For purposes of this chapter, the words set out in this section shall have the following meanings:
“Garbage”
means and includes refuse resulting from the preparation, cooking and consumption of edible foodstuffs, or resulting from the decay, dealing in or storage of meat, fish, fowl, fruit or vegetables, and solid or semisolid putrescible waste from any hotel, club, bar, restaurant or other eating place or from any retail market, boardinghouse, lodginghouse or dwelling house, or from any vegetable or food processing and handling establishment and includes cans and bottles.
“Health officer”
means the health officer of the city or county, or his authorized representative, including any police officer, code enforcement officer or field employees of the Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Control District.
“Person”
means and includes any individual, firm, copartnership, joint venture, association, or corporation and the plural as well as the singular.
“Rubbish”
means and includes all refuse other than garbage, including, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, paper, rags, leaves, grass, vines, sawdust, sweepings, plaster, brick, cement, glass, crockery, shells, metals, metal products, cans, ashes, tree trimmings, wood, cardboard and packing cases.
“Vector”
means any animal capable of transmitting the causative agent of human disease or capable of producing human discomfort or injury, including, but limited to, mosquitoes, flies, mites, ticks, other anthropods, and rodents and other vertebrates.
(Ord. 693 § 1, 1976; Ord. 04-008 §§ 1, 2, 2004)
It is unlawful for any person or agent to rent or lease any building or dwelling house that is infested with any vermin or rodents or that is not in good repair, or that has floors, ceilings, walls or yards that are not in a clean and sanitary condition. All such buildings shall be supplied with running water where a water main exists abutting on the property ready for service. Every occupant of any building, dwelling house, premises, or yard, whether used as a residence or for commercial purposes, shall maintain the same in a clean and sanitary condition and shall, upon vacating property, leave it in a clean and sanitary condition.
(Ord. 693 § 6, 1976)
Whenever any building or any part thereof, for want of repair, has become dangerous to life or is unfit for human habitation because of defects in drainage, plumbing, ventilation or construction of the same, or because of the existence of a nuisance on the premises which is likely to cause sickness among the occupants thereof, the health officer may issue an order requiring all persons therein to vacate the building or any part thereof, for the reasons stated in such order, and it is unlawful to fail to comply with such order. The health officer shall cause every such order to be affixed conspicuously in the building or part thereof, and to be served on the owner, lessee, agent, occupant, or any person having charge, if such person can be found. The health officer may revoke any such order whenever he becomes satisfied that the danger from the building or any part thereof has ceased to exist, or that the building has been repaired and rendered fit for habitation.
(Ord. 693 § 7, 1976)
Any person employing three or more persons for construction, demolition, excavation, grading, repair or street work shall provide for the use of such employees a sanitary and flyproof portable chemical toilet, within a reasonable distance of the place where the work is to be done. Such temporary toilets shall be maintained in a clean and sanitary condition, and shall be immediately removed upon the completion of the work.
(Ord. 693 § 4, 1976)
It is a nuisance, and it is unlawful to maintain any building, vacant lot, premises, vehicle or place in such a manner as to permit the breeding or harboring therein or thereon of flies, bedbugs, cockroaches, black widow spiders, lice, fleas, or any other vermin.
(Ord. 693 § 2, 1976)
It is a nuisance, and it is unlawful for any person or agent to allow any vacant or unoccupied building to remain open and of easy access to any trespasser or to allow the same to become a habitation of vagrants or to become infested with vermin or rodents, or to become a menace to health.
(Ord. 693 § 3, 1976)
Any person occupying, owning or controlling any premises improved or unimproved shall maintain such premises clean and free from all rubbish, loose material, discarded lumber, boxes, barrels, loose iron or other material that may serve as a harborage for rats unless, in the opinion of the health officer, that such material when elevated not less than twelve inches above the ground with a clear intervening space beneath will not cause a rat harborage, then such material may remain upon the premises as specified in a notice in writing by the health officer.
(Ord. 693 § 8, 1976)
It is unlawful and a public nuisance for any person, firm or corporation to create, cause, commit or maintain:
A. 
Any artificial alteration of property, excluding water, from its natural condition, resulting in it supporting the development, attraction, or harborage of vectors, with the presence of vectors in their developmental stages on property being prima facie evidence that the property is a public nuisance;
B. 
Any water that is a breeding place for vectors, with the presence of vectors in their developmental stages in the water being prima facie evidence that the water is a public nuisance; or
C. 
Any activity that supports the development, attraction, or harborage of vectors, or that facilitates the introduction or spread of vectors.
(Ord. 04-008 § 3, 2004)
No person shall have or permit, upon any premises owned, occupied or controlled by him, any nuisance which is injurious to health, or is an obstruction to the free use of property so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property, nor any accumulation of filth, garbage (except in an approved receptacle with a tight-fitting lid), animal excrement or rubbish or other material that may become a nuisance or danger to health, or cause offensive odor, unsightliness, or provide food or shelter for rodents or other pests.
(Ord. 693 § 10, 1976)
Any condition or act declared to be a nuisance by this chapter is a public nuisance. The health officer may utilize the procedures of Chapter 8.02 and/or Chapter 1.10 of this code in providing notice, hearing, and appeal rights in order to abate such public nuisance or assess fines for violation of this chapter.
(Ord. 693 § 11, 1976; Ord. 04-008 § 4, 2004)