17.45.040 Development standards | Wasco Municipal Code

17.45.040 Development standards.

The following development standards are applicable to all drilling or production operations within the city unless approved otherwise through the conditional use permit procedure:

A. All drilling and production operations shall comply with California Public Resource Code Section 3000 et seq., all regulations of the State DOG, State Division of Industrial Safety and all other agency regulations which apply to such operations.

B. Minimum Production Site Size. All production sites shall be a minimum of one acre in size in order to accommodate consolidation of drill site, equipment, soundproofing, landscaping, circulation, and allow for reuse of the property at such time as the site is no longer utilized for drilling operations.

C. Access Roads and Production Site. All private roads used for access to the production site and the production site itself shall be surfaced with a permanent or semipermanent surface such as rock or gravel and maintained to prevent dust or mud.

D. Sumps or Ponds. All sumps, sump pits, ponds or similar devices such as portable tanks constructed on site for the purpose of holding waste material shall be lined to prevent such waste material from penetrating into the soil. Furthermore, when such sump, pit or pond is no longer needed, it shall be excavated of all foreign materials and filled with compacted earth to the level of the surrounding terrain.

E. Fencing. All sumps, pits, excavations and production sites shall be enclosed with a fence, the type of fencing and height to be determined by the planning commission at the time of consideration of the conditional use permit.

1. At such time as the oil or gas drilling or production site is abandoned, the responsible party shall abandon the site in accordance with the DOG regulations for urban areas and all other applicable regulations.

2. Furthermore, the drill or production site and all access roads shall be restored to their original condition or as nearly as practicable unless approved otherwise by the DOG and the planning director of the city upon receipt of a written request by the property owner. The responsible party shall furnish the city with a copy of the DOG approval showing compliance with all abandonment proceedings under state law.

G. Nonproducing Well. Whenever the cost of production exceeds the revenue produced by an oil or gas well or whenever a well is shut down for a period of ninety consecutive days or more, it shall be considered a nonproducing well. When a well is determined to be nonproducing or is shut down for ninety consecutive days or more, the operator shall report to the city the status of such a well. The operator shall then have ninety days to conduct an engineering evaluation to determine the economic viability of continuing production operations. If it is determined that the well is no longer economically viable, the well shall be abandoned in conformance with subsection (F) of this section. The operator shall submit, upon request, reports to the city on each well reflecting the cost/revenue ratio of each well in order to determine if the well is nonproducing.

H. Site Development. At the time of application for a conditional use permit to all drilling and production, the applicant shall submit a plan showing relationship to existing land use, ultimate land use if different and shall indicate proposed mitigation measures to all anticipated impacts including but not limited to noise, light or glare, odor, traffic, aesthetics, etc. Furthermore, the application shall include a plan for the ultimate reuse of the drilling or production site and how the ultimate use of the site will relate to adjacent uses.

I. Screening and Landscaping Production Sites. All oil or gas production sites shall be adequately screened from adjoining properties and public rights-of-way, the type of screening and landscaping to be determined by the planning commission at the time of consideration of the conditional use permit.

1. Setbacks. No new well, storage tank or production facility shall be located within:

a. Five hundred feet of any building including dwellings, except buildings incidental to the operation of the well, unless written permission is obtained from each affected property owner, and subject to DOG standards;

b. One thousand feet of any building used for public assembly, such as schools and churches.

K. Soundproofing. If drilling or redrilling operations are located within one thousand feet of an occupied building, noise sources associated with the operation shall be enclosed with soundproofing sufficient to ensure that expected noise levels do not exceed the noise limits contained in this chapter. Permittee shall install every device in the nature of exhaust mufflers and other equipment for the elimination of noise, obtainable and practicable for that purpose, on all operating machinery and equipment and on the well in all instances where objectionable noises might otherwise exist. Soundproofing shall be installed prior to commencement of operations and shall include but not be limited to the following:

1. Any well which is to be drilled or redrilled, and which is within five hundred feet of an occupied building shall have all parts of a derrick above the derrick floor, including the elevated portion used as a hoist, enclosed with fire-resistive soundproofing blanket or panel material. Such soundproofing shall comply with accepted American Petroleum Institute standards and shall be subject to fire department regulations. All doors shall be closed during drilling, except for ingress and egress and necessary logging, testing and well completion operations. Alternative materials or methods of noise abatement may be used, such as electric power for drilling; provided such alternative is approved by the planning commission. The commission may approve any such alternative if they find that the proposed material and/or method have equal soundproofing properties and fire-resistive qualities to being enclosed as stated above. Any alternative may require the submission of evidence by the permittee to substantiate any claims that may be made regarding the use of such alternatives. The planning commission may waive these soundproofing requirements if they find them unnecessary.

2. Any well which is to be drilled or redrilled, and which is within five hundred one to one thousand feet of any occupied building shall be enclosed by a plywood fence with fire-resistive sound insulating material on the interior of the fence. The fence shall specifically enclose all generators and the drill rig itself, to a height of twenty feet from grade.

3. Alternative materials or methods of noise abatement may be used, such as earthen berms, other sound-insulating materials, or other methods proposed by the applicant or electric power for drilling, provided such alternative is approved by the planning commission. The commission may approve any such alternative if they find that the proposed material and/or method have equal soundproofing properties and fire-resistive qualities to being enclosed as stated above. Any alternative may require the submission of evidence by the permittee to substantiate any claims that may be made regarding the use of such alternatives. The planning commission may waive these soundproofing requirements if they find them unnecessary.

L. Signs. All oil/gas facilities shall have a legible, permanent, prominently displayed and maintained metal sign no less than two square feet in area containing the following: name of the drilling contractor, name of the owner or operator, twenty-four-hour emergency phone number, lease name and name and number of the well. If the operator changes, it will be the new operator’s responsibility to replace the sign within thirty days after the change.

M. Derricks. All derricks and masts shall be consistent with California Division of Industrial Safety and OSHA standards, be at least equivalent to the standards and specifications of the American Petroleum Institute (API), and meet the following standards:

1. All derricks or masts, standard or portable, used for drilling, redrilling, rework, production or servicing, within two hundred feet of a public right-of-way, school, residence or building, shall have derrick crown(s) shrouded to prevent oil and water spraying into the air.

2. All derricks and masts hereafter erected for drilling, redrilling or rework shall be removed within thirty days after completion of the work unless otherwise ordered by the director of the DOG.

N. Permittee shall immediately remove the derrick and all other structures not required in the event that only gas is produced from the well and erect a suitable and sightly structure over the well of the most modern and approved design for the purpose, using only such space for the same as is necessary, and also shall fill all holes and excavations, save the well, and restore all surfaces to their original condition.

1. Unless otherwise permitted by the planning commission, the total capacity of oil storage facilities shall not exceed two thousand barrels per well, and no tank shall exceed one thousand barrels capacity. Tanks shall be constructed and maintained to be vapor tight.

2. Each oil-gas separator shall be equipped with both a regulation pressure-relief safety valve and a bursting head.

3. No storage tank shall be erected closer than fifty feet from any building, nor shall any building be erected within fifty feet of any storage tank. The city may permit this distance separation to be reduced for low-occupancy industrial or warehouse buildings, subject to additional or special safety of fire systems requirements which may be approved and imposed by the fire district. These distance provisions shall not apply to any tank or related facility constructed prior to 1998.

4. All tanks and attached fixtures shall be constructed and maintained in accordance with API, OSHA, California Division of Industrial Safety, DOG, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and EPA standards.

5. Tanks shall rest directly on the ground or on foundations or supports of gravel, concrete, masonry, piling or steel. Tank foundations shall be elevated, level and larger in diameter than the tank itself. Exposed piling or steel tank supports shall be protected by fire-resistive materials to provide a fire resistance rating of not less than two hours. Tank supports and connections shall be designed and installed to resist damage as a result of seismic activity.

6. No tank for storage of any flammable liquid shall be located closer than three feet to any other such tank.

7. New tanks used for storage of crude petroleum and other flammables shall be diked or provided with diversion walls and catchment basins, or combinations thereof, to meet the requirements of the DOG and NFPA. The volumetric capacity of a diked area shall not be less than the capacity necessary to hold the full volume of the largest tank below the height of the dike.

8. Dike walls shall be of concrete, solid masonry or earth designed and maintained to be liquid tight and to withstand a full hydrostatic head, except that all dikes in residential zones shall be solid masonry or poured-in-place concrete. Asphaltic surfacing shall be required on all earthen dikes. Surfacing shall be impervious and prevent leaching through pavement.

9. All tank piping, valves, fittings and connections including normal and emergency relief venting, shall be installed and maintained in accordance with current API standards.

10. All production equipment shall be kept painted in neutral, earth tone colors and maintained at all times. (Ord. 706 § 3 (Exh. A), 2019).