(A) Any person engaged in activities, which will, or may result in pollutants entering the city surface water drainage system shall undertake all practicable measures to reduce the introduction of such pollutants. Where best management practices requirements are promulgated by the city or any federal, state or regional agency for any activity, operation or facility which would otherwise cause the discharge of pollutants to the surface water drain system or waters of the United States, every person undertaking such activity or operation, or owning or operating such facility shall comply with such requirements.
(B) The city's surface water management program shall establish minimum requirements that apply to pollutant generating activities within the city. With regard to such activities, the following minimum requirements shall apply.
(1) Littering. No person shall throw, deposit, leave, maintain, keep or permit to be thrown, deposited, placed or left, any refuse, rubbish, garbage or other discarded or abandoned objects, articles and accumulations, in or upon any street, alley, sidewalk, storm drain, inlet, catch basin, conduit or any other drainage structures, business place or upon any public or private plot of land in the city, so that the same might be or become a pollutant. No person shall throw or deposit litter in any fountain, pond, lake, stream, irrigation canal or any other body of water in a park or elsewhere in the city. This section shall not apply to the storing of such potential pollutants in containers or in lawfully established waste disposal facilities.
(2) Owners of abutting property. The occupants, tenants, owners, lessees and/or proprietors of any real property in the City of Tulare in front of which there is a paved sidewalk shall be responsible for maintaining such sidewalk and keeping the same free of dirt and litter to the maximum extent practicable. Sweepings from such sidewalk shall not be swept or otherwise made or allowed to go into the gutter or roadway, but shall be disposed of in receptacles maintained on such real property as required for the disposal of garbage.
(3) Owners and operators of parking lots and similar structures. Persons owning or operating a paved parking lot, gas station pavement, paved private street or road, or similar structure, shall clean those structures in a manner that does not result in discharge of pollutants to the city surface water drain system.
(4) Best management practices for construction sites. All construction shall comply with city Standards to Control Excavations, Cuts, Fills, Clearing, Grading, Erosion and Sediments (or any resolution that revises, supplements, or replaces said standards). Any construction contractor performing work in the city shall keep debris and dirt out of the city's surface water drain system. The authorized enforcement officer may require any construction contractor performing work in the city to submit a surface water pollution prevention plan prior to final map approval by the city or prior to issuance of a building permit by the city, whichever first occurs.
(5) Best management practices for new development and redevelopment. The authorized enforcement officer may adopt regulations establishing controls on the volume and rate of surface water runoff for new development and redevelopment within the city as may be appropriate to minimize the discharge and transport of pollutants.
(6) Notification of intent and compliance with general permits. Each industrial discharger, discharger associated with construction activity, or other discharger, described in any general stormwater permit addressing such discharges, as may be adopted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the State Water Resources Control Board, or the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Valley Region, shall provide notice of intent, comply with, and undertake all other activities required by any general stormwater permit applicable to such discharges. Furthermore, each discharger identified in an individual NPDES permit relating to surface water discharges shall comply with and undertake all activities required by such permit.
(7) Compliance with best management practices. Where best management practices guidelines or requirements have been defined in the city's surface water management program or adopted by any federal, state, regional, county and/or city agency, for any activity, operation or facility which may cause or contribute to surface water pollution or contamination, and/or discharges of non-surface water to the surface water system or waters of the United States, every person undertaking such activity or operation, or owning or operating such facility, shall comply with such guidelines or requirements. Any person engaged in activities or operations, or owning facilities or property which will or may result in pollutants entering surface water, the surface water drain system or waters of the U.S. shall implement best management practices to the extent they are technologically achievable to prevent and reduce such pollutants. The owner or operator of a commercial or industrial establishment shall provide reasonable protection from accidental discharge of prohibited materials or other wastes into the municipal surface water drain system or watercourses. Facilities to prevent accidental discharge of prohibited materials or other wastes shall be provided and maintained at the owner or operator's expense.
(8) Watercourse protection. Every person owning property through which a watercourse passes, or such person's lessee, shall keep and maintain that part of the watercourse within the property reasonably free of trash, debris, excessive vegetation and other obstacles that would pollute, contaminate or significantly retard the flow of water through the watercourse. In addition, the owner or lessee shall maintain existing privately owned structures within or adjacent to a watercourse, so that such structures will not become a hazard to the use, function or physical integrity of the watercourse. The owner or lessee shall not remove healthy bank vegetation beyond that actually necessary for maintenance, nor remove such vegetation in such a manner as to increase the vulnerability of the watercourse to erosion. The property owner shall be responsible for maintaining and stabilizing that portion of the watercourse that is within their property lines in order to protect against erosion and degradation of the watercourse originating or contributed from their property.
(Ord. 16-13, passed 1-17-2017; Ord. 09-15, passed 11-3-2009)