A. For existing oil field equipment, residential owners or occupants within six hundred feet of such equipment may contact the operators to report offensive oil field equipment noise. It shall be the responsibility of the operator to respond to any such report within twenty-four hours of receiving the report. If after having contacted the operator the owner or occupant is not satisfied with the corrective measures taken by the operator, the owner or occupant may lodge a complaint with the city. Upon the receipt of such a complaint, the city shall take noise measurements, using city equipment and employees of the city trained to operate the equipment, to determine if the noise as measured from interior areas of the affected dwelling with windows open or from rear yard patio areas exceeds the noise levels permitted by Section 9.16.020(B), and if the source of the noise is oil field equipment. The owner or occupant making the complaint shall agree to entry onto the affected property by city personnel, and by any state licensed acoustical engineer retained by an operator pursuant to subsection C below, for the purposes of making the noise measurements. In the absence of such consent, the city need take no further action and the owner or occupant shall be deemed to have abandoned the noise complaint.
B. 1. Should the noise measurement indicate noise levels exceeding the noise levels set forth in Section 9.16.020(B), the city shall notify the operator. The notice shall state the time and date of the city's measurement, the noise level measured, and shall state that the operator must take corrective actions to remedy the violation. The corrective actions may include, but are not limited to, the following:
a. Repairs to the oil field equipment motor, belts, transmission, etc.;
b. Construction of an enclosure over the belt, motor, and/or pulleys of sufficient design and quality to mitigate noise to the greatest extent possible;
c. Construction of a wall between the offending oil field equipment and the dwelling of sufficient height and density to mitigate noise to the greatest extent possible;
d. Replacement or repair of old aboveground pumping units to achieve noise levels similar to comparable equipment in good working order.
2. The notice shall also provide a reasonable time, not less than ten days, but not to exceed sixty days, within which the oil field equipment must be brought into compliance.
C. Upon receipt of the notice provided for above, the oil operator may appeal the city's determination of noise level. The operator must indicate its intent to appeal the determination in writing to the city clerk within ten days of the receipt of notice. The appeal must state all grounds upon which the operator challenges the notice. If the operator appeals the determination, it shall provide to the city, within twenty days of its notice of intent to challenge the determination, measurements from a state licensed acoustical engineer, the engineer being mutually agreed upon by both the operator and the city, which shall be taken in the same manner as set out in subsection A above. The measurements shall be binding to both the operator and the city. The time periods for bringing the oil field equipment into compliance as stated in any notice issued pursuant to subsection B above shall be tolled during the appeal period.
D. It shall be the sole responsibility of the operator to mitigate oil field noise to the noise level required by Section 9.16.020(B). Failure by the operator to mitigate the oil field equipment noise to permitted levels in compliance with the notice provided in subsection B above shall be deemed a misdemeanor violation, and subject to enforcement under Chapter 1.16.
E. In the event that the operator implements all reasonably available noise mitigation measures, but the noise levels required by Section 9.16.020(B) are not achieved, the city may issue a certificate of compliance for the subject oil field equipment, describing the mitigation measures constructed and before and after noise measurements taken from the affected dwelling. The certificate of compliance shall permit the continued operation of the applicable oil field equipment only to the extent of the noise measurements taken from the affected dwelling after implementation of all mitigation measures described in the certificate. If the oil field equipment which is the subject of a certificate is later operated in a manner which exceeds the noise level identified in the certificate, the operator of such equipment shall be subject to all of the provisions of this chapter to the extent the noise level resulting from such operation exceeds the noise level identified in the certificate.
(Ord. 93-04-1153 § 7)