(A) (1) Neb. RS 17-536 provides that the jurisdiction of such city to prevent any pollution of injury to the stream or source of water for the supply of such waterworks, shall extend 15 miles beyond its corporate limits.
(2) The municipal water well of the city and the site for a future municipal water well are located more that one mile beyond the corporate limits of the city but within 15 miles of the city, and specifically within the following described parcel of the real estate:
East Half of the Northwest Quarter (E1/2NE1/4), the Northeast Quarter (NE1/4), the North Half of the Southeast Quarter (N1/2SE1/4) of Section Twenty-two (22) and the West Half of the Southwest Quarter (W1/2SW1/4) of Section Fourteen (14), the West Half of the Northwest Quarter (W1/2NW1/4) of Section Twenty-three (23) and the Southeast Quarter (SE1/4) Section Fifteen (15) all in Township Four (4) North, Range Twenty-three (23), West of the 6th P.M. Furnas County, Nebraska.
(3) Neb. RS 17-536 grants authority to the City Council to the city to find that it is in the best interest of and serves the public’s purpose for there to be regulations governing and controlling the use of land within specified areas around the municipal water supply of the city so as to prevent any pollution or injury to the source of water which supplies the municipal water system.
(4) The Nebraska Safe Drinking Water Act, Neb. RS 17-536 et seq., authorizes the State of Nebraska, through its Director of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, to promulgate rules and regulations regarding location of the public water supply and the location of potential sources of pollution or injury which may adversely affect the quality of water from such supply systems, which rules and regulations are applicable to the public water supply systems of the city.
(5) Title 179, Chapter 2, Regulations Governing Public Water Supply Systems promulgated by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services set forth, in § 008,02 that “All public water supply systems shall adopt and carry out a preventive maintenance program...to protect the systems and its components from encroachments which are likely hazards to the safety of the drinking water quality, or which could have a substantial impact on the system pressure or economies delivered by the system.”
(6) The Lower Republican Natural Resources District, a political subdivision of the State of Nebraska, which encompasses the city and the area adjacent to the existing and future municipal water wells of the city, has, pursuant to applicable statutes of the State of Nebraska, developed a Ground Water Management Plan, which, as it pertains to the city, includes and delineates wellhead capture zones for the existing municipal wells of the City of Arapahoe, Nebraska.
(7) Pursuant to the rules and regulations of the State of Nebraska, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Lower Republican NRD, the following areas are areas in which there exists the need for regulations regarding the location of existing and future potential sources of pollution or injury to the public water supply of the city:
(a) All of Section 8-4-23;
(b) All of Section 9-4-23;
(c) The South Half of Section 10-4-23;
(d) The Northwest Quarter of Section 14-4-23;
(e) The North Half and the Northwest Quarter of the Southwest Quarter 1.4-4-23;
(f) The East Half of the Southwest Quarter 14-4-23;
(g) The North Half of Section 15-4-23;
(h) Southwest Quarter of Section 15-4-23;
(i) All of Section 16-4-23;
(j) All of Section 17-4-23;
(k) The North Half of Section 20-4-23;
(l) The Northeast Quarter of the Southeast Quarter of Section 20-4-23;
(m) All of Section 21-4-23;
(n) The West Half of the Northwest Quarter of Section 22-3-23;
(o) The Southwest Quarter of Section 22-4-23;
(p) The South Half of the Southeast Quarter of Section 22-4-23;
(q) The East Half of the Northwest Quarter of Section 23-4-23;
(r) The Southwest Quarter of Section 23-4-23;
(s) The North Half of the North Half of Section 27-4-23; and
(t) The North Half of the Northeast Quarter of Section 28-4-23, hereinafter called the wellhead capture zone.
(B) The findings made in division (A) above should be and are hereby made a part of this section as fully as is set out at length herein.
(C) For purposes of this section, certain terms or words used herein shall be interpreted as contained within this section. The present tense includes the future tense; the singular number includes the plural and the plural number includes the singular. Unless specifically defined below, words or phrases used in this section shall be interpreted so as to give them the same meaning as they have in common usage and so as to give the section its most reasonable application.
CHEMICAL OR PETROLEUM PRODUCT STORAGE. The storage of chemical and/or petroleum products for which a permit is required from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, or its successor.
FEEDLOT.
(a) The feeding, farrowing or raising of cattle, swine, sheep, poultry or other livestock, in a confined acres where grazing is not possible, where confinement is for more than six months in any one calendar year, and where the number of animals so maintained exceeds the animal units per acre as defined below. The term FEEDLOT shall include, but not be limited to, the area of the confined feeding operation, the pens, corrals, sheds, buildings, feed storage areas, waste disposal ponds and related facilities.
(b) ANIMAL UNITS (AU) are as follows:
1 Steer @ 1000#’s | = | 1 AU |
3.3 Sows | = | 1 AU |
3.3 Hogs | = | 1 AU |
5 Nursery pigs | = | 1 AU |
0.5 Horses/donkeys | = | 1 AU |
0.5 Exotic animals (llamas, ostriches, emu or the like) | = | 1 AU |
0.7 Dairy cattle | = | 1 AU |
55.5 Turkeys | = | 1 AU |
100 Poultry | = | 1 AU |
10 Sheep | = | 1 AU |
1. For a parcel of contiguous real estate of less than 40 acres, one AU per acre, or fraction thereof;
2. For a parcel of contiguous real estate of over 40 acres but less than 80 acres, two AU per acre, or fraction thereof; and
3. For a parcel of contiguous real estate of over 80 acres, three AU per acre, or fraction thereof.
WATER WELL. Any excavation that is drilled, cored, bored, washed, driven, dug, jetted or otherwise constructed for the purpose of exploring for ground water, monitoring ground water, utilizing the geothermal properties of the ground or extracting water from or injecting water into the underground water. It shall not include any excavation made for obtaining or prospecting for oil, natural gas, minerals or products mines or quarried or inserted media to repressure oil or natural gas bearing formations.
(D) It shall be unlawful for any person to place, construct or replace any of the following actives within the aforenoted wellhead capture zone, except as may be provided herein:
(1) Non-potable water well;
(2) Sewage lagoon;
(3) Absorption or disposal field for waste;
(4) Cesspool;
(5) Dump;
(6) Feedlot;
(7) Pit toilet;
(8) Sanitary landfill;
(9) Chemical or petroleum product storage;
(10) Septic tank;
(11) Sewage treatment plus;
(12) Sewage wet well;
(13) Sanitary sewer connection;
(14) Sanitary sewer manhole;
(15) Sanitary sewer line; and
(16) Sanitary sewer line (permanently water-tight).
(E) The placing, constructing or replacing of any structure or activity as set forth in division (D) above, within the aforenoted wellhead capture zone shall not be permitted, after the effective date of this section, unless a permit approved by the City Council has been obtained. The owner of any structure or activity listed in division (D) above shall have the burden of establishing the existence and use of said structure or activity listed in division (D) above at the time of the effective date of this section.
(F) The Mayor and City Council may consider the placing, constructing, to replacing of a structure or activity listed in division (D) above within the wellhead capture zone. Said placement, construction or replacement shall be allowed only if the following procedure is utilized.
(1) An application must first be filed with the City Clerk-Treasurer along with supporting information indicating why approval would not adversely impact the city’s municipal water supply.
(2) The Mayor and City Council shall refer the application and supporting information to its Engineer for evaluation and report.
(3) In addition to thereof, the Mayor and City Council may submit the application, and supporting information, together with its Engineer’s report, to the Republican Natural Resources District for its recommendations.
(4) The Mayor and City Council shall consider the supporting information, its Engineer’s report, the recommendations of the Lower Republican Natural Resources District and any additional information submitted by the applicant. In reaching its decision on whether to allow the placement, construction or replacement of a structure or activity listed in division (D) above, the Mayor and City Council must act to prevent all sources of possible or likely water pollution or injury. Preference for approval will be given to structure or activity listed in division (D) above that do not disturb any water bearing strata.
(5) No structure or activity listed in division (D) above in existence and use in the wellhead capture zone, as of the effective date of this section, shall continue to be permitted unless such continued existence or use, in the opinion of Mayor and City Council of the city presents a hazard to the quality or quantity of the drinking water available for public use as the city’s drinking water. If the Mayor and City Council determine that an existing structure or activity listed in division (D) above presents a hazard to the quality or quantity of the drinking water available for public use as the city’s drinking water, the City Council shall authorize the Mayor to notify the owner of the structure or activity listed in division (D) above to cease and desist said structure or activity. If the owner of the said structure or activity listed in division (D) above desires to continue said structure or activity listed in division (D) above said owner shall proceed pursuant to this division (F), if said owner does not cease and desist said structure or activity listed in division (D) above, pursuant to said notice, the Mayor may proceed pursuant to § 51.99(C) against said owner and/or the structure or activity listed in division (D) above.
(Ord. 2005-02, passed 3-22-2005) Penalty, see § 51.99