Salinas Municipal Code § 36-39 Confidential information

Industrial users shall notify the city immediately upon accidentally discharging wastes in violation of this chapter, to enable countermeasures to be taken by the city to minimize damage to the industrial waste sewer, the treatment facility, treatment processes, the receiving waters and the waters of the state.

The notification shall be in accordance with the spill prevention and control plan submitted to the city after issuance of the permit. This notification shall be followed, within five days of the date of occurrence, by a detailed written statement describing the causes of the accidental discharge and the measures being taken to prevent future occurrence.

Such notification will not relieve users of liability for any expense, loss or damage to the sewer system or for any fines imposed on the city on account pursuant to any local, state or federal law.

(Ord. No. 2102 (NCS).)

All industrial users shall make available copies of this chapter and any notice which the city may furnish to their employees. All industrial users shall permanently post a notice which includes the telephone numbers and persons to be contacted in the event of an accidental discharge of hazardous or unacceptable waste.

(Ord. No. 2102 (NCS).)

Any person found to be violating any provision of the chapter, requirements or conditions in the duly issued permits, or who discharges wastewater which causes pollution or violates any effluent limitation, pretreatment or toxicity standard shall be served by the city with a notice stating the nature of violation and providing a reasonable time limit for satisfactory correction.

Any person who violates any provision of this chapter shall be responsible for the cost of cleanup in addition to civil or criminal penalty in the sum of one thousand dollars per violation per day.

The city shall on annual basis publish in a local newspaper a list of all significant violators. A significant violator is one whose violations remain uncorrected forty-five days after notification of noncompliance; which is part of a pattern of noncompliance; which involves a failure to accurately report noncompliance; or which resulted in the municipality exercising its emergency authority.

(Ord. No. 2102 (NCS).)

Any information and data on an industrial user submitted to the city without any claim of confidentiality can be made public without notice to the industrial user who submitted the data. Information and data source could be from reports, questionnaires, permit application, permit and monitoring programs from inspections.

Some specific information such as a product formulation which is accepted by the city as confidential, shall not be transmitted to the general public by the city and should be filed in a confidential filing cabinet provided with lock. However, any IU discharge or effluent data shall never be protected as confidential. The state and federal agencies shall have unlimited access to all information collected by the city under its pretreatment program.

(Ord. No. 2102 (NCS).)