SR 06-11-2019 7A
City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: June 11, 2019
Agenda Item: 7.A
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Susan Cline, Director, Public Works, Office of Sustainability & the
Environment
Subject: Introduction and first reading of an ordinance creating Article 12 of the Santa
Monica Municipal Code titled "Sustainability" to int egrate new ordinances
related to sustainability and protecting the rights of natural environments
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Introduce for first reading the attached ordinance creating Article 12 of the Santa
Monica Municipal Code titled “Sustainability” (Attachment A) related to
sustainability and protecting the rights of natural environments, moving Santa
Monica Municipal Code Chapter 4.75 to Article 12, and repealing Santa Monica
Code Chapters 5.16, 5.28, 5.36, and 7.08.
2. Consider the Task Force on the Environment’s request that Council direct staff to
evaluate the feasibility of developing and implementing a process for staff to
determine the consistency of proposed projects, policies, and ordinances that
meet a certain threshold with the City’s Sustainability Rights ordinance and the
staff recommendation against initiating such a study at this time.
Executive Summary
Established in the guiding principles of the Sustainable City Plan, “Santa Monica is
committed to protecting, preserving and restoring the natural environment (Attachment
B). City decision-making will be guided by a mandate to maximize environmental
benefits and reduce or eliminate negative environmental impacts.” Over the years, the
City has made numerous changes to its laws to help advance its efforts to protect the
environment. However, these laws are spread across many places in the Santa Monica
Municipal Code. Staff recommends creating a new article titled “Sustainability” and
moving Chapter 4.75 addressing Sustainability Rights to this article to increase its
prominence and begin the process of creating a more cohesive regulatory system for
environmental laws in the Santa Monica Municipal Code. Staff further recommends
clarifying and increasing the readability of the Santa Monica Municipal Code by
repealing certain outdated provisions.
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The City’s Task Force on the Environment’s recommends going further and requests
that Council direct staff to evaluate the feasibility of developing and implementing a
process for staff to determine the consistency of proposed projects, policies, and
ordinances that meet a certain threshold with the City’s Sustainability Rights ordinance.
Given the City’s pressing challenges in implementing Zero Waste and Water Self -
Sufficiency goals as well as the recently enacted food waste packaging ordinance and
Climate Action Plan, staff recommends against initiating such a study at this time.
Background
The City’s Task Force on the Environment initiated the efforts to establish a
Sustainability Bill of Rights for Santa Monica in 2011 by establishing a sub-committee to
look at the issue. That subcommittee drafted a proposed framework (Attachment C) for
the Sustainability Bill of Rights to: recognize the rights of people, natural communities
and ecosystems to exist, regenerate and flourish; authorize individuals to sue to
effectuate the rights of the natural world; subordinate corporate rights insofar as those
rights threaten sustainability; and commit the City to meeting specified environmental
goals by specified dates and taking other specified actions to fulfill the commitments
made in the Sustainable City Plan.
The Council adopted Resolution No. 10654 (CCS) declaring the City’s commitment to
sustainability rights (Attachment D) in January 2012. This resolution was developed by
staff based on the work of the Task Force on the Environment and represents a formal
recognition by the City of the rights of Santa Monica residents to have access to: clean,
affordable and accessible water from sustainable water sources; a sustainable energy
future based on renewable energy sources; a sustainable natural climate system
unaltered by fossil fuel emissions; a sustainable, comprehensive waste disposal system
that does not degrade the environment; clean indoor and outdoor air, clean water and
clean soil that pose negligible health risks to the public; and a sustainable food system
that provides healthy, locally grown food to the community. The Sustainability Rights
Ordinance was then adopted by Council a year later in 2013.
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Since the adoption of the Ordinance, Council has taken additional measures to ensure
the protection of the natural environment and that all specified ecosystems are able to
flourish. For example, on August 28, 2018, the City Council adopted Ordinance No.
2584, now codified in Article 7 Public Works, prohibiting the installation of new
groundwater wells or the expansion of existing wells unless and until a Groundwater
Sustainability Plan is adopted (Attachment E) in order to protect the City’s aquifers
against overdraft, pollution, and contamination. Currently, provisions such as
Ordinance No. 2584 related to sustainability and protecting our natural resources are
organized under different articles of the Santa Monica Municipal Code. The proposed
ordinance is a first step toward bringing these various provisions together as a whole.
Past Council Actions
9/20/1994 (Attachment B) Adoption of Sustainable City Plan
01/24/12 (Attachment D) Resolution declaring the City’s Commitment to
Sustainability Rights
04/09/13 (Attachment F) Adoption of Sustainability Rights Ordinance
08/28/18 (Attachment E) Ordinance prohibiting the installation of new wells or the
expansion of existing wells
Discussion
Environmental crises such as climate change, resource depletion, habitat destruction
and species extinction, and soil, air and water pollution continue to grow throughout the
world. In response, Santa Monica’s local environmental community and national
environmental leaders urged Council to adopt an ordinance that would recognize the
rights of both humans and the natural environment to exist and flourish. Chapter 4.75,
the Sustainability Rights ordinance, adopted in 2013, is based on the belief that Earth is
a community whose members are humans, animals, plants, rivers, streams, and eco-
systems and where all members of the community must have rights to ensure the
sustainability of the whole.
Currently, Chapter 4.75 Sustainability Rights ordinance of the Santa Monica Municipal
Code is organized under Article 4 Public Welfare, Morals and Policy. The ordinance is
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separate and isolated from other ordinances in the code that are related to protecting
the natural environment.
To ensure that the City’s sustainability laws are prominently featured within the
Municipal Code and guide a cohesive regulatory system, staff recommends creating
Santa Monica Municipal Code Article 12, titled “Sustainability,” to house and reference
City legislation related to sustainability and protecting the rights of the natu ral
environment.
At this time, Article 12 would also cross-reference certain existing chapters of the Santa
Monica Municipal Code that relate to environmental protection and sustainability in
order to highlight provisions critical to the City’s sustainability efforts. At this time, staff
recommends cross-referencing the following existing chapters:
• Chapter 2.28 (Tropical Woods)
• Chapter 3.06 and Section 3.12.835 (Car Share & EV parking)
• Chapter 4.08,270 (Leaf blowers)
• Chapter 4.44 (Smoking/tobacco)
• Chapter 5.44 (Non-marine Degradable Food Service Ware)
• Chapter 5.45 (Single Use Carry Out Bags)
• Chapter 7.10 (Urban Runoff Pollution)
• Chapter 7.16 (Water Conservation)
• Chapter 7.18 (Sustainable Groundwater Management)
• Chapter 7.48 (Litter)
• Chapter 7.56 (Storm Water Utility)
• Chapter 7.64 (Clean Beaches Parcel Tax)
• Section 10.08.340 (Prohibiting waste matter on beach/in ocean)
Staff recommends repealing the following chapters of the Santa Monica Municipal Code
that are outdated and unnecessary due to advances in state and federal law:
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• Chapter 5.16 (Toxic chemical disclosure law)
• Chapter 5.28 (Regulation of ozone-depleting compounds)
• Chapter 5.36 (Toxic and hazardous products labeling)
• Chapter 7.08 (Wastewater control)
Reporting
Chapter 4.75.05 requires staff to “prepare a written report to the community on the state
of the local environment, the realization of the rights recognized in this chapter, the
City’s progress in effectuating and enforcing the Sustainable City Plan and the policies
and provisions of this Chapter.” This written report shall be prepared at least every two
years.
To date, no formal reports have been published in effectuating the Sustainability Rights
ordinance. Staff has worked with the Task Force on the Environment to develop a set of
performance metrics to use for reporting. Staff was instructed to postpone reporting
data on the Sustainable City Plan and Sustainability Rights ordinance in order to avoid
confusion with the Wellbeing Index and align with the City’s Framework for a
Sustainable City of Wellbeing. Now that the Wellbeing Index and the Framework for a
Sustainable City of Wellbeing are established, data collection and reporting efforts for
the Sustainability Rights ordinance are underway. In accordance with the ordinance,
staff will produce a written report with data sets related to sustainability objectives and
present to Council every two years starting fall 2019. Staff will provide thorough data
analysis on the ecosystem health metrics, as well as any Council actions taken durin g
the reporting period related to sustainability.
In addition, the Sustainability Rights ordinance language has been integrated into the
Framework for a Sustainable City of Wellbeing in the Health outcome area. The
definition of “environmental health” is pulled directly from the Sustainability Rights
ordinance. This will ensure the City’s budget and work plans are consistent with the
Sustainability Rights ordinance. Staff identified a list of eight key target objectives (Table
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1) to report on the health of these local ecosystems. Table 1 provides a summary of the
key target objectives and metrics that will be analyzed biennially.
Table 1: List of Key Target Objectives
Key Target Objectives Metric
Affordable and Accessible Water Percent water sourced locally
Renewable Energy Amount of on-site solar energy generated for
City-operated facilities
Natural climate Percentage of reduction in carbon emissions
Waste disposal system Percent materials diverted from landfill
Clean air Number of days with ozone levels exceeding
.075 parts per million during an eight-hour period
Clean Water and Soil Percentage of City Projects in compliance with
soil and water quality regulations
Healthy Food Annual sales from farmers market produce
Urban Forest Percentage of tree canopy coverage
Task Force on the Environment
At the February 26, 2019 Task Force on the Environment special meeting, the Task
Force on the Environment adopted the following motion:
“In addition to the recommendation to finalize Article 12 and to complete the long
waiting biennial reporting, the Task Force on the Environment strongly
recommends that Council require sustainable rights ordinance consistency
determination for all projects, policies, and ordinances that meet a certain
threshold as determine by Council.”
As noted, staff agrees with the Task Force that the new Framework performance
measurement efforts and Citywide Dashboard should fully comply with the existing
ordinance and will take steps to ensure this is accomplished. However, taskin g the City
Manager’s Office (CMO) and City Attorney’s Office (CAO) with evaluating the feasibility
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of developing an entirely new legal compliance regime for “all projects, policies and
ordinances that meet a certain threshold as determined by the Council” would involve a
considerable work effort. Given the priority the Council has given for implementation of
specific, aggressive environmental sustainability efforts (Zero Waste, Water Self-
Sufficiency, Climate Action and Adaptation Plan etc.) as well as oth er citywide priorities
currently requiring attention from the CMO and CAO, staff recommends against
pursuing this complex and potentially contentious policy change at this time.
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
There is no immediate financial impact or budget action necessary as a result of the
recommended action.
Prepared By: Amanda Grossman, Sustainability Analyst
Approved
Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. Ordinance - PW - OSE - Article 12 Sustainability - 06.11.2019
B. September 20, 1994 Staff Report - 1994 Sustainable City Plan
C. Task Force on the Environment Framework
D. January 24, 2012 - Declaration of Commitment to Sustainable Rights Council
Report
E. August 28, 2018 - Sustainable Groundwater Management Ordinance
F. April 9, 2013 - Sustainability Rights Ordinance Staff Report
G. Written Comments
H. PowerPoint Presentation
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Council Meeting: May 28, 2019 Santa Monica, California
ORDINANCE NUMBER ____ (CCS)
(City Council Series)
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SANTA MONICA ESTABLISHING SANTA MONICA MUNICIPAL CODE ARTICLE 12
TO CREATE A SUSTAINABILITY CODE; MOVING SANTA MONICA MUNICIPAL
CODE CHAPTER 4.75 TO ARTICLE 12; AND REPEALING SANTA MONICA
MUNICIPAL CODE CHAPTERS 5.16, 5.28, 5.36 AND 7.08
WHEREAS, the City of Santa Monica adopted a Sustainable City Plan in
September of 1994 to guide present and future environmental policies and practices; and
WHEREAS, the City updated its Sustainable City Plan (SCP) on February 11,
2003, October 24, 2006, and January 14, 2014; and
WHEREAS, the City is committed to fully implementing its Sustainable City Plan
to further effectuate inherent rights of the people and natural communities of the City of
Santa Monica;
WHEREAS, as declared in the City’s Sustainable City Plan, a healthy environment
is integral to the City's long -term economic and societal interests and, accordingly, the
City's decision-making is guided by the mandate to maximize environmental benefits and
reduce or eliminate negative environmental impacts; and
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WHEREAS, as further declared in the Sustainable City Plan, local environmental
issues cannot be separated from their broader context, the City's programs and policies
should be developed as models that can be emulated by other communities; and
WHEREAS, in furtherance of these commitments and goals, the City must
regularly evaluate whether its plans, laws, and programs are sufficient to meet the
growing environmental crisis and must explore all means of addressing the growing
environmental crisis; and
WHEREAS, the City of Santa Monica has further expressed its commitment to
sustainability by recognizing that Santa Monicans: have the right to clean, affordable and
accessible water from sustainable water sources for human consumption, cooking, and
sanitary purposes; the right to a sustainable energy future based on sustainable
renewable energy sources; the right to a sustainable natural climate unaltered by fossil
fuel emissions; the right to sustainable, comprehensive waste disposal systems that do
not degrade the environment; the right to clean indoor and outdoor air, clean water and
clean soil that pose a negligible health risk to the public; and the right to a sustainable
food system that provides healthy, locally grown food to the community; and
WHEREAS, on January 24, 2012, the Council adopted Resolution No. 10654
declaring the City’s commitment to sustainable rights and formally recognizing the
sustainability rights of Santa Monica residents; and
WHEREAS, on April 9, 2013, the Council adopted Ordinance Number 2421 to
codify the commitments made in the Sustainable City Plan to restoring, protecting, and
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preserving our natural environment and all of its components and communities; to
creating and promoting sustainable systems of food production and distribut ion,
transportation, waste disposal, and water supply; and, to the full extent legally possible,
subordinating the short term, private financial interests of corporations and others to the
common, long-term interest of achieving environmental and economic sustainability; and
WHEREAS, it has become apparent that consolidating into one article of the
Municipal Code the provisions of local law that serve principally to protect the environment
will aid in achieving the City's sustainability goals; and
WHEREAS, the passage of time and advances in state and federal legislation have
rendered other environmental-related chapters of the Santa Monica Municipal Code
outdated and unnecessary and, therefore, should be repealed; and
WHEREAS, overall, the Council intends that its laws and policies shall serve to
guide this community and other communities towards a sustainable future .
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 4.75 of the Santa Monica Mun icipal Code is hereby repealed
as Chapter 4.75 and reinstated as Article 12 as set forth in Section 7 of this Ordinance
below.
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4.75 SUSTAINABILITY RIGHTS
4.75.010 Title.
This Chapter shall be known as the City of Santa Monica Sustainability Rights
Ordinance.
4.75.020 Findings.
The City Council finds and declares:
(a) With the exponential growth in human population and its increasing per
capita resource consumption, the planet cannot sustain our current way of life, which is
destructive to the natural elements upon which all species depend: the air, water, climate,
soil and other fundamental elements of the world; and
(b) Like all other communities, Santa Monica’s welfare is inextricably
bound to the welfare of the natural environment; and the Cit y has therefore long been
committed to protecting, preserving and restoring the natural environment and providing
a model of environmental sustainability for other communities to utilize; and
(c) The City Council of Santa Monica has expressed this commit ment
through a multitude of enactments and actions, including recognizing both the rights of
natural communities and ecosystems within Santa Monica to exist, thrive and evolve and
the rights of the individual human beings that make up the City of Santa Mon ica to a
clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The peoples’ rights include, but are not
limited to: the right to affordable and accessible water from sustainable water sources for
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human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes, as referenced in Ca lif. AB 685
(2012); the right to a sustainable energy future based on sustainable renewable energy
sources; the right to a sustainable natural climate unaltered by fossil fuel emissions; the
right to sustainable, comprehensive waste disposal systems that d o not degrade the
environment; the right to clean indoor and outdoor air, clean water and clean soil that
pose a negligible health risk to the public; and the right to a sustainable food system that
provides healthy, locally grown food to the community; an d
(d) These rights are not sufficiently safeguarded by the existing body of
local, national and international environmental policies and laws, which are grossly
inadequate to avert the mounting environmental crisis; and
(e) The inadequacy of the current framework of state, national and
international policies and laws necessitates re-examination of the underlying societal and
legal assumptions about our relationships with the environment and a renewed focus on
effectuating these rights.
4.75.030 Purpose.
This Chapter is created and exists for the purpose of codifying Santa Monica’s
commitment to achieving sustainability by among other things: (a) restoring, protecting
and preserving our natural environment and all of its components and communities
including, but not limited to, the air, water, soil, and climate upon which all living things
depend; (b) creating and promoting sustainable systems of food production and
distribution, energy production and distribution, transportation, waste disposal, and wate r
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supply; and (c) to the full extent legally possible, subordinating the short -term, private,
financial interests of corporations and others to the common, long -term interest of
achieving environmental and economic sustainability.
4.75.040 Rights of Santa Monica residents and the natural environment.
(a) All residents of Santa Monica possess fundamental and inalienable rights to:
clean water from sustainable sources; marine waters safe for active and passive
recreation; clean indoor and outdoor air; a sustainable food system that provides healthy,
locally grown food; a sustainable climate that supports thriving human life and a
flourishing biodiverse environment; comprehensive waste disposal systems that do not
degrade the environment; and a sustainable energy future based on renewable energy
sources.
(b) Natural communities and ecosystems possess fundamental and inalienable
rights to exist and flourish in the City of Santa Monica. To effectuate those rights on behalf
of the environment, residents of the City may bring actions to protect these natural
communities and ecosystems, defined as: groundwater aquifers, atmospheric systems,
marine waters, and native species within the boundaries of the City.
(c) All residents of Santa Monica possess the right to self-governance and to a
municipal government which recognizes that all power is inherent in the people, that all
free governments are founded on the people’s authority and consent, and that corporate
entities, and their directors and managers, do not enjo y special privileges or powers under
the law that subordinate the community’s rights to their private interests.
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4.75.050 Biennial Report.
At least once during every twenty-four-month period, City staff shall prepare a
written report to the community on the state of the local environment, the realization of
the rights recognized in this Chapter, and the City’s progress in effectuating and enforcing
the Sustainable City Plan and the policies and provisions of this Chapter. The report shall
include recommendations for advancing and ensuring compliance with the Sustainable
City Plan.
4.75.060 Biennial hearing.
The City Council will bi-annually review the Sustainability Rights Biennial Report,
conduct a public hearing, assess the City’s progress in effectuating and enforcing both
the Sustainable City Plan and the policies and provisions of this Chapter, and provide
direction to staff to ensure compliance with the Plan’s provisions and with the inherent
rights of the people and natural communities of the City of Santa Monica described herein.
4.75.070 Compliance assurance.
The City or any City resident may bring an action to enforce any provision of the
Santa Monica Municipal Code that advances the goals identified as enforceable in the
Sustainable City Plan.
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SECTION 2. Chapter 5.16 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code is hereby
repealed.
Chapter 5.16 TOXIC CHEMICAL DISCLOSURE LAW
5.16.010 Findings and purpose.
The City Council finds and declares:
(a) The handling, storage, use, processing and disposal of toxic
chemicals, radioactive materials, and hazardous and extremely hazardous wastes may
endanger the public health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the City.
(b) Recent reports have established that the municipal water system of
the City has been contaminated by trichloroethylene, a known carcinogen.
(c) Recent reports have indicated that the flood control channels running
through the City have been used for illegal dumping, the source of which is often
unknown, and that carcinogenic substances may be contaminating the Santa Monica Bay
and its beaches.
(d) It is necessary for the protection of the citizens of the City that
persons and entities that handle, store, use, process or dispose of toxic chemicals,
radioactive materials, and hazardous and extremely hazardous wastes in the City
disclose the identity of those substances.
(e) Disclosure is necessary so that the City may respond quickly to any
emergency created by the handling, storage, use, processing or disposal of toxic
chemicals, radioactive materials, and hazardous and extremely hazardous wastes; so
that the source of such chemicals, materials and wastes may be identified quickly in the
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event of such an emergency; and so that the City may acquire information on the location
of persons and entities using such chemicals, materials or wastes.
(f) It is not the intent of this Chapter to regulate the handling, storage,
use, processing or disposal of toxic chemicals, radioactive materials, and hazardous and
extremely hazardous wastes. This Chapter is adopted solely for the purpose of public
disclosure.
5.16.020 Definition of toxic chemicals, radioactive materials, and hazardous
and extremely hazardous wastes.
For purposes of this Chapter, toxic chemicals and hazardous and extremely
hazardous wastes are those substances set forth in Sections 66680 and 66685 of Title
22 of the California Administrative Code or in the List of Priority Organic Pollutants
maintained and updated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. For the
purposes of this Chapter, radioactive materials are those materials set forth in Chapter 1,
Title 10, Energy, Appendix B, maintained and updated by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission. The Director of General Services shall maintain and update a list of such
chemicals, materials and wastes and shall distribute the list with the t oxic chemical
disclosure form.
(a) The following holders of a license issued under Article 6 of this Code
shall be required to complete and file a toxic chemical disclosure form in the manner
required by this Chapter:
(1) A licensee for a business located in the M-1 Limited Industrial District
or in the M-2 General Industrial District excepting therefrom any business engaged in
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executive or administrative offices, karate studios, security guard services, trailer parks,
food wholesalers, restaurants, retail grocers, private investigators, attorneys,
chiropractors, advertising or public relations, retail stores or sales outlets, distributors of
exclusively non-chemical products, parking lots, insurance agencies, trade associations,
financial institutions, barber shops, physicians, dentists and other health professionals
unless x-ray or laboratories are on the premises, or self-service laundries for which no
other cleaning is done on the premises.
(2) A licensee for a business located in any district enga ged in vehicle
painting, rebuilding, reconditioning, body and fender work, repairing and overhauling,
battery manufacturing, and the like.
(3) A licensee for a business located in any district engaged in laundry,
dry cleaning, dyeing works, or carpet and rug cleaning, excepting therefrom self-service
laundries for which no other cleaning is done on the premises.
(4) A licensee for a business located in any district engaged in photo
processing.
(5) A licensee for a business located in any district engaged in metal or
plastic cutting or forming.
(6) A licensee for a business in any district engaged in printing,
lithographing or similar processes.
(7) A licensee for a business in any district engaged in pest or weed
control or abatement.
(8) A licensee for a business in any district engaged in a medical, dental,
x-ray processing or chemical laboratory.
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(9) A licensee for a business in any district engaged in furniture
refurbishing.
(b) The toxic chemical disclosure form shall be adopted and fr om time
to time amended or revised by resolution of the city council following public hearing. The
toxic chemical disclosure form shall require the disclosure of toxic chemicals, radioactive
materials, and hazardous and extremely hazardous wastes handled, stored, used,
processed or disposed of in the City and shall require the disclosure of such substances
disposed of through the municipal sewer system or the flood control channels maintained
by the Los Angeles County Flood Control District. The toxic chemical disclosure form shall
be accompanied by the material safety data sheet required by Labor Code Section 6390
for each substance for which the person is required to have on hand a material safety
data sheet pursuant to the Hazardous Substances Information and Training Act, Labor
Code Section 6360 et seq.
(c) Every person required to disclose under subsection (a) of this
Section shall complete and file a toxic chemical disclosure form within ninety days of the
date of adoption of the ordinance codified in this Chapter. Within forty -five days of the
date of adoption of the ordinance codified in this Chapter, the Director of General Services
shall mail a toxic chemical disclosure form to every licensee required to disclose under
this Section. Thereafter, such licensees shall complete a toxic chemical disclosure form
in the manner required by subsection (d) of this Section.
(d) No license issued pursuant to Article 6 of this Code shall be renewed
unless a toxic chemical disclosure form is completed by any person required to file such
a form under this Section. The toxic chemical disclosure form shall be mailed by the
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Director of General Services and shall be completed and filed with the City on or before
September 1st of each year, except that commencing on September 1, 1985, the
following persons may file a toxic chemical disclosure form on or before September 1st
of every third year:
(1) A person who last filed a toxic chemical disclosure form properly
reporting no chemicals.
(2) A person who last filed a toxic chemical disclosure form properly
reporting less than a total of two hundred seventy-five gallons of chemicals consisting of
any of the following, either individually or in combination: waste oils, paint and paint supply
chemicals, furniture manufacturing chemicals and machine cutting oils.
(e) Prior to the issuance of any business license pursuant to Article 6 of
this Code for any business described in subsection (a) of this Section, a toxic chemical
disclosure form shall be completed and filed with the City.
(f) When one or more substances requiring disclosure are mixed with
other substances and packaged under a product name, the product name may be
disclosed instead of disclosing each substance contained therein. If the Director of
General Services requests a sample of such product for purposes of analysis and such
request is refused, the person making disclosure shall be required to complete and file
an amended toxic chemical disclosure form within ten days of such refusal identifying
each substance subject to disclosure making up such product.
(g) Any person filing a toxic chemical disclosure form shall amend the
form within thirty days of the date that the person handles, stores, uses, processes or
disposes of any substance not previously disclosed.
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5.16.040 Exemptions from disclosure.
(a) No person shall be required to disclose any substance specified in
Section 5.16.020 contained in food, drug, cosmetic or tobacco products or in consumer
products packaged for retail distribution to, and use by, the gen eral public. This
subsection does not apply to any person engaged in the manufacturing of any such
product.
(b) No person engaged in retail business shall be required to disclose
any substance specified in Section 5.16.020 that is contained in food, drug, cosmetic or
tobacco products or in consumer products packaged for distribution to and use by the
general public, unless the product is repackaged or altered in any way by said business.
5.16.050 Disclosure by persons or entities not covered by business licenses.
The City, hospital, utilities and private schools that operate within the City shall
complete a toxic chemical disclosure form on or before the 31st day of December of each
year.
5.16.060 Public records.
Any person may inspect and copy any toxic chemical disclosure form filed pursuant
to this Chapter.
5.16.070 Fee.
The fee for filing a toxic chemical disclosure form shall be five dollars unless
revised from time to time by resolution of the City Council followin g public hearing.
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5.16.080 Enforcement.
The Director of General Services shall implement and administer this Chapter and
shall institute a system of audits and spot-checks meeting legal entry requirements to
ensure compliance.
SECTION 3. Chapter 5.28 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code is hereby
repealed.
Chapter 5.28 REGULATION OF OZONE-DEPLETING COMPOUNDS
5.28.010 Findings.
The City Council of the City of Santa Monica finds and declares:
(a) Available scientific evidence indicates that chlorofluorocarbons (“CFCs”)
and Halons, when discharged into the environment, deplete the earth’s protective ozone
layer, allowing increased amounts of ultraviolet radiation to penetrate the earth’s
atmosphere. These conditions pose a long term danger to human health, life, and the
earth’s environment by increasing such harms as skin cancers, cataracts, suppression of
the immune system, and damage to crops and aquatic life.
(b) The unnecessary release of Halons in testing fire extinguishing systems is
a primary source of the release of Halons into the earth’s atmosphere.
(c) CFCs are widely used in refrigeration and air conditioning systems in a
form commonly known as “Freon,” as well as in insulation, building products, and
packaging materials. Each of these substances leach CFCs into the atmosphere.
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(d) There is currently no economically feasible technology available as a
substitute for the Freon used in refrigeration and air conditioning systems, and the Halon
used in certain fire extinguishing systems.
(e) The reclamation and recycling o f Freon from auto air conditioning units
alone could eliminate nearly 20 percent of all CFC chemicals used nationally.
(f) In light of the current and future limitations on the production of CFCs both
nationally and internationally, the development and utilization of environmentally safe
alternatives to CFCs at this time will create a competitive advantage to those businesses
electing to use such alternatives prior to the effective date of any comprehensive
international, federal, state or local regulation banning the use of CFCs and Halons.
(g) The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (an
international agreement) which was ratified by the United States on April 21, 1988, and
which became effective January 1, 1989, calls for reductions in the production,
importation, and exportation of CFCs to fifty percent (50%) of the worldwide 1986 levels,
by 1998, and for a freeze on the production of Halon at 1986 levels beginning January 1,
1992.
(h) Recent discoveries have shown that the reductions in CFC levels set forth
in the Montreal Protocol may be insufficient to remedy the global health and safety risk
created from the release of CFCs and Halons.
(i) The City of Santa Monica supports all international, federal, and state bans
on uses of CFC’s; however, until such bans have been adopted by the appropriate
agencies, responsible action on the part of the City of Santa Monica is necessary to
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reduce CFC and Halon use in order to promote the long term health, safety, and welfare
of the general public, and the environment.
(j) The release of CFCs and Halons into the atmosphere is a global danger to
the environment. Any reduction in the release of these materials within the City of Santa
Monica will reduce this global danger and will result in a benefit to the overall health and
safety of the public inside and outside the City of Santa Monica.
(k) The City of Santa Monica encourages the research and development of
environmentally safe alternative technolog ies and products to replace the use of CFCs
and Halons.
5.28.020 Definitions.
For purposes of this Chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the
following meanings:
(a) Chlorofluorocarbons (“CFCs”). CFCs shall mean the family of substances
containing carbon, fluorine, and chlorine, and having no hydrogen atoms and no double
bonds, and which includes, without limitation, CFC -11, CFC-12, CFC-113, CFC114, and
CFC-115. Such substances include “Freon,” which is used in air conditioning and
refrigeration units, degreasers and solvents used in the cleaning of metals and electronic
components and rigid and flexible foam used as packaging materials and insulating
materials, and flexible foam used in car seats, bedding, and furniture.
(b) Halon. Halon shall mean any fully halogenated carbon compound
containing bromine, chlorine, or fluorine, and includes, without limitation, Halon -1301,
Halon-1211, and Halon 2402.
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(c) Ozone-Depleting Compound. Ozone-Depleting Compound shall mean any
CFC, Halon, the chemical compounds of methyl-chloroform and carbon tetrachloride, or
any other chemical compound designated by the City Council by resolution as being an
ozone-depleting compound.
(d) Licensed Health Care Facility. A licensed health care facility is any health
care facility licensed either by the State of California Department of Health or by the
United States Department of Health and Human Services.
(e) CFC Food Packaging. CFC food packaging is any container, carton, box,
cup, lid, plate, bowl, tray, or wrapping of any kind which is or may be used to contain,
package, store, insulate, or serve any food or beverage, that contains any CFC or in which
any CFC has been used in the manufacturing or production of such item.
(f) Rigid or Flexible Foam Containing or Utilizing an Ozone -Depleting
Compound. A rigid or flexible foam containing or utilizing an ozone -depleting compound
is any rigid or flexible foam, such as Styrofoam or thermoplastic foam, building insulation ,
or any other rigid or flexible foam that contains within any closed cell any ozone -depleting
compound or that was produced by using an ozone -depleting compound in any manner
during the manufacturing process.
5.28.030 Prohibition on the manufacture, sale, or distribution of products
using ozone-depleting compounds.
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this Section, no person within the City of
Santa Monica shall:
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(1) Use any ozone-depleting compound to manufacture, produce, cleanse,
degrease, or sterilize any substance or product.
(2) Package any product with rigid or flexible foam containing or utilizing
ozone-depleting compounds.
(3) Purchase, obtain, store, sell, distribute, or otherwise provide to any person
any CFC food packaging material.
(4) Recharge a refrigeration, air conditioning, or Halon fire suppression unit or
system that contains a leak of an ozone -depleting compound without repairing the leak
of such com-pound.
(b) Exemptions. This Section shall not apply to the study or research of the
effect of the release of ozone-depleting compounds into the environment, where such
compounds are directly necessary for conducting such study or research.
(c) Subsection (a)(1) of this Section shall not apply to any Licensed Health
Care Facility operated either for profit or not for profit, including any medical research
conducted at such facility or to manufacturers of any “drug” or medical “device” as the
terms “drug” and “device” are defined in Title 21, U.S .C. Sections 321(g) and 321(h) of
the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, but only if the manufacturer is required to
comply with the Good Manufacturing Practice requirements adopted pursuant to Title 21
U.S.C. Section 360j(f). The City Council by resolution may repeal this exemption if it finds
that materials which do not cause ozone depletion are available for use by Licensed
Health Care Facilities. All manufacturers of drugs or medical devices that use ozone -
depleting compounds shall adopt and implement a recycling system whereby any ozone -
19
depleting compound used as a sterilant by such manufacturers shall be recaptured and
recycled in accordance with a recycling plan filed with and approved by the City.
(d) The effective date for subsection (a)(1 ) of this Section shall be January 1,
1992. Subsections (a)(2), (a)(3), and (a)(4) of this Section shall be effective January 1,
1991.
5.28.040 Prohibition on the use of ozone-depleting compounds in building
construction.
Effective January 1, 1992, in the construction, remodel, or repair of any building or
structure, no person shall install any product, including rigid or flexible foam, which
contains or uses any ozone-depleting compound. Simultaneous with the filing of a
building permit application, the applicant shall submit a written verification certifying that
no ozone-depleting compound will be installed in any building or structure.
5.28.050 Recycling of ozone-depleting compounds used as coolants in
mobile refrigeration or conditioning systems.
No person shall install, repair, service, or maintain any mobile air conditioning or
refrigeration unit or system without utilizing equipment and procedures designed to
recapture and recycle any ozone-depleting compound that may be used as a coolant in
such refrigeration or air conditioning unit or system. By January 15, 1991, and yearly
thereafter, all businesses that install, service, repair, or maintain units or systems
described in this Section shall submit a recycling plan to the City in a form prescribe d by
the Director of the Department of General Services, which shall indicate equipment and
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procedures used to recycle and recapture ozone depleting compounds. Each business
shall certify that all appropriate employees have received training in the utiliza tion of the
equipment and procedures during the last year.
5.28.060 Restriction on sale of ozone-depleting compounds used as coolants
in refrigeration or air conditioning units.
Effective January 1, 1992, no person shall sell any ozone -depleting compound for
use as a coolant in a refrigeration or air conditioning unit or system to any person who
does not possess evidence of operating a recycling system pursuant to a recycling plan
filed and approved in accordance with Section 5.28.050 of this Chapter.
5.28.070 Release of Halon.
No person shall test any Halon fire suppression system by causing the release of
Halon, except to extinguish a fire or if a reclamation system is utilized in accordance with
Section 5.28.080.
5.28.080 Recycling of Halons from portable fire extinguishing systems.
Effective January 1, 1992, no persons shall repair, service, or maintain Halon fire
extinguishing systems or units without operating a reclamatio n system that recaptures
Halon or causes it to be recycled without escape into the atmosphere. By January 15,
1992, and yearly thereafter, all businesses that repair, service, or maintain Halon fire
extinguishing systems or units shall submit a recycling p lan to the City in a form prescribed
by the Director of the Department of General Services, which shall indicate equipment
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and procedures used to recycle and recapture Halon compounds. Each business’ shall
certify that all appropriate employees have receiv ed training in the utilization of the
equipment and procedures during the last year.
5.28.090 Exemption.
(a) Any person may apply to the City Manager for an exemption from any
Section of this Chapter by submitting an application in a form approved by the City
demonstrating that no technically or economically feasible alternative is currently
available for such person’s use of an ozone -depleting compound. To be accepted, the
application must be accompanied by payment of a processing fee in an amount which
shall be set by resolution of the City Council.
(b) The applicant shall specify:
(1) The nature of his or her business.
(2) The name and quantity of each ozone -depleting compound used by the
business.
(3) All processes and materials in which the business uses the compounds.
(4) The measures taken to reduce the use of the compound(s), including
whether and when a reclamation or recycling system has been or will be implemented.
(5) Identification of any mitigation measures the business will employ or
participate in to counteract its use of the compound(s).
(6) Identification of all alternatives to ozone -depleting compounds which the
business can use, including the health, safety, environmental, and economic impact of
each alternative if it was used by the business.
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(7) The hardship that will result to the business in the event that the exemption
is not granted, including the number of employees affected.
(8) The length of time for which the exemption is sought, including what steps
the business or industry has taken or will take to develop a techn ically or economically
viable alternative to the use of ozone-depleting compounds, and when such alternative is
expected to be available.
(c) No later than ten (10) days after filing an exemption application, the
applicant shall cause to be publishe d in the official newspaper of the City, a notice of
intention to seek an exemption pursuant to this Chapter. The notice shall indicate the
name and address of the applicant, as well as the name and address of the business for
which an exemption is sought, the names of all compounds for which the exemption is
sought, and the proposed duration of the exemption. The notice shall specify that any
interested party may obtain a copy of the exemption application from the City Manager’s
office and that any person may submit written comments concerning the application to
the City Manager within thirty (30) days alter the publication date. Within ten (10) days
after the date of publication, the applicant shall file with the City Clerk a copy of the notice
as published together with an affidavit made by a representative of the official newspaper
certifying to the fact of publication. The City Clerk shall post a copy of the notice until the
end of the public comment period.
(d) The City Manager shall issue writte n findings granting or denying the
application. The findings shall identify which compounds are covered by any exemption
granted and for each compound granted an exemption, shall specify the length of the
exemption. No exemption may be granted for a period greater than two (2) years. Ninety
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(90) days prior to the expiration of the exemption’s term, the applicant may seek an
extension of the exemption for no more than two (2) additional years. No business shall
be granted an exemption, including extensions, beyond January 1, 1996.
(e) Neither the filing of an exemption application nor the granting of an
exemption pursuant to this Section, shall affect in any manner any criminal or civil
proceeding brought to enforce any provision of this Chapter.
(f) The decision of the City Manager to grant or deny an exemption application
shall be final on the date that the decision is rendered and not appealable to the City
Council or to a Hearing Officer pursuant to any provision of this Code. The decision s hall
be reviewable by petition filed pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure Section 1094.5,
provided such review is sought not later than the ninetieth (90th) day following the date
on which the decision becomes final in accordance with Section 1.16.010 of th is Code
and Code of Civil Procedure Section 1094.6.
5.28.100 Enforcement.
(a) Each violation of this Chapter shall constitute a separate offense and each
day a violation of this Chapter continues shall constitute a separate offense.
(b) Any violation of this Chapter shall be a misdemeanor.
(c) In addition to the penalties provided in this Section, any condition caused
or permitted to exist in violation of any of the provisions of this Chapter shall be deemed
a public nuisance and may be abated by a civil action brought by the City Attorney on
behalf of the City of Santa Monica.
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SECTION 4. Chapter 5.36 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code is hereby
repealed.
Chapter 5.36 TOXIC AND HAZARDOUS HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS LABELING
5.36.010 Findings.
The City Council finds and declares:
(a) Through AB 2707, the State of California has imposed upon the City
of Santa Monica the costs for household hazardous waste management within the City.
(b) The City spends in excess of three hundred thousand dollars per
year collecting and managing household hazardous waste and faces the prospect of
much greater expenditures in the future.
(c) The citizens of the City of Santa Monica have a right to know about
the toxic and hazardous nature of chemical products they use in their homes on a regular
basis.
(d) The users of toxic and hazardous household products have both an
obligation and a right to be informed about the costs and consequences of the disposal
of toxic and hazardous household materials.
(e) Retailers who sell toxic and hazardous household products have an
obligation to inform consumers of such products about their contents and about
appropriate disposal.
5.36.020 Definitions.
For purposes of this Chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the
following meanings:
25
Display Area Label. The signage to be used by a retailer to mark a hazardous
household material display area as prescribed by the Environmental Programs Division.
Toxic and Hazardous Product. Any product which falls within one of the following
categories shall be considered a toxic and hazardous household product for purposes of
this Chapter:
(1) Toxic or hazardous automotive products, including but not limited to
motor oil, gear case oil, hydraulic oil, brake fluid, power steering fluid, oil and fuel
additives, engine coolants (antifreeze), and engine degreasers.
(2) Toxic or hazardous paints and paint products, including but not
limited to paint strippers, lacquer, shellac and varnish, wood stains, wood preservatives,
paint and lacquer thinners, rust removers and paint pigments.
(3) Pesticides, insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides and herbicides.
(4) Toxic or hazardous chemicals involved in swimming pool or spa
maintenance.
Retailer. A person offering for sale or selling a toxic and hazardous household
product to a consumer, within the City of Santa Monica.
5.36.030 Purpose.
It is the policy of the City of Santa Monica to educate citizens regarding the toxic
and hazardous nature of certain household products, proper use of the products, and the
proper methods for disposal of residual products and containers in order to protect public
health and the environment. This Chapter is intended to implement this policy of
educating and informing citizens about the toxic and hazardous nature of certain
26
household products, their proper use, and proper disposal methods, and is not intended
to prohibit or in any way regulate any matter relating to registration, sale, transportation,
or use of those products.
5.36.040 Applicability.
This Chapter shall apply to all persons who engage in business in the City of Santa
Monica.
5.36.050 Labeling requirement applicable to sale or distribution of toxic and
hazardous household products.
(a) The Environmental Programs Division shall develop, in cooperation
with retailers and other interested parties and shall distribute to retailers, uniform
information labels to be utilized in display areas containing toxic an d hazardous
household products.
(b) A retailer shall affix a display area information label, as prescribed by
the Environmental Programs Division, in a prominent location upon or near the display
area of a toxic and hazardous household product. If the display area is a shelf, and the
price of the product is affixed to the shelf, the label shall be affixed adjacent to the price
information.
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5.36.060 Consumer education.
(a) Consumer information pamphlets shall be prepared by the
Environmental Programs Division in cooperation with retailers and other interested parties
which provide information regarding the toxic and hazardous nature of specified product
categories, the proper use of toxic and hazardous household products, specific
instructions for the proper disposal of these products, and the identification and availability
of safer alternative products.
(b) Retailers shall maintain and prominently display in a location directly
adjacent to the display area warning label pamphlets described in subsection (a) above,
which shall be provided at no cost to retailers by the City’s Environmental Programs
Division.
5.36.070 Exemptions.
(a) A business subject to this Chapter may apply for an exemption of a
specific product subject to this Chapter if the product does not contain any of the
substances, in concentrations at or above one percent, or above .1 percent for cancer -
causing substances, listed in the current editions of the following:
(1) 29 CFR 1910, Subpart Z.
(2) “Threshold Limit Values for Chemical Substances and Physical
Agents in the Work Environment,” published by the American Conference of Government
Industrial Hygienists.
(3) National Fire Protection Association, “Hazardous Chemicals Data”
(NFPA 49).
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(4) National Fire Protection Association, “Fire Hazard Properties of
Flammable Liquids, Gases, Volatile Solid s” (NFPA 325M). Including all items rated II
through IV as health hazards or III through IV as flammability or reactivity hazards.
(5) U.S. Department of Transportation’s “Hazardous Materials Table,”
49 V.F.R. 172.101 (May 1985).
(6) National Toxicology Program, “Annual Report on Carcinogens.”
(7) International Agency for Research on Cancer, “Monographs,
Supplement 4.”
(8) A list of radioactive substances in Appendix B of Chapter 1 of Title
10 of the Code of Federal Regulations, maintained and updated by the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission.
(9) Parts 172 and 173 of Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
(10) Subdivision (b) of the Labor Code Section 6382.
(11) Section 25316 of the California Health and Safety Code.
(12) A list of legal carcinogens from the California Code of Regulations,
Title 8, Subchapter 7, Group 16 or the list developed by the United States Department of
Health and Human Services on its Second Annual Report on Carcinogens.
(13) A list of pesticides as issued by the D irector of the Department of
Food and Agriculture.
(14) A list of priority organic pollutants as issued by the EPA.
(15) A list of extremely hazardous materials in Part 300 of Title 40 of the
Code of Federal Regulations.
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(16) A list of acutely hazardous materials as defined in Health and Safety
Code Section 25532, subdivision (a).
(b) A retailer seeking to exempt a particular product shall submit an
application on a form provided by the Environmental Programs Division.
(c) Upon filing of an application for exemption, the Environmental
Programs Division may request from the person submitting the exemption application any
additional information it deems reasonably required to evaluate an application.
(d) Upon making a determination whether or not to grant an exemption,
the Environmental Programs Division shall notify the applicant in writing.
(e) There shall be no administrative appeal of a denial of an exemption
application.
5.36.080 Inspection authority.
The City Manager or the City Manager’s designated representative is authorized
to enter the business premises during business hours of any retailer engaged in the sale
of toxic and hazardous household products in the City for the sole purpose of inspecting
said premises to determine whether the retailer is in compliance with this Chapter.
5.36.090 Penalties for noncompliance.
Any person found in violation of any provision of this Chapter shall be guilty of a
misdemeanor. For purposes of this Chapter, the first cited violation of this Chapter shall
constitute a warning of noncompliance. The cited retailer shall comply with this Chapter
30
within twenty-four hours of the issuance of the citation. If the cited violation is not corrected
within the twenty-four-hour period, the violation shall be considered a misdemeanor.
5.36.100 Annual evaluation.
In recognition of the rapid changes in household product formulation, the
effectiveness of this Chapter shall be evaluated in writing by the Environmental Programs
Division not later than one year from the effective date, and no less frequently than every
two years thereafter. The written evaluation should address the necessity for revisions of
the requirements of this Chapter, and particularly, the necessity, if any, to modify the
definition of “toxic and hazardous household product.”
5.36.110 Effective date.
In recognition of the rapid changes in household product formulation, the
effectiveness of this Chapter shall be evaluated in writing by the Environmental Programs
Division not later than one year from the effective date, and no less frequently than every
two years thereafter. The written evaluation should address the necessity for revisions of
the requirements of this Chapter, and particularly, the necessit y, if any, to modify the
definition of “toxic and hazardous household product.”
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SECTION 5. Chapter 7.08 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code is hereby
repealed.
Chapter 7.08 WASTEWATER CONTROL
7.08.010 Emergency.
The City Council finds and declares:
(a) The City of Santa Monica currently operates a public sewer system
that directs wastewater within the City of Santa Monica to the Hyperion Treatment Plant,
which is located in the City of Los Angeles, for treatment and ultimate disposal.
(b) According to the City of Los Angeles, the Hyperion Treatment Plant
is operating at or near its current full capacit y.
(c) The City of Los Angeles projects that the Hyperion Treatment Plant
will soon exceed its capacity if the rate of increase in wastewater handled by the plant is
not slowed by all users of the plant, including the City of Santa Monica.
(d) The City of Los Angeles has adopted an emergency ordinance
designed to reduce the rate of increase in wastewater handled by its treatment plants
until additional treatment capacity is available.
(e) Uncontrolled increases in wastewater to the Hyperion Treatment
Plant could result in catastrophic overloads to the Hyperion Treatment Plant and could
lead to possible serious environmental damage, including pollution of Santa Monica Bay
and beach areas located within the City of Santa Monica.
(f) The health and welfare of the citizens of and visitors to the City of
Santa Monica would be endangered should such uncontrolled wastewater increases
continue to occur.
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(g) As a result of uncontrolled wastewater increases, an emergency
exists within the City of Santa Monica nece ssitating regulation of the rate of wastewater
increase handled by the City’s sewer system.
(h) Regulation of the rate of wastewater increase will preserve the City’s
sewage handling and treatment capability until additional treatment facilities are available
for City of Santa Monica use, thereby minimizing the hardship caused to the general
public to the greatest extent possible.
7.08.020 Definitions.
For purposes of this Chapter, the following words or phrases shall be defined as
follows:
(a) Community Service Facility. Any building or structure constructed
or altered for sole occupancy by the City or for organizations exempt from federal taxation
pursuant to 26 U.S.C. Section 501(c)(3) whose principal purpose is to provide social
services.
(b) Day Care Center. A facility defined as a “day care center” in Health
and Safety Code Section 1596.78.
(c) Director. The Director of General Services.
(d) Homeless Shelter. A residential facility operated by a government
agency or private, nonprofit organization other than a “community care facility,” as defined
in Health and Safety Code Section 1502, which provides temporary accommodations to
homeless persons or families and which meets the standards for shelters contained in
Title 25, California Administrative Code , Section 7972.
33
(e) Low or Moderate Income Housing Project. Any new construction
or rehabilitation project subject to a recorded regulatory agreement of a duration of not
less than thirty years, and which has been assisted by any local state or federal housing
assistance program, wherein the regulatory agreement requires one of the following:
(1) Forty percent of the units be priced at levels affordable and made
available to households earning sixty percent of the Los Angeles area median income or
less, as determined and amended by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban
Development and Sections 142 and 143 of the Internal Revenue Code.
(2) Fifty-one percent of the units be priced at levels affordable and made
available to households earning eighty percent of the Los Angeles area median income
or less, as determined and amended by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban
Development and Sections 142 and 143 of the Internal Revenue Code.
(3) Seventy-five percent of the units be priced at levels affordable and
made available to households earning between eighty percent and one hundred twenty
percent of the Los Angeles area median income, as determined and amended by the
Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and Sections 142 and 143 of
the Internal Revenue Code.
(f) On-Site Wastewater Treatment. The treatment of wastewater at the
project site through a method approved by the Director of General Services.
(g) Project. The total or partial erection, construction, alteration, or
change of use, of any building or structure within the City of Santa Monica which requires
the receipt of a sewer allocation permit under this Chapter.
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(h) Public and Private Nonprofit School. A public school, or a private
school operated as a tax-exempt organization, which provides either pre-school,
elementary, secondary, or post-secondary education and is properly accredited by a
nationally recognized accrediting agency or by the State of California Departm ent of
Education.
(i) Public Restroom. A restroom owned or operated by the City of
Santa Monica for public use.
(j) Residential Housing Project. A project which consists of no more
than four units and which is designed,
occupied, or intended for occupancy, as primary living quarters in a building or
portion thereof.
(k) Retrofit. To replace toilets or urinals with ultra -low flush fixtures as
defined in prior Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 8909.7 .
(l) Santa Monica Sewer System. The public sewer system operated
by the City of Santa Monica that carries sewage within the City of Santa Monica for
treatment and disposal by the Hyperion Treatment Plant or to any other sewage treatment
plant.
(m) Sewer Allocation Permit. A permit issued by the Director of General
Services which allows for the disposal of wastewater into the Santa Monica sewer system
under this Chapter.
(n) Wastewater. The spent or used water from residences, commercial
buildings, industrial plants, or institutions, which enters or should enter the City of Santa
Monica public sewage system.
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7.08.030 Building permit.
No building permit shall be issued by the City of Santa Monica for any project
unless the project has received a sewer allocation permit issued by the Director pursuant
to this Chapter, or unless the Director issues a written determination that the project does
not require a sewer allocation permit.
7.08.040 Wastewater control.
(a) Effective July 1, 1990, the cumulative amount of increase in
wastewater permitted to be discharged into or carried by the Santa Monica sewer system
from projects obtaining building permits in the period July 1, 1990, through June 30, 1991,
shall be no greater than 1.36% above the total amount of wastewater discharged into or
carried by the Santa Monica sewer system during the period July 1, 1989 through June
30, 1990. No more than fifty percent (50%) of the net increase in wastewater shall be
permitted to occur in the period July 1, 1990 through December 31, 1990. The remainder
of the permitted increase may occur in the period January 1, 1991 through June 30, 1991.
(b) The Director of General Services shall ensure compliance with this
Section through the issuance of sewer allocation permits that regulate the amount of
increased wastewa ter that projects shall be permitted to discharge into the Santa Monica
sewer system.
36
7.08.050 Sewer allocation permit.
(a) Sewer allocation permits shall be provided on a first come first served
basis in accordance with the terms of this Chapter. No application for a sewer allocation
permit shall be accepted for filing or otherwise processed by the Director unless the
applicant provides documentation on forms provided by the Director that the project has
received all other City approvals or permits necessary to commence the project, with the
exception of building and sewer allocation permits.
(b) A sewer allocation permit shall be issued only if the Director
determines that the Santa Monica sewer system has sufficient capacity as established by
Section 7.08.040 to accommodate the net increase in wastewater created by the project.
(c) If the Director determines that there is insufficient increased
wastewater capacity to accommodate a project, then at the applicant’s request, the
Director shall place the project on a waiting list in order of the date and time of day that
the permit application was accepted for filing by the Director. Those projects placed on
the waiting list established for the period July 1, 1990, through December 31, 1990, shall
have first entitlement for any increased sewage capacit y allotted for the period January
1, 1991, through June 30, 1991, in order of their place on the waiting list.
(d) The Director shall reserve ten percent (10%) of the permitted annual
wastewater increase established by Section 7.08.040 for the exclusive use of priority
projects as defined in Section 7.08.080. Priority projects shall be entitled to utilize no more
than fifty percent (50%) of the reserved amount in the period July 1, 1990 through
November 30, 1990, and no more than fifty percent (50%) of the reserved amount in the
period January 1, 1991 through May 31, 1991. In the period December 1, 1990 through
37
December 31, 1990, any unallocated reserve from the period July 1, 1990 through
November 30, 1990, shall become available for allocation to any project. In the period
June 1, 1991 through June 30, 1991, any unallocated reserve from the period January 1,
1991 through May 31, 1991, shall become available for allocation to any project.
(e) If the reserve is completely allocated to priority projects through
permits issued prior to December 1, 1990, then at the applicant’s request, the Director
shall place the project on a waiting list in accor dance with the terms of subsection (c)
above. Thereafter, priority projects shall be permitted to utilize the wastewater increase
allocated to nonpriority projects to the same extent as such projects. Any priority project
placed on a waiting list that is unable to obtain a permit by December 31, 1990, shall have
first entitlement to the reserve allocated to priority projects for the period January 1, 1991,
through May 31, 1991, in order of its place in the waiting list.
7.08.060 Net wastewater increase.
(a) In determining the amount of wastewater increase from a project, the
Director shall calculate the project’s net wastewater increase. In performing this
calculation, the Director shall determine the estimated amount of wastewater from the
project site that occurred during the period July 1, 1989 through June 30, 1990, by using
the City’s utility records and other appropriate information. The Director shall subt ract the
estimated amount of wastewater produced by the existing site from the estimated amount
of wastewater which the Director determines will be produced by the project with
reference to the project’s intended size, density, and uses. The resulting figu re shall be
38
the project’s net wastewater increase which shall be subject to the provisions of Section
7.08.040.
(b) Any permit applicant subject to this Chapter whose application for
development was deemed complete by the Director of Planning a nd Zoning prior to July
1, 1987, shall have the option to have the Director calculate the project’s net wastewater
increase by determining the site’s estimated wastewater flow for either of the following
periods, July 1, 1986 through June 30, 1987, or July 1, 1987 through June 30, 1988, by
using the City’s utility records and other appropriate information.
7.08.070 Zero net flow option.
(a) The Director shall establish a zero net flow option for projects. In
order to be considered for the zero net flow option, permit applicants must provide
documentation, on forms approved by the Director, that demonstrates that the project will
not contribute any net wastewater increase to the City’s sewer system due either to on -
site wastewater treatment, retrofitting of existing urinals or flush fixtures within the City of
Santa Monica, or a combination of both. In addition to documentation, the applicant shall
provide the Director with access to all sites so that the Director can verify through
inspection the methods used to satisfy the zero net flow option. The Director shall make
a preliminary determination as to whether, by using a zero net flow option, a project will
discharge any additional net wastewater into City’s sewage system. If, as a result of this
preliminary determination, the Director concludes that it is likely that the project will not
contribute any net increase into wastewater, the Director shall issue a sewe r allocation
permit. If, at the conclusion of the Director’s investigation or inspection, the Director
39
determines that additional on-site wastewater treatment or retrofitting is necessary to
obtain a zero net flow, the Director shall so inform the applicant. The applicant shall then
take such action as is necessary to achieve a zero net flow. No Certificate of Occupancy
shall be issued to the project until the Director certifies in writing that the project achieves
a zero net flow.
(b) Projects that satisfy the zero net flow requirements of this Section as
determined by the Director shall not be subject to the wastewater control provisions of
Section 7.08.040.
7.08.080 Priority projects.
The following projects shall be considered priority projects:
(a) Low or moderate income housing projects.
(b) Homeless shelters.
(c) Child day care facilities.
(d) Public and private nonprofit schools.
(e) Community service facilities.
(f) Residential housing projects.
(g) Public restrooms.
7.08.090 Exemptions.
The provisions of this Chapter shall not apply to any of the following projects:
(a) Any project that has received a building permit prior to the adoption
of this Chapter.
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(b) Any project that has a complete set of building plans on file by April
19, 1988, to which no changes are made constituting more than a five percent (5%)
increase of the original scope of the project. For purposes of this exemption only, a project
shall be considered to have had a complete set of building plans on file if the City received
by April 19, 1988, all plans, documents, information, reports, drawings, filing fees, and
other materials requested by the City as necessary for the issuance or processing of all
permits or approvals required in order to permit construction to begin.
(c) Residential housing projects within the City of Santa Monica for
which a tentative tract map has been approved after April 19, 1989, but prior to April 19,
1988, provided that the tentative tract map has not expired and that construction
commences prior to October 19, 1989, and provided that the total average daily
wastewater flow allocated pursuant to this exemption shall not exceed .07% of the
average daily flow for Santa Monica for the 198788 fiscal year.
7.08.100 Fees.
The City Council shall, by resolution, establish fees for the filing, processing, or
approval of any application or permit processed under this Chapter.
7.08.110 Transfer, expiration, and extensions of permits and approvals.
(a) Sewer Allocation Permits Not Transferable. No sewer allocation
permit may be used by any project other than the project for which the permit was issued.
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(b) Expiration of Sewer Allocation Permits. Any sewer allocation
permit issued pursuant to this Chapter shall expire, and provide the project with no
entitlement to discharge wastewater into the Santa Monica sewer system:
(1) Ninety (90) days after it is issued, unless the project obtains a
building permit entitling it to commence construction prior to the expiration of the ninety
(90) day period; or
(2) On the date that any building permit expires which entitles the project
to commence construction.
(c) Extension of City Approvals and Permits. Any project that has
received a City approval or permit that is conditioned upon the issuance of a building
permit by a date certain, shall have the expiration date of the approval or permit extended
by the period of time that the project is on a sewer allocation permit waiting list established
pursuant to Section 7.08.040.
SECTION 6. Chapter 5.20.020 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code is hereby
amended as follows:
5.20.020 Definitions.
For the purpose of this Chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the
following meanings:
Act. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972, also known as the
Clean Water Act, as amended, 33 USC 1251 et seq.
Approval Authority. The California State Water Resources Control Board.
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Authorized Representative of the Industrial User.
(1) If the industrial user is a corporation, authorized representative shall
mean:
(a) The president, secretary, treasurer, or a vice-president of the
corporation in charge of a principal business function, or any other p erson who performs
similar policy or decision-making functions for the corporation; or
(b) The manager of one or more manufacturing, production or operation
facilities, provided the manager is authorized to make management decisions that govern
the operation of the regulated facility, including having authority to make major capital
investment recommendations, initiate and direct comprehensive measures to assure
long-term environmental compliance with environmental laws and regulations, and
assure that necessary systems are established to comply with industrial wastewater
discharge permit requirements.
(2) If the industrial user is a partnership, association or sole
proprietorship, an authorized representative shall mean a general partner or the
proprietor.
(3) If the individual user is representing Federal, State or local
governments, or an agent thereof, an authorized representative shall mean a director or
highest official appointed or designated to oversee the operation and performance of the
activities of the government facility.
(4) The individuals described in subsections 1 through 3 of this definition
may designate another authorized representative if the authorization is in writing, the
authorization specifies the individual or position responsible for the overall operation of
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the facility from which the discharge originates or having overall responsibility for
environmental matters for the company, and the authorization is submitted to the City.
Average Daily Flow. The number of gallons of wastewater discharged into
the P.O.T.W., storm drain system or waters of the State during a twenty-four-hour period.
Best Management Practices (BMPs). Practices or physical devices or
systems activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, pollution
prevention techniques, and other management practices designed to prevent or reduce
pollutants in discharges. BMPs include, but are not limited to, treatment requirements,
operating procedures, and practices to control site runoff, spillage o r leaks, sludge or
waste disposal, or drainage from raw materials storage.
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). The quantity of oxygen utilized in
the biochemical oxidation of organic matter in five days at twenty degrees Centigrade
expressed in terms of milligrams per liter (mg/l) and analyzed in accordance with 40 CFR
136, as amended.
Biohazardous Waste. Laboratory waste of human or animal specimen
cultures from medical and pathology laboratories; or cultures and stocks of infectious
agents from medical, research or industrial laboratories; or wastes from the production of
bacteria, viruses, spores, and discarded vaccines; or human surgery specimens or
tissues which may contain infectious agents; or animal parts, tissues, fluids, or carcasses
which may contain infectious agents, waste blood products, waste containing materials
contaminated liquid waste from humans or animals that may be infectious, and human
surgery specimens or tissues with fixatives or contaminated with chemotherapeutic
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agents including, but not limited to, gloves, disposable gowns, towels, intravenous
solution bags and attached tubing when empty.
Blood. Human or animal blood, human or animal blood components and/or
products made from human or animal blood.
Blood-Borne Pathogens. Pathogenic micro-organisms that are present in
human or animal blood and can cause disease in humans.
Building Sewer. A sewer conveying wastewater from the premises of a
user to the P.O.T.W. system.
Bypass. The intentional diversion of wastestreams from any p ortion of a
discharger’s process or treatment facility.
Categorical Pretreatment Standards or Categorical Standards.
National Categorical Pretreatment Standards, Pretreatment Standards or any other
regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulga ted by the United States
Environmental Protection Agency.
City. The City of Santa Monica or its duly authorized representatives.
Clean Water Act (aka the Act or CWA). The Federal Water Pollution
Control Act, enacted in 1972, by Public Law 92 -500, and as amended by the Water
Quality Act of 1987.
Color. The optical density at the visual wavelength of maximum absorption,
relative to distilled water. One hundred percent transmittance is equivalent to zero optical
density.
Commercial Establishment. A private establishment such as a restaurant,
hotel, laundry, store, filing station, recreational facility, or a nonprofit private or
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government entity such as a church, school, hospital, military facility, correctional
institution or a facility owned and operated by a charitable organization.
Composite Sample. The sample resulting from the combination of
individual wastewater samples taken at selected intervals based on either an increment
of flow or time.
Construction. The acquisition of any and all rights-of-wa y or real property
necessary for the performance and completion of the work referred to wherever authority
is given to the City for any construction under the provisions of this Chapter.
Cooling Water. The water discharged from any use including, but not
limited to, air-conditioning, cooling or refrigeration, during which the only pollutant added
is heat.
Direct Discharge. The discharge of wastewater to the storm drain system
or the waters of the State.
Director. The Director of the Public Works Department of the City of Santa
Monica or the duly authorized representative thereof.
Discharge. Unless otherwise specific in a permit, the introduction of any
pollutant into the P.O.T.W., the storm drain system or the waters of the State.
Domestic Wastewater (Domestic Sewage). Water bearing wastes
derived from ordinary living processes, free from industrial waste, and of such character
as to permit satisfactory disposal to, and treatment in, the P.O.T.W.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The United States
Environmental Protection Agency, its Administrator, or its duly authorized representative.
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Existing Source. Any source of discharge, the construction or operation of
which commenced prior to the publication by the EPA of proposed categorical
pretreatment standards in accordance with Section 307 of the Act.
Food Service Establishment. A facility engaged in preparing food for
consumption by the public such as, but not limited to, a restaurant, bakery, commercial
kitchen, caterer, hotel, school, hospital, correctional facility or care institution.
Grab Sample. A sample which is taken from a wastewater discharge on a
one-time basis without regard to the volume of flow in the discharge.
Gravity Grease Interceptor (GGI). Unless otherwise approved by the
Director, an approved device with a minimum volume of three hundred gallons that is
specifically designed to separate, trap, and hold non-petroleum fats, oil and grease (FOG)
from an industrial wastewater discharge, and which, unless otherwise approved by the
City, shall be remotely located from where food is handled, and is identified by the
following: volume, a minimum retention time of thirty minutes, baffle(s), a minimum of two
compartments, and gravity separation.
Graywater. A wastewater discharge that has not been contaminated by any
toilet discharge, has not been affected by infectious, contaminated, or unhealthy bodily
wastes and does not present a threat from contamination by unhealthful processing,
manufacturing, or operating wastes. Graywater includes, but is not limited to, wastewater
from domestic bathtubs, showers, bathroom washbasins, clothes washing machines and
laundry tubs, but does not include wastewater from toilets, kitchen sinks or dishwashers.
Grease Interceptor. See Gravity Grease Interceptor.
Grease Trap. See Hydromechanical Grease Interceptor.
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Gross Floor Area. The area included within the exterior of the surrounding
walls of a building or portions thereof, exclusive of courtyards.
Holding Tank Waste. Any waste from holding tanks such as vessels,
chemical toilets, campers, trailers, septic tanks and vacuum-pump tank trucks.
House Connection Sewer. Any sewer pipeline, or portion thereof,
constructed in a street, alley, walk or other public place, or in a sewer easemen t granted
to the City and connecting, or proposed to connect, any lot or part of a lot with any public
sewer.
Hydromechanical Grease Interceptor (HGI). An approved device that is
installed in an industrial drainage system to separate, trap, and hold non -petroleum fats,
oil and grease (FOG) from a wastewater discharge and is identified by flow rate, retention
time and separation efficiency. HGI design incorporates, in combination or separately, air
entrainment, hydromechanical separation, interior baffling, internal barriers, and sample
box.
Indirect Discharge. The discharge of wastewater into the P.O.T.W.
Industrial User or Discharger or User or Permittee. Any person which is
the source of a non-domestic discharge to the P.O.T.W. system, the storm drain or waters
of the State and is subject to an Industrial Wastewater Permit.
Industrial Waste(s). Any solid, liquid, gaseous or radioactive substance
that is discharged from any producing, manufacturing, processing, institutional, industrial,
commercial, agricultural or similar operation from the development, recovery or
processing of any material resource which will enter the P.O.T.W.
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Industrial Waste Sewer Connection. Any house connection sewer, or
portion thereof, used in the disposal of any and all liquid or waterborne waste from
industrial or commercial processes except domestic sewage.
Industrial Waste Storm Drain Connection. Any storm drain connection
carrying or intended to carry industrial waste from any industrial, manufacturing,
processing or servicing establishment. These connections may require NPDES permits.
Industrial Wastewater (Industrial Waste). Any water bearing waste,
excluding domestic wastewater.
Industrial Wastewater Permit. A permit issued by the Director, or
authorized representative, in accordance with this Chapter.
Interceptor Sewer. A collecting sewer that intercepts and collects the
sewage from a number of lateral or local public sewers.
Interference. The inhibition or disruption of the P.O.T.W. process or
operations, or any action or omission which may contribute to a violation of any
requirement of the City of Los Angeles’ National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) permit or the City’s Joint Powers Agreement with the City of Los Angeles. The
term interference also includes prevention of sewage sludge use or disposal by the
P.O.T.W. in accordance with Section 405 of the Act or any violation of criteria, guidelines
or regulations developed pursuant to the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA), the Clean
Air Act, the Toxic Substance Control Act, the Marine Protection, Research and
Sanctuaries Act, or violation of more stringent State criteria (including those contained in
any State sludge management plan prepared pursuant to Title IV of SWDA) applicable to
the method of disposal or use employed by the P.O.T.W.
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Lot. As defined in Chapter 9.20 of Article IX of this Code.
Medical Waste. Medical waste shall have the same meaning as defined by
California Health and Safety Code Section 117690. Medical waste is:
(1) Biohazardous waste; or
(2) Sharps waste; or
(3) Trauma scene waste; or
(4) Waste which contains material that is generated or produced as a
result of any of the following actions:
(A) Diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals,
(B) Research pertaining to the activities specified in subparagraph (A),
(C) The production or testing of biologicals. Biologicals means medicinal
preparations made from living organisms and their products, including, but not limited to,
serums, vaccines, antigens, and anti-toxins,
(D) The accumulation of properly contained home-generated sharps
waste,
(E) Removal of blood or infectious materials from a trauma scene.
National Categorical Pretreatment Standard (National Standards,
NCPS). Any regulation containing pollutant discharge limits promulgated by the EPA in
accordance with Section 307(b) and (c) of the Act.
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit (NPDES
Permit). A permit issued pursuant to Section 402 of the Act.
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New Source. Any source of a discharge, the construction or operation of
which commenced after the publication by the EPA of proposed categorical pretreatment
standards in accordance with Section 307(c), provided that:
(1) No other source is located at that site; or
(2) The source completely replaces the process or production
equipment of an existing source at that site; or
(3) The new wastewater generating process of the source is
substantially independent of an existing source at that site, and the construction of the
source creates a new facility rather than modifying an existing source at that site.
Nondomestic Pollutants. Any substances other than human excrement
and household graywater (shower, dishwashing operations, etc.). Nondomestic pollutants
include the characteristics of the wastewater (i.e., pH, temperature, TSS, turbidity, color,
BOD, COD, toxicity, odor).
Pass Through. A discharge which exits to the P.O.T.W. into waters of the
State in quantities or concentrations which, alone or in conjunction with discharge(s) from
other source(s), is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the P.O.T.W.’s NPDES
permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation).
Peak Flow. The maximum five-minute rate of wastewater flow to be
generated from the premises as estimated by the Director.
Person. Any individual, partnership, co-partnership, firm, company,
corporation, association, joint stock company, trust estate, governmental entity or any
other legal entity, or their legal representatives, agents or assigns. This definition includes
all Federal, State or local governmental entities.
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pH. The logarithm (base 10) of the reciprocal of the concentration of
hydrogen ions expressed in gram equivalents per liter of solution.
Pharmaceutical Waste. A prescription or over-the-counter human or
veterinary drug or process waste from the testing, formulating or manufacturing of human
or veterinary pharmaceutical drugs.
Pigment. A substance that imparts black or white or a color to other
materials.
Point of Discharge. Any physical location at which a discharger, directly or
indirectly, disposes wastewater. The term point of discharge also includes, but is not
limited to, disposal to ponds, injection wells, leach fields or surface spreading.
Pollutant. Any liquid, gas, vapor, dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator
residue, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, medical waste, chemical wastes,
industrial wastes, biologica l materials, radioactive materials, heat, pigment, wrecked or
discharged equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt, agricultural or other waste.
Pollution Prevention (P2), Source Reduction. Pollution prevention
means “source reduction,” as defined under the Pollution Prevention Act (42 U.S.C.
Section 13101 et seq.), and other practices that reduce or eliminate the creation of
pollutants through increased efficiency in the use of raw materials, energy, water, or other
resources, or protection of natural resources by conservation, thus lessening the hazards
to public health and the environment.
Potential Discharge. Any area of waste or contamination which, by virtue
of its location or condition, may discharge to the storm drain, whether by act of omission,
commission or act of nature.
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Pretreatment. The reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination of
pollutants, or the alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater to a less
polluted state prior to or in lieu of discharging such pollutants into the P.O.T.W., storm
drain system or the waters of the State. Pretreatment can be obtained by physical,
chemical, or biological processes, or process changes by other means, except as
prohibited by 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at Section 403.6(d).
Pretreatment Requirements. Any substantive or procedural requirement
related to pretreatment, other than a National Categorical Pretreatment Standard
promulgated by EPA.
Private Sewage Disposal System (PSDS). Any system such as a septic
tank, cesspool, seepage pit, leach field or any other receptacle, or any combination
thereof, which receives any wastewater not discharged to a public sewer.
Prohibited Discharge Standards or Prohibited Discharges. Absolute
prohibitions against the discharge of certain defined types of industrial wastewater. These
prohibitions appear in Section 5.20.040 of this Chapter.
Publicly Owned Treatment Works (P.O.T.W.). Treatment works as
defined by Section 212 of the Act, which is wholly or partially owned by the City or the
City of Los Angeles. This includes any public sewers that convey wastewater to the
P.O.T.W., treatment plant, land, appurtenances, pumping stations, treatment works or
equipment.
Public Sewer. Any sewer, other than a house connection sewer, which has
been constructed in a public street, alley, walk or other public place, or in a sewer
easement, and is part of the P.O.T.W.
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Receiving Waters. Waters of the State, as defined in this Section.
Residential Users. Persons only contributing domestic sewage
wastewater to the municipal wastewater system.
Sewage. Human excrement and gray water (household showers,
dishwashing operations, etc.).
Sharps. Hypodermic needles, hypodermic syringes, blades and broken
glass. Sharps also include any device, instruments, or other objects which have acute
rigid corners, edges or protuberances.
Significant Change. Alterations to the discharger’s operation, process,
pretreatment systems, or production, or alterations to the nature, quality, or volume of the
discharger’s wastewater that affect, or have the potential to affect, pretreatment standard s
or requirements since the issuance of the subject Industrial Wastewater Permit.
Significant Industrial User. Industrial users subject to categorical
pretreatment standards and any other industrial user that: (a) discharges an average of
twenty-five thousand gallons per day or more of process wastewater; (b) contributes a
process wastestream which makes up five percent or more of the average dry weather
hydraulic or organic capacity of the treatment plant; or (c) is designated as significant by
the City on the basis that the industrial user has a reasonable potential for causing pass
through or interference or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement.
Slug Discharge (Slug Load, Uncontrolled Discharge). Any discharge of
a non-routine, episodic nature, including but not limited to an accidental spill or a non -
customary batch discharge, which has a reasonable potential to cause interference or
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pass through, or in any other way violate the P.O.T.W.’s regulations, local limits or permit
conditions.
Special Drainage Connection. Any house connection sewer or storm drain
connection from any swimming pool, wading pool, fountain, pond, tank, vat or receptacle
which receives or disposes of rainwater or surface water.
Special House Connection Sewer. Any house connection sewer from a
lot, or part of a lot, which does not have a public sewer directly in front, rear, or at the side
of such lot, or part of such lot, and which has not been directly assessed for a public
sewer.
Standard Industrial Classification (SIC). Classification pursuant to the
Standard Classification Manual issued by the Executive Office of the President, Office of
Management and Budget, 1972, or subsequent revisions.
State. The State of California.
Storm Drain Connection. Any pipeline, or portion thereof, constructed in a
street, alley, walk, or other public place, or in an easement granted to the City or County,
and connecting or proposed to connect any lot or part of a lot with any storm drain.
Storm Drain System. All of the property involved in the operation of the
storm drainage collection and disposal system of the City of Santa Monica, whether
operated by the City or other public agency, including conduits, natural or artificial drains,
channels and watercourses, together with appurtenances, pumping stations and
equipment.
Stormwater. Any discharge, drainage or runoff occurring as a result of
natural precipitation including snowmelts.
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Suspended Solids (SS). The total nonfilterable residue in water,
wastewater, or other liquids, which is removable in accordance with the most recent
publication of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, prepared
and published by the American Public Health Association, American Waterworks
Association, and the Water Pollution Control Federation.
Toxic Pollutant. Any pollutant or combination of pollutants listed as toxic in
regulations promulgated by the Administrator of EPA under the provisions of Section 307
of the Act, the City’s Toxic Chemical Disclosure Ordinance, or other Federal or State
statutes, rules or regulations.
Treatment Plant. That portion of the P.O.T.W. designed to provide
treatment of sewage and industrial waste.
Treatment Plant Effluent. Any discharge of pollutants from the municipal
wastewater system into waters of the State.
Uncontrolled Discharge. Any pollutant (including BOD) released in a
discharge at a flow rate or concentration which will cause a violation of the specific
discharge prohibitions of this Chapter.
User. Any person who contributes, or causes or allows the contribution of
sewage or industrial wastewater into the municipal wastewater system, storm drain
system or waters of the State, including persons who contribute such wastes from mobile
sources.
Wastewater. The liquid and waterborne industrial or domestic wastes from
facilities including, but not limited to, dwellings, commercial buildings, industrial facilities,
agricultural activities, hospitals, medical facilities, and other institutions, together with
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other wastes which may be present, whether treated or untreated, which enter the
P.O.T.W., the storm drain system or the waters of the State.
Waters of the State. All saline waters, streams, lakes, ponds, marshes,
watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, reservoirs, aquifers, irrigation systems,
drainage systems, and all other bodies or accumulations of water, surface or
underground, natural or artificial, public or private, which are contained within, flow
through, or border upon the State of California or any portion thereof.
SECTION 7. Chapter 5.20.210 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code is hereby
amended as follows:
5.20.210 Exemptions.
An industrial wastewater permit is not required for the following dischargers
or discharges to the P.O.T.W. not subject to NCPS:
(a) Lots consisting of residential units not required to file toxic chemical
disclosure forms under Chapter 5.16 of this Code;
(b) W where no portion of water supplied to any premises and industrial
waste stored on the premises discharges or has the potential to discharge to the
P.O.T.W., storm drain system or waters of the State. This exemption does not apply to
PSDS.
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SECTION 8. Chapter 5.24.060 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code is hereby
amended as follows:
5.24.060 Submission and review of business plan.
(a) Prior to handling of any hazardous material at a business, each
handler shall submit its business plan to the Department and ce rtify that it meets the
requirement of this Chapter. For purposes of reporting to the City, all handlers that meet
the requirements of this Chapter shall be deemed to have met the contingency plan
requirements of California Code of Regulations, Title 22, Section 67140-67145. If, after
review, the Department determines that the handler’s business plan is deficient in any
way, the administering agency shall notify the handler of these defects. The handler shall
submit a corrected business plan within five (5) days of the notice. If a handler fails after
reasonable notice to submit a business plan in compliance with t his Chapter, the
Department or the Fire Department shall immediately take appropriate action to enforce
this Chapter, including the imposition of civil and criminal penalties specified in this
Chapter. A copy of the approved business plan and all revisions shall be maintained at
the handler.
(b) The Department shall submit to the State Office of Emergency
Services a schedule for the submission of the business plan and a copy of this ordinance.
(c) In addition to the requirements of 5.24.110, whenever a substantial
change in the handler’s operations occurs which requires a modification of its business
plan the handler shall submit a copy of the plan revisions to the Department within five
(5) days of the operational change.
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(d) The handler shall, in any case, review the business plan submitted
pursuant to subdivisions (a), (c), and (g) at least once every two years to determine if a
revision is needed and shall certify to the Department that the review was made and that
any necessary changes were made to the plan. A copy of these changes shall be
submitted to the Department as a part of this certification.
(e) Unless exempted from the business plan requirements under this
Chapter, any business which handles a hazardous material shall annually submit a
completed inventory form to the Department. Notwithstanding any other provision of law,
an inventory form shall be filed on or before September 1, 1987, and annually thereafter.
This inventory shall be filed annually, notwithstanding the review requirements of
subdivision (d).
(f) Any business which files an inventory form pursuant to requirements
of subdivision (e) shall have satisfied the requirements of Toxic Chemical Disclosure Law,
Santa Monica Municipal Code Section 5.16.010 et seq.
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SECTION 9. Chapter 7.18.020 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code is hereby
amended as follows:
7.18.020 Purpose.
The City Council finds and determines that it is in the best interests of the
City to manage groundwater resources within the City to protect the public health, safety,
and general welfare of City residents, further the goals and purposes of the Sustainability
Rights Ordinance (Santa Monica Municipal Code Chapter 12.024.75), and implement the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (California Water Code Section 10720, et
seq.).
SECTION 10. Article 12 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code is hereby added to
read as follows:
Article 12 SUSTAINABILITY CODE
Chapter 12.01 INTRODUCTORY PROVISIONS
12.01.010 Title.
This Article shall be known as the City of Santa Monica Sustainability Code.
12.01.020 Purpose.
The City of Santa Monica Sustainability Code is created and exists for the purpose
of codifying Santa Monica’s commitment to achieving sustainability by among other
things: (i) restoring, protecting and preserving our natural environment and all of its
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components and communities including, but not limited to, the air, water, soil, and climate
upon which all living things depend; (ii) creating and promoting sustainable systems of
food production and distribution, energy production and distribution, transportation, waste
disposal, and water supply; and (iii) to the full extent legally possible, subordinating the
short-term, private, financial interests of corporations an d others to the common, long-
term interest of achieving environmental and economic sustainability.
The City acknowledges that the following chapters and sections of the Santa
Monica Municipal Code play a significant role in the City’s ongoing sustainability efforts:
Chapter 2.28 (Tropical Woods)
Chapter 3.06 and Section 3.12.835 (Car Share & EV parking)
Chapter 4.08.270 (Leaf Blowers)
Chapter 4.44 (Smoking/Tobacco)
Chapter 5.44 (Non-recyclable Plastic Food Containers)
Chapter 5.45 (Single Use Carry Out Bags)
Chapter 7.10 (Urban Runoff Pollution)
Chapter 7.16 (Water Conservation)
Chapter 7.18 (Sustainable Groundwater Maintenance)
Chapter 7.48 (Litter)
Chapter 7.56 (Storm Water Utility)
Chapter 7.64 (Clean Beaches Parcel Tax)
Section 10.08.340 (Prohibiting Waste Matter on Beach/In Ocean)
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Chapter 12.02 SUSTAINABILITY RIGHTS
12.02.010 Title.
This Article shall be known as the City of Santa Monica Sustainability Rights
Ordinance.
12.02.020 Findings.
The City Council finds and declares:
(a) With the exponential growth in human population and its increasing per
capita resource consumption, the planet cannot sustain our current way of life, which is
destructive to the natural elements upon which all species depend: the air, water, climate,
soil and other fundamental elements of the world;
(b) Like all other communities, Santa Monica’s welfare is inextricably
bound to the welfare of the natural environment; and the City has therefore long been
committed to protecting, preserving and restoring the natural environment and providing
a model of environmental sustainability for other communities to utilize;
(c) The City Council of Santa Monica has expressed this commitment
through a multitude of enactments and actions, including recognizing both t he rights of
natural communities and ecosystems within Santa Monica to exist, thrive and evolve and
the rights of the individual human beings that make up the City of Santa Monica to a
clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The peoples’ rights include , but are not
limited to: the right to affordable and accessible water from sustainable water sources for
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human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes, as referenced in Calif. AB 685
(2012); the right to a sustainable energy future based on sustainabl e renewable energy
sources; the right to a sustainable natural climate unaltered by fossil fuel emissions; the
right to sustainable, comprehensive waste disposal systems that do not degrade the
environment; the right to clean indoor and outdoor air, clean water and clean soil that
pose a negligible health risk to the public; and the right to a sustainable food system that
provides healthy, locally grown food to the community;
(d) These rights are not sufficiently safeguarded by the existing body of
local, national and international environmental policies and laws, which are grossly
inadequate to avert the mounting environmental crisis; and
(e) The inadequacy of the current framework of state, national and
international policies and laws necessitates re-examination of the underlying societal and
legal assumptions about our relationships with the environment and a renewed focus on
effectuating these rights.
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12.02.030 Rights of Santa Monica residents and the natural environment.
(a) All residents of Santa Monica possess fundamental and inalienable rights to:
clean water from sustainable sources; marine waters safe for active and passive
recreation; clean indoor and outdoor air; a sustainable food system that provides healthy,
locally grown food; a sustainable climate that supports thriving human life and a
flourishing biodiverse environment; comprehensive waste disposal systems that do not
degrade the environment; and a sustainable energy future based on renewable energy
sources.
(b) Natural communities and ecosystems possess fundamental and inalienable
rights to exist and flourish in the City of Santa Monica. To effectuate those rights on behalf
of the environment, residents of the City may bring actions to protect these natural
communities and ecosystems, defined as: groundwater aquifers, atmospheric systems,
marine waters, and native species within the boundaries of the City.
(c) All residents of Santa Monica possess the right to self -governance and to a
municipal government which recognizes that all power is inherent in the people, that all
free governments are founded on the people’s authority and consent, and that corporate
entities, and their directors and managers, do not enjoy special privileges or powers under
the law that subordinate the community’s rights to their private interests.
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12.02.040 Biennial report.
At least once during every twenty-four-month period, City staff shall prepare a
written report to the community on the state of the local environment, the realization of
the rights recognized in this Chapter, and the City’s progress in effectuating and enforcing
the Sustainable City Plan and the policies and provisions of this Chapter. The report shall
include recommendations for advancing and ensuring compliance with the Sustainable
City Plan.
12.02.050 Biennial hearing.
The City Council will bi-annually review the Sustainability Rights Biennial Report,
conduct a public hearing, assess the City’s progress in effectuating and enforcing both
the Sustainable City Plan and the policies and provisions of this Chapter, and provide
direction to staff to ensure compliance with the Plan’s provisions and with the inherent
rights of the people and natural communities of the City of Santa Monica described herein.
12.02.060 Compliance assurance.
The City or any City resident may bring an action to enforce any provision of the
Santa Monica Municipal Code that advances the goals identified as enforceable in the
Sustainable City Plan.
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SECTION 11. Any provision of the Santa Monica Municipal Code or appendices
thereto inconsistent with the provisions of this Ordinance, to the extent of such
inconsistencies and no further, is hereby repealed or modified to that extent necessary to
effect the provisions of this Ordinance.
SECTION 12. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this
Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of any
court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining
portions of this Ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed
this Ordinance and each and every section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase not
declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether any portion of the ordinance
would be subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional.
SECTION 13. The Mayor shall sign and the City Clerk shall attest to the passage
of this Ordinance. The City Clerk shall cause the same to be published once in the official
newspaper within 15 days after its adoption. This Ordinance shall take effect 30 days
after adoption.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
_________________________
LANE DILG
City Attorney
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ORDINANCE NUMBER ____
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA
MONICA CREATING A “SUSTAINABILITY BILL OF RIGHTS”
SECTION 1. NAME.
This Ordinance shall be known and may be cited as the “Sustainability Bill of Rights”
Ordinance.
SECTION 2. PREAMBLE AND PURPOSE.
(a) The City of Santa Monica:
(i) recognizes the rights of Santa Monica residents, and of natural communities and
ecosystems within Santa Monica, to sustainable water, food, energy, air, soil, waste
treatment, economic and climate systems;
(ii) recognizes that certain corporate legal rights and powers have the potential to interfere
with the rights of the people of Santa Monica and of natural communities and ecosystems
within Santa Monica to sustainability; and that, therefore, actions to secure and protect the
rights of people and natural communities and ecosystems within Santa Monica to a
sustainable future must not be impeded by those powers; and
(iii) recognizes that certain preemptive governmental powers have the potential to interfere
with the rights of the people of Santa Monica and of natural communities and ecosystems
within Santa Monica to sustainability; and that, therefore, actions to secure and protect the
rights of people and natural communities and ecosystems within Santa Monica to a
sustainable future must not be impeded by those powers; and
(b) Through this Sustainability Bill of Rights, the people of Santa Monica and the City exercise
the City’s police powers to address the increasingly serious threats to the health, welfare and
safety of City residents, and to the natural communities and ecosystems within the City, posed by
unsustainable regional, state, national and global use of the natural world.
(c) The overall purpose of this Sustainability Bill of Rights is to change current economic,
political, and legal structures to structures that recognize and respect the rights of people and
natural communities and ecosystems within Santa Monica to achieve sustainable water, food,
energy, air, soil, waste treatment, economic and climate systems, and that advance self-
sufficiency within the City to help achieve those goals.
(d) This Sustainability Bill of Rights is consistent with the City’s 2006 Sustainable City Plan,
which states, among other things, that:
(i) “Sustainability requires that our collective decisions as a city allow our economy and
community members to continue to thrive without destroying the natural environment upon
which we all depend. A healthy environment is integral to the city’s long-term economic
and societal interests. In achieving a healthy environment, we must ensure that inequitable
burdens are not placed on any one geographic or socioeconomic sector of the population
and that the benefits of a sustainable community are accessible to all members of the
community.”
(ii) “Local environmental, economic and social issues cannot be separated from their
ATTACHMENT 1
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2
broader context. This relationship between local issues and regional, national and global
issues will be recognized and acted upon in the City's programs and policies. The City's
programs and policies should therefore be developed as models that can be emulated by
other communities.”
(iv) “Santa Monica is committed to protecting, preserving and restoring the natural
environment. City decision-making will be guided by a mandate to maximize
environmental benefits and reduce or eliminate negative environmental impacts.”
(v) “The City will ensure that each of its policy decisions and programs are interconnected
through the common bond of sustainability . . . .”
SECTION 3. DEFINITIONS.
(a) Corporation. Any corporation, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, business
trust, or limited liability company organized under the laws of any state of the United States or
under the laws of any country, and any other business entity that possesses State-conferred
limited liability attributes for its owners, directors, officers and/or managers.
(b) Sustainable water sources. Those water sources that are drawn consistent with natural water
cycles, the withdrawal of which does not violate the rights of the public to sufficient clean,
affordable, and accessible water from sustainable water sources for human consumption,
cooking, and sanitary purposes necessary for the health and well-being of the individual and
family, and which does not violate the rights of natural communities or ecosystems to exist,
persist, and maintain themselves.
(c) Sustainable renewable fuel sources. Those fuel sources generated by on-going natural
processes, including, but not limited to, energy generated from the sun, flowing water, wind
flows, biogas, and geothermal heat flows. The term shall not include hydromodification that
impacts the rights of affected natural communities and ecosystems as recognized by this
Sustainability Bill of Rights. The term shall not include fossil fuel sources, nuclear fission, or
any derivative of those fuels, and shall not include hydrofracked sources of energy.
(d) Sustainable food systems. Those food systems that use farming practices that do not violate
the rights of natural communities and ecosystems as recognized by this Sustainability Bill of
Rights, that provide a viable income for farming and harvesting families, that meet all applicable
state and federal pollution control requirements for farming practices, and that grow, produce, or
process foodstuffs within five hundred miles of the City of Santa Monica.
(e) Natural communities and ecosystems within Santa Monica. For purposes of this Ordinance,
this term encompasses marine waters within the boundaries of the City of Santa Monica, and
associated intertidal, subtidal and beach habitats; and as applicable, groundwater aquifers and
atmospheric systems within City boundaries.
(f) Damage to natural communities and ecosystems: This term and equivalent terms shall
include but not be limited to alteration, removal, destruction, eradication, or other actions
inflicted upon natural communities and ecosystems, in whole or in part, that bring about the
cessation of the ability of natural communities and ecosystems to exist and flourish independent
of human intervention.
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SECTION 4. AUTHORITY.
(a) This Ordinance is enacted pursuant to the inherent right of the residents of the City of Santa
Monica to govern their own community. That authority precedes government and is secured,
without limitation, by the authority granted to the Charter City of Santa Monica and by all
relevant Federal and State laws and their corresponding regulations, including, without
limitation, the following:
(i) The Declaration of Independence, which declares that the people of the City of Santa
Monica are born with “certain unalienable rights” and that governments are instituted
among people to secure those rights;
(ii) The California Constitution, Article 1, Section 1, which declares that “[a] people by
nature are free and independent and have inalienable rights,” which include “enjoying
and defending life and liberty”; and
(iii) The California Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, which declares that “[a]ll political
power is inherent in the people,” that “government is instituted for [the people’s]
protection, security, and benefit,” and that the people “have the right to alter or reform
[government] when the public good may require.”
SECTION 5. RIGHTS OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA TO SUSTAINABLE WATER SOURCES.
(a) The people of the City of Santa Monica possess a fundamental and inalienable right to
sufficient clean, affordable, and accessible water from sustainable water sources for human
consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes necessary for the health and well-being of the
individual and family. Natural communities and ecosystems within Santa Monica similarly
possess a fundamental and inalienable right to clean water from natural water cycles and sources
that is adequate in amount to support their rights as described in Section 11.
(b) To further secure and protect these rights, the City Council shall take action consistent with
the September 2010 recommendation by the Santa Monica Environmental Task Force to adopt
and ensure implementation of a goal of 100% self-sufficiency in local water supply by 2020. In
doing so, the City shall facilitate as appropriate the use of recycled water, captured rain water,
and gray water systems consistent with state and federal water quality laws. The City also shall
augment stormwater infiltration and water conservation efforts within the City, including through
the use of native plant landscape requirements, and shall enhance the use of appropriate water
pricing to further advance sustainable use leading to self-sufficiency.
(c) The City shall also take action to support and advance, through Resolutions or other means:
(i) the full implementation of the California Constitution’s ban on “waste and
unreasonable use” in order to create adequate water allocations for aquatic ecosystems,
and
(ii) a fundamental change in state law to assign rivers and other aquatic ecosystems legal
water rights, grounded in science-based flow needs.
SECTION 6. RIGHTS OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA TO SUSTAINABLE ENERGY.
(a) The people of the City of Santa Monica, and natural communities and ecosystems within
Santa Monica, possess a right to a sustainable energy future, which includes, but is not limited to,
the right to the development, production, and use of energy from sustainable renewable fuel
sources.
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4
(b) These rights include the rights to easy access to affordable public transportation that moves
freely about the City, which conserves fuel by advancing ride sharing.
(c) To further secure and protect these rights, the City Council shall take action to adopt and
ensure implementation of a goal of 100% sustainable net renewable energy used in the City by
2020, with 20% of the energy from local, sustainable renewable sources. The City shall facilitate
and incentivize as appropriate the use of locally-based, renewable energy sources, and shall
investigate the use of appropriate energy pricing to advance sustainable energy use leading to
self-sufficiency.
(d) The City Council further shall take action to adopt and ensure implementation of a goal of
50% increase by 2020 in total miles of bike paths and city arterial streets with bike lanes over
2005 levels.
SECTION 7. RIGHTS OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA TO CLEAN AIR, WATER AND SOIL.
(a) The people of the City of Santa Monica possess a right to clean indoor and outdoor air, clean
water, and clean soil that pose a negligible health risk to the public. Natural communities and
ecosystems within Santa Monica similarly have the right to clean air, water, and soil that pose a
negligible ecological and toxicological risk.
(b) To further secure and protect these rights, the City Council shall take action to ensure that all
significant emission sources in Santa Monica are identified by 2013. The City Council further
shall take action to adopt and ensure implementation of a goal that by 2025 the percentage of
Santa Monica residents or workers who live or work within a half-mile of a significant emission
source shall be reduced by half as compared with 2010 levels. For purposes of this Ordinance, a
“significant emission source” refers to sources of toxic air contaminants and other air emissions
that pose a threat to human health and the environment.
(c) To further secure and protect these rights, the City Council shall take action to adopt and
ensure implementation of a goal of zero warnings or closures at any Santa Monica beach location
during dry weather months, no more than three days of warnings or closures at any Santa Monica
beach location on non-rainy days during wet weather months, and no more than 17 days of
warnings or closures at any Santa Monica beach location on rainy days during wet weather
months, by 2021.
SECTION 8. RIGHTS OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA TO SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS.
(a) The people of the City of Santa Monica possess a right to a sustainable food system, which
shall include the right to access, buy, produce, and process food using sustainable food systems.
Natural communities and ecosystems within Santa Monica similarly have the right to a
sustainable system of nourishment.
(b) To further secure and protect these rights, the City Council shall take action to adopt and
ensure implementation of a goal of 25% self-sufficiency from sustainable food systems by 2020,
and 50% self-sufficiency from sustainable food systems by 2030. The City shall also investigate
and implement the use of economic and other incentivizes to advance the purchase of organic
vegetables and fruits in the City.
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SECTION 9. RIGHTS OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA TO SUSTAINABLE WASTE DISPOSAL
SYSTEMS.
(a) The people of the City of Santa Monica possess a right to sustainable, comprehensive waste
disposal systems that do not degrade the environment locally, regionally or globally.
(b) To further secure and protect these rights, the City Council shall take action to adopt and
ensure implementation of a goal of “zero waste” landfilled by 2020, where zero waste is defined
as at least 90% diversion from the landfill and where waste-to-energy does not count towards the
90% diversion target.
SECTION 10. RIGHTS OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA TO A SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY.
(a) The people of the City of Santa Monica possess a right to a sustainable economy, including
“green” businesses, jobs and job training opportunities.
(b) To further secure and protect these rights, the City Council shall provide economic and/or
other incentives to promote local businesses that help enable Santa Monica to meet the goals of
the Santa Monica Sustainable City Plan and the achievement of this Sustainability Bill of Rights
for residents and workers.
(c) The City also shall take action to adopt and ensure implementation of a goal that 100% of all
commercial and municipal buildings greater than 10,000 square feet eligible for LEEDTM
certification shall achieve LEEDTM certification or its equivalent after January 1, 2012.
SECTION 11. RIGHTS OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA TO A SUSTAINABLE CLIMATE.
(a) The people of the City of Santa Monica, and natural communities and ecosystems of Santa
Monica, possess the right to a sustainable, natural climate unaltered by fossil fuel emissions.
(b) To further secure and protect these rights, the City Council shall take action to adopt and
implement a goal of complete self-sufficiency in preventing and addressing the impacts of
climate change in the City, particularly with respect to sea level rise. These actions shall include,
but not be limited to:
(i) prohibiting new development or re-development in areas projected to be subject to sea
level rise impacts, based on peer-reviewed science, within the lifespan of the project, with
consideration during this determination of elevated water levels from storms, high tides,
and extreme weather events such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation events;
(ii) incentivizing climate adaption strategies that enhance the natural adaptive capacity of
coastal and estuarine ecosystems to sea level rise and storm surges;
(iii) limiting the use of sea walls, levees, barriers, and other coastal armoring structures as
responses to sea level rise to cases of protecting essential public infrastructure where no
non-structural protection measure or less environmentally damaging alternative can be
applied;
(iv) ensuring the preservation of public access to the California coast in light of projected
sea level rise, consistent with (iii);
(v) providing accessible, affordable, low-carbon emission, mass transportation options
for residents and workers; and
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(vi) additional actions needed to achieve the greenhouse gas reduction targets in the
Santa Monica Sustainable City Plan.
SECTION 12. RIGHTS OF NATURAL COMMUNITIES AND ECOSYSTEMS WITHIN THE CITY OF
SANTA MONICA.
(a) Natural communities and ecosystems within Santa Monica possess inalienable and
fundamental rights to exist, persist, maintain themselves, and regenerate their own vital cycles,
structure, functions, and evolutionary processes.
(b) Residents of the City shall possess legal standing to enforce against violations of these rights
on behalf of natural communities and ecosystems within Santa Monica.
(c) To further secure and protect these rights, and to promote broad-based recognition of the
significance of natural communities and ecosystems, the City Council shall take action to
increase awareness of the City’s natural heritage through such initiatives as restoring historic
ecosystems and ecosystem connections, using signage and art to illustrate the history of
developed ecosystems, requiring the use of native plants on all City property being re-
landscaped, and incentivizing and/or requiring the use of native landscaping on private property.
SECTION 13. ACCOUNTABILITY.
To further secure and protect the rights enumerated within this Sustainability Bill of Rights, and
to facilitate implementation of this Sustainability Bill of Rights, the City shall investigate and
report to the public on the extent to which City financial, purchasing and accounting practices
encourage and discourage self-sufficiency and sustainability, and which practices violate or
potentially violate the rights of natural communities and ecosystems to exist, persist, maintain
themselves, and regenerate their own vital cycles, structure, functions, and evolutionary
processes. This report shall include recommendations for changes in City financial, purchasing
and accounting practices to: (a) fully encourage self-sufficiency and sustainability, (b) support
the rights of natural communities and ecosystems within Santa Monica, and (c) minimize harm
to natural communities and ecosystems outside Santa Monica. This report shall be updated
biennially and posted on the City’s website.
SECTION 14. PROHIBITIONS.
(a) It shall be unlawful for any law or regulation adopted by the State or federal government to
interfere with the rights recognized by this Ordinance
(a) It shall be unlawful for any corporation to interfere with the rights recognized by this
Ordinance.
SECTION 15. CORPORATE PROTECTIONS.
(a) Within the City of Santa Monica, corporations shall not have the rights of “persons” under
the United States Constitution, the California Constitution, or the laws of the City to the extent
such rights interfere with this Sustainability Bill of Rights. No corporation shall be afforded the
privileges, powers or protections of the contracts clause or commerce clause of the United States
Constitution, or rights secured by the First or Fifth Amendments to the Constitution or
corresponding sections of the California Constitution City to the extent such privileges, powers
or protections interfere with this Sustainability Bill of Rights. Corporations shall not possess the
authority or power to enforce State or federal preemptive law against the people of the City of
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Santa Monica, or to challenge or overturn municipal ordinances or Charter provisions adopted by
the City Council of the City of Santa Monica.
(b) Claims to “future lost profits” by corporations shall not be considered property interests
under the law and thus shall not be recoverable by corporations seeking damages as a result of
implementation or enforcement of this Sustainability Bill of Rights.
(c) It shall be unlawful for corporations to subvert or attempt to subvert the will of the people as
expressed in this Sustainability Bill of Rights. Corporations shall not enjoy special privileges or
powers under the law that subordinate the majority will of the people of the City.
(d) No permit, license, privilege or charter issued by any State or federal agency, Commission or
Board to any person or any corporation operating under a State charter, or any director, officer,
owner, or manager of a corporation operating under a State charter, that would violate the
Prohibitions of this Ordinance or deprive any City resident(s), or natural communities and
ecosystems within Santa Monica, of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by this
Sustainability Bill of Rights, the California Constitution, the United States Constitution, or other
laws, shall be deemed valid within the City of Santa Monica.
(e) To advance the letter and intent of this Sustainability Bill of Rights with regard to corporate
rights and corporate personhood, the City shall adopt a resolution urging Congress to adopt the
following as a change to the U.S. Constitution, for consideration by the states:
(i) Corporations and other business entities shall not be afforded the rights of “persons”
secured by the Constitution, including rights secured by the First or Fifth Amendments to
the Constitution, nor shall corporations be afforded the protections of the commerce or
contracts clauses within the United States Constitution, nor shall they be accorded any
rights, powers, or protections that supersede the will of the people at the local, state, or
federal level.
(ii) Nothing contained in this Section shall be construed to abridge the freedom of the
press.
(iii) Congress shall have power to enforce this Section by appropriate legislation.
The City shall distribute this resolution to the California Congressional delegation.
SECTION 16. SELF-EXECUTION.
All rights delineated by this Sustainability Bill of Rights shall be self-executing and legally
enforceable against all governmental, corporate, and business entities. City sustainability goals
delineated within the Ordinance shall not be enforceable against governmental entities
implementing those goals unless those entities fail to take reasonable actions toward attainment
of those goals.
SECTION 17. ENFORCEMENT.
(a) The City, and any resident of the City, shall have standing to seek declaratory, injunctive,
compensatory, and punitive relief for violations of the rights and Prohibitions contained in this
Sustainability Bill of Rights in any court of competent jurisdiction. City residents, and natural
communities and ecosystems, shall be considered to be “persons” for purposes of the
enforcement of the civil rights of affected residents, and natural communities and ecosystems
within Santa Monica.
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(b) Any person who brings an action to secure or protect the rights of natural communities or
ecosystems within Santa Monica shall bring that action in the name of the natural community or
ecosystem in a court of competent jurisdiction. Damages shall be measured by the cost of
restoring the natural community or ecosystem to its pre-damaged state, and shall be paid to the
City of Santa Monica or other applicable governmental entity, to be used exclusively for the full
and complete restoration of the natural community or ecosystem.
(c) A violation of the Prohibitions of this Ordinance is a municipal infraction and is subject to
the fines or penalties provided in Chapter 1.08, Penalty Provisions. The City Council may
change the amount of fines and penalties after the changes have been duly posted as required by
law. Nothing in this Ordinance shall prevent the City from using one or more other remedies to
address violations as established by the Santa Monica Municipal Code.
(d) In any action brought to enforce against violations of the rights and Prohibitions contained
within this Sustainability Bill of Rights, a successful plaintiff shall be entitled to recover all
costs of litigation, including, without limitation, expert and attorney’s fees, if any, incurred
during the action.
SECTION 18. PREEMPTION.
Any attempts to use state or federal levels of government – judicial, legislative, or executive - to
preempt or overturn this Sustainability Bill of Rights, or parts of this Sustainability Bill of
Rights, shall require the City Council to hold public meetings to explore the adoption of other
measures that reflect and, as necessary, expand local sovereignty and the ability of City residents
to protect their fundamental and inalienable right to govern themselves.
SECTION 19. SEVERABILITY.
If any provision of this Sustainability Bill of Rights is held invalid, such invalidity or
unconstitutionality shall not affect other provisions or applications which can be given effect
without the invalidated provision, and to this end, the provisions of this Sustainability Bill of
Rights are severable.
SECTION 20. REPEALER.
All provisions of current City law inconsistent with these Ordinance provisions are repealed to
the extent necessary to remedy the inconsistency.
SECTION 21. EFFECT.
This Ordinance shall be effective immediately upon its enactment.
0
YO City Council Report
Santa Monica
City Council Meeting: January 24, 2012
Agenda Item: 21b
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Dean Kubani, Director, Office of Sustainability and the Environment
Subject: Declaration of Commitment to Sustainable Rights
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Adopt the attached resolution supporting the Move to Amend campaign's call for
an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to abolish corporate personhood;
2. Adopt the attached Sustainability Bill of Rights resolution declaring Santa
Monica's commitment to sustainable rights;
3. Direct staff to formulate a process for identifying the policy, process and legal
changes that would protect the rights of people and natural communities
consistent with the resolution as part of the update to the Sustainable City Plan in
2012.
Executive Summary
The City's Task Force on the Environment and local and national environmental leaders
have asked the City to support and join the world -wide effort to address the mounting
environmental crisis by taking action to: (1) recognize the rights of people, natural
communities, and ecosystems to exist, regenerate and flourish; (2) authorize individuals
to sue to effectuate the rights of the natural world; (3) subordinate corporate rights
insofar as those rights threaten sustainability; and (4) commit the City to meeting
specified environmental goals by specified dates and taking other specified actions to
fulfill the commitments made in the Sustainable City Plan. Staff has prepared a
resolution that supports sustainable rights and commits to further exploration of how
best to protect these rights and achieve community sustainability goals. Staff is seeking
Council direction before undertaking that exploration. In addition, staff is recommending
that Council adopt a resolution supporting a call for an amendment to the U.S.
Constitution to abolish corporate personhood. There are no budgetary impacts related
to these recommended actions.
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Background
Santa Monica takes pride in its long- standing commitment to environmental leadership.
The City adopted its Sustainable City Plan in September of 1994 and updated it in 2003
and 2006. The plan recognizes that a healthy environment is integral to the City's long-
term societal and economic interests and that collective decisions made by the City
must allow the economy and community members to thrive without destroying the
natural environment upon which they depend. Therefore, the Plan commits the City to
protecting, preserving and restoring the natural environment. It also recognizes that
local environmental, economic and social issues cannot be separated from their larger
context and therefore commits the City to development programs and policies that will
serve as models for other communities.
In the years since the Plan was adopted, the City has created and funded a wide range
of successful environmental programs. And, the City has very successfully utilized
environmental protection laws to hold polluters accountable for damage done to its
natural resources.
Nonetheless, environmental crises, including: global climate change; habitat destruction
and species extinction; soil, air and water pollution; and resource depletion continue to
grow throughout the world. In response, Santa Monica's local environmental community
and national environmental leaders urge consideration of a new approach being taken
in other cities and countries — an approach that would recognize the rights of both
humans and the natural environment to exist and flourish. This natural rights movement
is based on the belief that Earth is a community whose members are humans, other
animals, plants, rivers, streams end eco- systems and that all members of the
community must have rights to ensure the sustainability of the whole. The movement
seeks a paradigm shift away from current economic and legal systems' classification of
land and natural things as "property" and towards a more holistic view that would place
the interest of long -term sustainability ahead of short- range, individual and corporate
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economic goals. This report provides information about that approach and suggests
possible actions for Council consideration.
In the United States, the natural rights movement reflects the growing recognition that
the power of individuals and even governments is weakening as the power of
corporations grow. Thus, in the November 19, 2011 Los Angeles Times, columnist Tom
Petruno wrote, in an article entitled "Corporate Power Grows Stronger as Government
Wanes ", that international corporations' cash holdings have soared to record levels. He
quotes the head of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington as saying, "We have an
economy that works for corporate America even if it doesn't work for anybody else."
Against this backdrop, the natural rights movement has grown mainly in communities in
the eastern U.S. where the environmentally devastating technique of hydraulic
fracturing (commonly referred to as "fracking ") has been used for extracting subsurface
natural gas deposits. The first local law recognizing the rights of nature was adopted in
2006 in Tamaqua Borough, Pennsylvania. Since then more than two dozen
communities in the United States have adopted local laws recognizing these rights.
Many of these communities acted in response to the threats fracking posed to their local
water supplies. Thus, in November 2010, the City of Pittsburgh became the first major
city in the country to ban natural -gas production through an ordinance declaring the
primacy of community interests over corporate rights and purporting to eliminate
corporate "personhood." Similar legislation was adopted in other, smaller cities in
Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York.
In Spokane, Washington a community Bill of Rights which would have amended the
City's charter was narrowly defeated in November 2011. That measure would have:
established the right of neighborhoods to make decisions on major development
projects; the right of the Spokane River and Aquifer to exist and flourish; secured
3
workers' rights; and purported to eliminate the authority of corporations to wield
corporate constitutional rights to undermine local rights protected by the measure.
International efforts to establish natural rights include the incorporation of rights of
nature into the Ecuadoran constitution in 2008, and the adoption of a Universal Decision
of Rights of Mother Earth at the World Peoples' Conference on Climate Change &
Rights of Mother Earth, held in Bolivia in 2010.
On a parallel front, in the wake of the January 21, 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that rolled back legal limits on corporate
spending in the electoral process and affirmed that corporations have the rights of
persons ", a coalition called MovetoAmend.org was created with the primary goal of
amending the U.S. Constitution "to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that
human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights." A
resolution in support of this goal is attached to this report and discussed below in more
detail.
Discussion
Sustainability Bill of Rights Resolution
On March 21, 2011 the City's Task Force on the Environment created a subcommittee
to explore the creation of a Sustainability Bill of Rights (SBoR) for Santa Monica. That
subcommittee drafted a proposed framework for the SBoR which would:
1. Recognize the rights of people, natural communities and ecosystems to exist,
regenerate and flourish;
2. Authorize individuals to sue to effectuate the rights of the natural world;
3. Subordinate corporate rights insofar as those rights threaten sustainability; and
4. Commit the City to meeting specified environmental goals by specified dates and
taking other specified actions to fulfill the commitments made in the Sustainable
City Plan.
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On June 20, 2011 after discussion of this framework the Task Force adopted the
following motion by a 4 to 1 vote`.
The Santa Monica Task Force on the Environment recommends Council direct staff to
develop a City of Santa Monica "Sustainability Bill of Rights"
The draft resolution (Attachment 1) declaring the City's Commitment to Sustainable
Rights was developed by staff based on the work of the Task Force on the Environment
and represents a formal recognition by the City of the rights of Santa Monica residents
to:
clean, affordable and accessible water from sustainable water sources;
a sustainable energy future based on renewable energy sources;
a sustainable natural climate system unaltered by fossil fuel emissions;
sustainable, comprehensive waste disposal systems that do not degrade the
environment;
clean indoor and outdoor air, clean water and clean soil that pose a negligible
health risk to the public; and
a sustainable food system that provides healthy, locally grown food to the
community.
The resolution also declares City recognition for the fundamental rights of natural
communities and ecosystems to exist, thrive and evolve; and it supports effectuating
these rights by modifying local law and policy as needed to better protect and sustain
the natural environment for current and future generations. Additionally, the resolution
directs staff to return with proposals for policy, process and legal changes that would
protect the rights of people and natural communities consistent with the resolution. If
Council adopts the resolution, staff proposes to return with these proposals in
conjunction with an update of the Sustainable City Plan indicators and targets, which is
tentatively scheduled for late summer or early fall 2012.
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Move To Amend Resolution
Consistent with its call for creation of a Sustainability Bill of Rights, the Task Force
unanimously adopted a motion on June 20, 2011 recommending that City Council adopt
a resolution in support of a campaign by MovetoAmend.org to amend the U.S.
Constitution to clearly establish that corporations do not have the same rights as
individuals. The draft resolution (Attachment 2) urges Santa Monica's elected federal
representatives and other communities and jurisdictions to take similar action, and
supports efforts to increase public awareness about the threats to democracy posed by
corporate personhood".
Financial Impacts & Budget Actions
There are no immediate financial impacts of budget actions associated with the
adoption of either of the resolutions or further exploration of the development of possible
policy, process and legal changes to support the goals outlined in the Sustainability Bill
of Rights resolution. Costs associated with making policy, process or legal changes
would be included in the Sustainable City Plan update for Council's consideration.
Prepared by: Dean Kubani, Director, Office of Sustainability and the Environment
Marsha Jones Moutrie, City Attorney
Approved:
Dean Kubani
Director, Office of Sustainability and the
Environment
Attachments:
Forwarded to Council:
Rod Gould
City Manager
1 Resolution Declaring the City's Commitment to Sustainable Rights
2. Resolution to Support Move To Amend Campaign's Call for an Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution to Abolish Corporate Personhood
9
City Council Meeting: January 24, 2012 Santa Monica, California
RESOLUTION NUMBER (CCS)
City Council Series)
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL
OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA TO SUPPORT THE MOVE TO AMEND
CAMPAIGN'S CALL FOR AN AMENDMENT TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION TO
ABOLISH CORPORATE PERSONHOOD
WHEREAS, government of, by, and for the people has long been a cherished
American value, and We The People's fundamental and inalienable right to self - govern,
and thereby secure rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness is
guaranteed in the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and;
WHEREAS, free and fair elections are essential to democracy and effective self-
governance; and
WHEREAS, persons are rightfully recognized as human beings whose essential
needs include clean air, clean water, safe and secure food; and
WHEREAS, corporations are entirely human -made legal fictions created by
express permission of We The People and our government; and
WHEREAS, corporations can exist in perpetuity, can exist simultaneously in
many nations at once, need only profit for survival, and exist solely through the legal
charter imposed by the government of We The People; and
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WHEREAS, in addition to these advantages, the great wealth of large
corporations allows them to wield coercive force of law to overpower human beings and
communities, thus denying We The People's exercise of our Constitutional rights; and
WHEREAS, corporations are not mentioned in the Constitution, and The People
have never granted constitutional rights to corporations, nor have We decreed that
corporations have authority that exceeds the authority of We The People of the United
States; and
WHEREAS, interpretation of the US Constitution by appointed Supreme Court
justices to include corporations in the term 'persons' has long denied We The Peoples'
exercise of self- governance by endowing corporations with Constitutional protections
intended for We The People; and
WHEREAS, the illegitimate judicial bestowal of civil and political rights upon
corporations usurps basic human and Constitutional rights guaranteed to human
persons, and also empowers corporations to sue municipal and state governments for
adopting laws that violate 'corporate rights' even when those laws serve to protect and
defend the rights of human persons and communities; and
WHEREAS, corporations are not and have never been human beings, and
therefore are rightfully subservient to human beings and governments as our legal
creations; and
WHEREAS, large corporations' profits and survival are often in direct conflict with
the essential needs and rights of human beings; and
2
WHEREAS, the recent Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission
Supreme Court decision that rolled back the legal limits on corporate spending in the
electoral process creates an unequal playing field and allows unlimited corporate
spending to influence elections, candidate selection, policy decisions and sway votes,
and forces elected officials to divert their attention from The Peoples' business, or even
vote against the interest of their human constituents, in order to ensure competitive
campaign funds for their own re- election; and
WHEREAS, large corporations own most of America's mass media and use that
media as a megaphone to express loudly their political agenda and to convince
Americans that their primary role is that of consumers, rather than sovereign citizens
with rights and responsibilities within our democracy, and this forces citizens to toil to
discern the truth behind headlines and election campaigning; and
WHEREAS, tens of thousands of people and municipalities across the nation are
joining with the Move to Amend campaign to call for an Amendment to the US
Constitution to Abolish Corporate Personhood.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
DOES RESOLVE AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. To call on our elected federal representatives to join the tens of
thousands of citizens, grassroots organizations and local governments across the
country in the Move to Amend campaign to call for an Amendment to the Constitution to
Abolish Corporate Personhood and return our democracy, our elections, our
3
communities back to America's human persons and to thus reclaim our sovereign right
to self - governance.
SECTION 2. To call on other communities and jurisdictions to join with us in this
action by passing similar Resolutions.
SECTION 3. To support education to increase public awareness of the threats to
our democracy posed by Corporate Personhood and encourage lively discussion to
build understanding and consensus to take appropriate community and municipal
actions to democratically respond to these threats.
SECTION 4. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this Resolution, and
thenceforth and thereafter the same shall be in full force and effect.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
1101
011% aw
2
Reference Resolution No.
10654 (CCS).
1
City Council Meeting: August 28, 2018 Santa Monica, California
ORDINANCE NUMBER 2584(CCS)
City Council Series)
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
SANTA MONICA ADDING CHAPTER 7.18 TO THE SANTA MONICA MUNICIPAL
CODE RELATING TO SUSTAINABLE GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT AND
PROHIBITING NEW PRIVATE WELLS AND EXPANSION OF PRIVATE WELLS
UNLESS AND UNTIL PERMITTED BY A GROUNDWATER SUSTAINABILITY PLAN
WHEREAS, the City Council finds and determines that it is in the best interests of
the City of Santa Monica (“City”) to ensure sustainable groundwater management; and
WHEREAS, the City's findings and determinations are based upon the following:
A.Throughout the State of California unregulated water wells have contributed
to the overdraft of groundwater aquifers, the subsidence of land and the contamination
and pollution of public drinking water supplies.
B.The City receives the majority of its drinking water from groundwater
supplied from potable water production wells drawing from aquifer sub-basins within the
Santa Monica Groundwater Basin, the boundaries of which are described in Bulletin 118
of the California Department of Water Resources ("Department").
C.On several occasions since the 1990s, various City wells have been
contaminated causing the City to curtail potable water production and to construct multi -
million-dollar water treatment facilities to remove the contamination.
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D. These City wells and their aquifers must be protected against overdraf t,
pollution and contamination so that the City may continue to provide potable water to its
citizens and comply with the health and welfare guidelines promulgated by the various
state and federal regulatory agencies.
E. California Constitution, Article X, Section 2, as well as California Water
Code section 100, prohibit the waste, unreasonable use, unreasonable method of use,
and unreasonable method of diversion of water.
F. The City suffers from recurring severe drought conditions. As a result, the
residents and businesses operating within the City live under an almost constant threat
of potable water shortages and mandatory water use reductions.
G. The City has adopted a water conservation plan to minimize the effect of
the shortage of water within the City of Santa Monica by significantly reducing the long-
and short-term consumption of water, thereby preserving available water for the future
requirements of the City, while minimizing the hardship caused to the general public to
the greatest extent possible; and
WHEREAS, on April 9, 2013, the Santa Monica City Council adopted the
Sustainability Rights Ordinance, codified as Chapter 4.75 of the Santa Monica Municipal
Code, which expressly acknowledges that natural communities and ecosystems possess
fundamental and inalienable rights to exist and flourish, and which authorizes residents
of the City to bring actions to protect these natural communities and ecosystems; and
WHEREAS, the State legislature enacted the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (Water Code sections 10720 et seq.) ("SGMA"), which became effective
on January 1, 2015; and
3
WHEREAS, a portion of the 50-square mile Santa Monica Basin that underlies
Santa Monica has been designated by the Department as a "medium-priority"
groundwater basin; and
WHEREAS, any groundwater basin designated as medium-priority must be
managed under a groundwater sustainability plan ("GSP") adopted by a local
groundwater sustainability agency ("GSA") and approved by the Department, by January
31, 2022; and
WHEREAS, the GSP must be developed and implemented to achieve
sustainability for any medium-priority basin within twenty (20) years after adoption of the
GSP; and
WHEREAS, the City, City of Culver City, City of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power, and the County of Los Angeles have formed a local
GSA in accordance with SGMA; and
WHEREAS, SGMA allows the member agencies of a GSA to enforce the
requirements of SGMA within each member agency's jurisdiction; and
WHEREAS, this Sustainable Groundwater Management Ordinance is adopted to
effectuate the Sustainability Rights Ordinance and SGMA, and to protect the health,
safety, and general welfare of the residents of the City and its natural communities and
ecosystems by ensuring that groundwater extraction will not result in the wasteful,
unreasonable or non-beneficial use of groundwater extracted within the City, and that
water wells located within the City will not cause or contribute to the overdraft of the City's
4
underlying aquifers or to their pollution or contamination, or lead to subsidence of land
within the City.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Santa Monica Municipal Code Chapter 7.18 is hereby added to read
as follows:
CHAPTER 7.18 –SUSTAINABLE GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT
7.18.010 Title.
This chapter is known as and may be cited as the "Sustainable Groundwater
Management Ordinance" of the City of Santa Monica.
7.18.020 Purpose.
The City Council finds and determines that it is in the best interests of the City to
manage groundwater resources within the City to protect the public health, safety, and
general welfare of City residents, further the goals and purposes of the Sustainability
Rights Ordinance (Santa Monica Municipal Code Chapter 4.75), and implement the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (California Water Code Sections 10720, et
seq.).
7.18.030 Definitions.
The terms used in this chapter shall have the following meanings:
A. "City" means City of Santa Monica.
B. “City well” means a well owned or operated by the City to provide water
supply to establishments served by the City’s water supply system.
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C. "Groundwater Sustainability Plan” means a plan adopted by a groundwater
sustainability agency for the Santa Monica Groundwater Basin and approved by the
Department of Water Resources in accordance with the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act.
D. "Sustainable Groundwater Management Act" means Water Code sections
10720 et seq.
E. "Well” is defined in California Water Code section 13710 and any
subsequent amendments, supplements or revisions thereto, except that this definition
shall not include City wells.
7.18.040 Well Prohibition.
The installation of new wells or the expansion of existing wells is prohibited unless
and until (i) a Groundwater Sustainability Plan is adopted, and (ii) the construction of
new wells or the expansion of existing wells is expressly authorized by the Groundwater
Sustainability Plan .
SECTION 2. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this
Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of any
court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining
portions of this Ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed
this Ordinance and each and every section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase not
declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether any portion of the ordinance
would be subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional.
6
SECTION 3. The Mayor shall sign and the City Clerk shall attest to the passage
of this Ordinance. The City Clerk shall cause the same to be published once in the official
newspaper within fifteen (15) days after its adoption. This Ordinance shall become
effective thirty (30) days from its adoption.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
LANE DILG
City Attorney
Approved and adopted this 28th day of August, 2018.
TedWinterer , Mayor
State of California )
County of Los Angeles ) ss.
City of Santa Monica )
I, Denise Anderson-Warren, City Clerk of the City of Santa Monica, do
hereby certify that the foregoing Ordinance No. 2584 (CCS) had its introduction
on August 14, 2018, and was adopted at the Santa Monica City Council meeting
held on August 28, 2018, by the following vote:
AYES: Councilmembers Himmelrich, McKeown, O’Connor, O’Day, Vazquez,
Mayor Winterer
NOES: None
ABSENT: Mayor Pro Tem Davis
ATTEST:
Denise Anderson-Warren, City Clerk Date
A summary of Ordinance No. 2584 (CCS) was duly published pursuant to
California Government Code Section 40806.
Ted Winterer (Sep 20, 2018)
Ted Winterer
Sep 21, 2018
Council Meeting: April 9, 2013 Santa Monica, California
ORDINANCE NUMBER2y2-1 (CCS)
City Council Series)
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
ESTABLISHING SUSTAINABILITY RIGHTS
WHEREAS, as declared in Santa Monica's Sustainable City Plan, a healthy
environment is integral to the City's long -term economic and societal interests and,
accordingly, the City's decision - making is guided by the mandate to maximize
environmental benefits and reduce or eliminate negative environmental impacts; and
WHEREAS, as further declared in the Sustainable City Plan, local environmental
issues cannot be separated from their broader context; and therefore the City's
programs and policies should be developed as models that can be emulated by other
communities; and
WHEREAS, in furtherance of these commitments and goals, the City must
regularly evaluate whether its plans, laws, and programs are sufficient to meet the
growing environmental crisis and must explore all means of addressing the growing
environmental crisis; and
WHEREAS, in the last fifty years, national and state governments have
attempted to address the crisis by adopting specific environmental protection laws, such
1
as the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy Act and California
Environmental Quality Act, that limit pollution and resource consumption; but those laws
also have proven inadequate to provide long -term protection of our rights to clean air,
water, and soil, and sustainable food systems, and the rights of natural ecosystems;
and
WHEREAS, the inadequacy of these laws results, in part, from the underlying
legal assumption that the natural world is "property ", which may be used by its owners
be they individuals, corporations, or other entities -- for their own, private, short -term
economic benefit, generally with minimal regard for the health of the environment; and
WHEREAS, numerous specific examples show that this underlying assumption
has proven destructive to the environment upon which all living things ultimately
depend;and
WHEREAS, in response to the evils of treating the natural world as mere
property, the world -wide, national and local environmental communities are urging
governments to adopt a new paradigm based upon recognition that both individual
human beings and natural communities or ecosystems have fundamental environmental
rights which should be recognized by the law, that the health of the world's populations
and ecosystems depends on the full protection of these rights, and that asserted
corporate rights can no longer be allowed to take precedence over these rights to
human and environmental health and well- being; and
FA
WHEREAS, there are numerous examples of policy statements and laws based
on this new paradigm that recognize the rights of the natural world to exist, thrive and
evolve; and
WHEREAS, Ecuador amended its constitution to include the rights of nature in
2008, with the first successful case applying that right concluding in March 2011; and
WHEREAS, in December 2010, the City of Pittsburgh became the first major city
in the United States to adopt a Community Bill of Rights that bans corporations from
drilling natural gas within its city limits and elevates the rights of people, the community,
and nature over corporate rights; and
WHEREAS, other municipalities in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maine, Maryland, New
Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, and New York have adopted similar measures
recognizing the rights of people and natural communities and including language that
would subordinate the rights of corporations to local sustainability efforts; and
WHEREAS, Santa Monica's own Task Force on the Environment has studied
this growing movement and recommended that the City support it as a means of
effectuating the commitments and goals already established by the Sustainable City
Plan, and of recognizing the inherent rights of the people and natural communities of
the City of Santa Monica; and
WHEREAS, on January 24, 2012 the Santa Monica City Council adopted a
resolution declaring the City's Commitment to Sustainable Rights; and
3
WHEREAS, the City is committed to fully implementing its Sustainable City Plan
to further effectuate inherent rights of the people and natural communities of the City of
Santa Monica.
NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA
DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Chapter 4.75 of the Santa Monica Municipal Code is hereby
created to read as follows:
Chapter 4.75 GENERAL PROVISIONS
4.75.010 Title
This chapter shall be known as the City of Santa Monica Sustainability Rights
Ordinance.
4.75.020 Findings
The City Council finds and declares:
a) With the exponential growth in human population and its increasing per capita
resource consumption, the planet cannot sustain our current way of life, which is
destructive to the natural elements upon which all species depend -- the air, water,
climate, soil and other fundamental elements of the world;
b) Like all other communities, Santa Monica's welfare is inextricably bound to
the welfare of the natural environment; and the City has therefore long been committed
to protecting, preserving and restoring the natural environment and providing a model of
environmental sustainability for other communities to utilize; and
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c) The City Council of Santa Monica has expressed this commitment through a
multitude of enactments and actions, including recognizing both the rights of natural
communities and ecosystems within Santa Monica to exist, thrive and evolve and the
rights of the individual human beings that make up the City of Santa Monica to a clean,
healthy and sustainable environment. The peoples' rights include, but are not limited to:
the right to affordable and accessible water from sustainable water sources for human
consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes, as referenced in Calif. AB 685 (2012);
the right to a sustainable energy future based on sustainable renewable energy
sources; the right to a sustainable natural climate unaltered by fossil fuel emissions; the
right to sustainable, comprehensive waste disposal systems that do not degrade the
environment; the right to clean indoor and outdoor air, clean water and clean soil that
pose a negligible health risk to the public; and the right to a sustainable food system
that provides healthy, locally grown food to the community; and
d) These rights are not sufficiently safeguarded by the existing body of local,
national and international environmental policies and laws, which are grossly
inadequate to avert the mounting environmental crisis; and
e) The inadequacy of the current framework of state, national and international
policies and laws necessitates re- examination of the underlying societal and legal
assumptions about our relationships with the environment and a renewed focus on
effectuating these rights.
5
4.75.030 Purpose
This Chapter is created and exists for the purpose of codifying Santa Monica's
commitment to achieving sustainability by among other things: (1) restoring, protecting
and preserving our natural environment and all of its components and communities
including, but not limited to the air, water, soil, and climate upon which all living things
depend; (2) creating and promoting sustainable systems of food production and
distribution, energy production and distribution, transportation, waste disposal, and
water supply; and (3) to the full extent legally possible, subordinating the short term,
private, financial interests of corporations and others to the common, long -term interest
of achieving environmental and economic sustainability.
4.75.040 Rights of Santa Monica Residents and The Natural Environment
a) All residents of Santa Monica possess fundamental and inalienable rights
to: clean water from sustainable sources; marine waters safe for active and passive
recreation; clean indoor and outdoor air; a sustainable food system that provides
healthy, locally grown food; a sustainable climate that supports thriving human life and a
flourishing biodiverse environment; comprehensive waste disposal systems that do not
degrade the environment; and a sustainable energy future based on renewable energy
sources.
b) Natural communities and ecosystems possess fundamental and
inalienable rights to exist and flourish in the City Of Santa Monica. To effectuate those
rights on behalf of the environment, residents of the City may bring actions to protect
these natural communities and ecosystems, defined as: groundwater aquifers,
n.
atmospheric systems, marine waters, and native species within the boundaries of the
C ity.
c) All residents of Santa Monica possess the right to self - governance and to
a municipal government which recognizes that all power is inherent in the people, that
all free governments are founded on the people's authority and consent, and that
corporate entities, and their directors and managers, do not enjoy special privileges or
powers under the law that subordinate the community's rights to their private interests.
4.75.050 Biennial Report
At least once during every 24 month period, City staff shall prepare a written
report to the community on the state of the local environment, the realization of the
rights recognized in Chapter 4.75, and the City's progress in effectuating and enforcing
the Sustainable City Plan and the policies and provisions of this Chapter. The report
shall include recommendations for advancing and ensuring compliance with the
Sustainable City Plan.
4.75.060 Biennial Hearing
The City Council will bi- annually review the report, conduct a public hearing,
assess the City's progress in effectuating and enforcing both the Sustainable City Plan
and the policies and provisions of this Chapter, and provide direction to staff to ensure
compliance with the Plan's provisions and with the inherent rights of the people and
natural communities of the City of Santa Monica described herein.
4.75.070 Compliance Assurance
The City or any City resident may bring an action to enforce any provision of the
Santa Monica Municipal Code that advances the goals identified as enforceable in the
Sustainable City Plan.
Section 2. Any provision of the Santa Monica Municipal Code or appendices
thereto inconsistent with the provisions of this Ordinance, to the extent of such
inconsistencies and no further, is hereby repealed or modified to that extent necessary
to effect the provisions of this Ordinance.
Section 3. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, or phrase of this
Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a decision of any
court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the
remaining portions of this Ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would
have passed this Ordinance and each and every section, subsection, sentence, clause,
or phrase not declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether any portion
of the ordinance would be subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional.
Section 4. The Mayor shall sign and the City Clerk shall attest to the passage of
this Ordinance. The City Clerk shall cause the same to be published once in the official
newspaper within 15 days after its adoption. This Ordinance shall become effective 30
days from its adoption.
Approved and adopted this 9th day of April, 2013.
Pam onnor, Mayor
State of California )
County of Los Angeles ) ss.
City of Santa Monica )
I, Sarah P. Gorman, City Clerk of the City of Santa Monica, do hereby certify that
the foregoing Ordinance No. 2421 (CCS) had its introduction on March 12, 2013,
and was adopted at the Santa Monica City Council meeting held on April 9, 2013,
by the following vote:
Ayes: Councilmembers: Davis, Holbrook, McKeown, Vazquez, Winterer
Mayor Pro Tern O'Day, Mayor O'Connor
Noes: Councilmembers: None
Absent: Councilmembers: None
A summary of Ordinance No. 2421 (CCS) was duly published pursuant to
California Government Code Section 40806.
ATTEST:
Sarah P. Gorman, City Clerk
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Memo
To: City of Santa Monica City Council
From: Mark Gold, Chair, Task Force on the Environment
Signature:
Date: May 22, 2019
Re: City of Santa Monica Task Force on the Environment Motions
Regarding Sustainability Rights and the Creation of Article 12
At the May 20, 2019 regular meeting, the Task Force on the Environment
discussed and took action on the following agenda item:
Presentation, Discussion, and Possible Action Regarding Sustainability
Rights and the Creation of Article 12
Amanda Grossman presented an update on the Sustainability Rights ordinance
and the creation of Article 12. Staff is recommending the creation of Article 12,
moving Chapter 4.75 to Article 12, creating a Chapter that cross-references
existing Chapters related to sustainability, and repealing some existing Chapters
related to sustainability that are outdated and unnecessary. Staff will be
presenting recommendations to Council on June 11, 2019.
Task Force will work with staff to provide additional metrics. Task Force
reiterated a biennial assessment of Sustainability Rights, as well as progress of
Sustainable City Plan targets. Staff will work with the Task Force to evaluate the
feasibility of implementing a process for consistency in the City’s policies,
programs, and projects.
After discussion, the Task Force on the Environment adopted the following motion:
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Motion by Task Force Member Mark Gold, seconded by Task Force Member
David Pettit.
Motion: The Task Force on the Environment recommends that City Council adopt
a process to determine that City policies, projects, and programs are consistent
with the targets identified in the Sustainable City Plan as well as the
Sustainability Rights provisions.
The motion was approved by the following roll call vote:
Ayes: Chair Mark Gold
Member Robert Lempert
Member David Pettit
Member Susan Mearns
Member Garen Baghdasarian
Noes: None
Abstain: None
Absent: Erik Neandross, David Hertz
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Creation of Article 12
“Sustainability”
Presented by
Office of Sustainability and the Environment
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Recommended Actions
1.Creation of Article 12 titled “Sustainability”
•Move Chapter 4.75 to Article 12
•Repeal Existing Chapters of S.M.M.C.
2.Council Direction –Consistency of proposed projects, policies, and
ordinances
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Background
1994 -Sustainable City Plan
2011 -Task Force on the Environment
2013 -Sustainability Rights Ordinance
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Chapter 4.75 -Sustainability Rights Ordinance
1. Restoring, protecting, and preserving our
natural environment:
•Air, water, soil, and climate
2. Creating and promoting sustainable systems:
•Food, energy, transportation, waste, and
water
3. Environmental and economic sustainability
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1. Recommended Action
•Creation of Article 12 titled
“Sustainability” in Santa
Monica Municipal Code
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Creation of Article 12
•Consolidation into Article 12 of
the municipal code
•Cohesive regulatory system
•Ease of reference
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Creation of Article 12
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Chapter 2.28 –Tr opical Woods Chapter 7.16 –Wa ter Conservation
Chapter 3.06 (Section 3.12.835) –Car Share and EV
Parking
Chapter 7.18 –Sustainable Groundwater Management
Chapter 4.08.270 –Leaf Blowers Chapter 7.48 –Litter
Chapter 4.44 –Smoking /Tobacco Chapter 7.56 –Storm Water Utility
Chapter 5.44 –Non-marine degradable Food Service
Wa re
Chapter 7.64 –Clean Beaches Parcel Tax
Chapter 5.45 –Single Use Carry Out Bags Chapter 10.08.340 –Prohibiting Waste Matter on
Beach/In Ocean
Chapter 7.10 –Urban Runoff Pollution
1. Recommended Action
•Move Chapter 4.75
(Sustainability Rights) to Article
12
•Update to Chapter 12.02
•No changes to ordinance
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1. Recommended Action
•Repeal the following Santa Monica
Code Chapters:
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Chapter 5.16 –To xic Chemical Disclosure Law
Chapter 5.28 –Regulation of ozone-depleting compounds
Chapter 5.36 –To xic and hazardous products
Chapter 7.08 –Wa stewater Control
Repeal Chapters
•Outdated and No Longer Required
•Advances in State and Federal
legislation
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2. Recommended Action
•Council Direction –
Determine the consistency of
proposed, projects, policies,
and ordinance
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Biennial Reporting
•Section 4.75.050
•Every two years
•Health of Local Environments
•Highlight Council Actions
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Key Target Objectives Metric
Affordable and Accessible Water •Percent water sourced locally.
Renewable Energy •Amount of on-site solar energy generated for City-operated facilities.
•Number of Commercial and Residential customers receiving 100% renewable
energy through the Clean Power Alliance.
Natural climate •Percentage of reduction in carbon emissions.
Wa ste disposal system •Percent materials diverted from landfill.
Clean air •Number of days exceeding air quality standards of 70 ppm .
Clean Water and Soil •Exceedance days for water quality standards.
•Weight of trash collected on the beach.
Healthy Food •Annual sales from farmers market produce.
•Percentage of residents living within quarter-mile of grocery store
Urban Forest •Percentage of tree canopy coverage.
Next Steps
•City Council –June 11, 2019
•Formal Reporting –Fall 2019
•Task Force on the Environment -Consistency
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Recommended Actions
1.Creation of Article 12 titled “Sustainability”
•Move Chapter 4.75 to Article 12
•Repeal Existing Chapters of S.M.M.C.
2.Council Direction –Consistency of proposed projects, policies, and
ordinances
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