[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Common Council of the
City of Gloucester City 12-5-1946. Amendments noted where applicable.]
It shall be unlawful to cause or permit the emission into the
open air of dense smoke, noxious gases or fumes from any smoke-stack
or chimney connected with any stationary engine, fuel-burning equipment,
steam boiler, steamroller, steam derrick or other similar machine,
or from any smokestack or chimney of any apartment house, office building,
institution, place, premises or any building used as a factory or
for any purpose of trade or other than a private residence, or from
any tar kettle or other machine, furnace or contrivance, within the
corporate limits of Gloucester City, which smoke or gas contains fly
ash in excess of 0.75 grains per cubic foot of flue gas at stack temperature,
of which amount not to exceed 0.2 of a grain per cubic foot shall
be of such size as to be retained on a three-hundred-twenty-five-mesh
United States Standard Sieve. These conditions are to be conformed
to when the percentage of excess air in the stack does not exceed
50% at full load. The foregoing requirements shall be measured by
the methods outlined in the Tentative Test Code for dust-separating
apparatus of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which is
hereby made a part of this ordinance by reference.
It shall be unlawful after nine months from the effective date
of this ordinance for any owner, agent, manager, lessee or occupant
of any building within the limits of the City of Gloucester City to
which is attached any chimney or smokestack connected with any stationary
engine or steam boiler or with any fuel-burning equipment, or of any
apartment house, office building, institution, establishment, place
or premises or building used as a factory or for any purpose of trade
or other than a private residence within the limits of said city,
to operate or cause to be operated, maintain or cause to be maintained
any furnace or combustion device for the burning of coal, wholly or
partly in suspension, without maintaining and operating, while using
said furnace or combustion device, recognized and approved equipment,
means, method, device or contrivance to reduce the quantity of fly
ash emitted into the open air and which is operated in conjunction
with said furnace or combustion device so that the quantity of fly
ash shall not exceed 0.75 grains per cubic foot of flue gas at stack
temperature, of which amount not to exceed 0.2 of a grain per cubic
foot shall be of such size as to be retained on a three-hundred-twenty-five-mesh
United States Standard Sieve. These conditions are to be conformed
to when the percentage of excess air in the stack does not exceed
50% at full load. The foregoing requirements shall be measured by
the methods outlined in the Tentative Test Code for dust-separating
apparatus of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which is
hereby made a part of this ordinance by reference.
If inspection and tests by qualified engineers representing the City of Gloucester City establish that such owner, agent, manager, lessee or occupant has failed to provide recognized and approved equipment, means, method, device or contrivance as specified above in § 13-2 or that such equipment fails to meet the requirements set forth in § 13-2, then such owner, agent, manager, lessee or occupant, as aforesaid, shall, upon receipt of a notice in writing duly served upon him or them by the Chief of Police, without delay, file a plan or statement of proposed alterations to abate such nuisance with the City Clerk, and shall as promptly as the circumstances will permit, after receipt of such notice, cause such nuisance to cease, and upon failure to do so, upon conviction thereof before the Judge of the Municipal Court be fined not more than $500 or be imprisoned in the county jail for a term not exceeding 90 days, at the discretion of said Judge. Each and every day said smoke, gas or fumes shall be unlawfully emitted shall be deemed to be and shall constitute a separate violation of this ordinance.
[Amended 5-3-1951]
The enforcement of this ordinance shall be vested in the following:
A.Â
A smoke-abatement engineer, who shall be qualified by training and
experience in the theory and practice of the construction and operation
and firing of steam boilers and furnaces and in the theory and practice
of smoke abatement and prevention.
B.Â
A board of three members, who shall be members of the Utilities Committee
of City Council of Gloucester City, which board shall be known as
the Advisory Board or Board of Appeals.
C.Â
Inspectors, who shall consist of the smoke-abatement engineer, the
members of the Board of Appeals or a police officer designated by
the smoke-abatement engineer or the Board of Appeals.
[Added 2-3-1949]
Shall be considered as referring to the Utility Committee
of City Council.
Shall be defined as a change in form or state.
Shall be considered as referring to the Ringelmann Smoke
Chart as published and used by the United States Bureau of Mines,
the Ringelmann Type Chart and the Umberscope.
Shall be defined as the act of building.
Shall be considered as referring to all corporate bodies,
stock companies, lessees, trustees, receivers, agents, tenants, managers,
superintendents, captains, engineers, firemen and janitors.
Where referred to, shall be tested in accordance with standards
of Bureau of Mines.
Shall be defined as setting up in position for service.
Shall be considered as referring to all individuals, partnerships
or associations other than "corporations."
Shall be defined as rebuilding incorporating structural changes.
Shall be defined as putting in good condition or rehabilitating.
Shall be considered fuel containing less than 23% volatile
matter on dry basis.
Shall be considered as referring to chimneys, smokestacks,
structures and openings of any kind whatsoever capable of emitting
smoke.
Shall be run in accordance with A.S.M.E. standards and rules.
[Added 2-3-1949]
The smoke-abatement engineer is hereby empowered, with the consent
and advice of the Advisory Board, to prepare from time to time a set
of rules and regulations governing details of fuel-burning equipment
required for the issuance of permits and certificates.
[Added 2-3-1949]
The production or emission within the city of smoke, fly ash
or fumes, the shade of which is equal to or greater than No. 2 of
the Ringelmann Chart, Ringelmann Type Chart or Umberscope, or which
is so dense as to prevent seeing through it at the point of emission
into the external air from any stack or open fire for a period of
seven minutes or more in any period of 60 minutes, and the emission
of such smoke, fly ash or fumes from any locomotive, is hereby prohibited.
[Added 2-3-1949]
A.Â
No person or corporation shall construct, install, reconstruct, alter
or repair any furnace, boiler furnace, stack or other apparatus connected
with the stacks, including portable apparatus, unless he or it shall
make application in writing to the said smoke-abatement engineer on
the form furnished by the smoke-abatement engineer for a permit for
such construction, installation, reconstruction, alteration or repair
and, in and by such application, shall give the plans and specifications,
showing the style and dimensions of the furnace, boiler furnace, stack
and/or other apparatus connected with a stack intended to be used,
a description of the building or part thereof in which such furnace,
boiler furnace or other apparatus is located, including the means
provided for regulating the temperature of such building or part thereof
and ventilating the same, and generally all provisions made for the
preventing of smoke, together with a statement of the kind of fuel
proposed to be used and of the operating requirements to be made of
the furnace or furnaces referred to therein, and unless such application
shall be passed upon by the smoke-abatement engineer and approved
in writing and a permit issued as hereinafter provided; provided,
however, that minor or emergency repairs which do not increase the
capacity of such furnace or which do not involve any substantial alteration
in such furnace, boiler furnace, stack or other apparatus and which
do not involve any alteration in the method or efficiency of smoke
prevention may be made without a permit.
B.Â
Any application shall be approved or rejected within 15 days after
it is filed in the office of the smoke-abatement engineer.
C.Â
Upon the approval of any application, a copy of which shall be left
on file in the office of the smoke-abatement engineer, and upon the
payment of the fees hereinafter provided, the smoke-abatement engineer
shall issue a permit for the construction, installation, reconstruction,
alteration or repair of such furnace, boiler furnace, etc.
D.Â
In the event that any such application is rejected by the smoke-abatement
engineer, the applicant has the right to appeal from his decision
to the Advisory Board. Such appeal shall be made in writing to the
smoke-abatement engineer, who shall call a special meeting of the
Advisory Board within five days for the consideration of the matter.
If a majority of the members of the Advisory Board present shall be
of the opinion that the application calls for such construction, installation,
reconstruction, alteration or repair of furnace, boiler furnace or
stack, that there will not under reasonable conditions of operation
be produced or emitted from the stack connected therewith such smoke
as is herein prohibited, the decision of the smoke-abatement engineer
shall be set aside, and the findings of the Advisory Board shall be
binding upon the smoke-abatement engineer; otherwise the decision
of the smoke-abatement engineer shall be confirmed.
[Added 2-3-1949]
No person or corporation shall use or cause to be used any new,
remodeled or reconstructed plant or apparatus connected with a stack,
including portable apparatus, for the production of heat and/or power,
unless he or it shall make application in writing to the smoke-abatement
engineer on the form furnished by smoke-abatement engineer for a certificate
to operate such plant or apparatus.
[Added 2-3-1949]
It shall be unlawful for any engineer, contractor or other person
or corporation to do the work of the constructing, installation, reconstruction,
altering or repairing of any furnace, boiler furnace, stack or other
fuel-burning apparatus connected with stack, unless the person or
corporation for whom such construction, installation, reconstruction,
alteration or repair is being made has a proper authority in the form
of a permit from the smoke-abatement engineer for such work.
[Added 2-3-1949]
For examination of an application for a permit and/or certificate for any such construction, installation, reconstruction, alteration or repair or for the operation of such plant or apparatus, the City Clerk shall collect, at the time of issuing such permit, for the use of the city, a fee or fees as fixed by § 13-16 of this ordinance for each unit for fuel-burning apparatus. The issue and delivery by the City Clerk of any such permit and/or certificate shall not be held to exempt the person or corporation to whom the permit and/or certificate has been issued or delivered, or who is in possession of the same, or whose application has been approved, from prosecution on account of the production or emission of smoke hereby prohibited.
[Added 2-3-1949]
The smoke-abatement engineer shall keep in his office a complete
record of all applications made, as well as of all permits and/or
certificates issued. He shall keep a record of all smoke observations
on all stacks and generally of the work done by the smoke-abatement
engineer. All such records shall be open for inspection by the public
at all reasonable times in the presence of the smoke-abatement engineer
or a member of the Advisory Board.
[Added 2-3-1949]
The smoke-abatement engineer, a member of the Advisory Board
or a police officer designated by the smoke-abatement engineer or
a member of the Advisory Board shall have the right to enter, in the
performance of their duties, at all reasonable hours, all premises
from which smoke is being emitted or has been emitted, and any person
who shall, after proper identification, deny admittance to such person
or persons or interfere with him or them in the performance of his
or their duties shall be liable to a fine not exceeding $500 or undergo
an imprisonment in the county jail or workhouse of not more than 90
days, or both, at the discretion of the Judge of the Municipal Court.
[Added 2-3-1949]
If any person or corporation shall violate any one or more of
the prohibitions or requirements of this ordinance, the smoke-abatement
engineer or a member of the Advisory Board or a police officer designated
by the smoke-abatement engineer or a member of the Advisory Board
shall enter suit before the Judge of the Municipal Court of the City
of Gloucester City; and upon conviction such person or corporation
shall be subject to a fine or penalty not exceeding $500 for each
and every violation thereof, and each day's violation shall constitute
a separate offense, or undergo an imprisonment in the county jail
or workhouse of not more than 90 days, or both at the discretion of
the Judge.
[Added 2-3-1949]
Any ordinance or part of ordinance conflicting with the provisions
of this ordinance shall be and the same is hereby repealed so far
as the same affects this ordinance.
[Added 2-3-1949]
The fees mentioned in this ordinance shall be as follows:
A.Â
For annual inspection of all boilers of any horsepower, the fee shall
be $10 for each and every boiler. This shall be construed to include
stationary and portable boilers and locomotives, but exclude domestic
furnaces.
B.Â
For the issuance of a permit for boilers under 15 pounds' pressure,
the fee shall be $3; for a boiler above 15 pounds' pressure,
the fee shall be $5; for incinerators, the fee shall be $3; for a
domestic furnace installation or alteration, oil fire, coal fire or
gas fire, the fee shall be $2; for inspection for alteration of existing
industrial boilers and furnaces, the fee shall be $10.
[Added 2-3-1949]
A copy of this ordinance shall be posted in a conspicuous place
where fuel-burning equipment is operated so that all operators, agents
and owners shall be cognizant of the provisions of this ordinance.
This ordinance shall take effect immediately on final passage
and publication required by law.
