Westminster Municipal Code Ch. 14.04 Definitions

The words, terms and phrases defined in this chapter shall, whenever used in this title, have the meaning set forth in this chapter unless the context requires a different meaning.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Approved," "approved type" or "approved design" means and includes improvements, equipment or facilities of a type or design approved by the county fire warden or his duly authorized representative.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Barrel," when used as a unit of measure, shall mean forty-two U.S. standard gallons.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Building inspector" means the superintendent of building and safety, or any authorized deputy of such superintendent.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Bulk distributing station" means and includes any oil station, depot or plant for the wholesale distribution or marketing of oil or other flammable liquids, but which station is not a part or portion of a refinery, natural gasoline plant or commercial dehydration plant, as defined in this chapter.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Bureau of fire prevention" shall be deemed to be synonymous with county fire warden of the city or his authorized deputy.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Class B extinguishers" means fire extinguishers of the foam type, carbon dioxide systems, or other types of extinguishers suitable for use on fires in small quantities of oil and other flammable liquids where a blanketing effect is essential, and which extinguishers are approved by the bureau of fire prevention.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Commercial dehydration plant" means and includes any and all plants, whether completed or not, used, or erected or maintained for use, for or in connection with the separation of sand, water and other foreign substances from oil and other hydrocarbons, and includes each and every structure, building, tank or facility, and each and every piece of apparatus, machinery or equipment used, or erected or maintained for use, for or in connection with the erection, operation or maintenance of such plant; excepting, however, any dehydration plant which is operated and maintained exclusively as a part of the production equipment, as defined in this chapter, of and for any well or wells operated and maintained by the person operating and maintaining such dehydration plant, and which plant is not used for the dehydration or treatment of any oil or other hydrocarbons produced or obtained by or from any well or wells not operated and maintained by the person operating and maintaining such dehydration plant.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Deputy" or "authorized deputy" means any member, employee, agent or representative of the department, office, officer or agency in question, acting with or under the authority of such department, office, officer or agency.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Derrick" means any structure, improvement, equipment or facility, and each and every part of any thereof, whether completed or not, and which is or are required, or used or useful for or in connection with drilling, and/or operating, and/or maintaining a well for the production of oil, gas or other hydrocarbons from the earth, together with all parts of and appurtenances to such structure, improvement, equipment or facility, including, but not limited to, any foundations and sills therefor, towers, pumphouses, engine houses, belt houses or housings, boilers boiler plants, pipe racks, postings, walkways, mud ditches, bull wheels, calf wheels, band wheels and crown blocks.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Drill" means and includes to sink, bore or otherwise create a hole in the earth, whether the same is completed as a well or not, or to work upon or in any way assist in such drilling, but does not include any operations performed in or in connection with such well from and after the completion thereof as a producing well.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Erect" means and includes to build, construct, install, assemble, put together, improve, alter, move, reconstruct, restore, renovate, renew or repair any building, structure, improvement or facility, or any part or portion thereof or foundations thereof, or appurtenance thereto, whether such building, structure, improvement or facility, or any part or portion thereof or foundations therefor, or appurtenance thereto, whether such building, structure, improvement or facility is completed, or to work upon, or in any way assist in such erection.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Flammable liquids" means and includes oil and other fluid hydrocarbons, including liquefied gases or other flammable liquids, having a flash point below two hundred degrees Fahrenheit. The flash point of all commodities shall be determined by the Elliot, Abel, Abel-Pensky or Tag closed-cap testers, but the Tag closed-cap tester (standardized by the United States Bureau of Standards) shall be authoritative in case of dispute. All tests shall be made in accordance with the methods adopted by the American Society for Testing Materials, and approved by the American Standards Association.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Foam applicator" means any device used to deliver foam onto the surface of flammable liquids for fire prevention or extinguishing purposes.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Gas" means natural gas coming from the earth.

(Prior code § 3310)

Wherever the terms "herein," "hereof," "hereby," "hereto," "hereinbefore," "hereinabove," "hereinafter," "hereunder" are used in this title, the same shall unless otherwise provided, either expressly or by necessary implication from the context, refer to the whole of this chapter, and each and every part thereof, rather than being limited to the specific section or paragraph in which said terms, respectively, may have been used.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Liquefied petroleum gases" means and includes gases derived from petroleum or natural gas and which are in the gaseous state at normal atmospheric temperature and pressure, but which may be maintained in the liquid state at normal atmospheric temperature by suitable pressure, and shall include, without being limited to, butane gas, propane gas and similar flammable gases.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Loading rack" means any system of piping designed, used, or erected or maintained for use for the purpose of transferring oil or flammable liquids from pipe lines and/or tanks into tank vehicles or cars, or vice versa, for wholesale distribution.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Maintain" means and includes to repair or otherwise keep or place in working condition, but also means and includes to permit or authorize to exist, regardless of whether any actual maintenance work is done. For the purposes of this chapter, no oil well, wellhole, derrick and production equipment shall be deemed to be maintained upon the premises in and upon which the same were or are being drilled, erected or installed, until every part and portion of such derrick and production equipment, including any concrete foundations (except such production equipment as is necessary to be maintained on the premises on which the same is or are situated, for the operation or maintenance of other wells of the permittee in the vicinity, and for which other wells the necessary permits hereunder have been obtained and kept and are then in full force and effect), shall have been dismantled, demolished, and/or removed from the premises on which same are situated; and until the well and wellhole or permanently and finally abandoned in strict accordance with the rules and regulations of the Division of Oil and Gas of the state of California, or any regulatory authority having jurisdiction thereof; and until all sumps, cellars and ditches which are not necessary to be maintained for the operation or maintenance of such other wells of the permittee in the vicinity, as aforesaid, shall have been cleaned out and all oil, rotary mud and rubbish removed therefrom and the sumps, cellars and ditches leveled or filled with clean dirt, and, where the same are lined with concrete, the walls and bottom shall have been broken up and removed; and until the premises on which said well, wellhole, derrick and production equipment so abandoned, dismantled and/or removed are or were situated, and the premises in the vicinity thereof, including all of the premises covered by the permit issued to the permittee or under which the permittee is operating, shall have been cleaned and graded and left entirely free of oil, rotary mud, oil soaked earth, asphalt, tar, concrete, litter, debris and other substances, and left in a clean and neat condition; and until all streets, sidewalks and other public places in and property of the city, which may have been disturbed or damaged, either directly or indirectly, by reason of or in connection with, or incidental to, any operations of the permittee, or any operations on or from the premises severed by said permit, including operations for the abandonment of said well, shall have been cleaned, and, except for ordinary wear and tear of public streets and highways, restored to substantially the condition thereof at the time of the issuance of such permit, all as hereinafter provided.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Natural gasoline plant" means and includes any and all plants, whether completed, used, or erected or maintained for use, for or in connection with obtaining or extracting gasoline or natural gasoline, or other substances, liquids or gases, from the natural gas or wet gas obtained from the earth, and includes each and every structure, building, tank or facility, and each and every piece of apparatus, machinery or equipment used, or erected or maintained for use, for or in connection with the erection, operation or maintenance of such plant.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Oil" means and includes petroleum and other hydrocarbons obtained from the earth.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Operate" means to work or act upon, or to cause or permit natural or artificial forces to function in connection with any structure, plan, equipment, machinery or facility with the purpose of utilizing same for the purpose for which it was or is erected or maintained, or for any other purpose, and when used with reference to a well, wellhole, derrick or production equipment, means and includes any acts or functions performed or permitted to occur in connection with such well, wellhole, derrick or production equipment from and after the completion of the drilling of the well, for the purpose of producing or obtaining oil, gas and/or other hydrocarbons from the ground, and for the purpose of collecting and handling same and making deliveries thereof at the well or from the shipping tanks or lease tanks in the vicinity of the well, and includes all functions performed or permitted to occur in connection with such production, collection, handling and delivery, including the repair, reconditioning, restoration, perforating, redrilling or deepening of said well or wellhole, and the dehydration or cleaning of said oil prior to making such deliveries as aforesaid.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Operating unit" means and includes all of the contiguous land lying within any portion of the city upon the surface of which drilling is permitted hereunder, and which contiguous lands are included in the terms of the lease, permit or agreement pursuant to which the well in question is drilled or authorized to be drilled, whether such contiguous lands are in one ownership or in different ownerships, and whether such lands are described in said lease, permit or agreement as one parcel or as several parcels; provided, however, that if there are separate units of noncontiguous lands included in the term of such lease, permit or agreement, each such unit of noncontiguous land shall be deemed a separate operating unit hereunder. In determining the contiguity of any such lands, no street, road, highway or alley lying within the outer boundaries of the lands described in said lease, permit or agreement shall be deemed to interrupt such contiguity.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Person" means and includes an individual; a receiver; a trustee; a copartnership; joint adventures; a firm; an unincorporated association; a syndicate; a club; a society; a trust; a private corporation; a public corporation; a municipal corporation; a county, state, or national government; a municipal, county, state or Federal agency, board or commission; a water district; a utility district; a political subdivision; and a drainage, irrigation, levee, reclamation, flood-control or water conservation district, whether acting for himself or itself, or in any representative capacity.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Production equipment" means and includes pumping equipment, tubing, pipes, gauges, meters, valves, oil and gas separators, sumps, flow tanks, production tanks, shipping tanks, lease tanks, shipping pumps, loading racks and all other structures, machinery, equipment and facilities, and each and every part of any thereof, whether completed or not, required for or used or useful in connection with the operation, repair, reconditioning, redrilling or maintenance of a well or wellhole, and the collection, handling and delivery of oil, gas or other hydrocarbons therefrom, and which structures, machinery, equipment and facilities are not included in derrick, well or wellhole as heretofore defined; and also includes any wash tanks, dehydration plant or other equipment or facility operated or maintained by or in behalf of the operator of said well for the purpose of separating sand, water and other foreign substances from the oil, gas or other hydrocarbons produced or obtained by the operator prior to shipping or delivering said oil from the shipping tanks at the well or in the vicinity thereof.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Refinery" means and includes any and all plants, whether completed or not, used, or erected or maintained for use, for or in connection with the separation of oil or other hydrocarbons into any of its or their component parts, whether by cracking, distillation or other process, or for or in connection with making or deriving from oil or other hydrocarbons, any other products or byproducts, and includes each and every structure, building, tank or facility, and each and every piece of apparatus, machinery or equipment used or erected or maintained for use for or in connection with the erection, operation or maintenance of any such plant.

(Prior code § 3310)

"State Oil and Gas Supervisor" means the supervisor of the Division of Oil and Gas, Department of Natural Resources of the state of California, or his deputy.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Tank" means and includes any receptacle located on, or any portion of which is above, the surface of the ground, having a capacity in excess of five U.S. standard gallons and which is maintained or used or useful for the storage or holding of oil or other flammable liquids; provided, however, that drums and other commercial containers used for handling and transporting flammable liquids, not exceeding one hundred ten-gallon capacity, shall not be deemed a tank.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Well" or "oil well" means a well or hole drilled into the earth for the purpose of exploring for or extracting from the earth oil, gas and/or other hydrocarbon substances, and/or a well or hole in the earth by means of and through which oil, gas and other hydrocarbon substances are extracted or produced from the earth. In addition to such hole in the earth, the term "well" or "oil well" means and includes all permanent structures and equipment, including permanent well casing, required to be used, or used in connection with drilling, operating and/or maintaining such hole, and extracting or producing oil, gas and/or other hydrocarbon substances from the earth.

(Prior code § 3310)

"Wellhole" or "oil wellhole" means the hole in the earth drilled for the purpose of exploring for, extracting or producing oil, gas or other hydrocarbon substances from the earth.

(Prior code § 3310)