(a) The City Engineer may enter a site at any time during normal business hours, and at other reasonable times, to inspect, investigate, or monitor activities subject to this chapter.
(b) The City Engineer shall be permitted to enter and inspect facilities subject to regulation under this chapter as often as may be necessary to determine compliance with this chapter. If a discharger has security measures in force which require proper identification and clearance before entry into its premises, the discharger shall make the necessary arrangements to allow access to representatives of the City Engineer.
(c) Facility operators shall allow the City Engineer ready access to all parts of the premises for the purposes of inspection, sampling, examination and copying of records that must be kept under the conditions of an EPA NPDES General Permit to discharge storm water, and the performance of any additional duties as defined by state and federal law.
(d) The City Engineer shall have the right to set up on any permitted facility such devices as are necessary in the opinion of the authorized enforcement agency to conduct monitoring and/or sampling of the facility's storm water or illicit discharge.
(e) The City Engineer has the right to require the discharger to install monitoring equipment as necessary. The facility's sampling and monitoring equipment shall be maintained at all times in a safe and proper operating condition by the discharger at its own expense. All devices used to measure stormwater flow and quality shall be calibrated to ensure their accuracy.
(f) Any temporary or permanent obstruction to safe and easy access to the facility to be inspected and/or sampled shall be promptly removed by the operator at the written or oral request of the City Engineer and shall not be replaced. The costs of clearing such access shall be borne by the operator.
(g) If the City Engineer has been refused access to any part of the premises from which storm water is discharged, and he/she is able to demonstrate probable cause to believe that there may be a violation of this chapter, or that there is a need to inspect and/or sample as part of a routine inspection and sampling program designed to verify compliance with this chapter or any order issued hereunder, or to protect the overall public health, safety, and welfare of the community, then the City Engineer may seek issuance of a search warrant from any court of competent jurisdiction.
(Ord. 282(22-23). Passed 6-15-23.)