is converted into fertilizer, fats, oils, meal or any other by-product of such animal, fish or vegetable matter, including skinning, scaling, cooking, pressing, drying, sacking, and the separation of oil and disposal of waste.

The term "license" shall mean a license obtained under the provisions of this chapter.

(Ord. 254 § 1, 1937)

It shall be unlawful for any person to operate the business of, or a plant for, reducing any animal, fish or vegetable substances within the unincorporated territory of the county of Marin without having a license therefor which is in effect, and it shall also be unlawful for any person to act as director, officer, or managing agent for any such reduction plant or business which does not have a license.

(Ord. 254 § 2, 1937)

Every applicant for such license shall file with the county clerk of said county a verified application, setting forth the name and address of the applicant, the names and residences and post office addresses of its officers, directors and managing agents, a description of the property whereupon it is proposed to conduct said business and its location, and the capacity of applicant's plant, and a detailed statement of applicant's proposed method of operation, and each such applicant shall, at the time of making such application, deposit with and pay to the county clerk a license fee of two-hundred dollars. All such fees shall be paid by the county clerk into the county treasury.

(Ord. 254 § 3, 1957)

Upon receipt of such application accompanied by such fee, the county clerk shall transmit such application to the county health officer. The county health officer shall thereupon investigate the matters set forth in the application and shall make such further investigation as he deems advisable of applicant's plant and proposed method of operation, and if it shall appear to the satisfaction of the county health officer that the statements contained in the application are true and that the applicant's plant and proposed method of operation will comply with all applicable laws, ordinances and regulations and the provisions of this chapter, he shall issue to applicant a license for the operation of such plant. Each such license shall expire on the first day of July next after its issuance, unless sooner suspended or revoked. It shall be necessary for any person desiring to conduct a reduction plant to file a new application and pay a new license fee of two-hundred dollars each year.

(Ord. 254 § 4, 1937)

The odors arising in the process of reduction from cooking, pressing, drying the meal, and the odors from fish oil and stick liquor and from decomposed or decaying animals, fish or vegetables, or particles thereof, and from meal which is allowed to escape in the atmosphere, are hereby declared to be offensive and obnoxious odors, and gases carrying any such odors are hereby declared to be offensive and obnoxious gases, and such offensive and obnoxious gases are hereby declared to be detrimental to the public health. The escape into the open air of any such offensive or obnoxious odors or gases is hereby declared to be a public nuisance and it shall be unlawful for any person to cause or permit any such obnoxious or offensive odors or gases to escape into the air.

(Ord. 254 § 5, 1937)

The county health officer and any of his duly authorized deputies or agents, are hereby empowered at any and all times to visit and inspect all parts of all reducing plants within the unincorporated territory of the county, and to inspect all temperature charts and other records of operation and all records showing quantities of animals, fish and all vegetables and animal, fish and vegetable matter received in said plants, and the quantities of meal and other products produced and said county health officer, is hereby authorized and directed to enforce all the provisions of this chapter and of any other applicable law or ordinance.

(Ord. 254 § 6, 1937)

It shall be unlawful to operate any reduction plant unless said plant and the operation thereof complies with each of the following conditions, and no license shall be issued for the operation of any reduction plant which does not comply with said conditions:

(a) All floors and gutters of each such plant shall be constructed of waterproof concrete or other waterproof material with a smooth finish.

The walls, ceilings, partitions, posts, doors and all other parts of all structures constituting any part of any such plan shall be of such materials as will permit them to be easily and readily cleaned.

(b) Each such reduction plant shall be equipped with proper receiving bins or compartments which shall be smooth so that they can be readily cleaned, and shall be tight; and no fish, fish particles, or animal or vegetable matter shall be permitted to accumulate in any such bin, or elsewhere in the plant for such time as to become decomposed.

(c) Each such plant shall have adequate devices for trapping all animal, fish and vegetable particles, including fish scales, in such manner that they will not be discharged out of the plant into any bay or channel waters or any drainage channel or otherwise, and all such particles shall be trapped and reduced, and none of the same or any oil or solids shall be discharged into any bay or channel waters or drainage channel or otherwise.

(d) All oil and solids shall be promptly separated from the stick liquor as the same comes from presses and each such plant shall have adequate equipment for such operation and the remaining stick liquor shall be immediately discharged by a method and at a place approved by the county health officer.

(e) Drying gases created by direct heat reduction processes shall pass through an incinerator of sufficient capacity and which shall raise the entire amount of gas to a temperature of not less than one thousand four hundred degrees Fahrenheit, or shall be otherwise dissolved or disposed of in such manner as to prevent the escape of any odors from such gases into the open air.

(f) Each plant using an incinerator shall equip the same with a recording pyrometer whose active element shall properly record the maximum temperature of all gases therein before they are allowed to escape. A twenty-four hour record temperature chart shall be made every day in which the reduction plant is operated.

(g) Plants not required to use an incinerator shall be provided with a recording thermometer and shall maintain twenty-four hour charts of the temperature of the drying gases immediately on leaving the dryer.

(h) All of the above temperature charts shall be retained for at least a year and shall be made available on demand of the county health officer or his deputy or agent at any time.

(i) All plants and works employing indirect heat dryers, namely, dryers in which the products of combustion are never in contact with the material being dried, shall incinerate or otherwise dissolve or dispose of all gases emanating from the drying material in such manner as to prevent the escape of any odors from such gases into the open air.

(Ord. 254 § 7, 1937)

It shall be unlawful to accept, process, render or reduce any animals, fish or vegetables, or parts or particles thereof in a state of decomposition or putrefaction. All decomposed or putrefied animals, fish, or vegetables, or parts thereof shall be condemned and disposed of in such manner as the county health officer, his deputy or agent shall by regulation require.

(Ord. 254 § 8, 1937)

Each such reduction plant shall each day make a record of the amount of animal, fish or vegetable matter received by it for reduction during such day and the amount thereof reduced during such day, and shall keep said records for at least a year and shall make the same available to the county health officer or his authorized deputies or agents at all times.

(Ord. 254 § 9, 1937)

The license of any such plant or works may be suspended or revoked by the board of supervisors of the county at any time for failure to comply with any of the provisions of this chapter relating to the installation or maintenance of the devices, appliances or procedure herein required for the elimination of obnoxious gases, or of permitting the escape thereof into the open air, or for permitting the discharge or escape of an animal, fish or vegetable particle, or any oil or solids into any bay or channel waters or any drainage channel or otherwise, or of violating any other provisions of this chapter; provided, however, that no such license shall be revoked without first affording the holder thereof a hearing before said board of supervisors, and without giving notice of such hearing and of the time and place thereof, to the holder of such license, at least three days prior thereto. Upon such hearing, if it shall appear satisfactorily to said board of supervisors that the holder of any such license had violated any of the provisions of this chapter, said board may forthwith summarily cause any nuisance existing upon the premises of the holder of such license to be abated, may suspend the license of such holder for a period to be determined by said board but not to exceed one year, or may revoke said license for the balance of the year for which it was issued. All such acts of the board of supervisors shall be subject to review by the superior court of the state of California, in and for the county of Marin.

(Ord. 254 § 10, 1937)

Any person violating any of the provisions of this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punishable by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail of the county for a term not exceeding six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Each day on which any violation shall occur shall be considered a separate violation.

(Ord. 254 § 11, 1937)

Nothing in this chapter contained shall be construed to debar the board of supervisors from instituting and maintaining civil actions, or from the employment of extraordinary civil remedies for the abatement of any nuisance created through the operation of reduction or processing plants embraced within the provisions of this chapter or for any or all injury or damages occasioned thereby.

(Ord. 254 § 12, 1937)

If any section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase of this chapter or the application thereof to any person or situation, shall for any reason be held to be unconstitutional or in violation of the laws of the state of California, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this chapter, or the application thereof to all other persons or situations. The board of supervisors of the county of Marin hereby declares that it would have passed this chapter and each section, subsection, sentence, clause and phrase thereof irrespective of the fact that any one or more other sections, subsections, sentences, clauses or phrases are unconstitutional or in violation of the laws of the state of California.

(Ord. 254 § 14, 1957)