§ 14-110. Inspection, monitoring and investigation.

(a)

After receiving an administratively complete license application, the county, or designee, the director of the county planning and zoning department, or designee, or the director of the county health department, or designee, collectively "Mohave County" for the purpose of this subsection, may, prior to the issuance of a license:

(1)

Inspect the site to determine whether the license applicant has complied with this article;

(2)

Test the site and/or order the applicant to test the site for background or accumulated levels of chemicals, metals, pathogens, radioactive material, and other pollutants in the soil, groundwater, or surface water at the sewage sludge site for purposes of establishing baseline measurements; and

(3)

Test and/or order the applicant test the sewage sludge to be applied to ensure compliance with all pertinent federal and local pollutant, pathogen, pH, vector attraction reduction, and other applicable regulations.

(b)

Any person employed by, or under contract with, the county who inspects the site on behalf of the county may be accompanied by representatives of the license holder, the sewage sludge handler, the state, and/or the environmental protection agency. The county shall deny a land application license if the results of any test or inspection reveal that the land application will violate any federal, state or local laws or regulations concerning the land application of sewage sludge.

(c)

Upon issuance of a license, and after the land application of sewage sludge has commenced, the county, or its designee, shall conduct, at a minimum, quarterly inspections of the site to monitor compliance with this article, including, without limitation, to determine whether the sewage sludge is being properly applied, whether all environmental protection agency and local permit and/or license requirements have been achieved, whether cumulative ceiling concentrations of metals (section 14-108(f)) are exceeded, whether setbacks are being observed, whether all vector and pathogen abatement requirements are being followed, and whether there is compliance with food and feed crop restrictions under this article and all other pertinent authority.

(d)

Upon issuance of a license and after the land application of sewage sludge has commenced, the county, or its designee, shall, as often as it deems necessary to protect and ensure public health, collect samples of the sewage sludge to determine compliance with the pathogen and vector abatement requirements of this article. The results of such tests shall be maintained by the county and shall be provided to the license holder upon request.

(e)

Upon issuance of a license and after the land application of sewage sludge has commenced, the county, or its designee, shall, as often as deemed necessary to protect and ensure the public health, collect water samples from all water impoundments, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, marshes, sinkholes, or any permanent or intermittent water bodies considered a water of the state on, or within one-half mile of, the site in order to test for chemicals, metals, pathogens, radioactive material, and other pollutants. The results of such tests shall be maintained by the county and shall be provided to the license holder upon request.

(f)

If such testing reveals the presence of chemicals, metals, pathogens, radioactive material, and/or other pollutants in excess of concentrations permitted by pertinent local, state or federal regulations or guidelines, and if the origin of such pollutants is determined to be the land application site, then a violation of this article will have occurred and the county, in addition to any other remedies provided under this article, shall be authorized to immediately petition the superior court of the county for issuance of a cease and desist order effective against the licensee until such time as the pollutant concentration levels in the affected water bodies are reduced to permissible levels and remedial action is undertaken by the licensee to ensure no future contamination.

(g)

The inspections and monitoring required in this section are in addition to those tests and inspections required to be performed by, or on behalf of, the license holder.

(h)

Representatives of the county may inspect the site without notice or a search warrant to monitor compliance with this article. Prior to conducting any inspection under this article, the person conducting the inspection on behalf of the county shall present his county credentials to the owner or occupier of the site unless this requirement would wholly or partially frustrate the inspection.

( Ord. No. 2003-03 , § 114, 8-4-2003)