[HISTORY: Adopted by the Representative Town Meeting of the
Town of Branford as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted
where applicable.]
[Adopted 12-14-2016]
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
- APPLICATION
- The physical act of placing or spreading natural gas waste or oil waste on any road or real property located within the Town of Branford.
- HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
- The fracturing of underground rock formations, including shale and nonshale formations, by man-made fluid-driven techniques for the purpose of stimulating oil, natural gas, or other subsurface hydrocarbon production.
- NATURAL GAS EXTRACTION ACTIVITIES
- All geologic or geophysical activities related to the exploration for or extraction of natural gas, including, but not limited to, core and rotary drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
- A. Any liquid or solid waste or its constituents that is generated as a result of natural gas extraction activities, which may consist of water, brine, chemicals, naturally occurring radioactive materials, heavy metals, or other contaminants;
- B. Leachate from solid wastes associated with natural gas extraction activities;
- C. Any waste that is generated as a result of or in association with the underground storage of natural gas;
- D. Any waste that is generated as a result of or in association with liquefied petroleum gas well storage operations; and
- E. Any products or byproducts resulting from the treatment, processing, or modification of any of the above wastes.
- OIL EXTRACTION ACTIVITIES
- All geologic or geophysical activities related to the exploration for or extraction of oil, including, but not limited to, core and rotary drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
- A. Any liquid or solid waste or its constituents that is generated as a result of oil extraction activities, which may consist of water, brine, chemicals, naturally occurring radioactive materials, heavy metals, or other contaminants;
- B. Leachate from solid wastes associated with oil extraction activities; and
- C. Any products or byproducts resulting from the treatment, processing, or modification of any of the above wastes.
- TOWN
- The Town of Branford.
A.
The application of natural gas waste or oil waste, whether or not
such waste has received beneficial use determination or other approval
for use by DEEP (Department of Energy and Environmental Protection)
or any other regulatory body, on any road or real property located
within the Town, for any purpose, is prohibited.
B.
The introduction of natural gas waste or oil waste into any wastewater
treatment facility within or operated by the Town is prohibited.
C.
The introduction of natural gas waste or oil waste into any solid
waste management facility within or operated by the Town is prohibited.
D.
The storage, disposal, sale, acquisition, handling, treatment and/or
processing of waste from natural gas or oil extraction is prohibited
within the Town.
A.
All bids and contracts related to the purchase or acquisition of
materials to be used to construct or maintain any publicly owned and/or
maintained road or real property within the Town shall include a provision
stating that no materials containing natural gas or oil waste shall
be provided to the Town.
B.
All bids and contracts related to the retention of services to construct
or maintain any publicly owned and/or maintained road or real property
within the Town shall include a provision stating that no materials
containing natural gas or oil waste shall be utilized in providing
such a service.
C.
The following statement, which shall be a sworn statement under penalty
of perjury, shall be included in all bids related to the purchase
or acquisition of materials to be used to construct or maintain any
publicly owned and/or maintained road or real property within the
Town and all bids related to the retention of services to construct
or maintain any publicly owned and/or maintained road or real property
within the Town:
"We __________ hereby submit a bid for materials, equipment
and/or labor for the Town of Branford. The bid is for bid documents
titled __________. We hereby certify under penalty of perjury that
no natural gas waste or oil waste will be used by the undersigned
bidder or any contractor, sub-contractor, agent or vendor agent in
connection with the bid; nor will the undersigned bidder or any sub-contractor,
agent or vendor agent thereof apply any natural gas waste or oil waste
to any road or real property with the Town of Branford as a result
of the submittal of this bid if selected."
This article shall apply to any and all actions occurring on or after the effective date of this article. The Town is empowered to issue cease-and-desist orders in case of any violation of the prohibitions and provision stated above in §§ 164-2 and 164-3. It is further empowered to require remediation of any damage done to any land, road, building, aquifer, well, watercourse, air quality or other asset, be it public or private, within the Town of Branford. Any person who violates this article shall be liable for a civil penalty of not less than $1,000, nor more than $10,000 for each day of the violation [per C.G.S. § 22a-250(h), prohibiting littering or dumping].
Any designee authorized by the Board of Selectmen of Branford
may pursue penalties against any person who commits violations of
this article. The involvement of any Branford officials will not require
testing of waste products to determine chemical contents, as this
work will be done via contacting CT DEEP or other third-party analytical
laboratories as is current practice of the Town of Branford for other
exposures to potentially hazardous chemical situations.
Nothing in this article shall be interpreted to ban the transportation
of any product or by-product described herein on any roadway or real
property within the Town of Branford.
If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section or
part of this article or the application thereof to any person, individual,
corporation, firm, partnership, entity or circumstance shall be adjudged
by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unconstitutional,
such order or judgment shall not affect, impair, effect or invalidate
the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the
clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section or part of this
article, on in its application to the person, individual, corporation,
firm, partnership, entity or circumstance directly involved in the
controversy in which such order or judgment shall be rendered. In
addition, any section of this article that is preempted by future
State of Connecticut regulations will be declared null and void. To
further this end, the provisions of this article of the Branford Town
Code are hereby declared to be severable.
