Salinas Municipal Code Art. II Salinas Urban Water Conservation Plan

It is the purpose of this article to:

(a) Facilitate, encourage, expand and implement water conservation in the city of Salinas.

(b) Require the implementation of the Salinas Urban Water Conservation Plan, adopted by the Salinas city council on March 8, 1994 pursuant to Resolution 15077, that implements the Monterey County Urban Water Conservation Ordinance No. 3744, adopted by the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, on January 18, 1994, to reduce pumping of water from the Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin for urban uses to the maximum extent feasible for each individual pumper, and to reduce overall pumping from the Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin by fifteen percent from the pumping that occurred in 1987.

(c) Facilitate the development of new water supplies to serve the increasing demands for water in the city by fulfilling any prerequisite for urban water conservation prior to construction of future water development projects.

(Ord. No. 2218 (NCS), § 1.)

The definitions set forth in this section shall apply to this article:

(a) "City" means the city of Salinas.

(b) "Urban water purveyor" means the operator of a water system which has one or more groundwater extraction facilities and twenty-five or more service connections providing water to residential, industrial, commercial, institutional or other urban uses, and shall also mean the operator of a groundwater extraction facility which has a discharge pipe with an inside diameter equal to or greater than three inches, or system supplied by such extraction facility, that provides water to one or more industrial, commercial or institutional water users.

(c) "Urban water uses" include residential, industrial, commercial, municipal, institutional, governmental and related uses of water.

(Ord. No. 2218 (NCS), § 1.)

In any particular water reporting year, no urban water purveyor shall exceed its water allocation established by the Salinas Urban Water Conservation Plan, except as is authorized by the Monterey County Water Resources Agency.

(Ord. No. 2218 (NCS), § 1.)

(a) Any urban water purveyor who violates any provision of this article by pumping groundwater in excess of that purveyor's annual allocation is subject to penalties, established herein.

(b) The penalty rates for an urban water purveyor who pumps groundwater in excess of that purveyor's annual allocation are as follows:

(c) The total amount of the penalty for each urban water purveyor is determined as follows:

(1) Determine the quantity of water, expressed in acre-feet pumped in excess of the allocation;

(2) Determine the quantity of water, expressed in acre-feet that equals ten percent of the allocation;

(3) Of the excess quantities, multiply the quantity that falls in the first ten percent of excess by fifty dollars per acre foot; multiply the quantity that falls in the second ten percent of excess by one hundred dollars per acre foot; and multiply the quantity that falls in all other portions of the excess by two hundred dollars per acre foot;

(4) Add together the amounts so determined, to determine the total penalty.

(d) The provisions of this section pertaining to penalties shall not be enforced during the water year November 1, 1993 through October 31, 1994.

(Ord. No. 2218 (NCS), § 1.)

Each violation of this article shall constitute an infraction.

(Ord. No. 2218 (NCS), § 1.)

Any violation of this article that occurs or continues from one day to the next shall be deemed a separate violation, for each day during which such violation occurs or continues to occur.

(Ord. No. 2218 (NCS), § 1.)

Any violation of this article is hereby declared to be a public nuisance.

(Ord. No. 2218 (NCS), § 1.)

If any section, subsection, paragraph, sentence, clause, or phrase of this article is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of a court of competent jurisdiction, it shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this article, including any other section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase therein.

(Ord. No. 2218 (NCS), § 1.)