Source: https://ecode360.com/12118626
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 22:16:13+00:00

Document:
§ 79-3 Dense smoke prohibited.
§ 79-4 Emission of injurious quantities of stack products prohibited.
§ 79-5 Office of Smoke Inspector established.
§ 79-7 Approval of plans and specifications required; permits.
§ 79-8 Issuance of building permit; inspection of buildings.
§ 79-9 Original certificate of operation.
§ 79-10 Annual inspection; annual certificate of operation.
§ 79-11 Certificate of extension.
§ 79-12 Permit or certificate not an exemption from prosecution.
§ 79-13 Fuel-burning equipment in private residences.
§ 79-16 Interference with inspection prohibited.
§ 79-17 Violations and penalties.
Editor's Note: Originally adopted 6-5-1950 but was not published.
This ordinance shall be known as the Smoke and Air-Pollution Ordinance.
Gas-borne and air-borne particles as described and/or defined in § 117-4B of this ordinance.
Combustible materials, solid, liquid, or gaseous, used primarily either to kindle or sustain fire or produce heat, including refuse to be consumed in refuse-burning equipment.
Any furnace, incinerator, refuse-burning equipment, boiler, apparatus, device, mechanism, stack and structure used in the process of burning fuel or combustible material except a railroad locomotive or VEHICLE as herein defined.
Fumes, gases, noxious or obnoxious acids or vapors which are of such character and volume as to be detrimental to health and property.
The Ringelmann Chart, with instructions for use, as published by the United States Bureau of Mines, 1945.
Means all gaseous products of combustion, together with carbon, soot, fly ash and all other particulate solids in combustion gases.
Flue, conduit or opening arranged for emitting gases into the open air, and including an open fire, structure or opening of any kind whatsoever capable of emitting smoke.
A person qualified by education and or experience in combustion engineering and who, through his vocation, has kept abreast of its changing practices.
A mechanism, other that a steam locomotive, either self-propelled or propelled by other means such as a roller, derrick, crane, trencher, portable hoisting engine, steamboat, tug or other apparatus which is not ordinarily permanently installed in one location but is used at various places over a wide area.
Means the City of North Tonawanda, Niagara County, New York.
The production or emission of dense smoke within the City of North Tonawanda is prohibited and is hereby declared a nuisance and may be abated in the manner provided by law.
When a firebox is being cleaned out or a new fire being built therein, dense smoke shall be permitted for one period of not more than 10 minutes in any one calendar day, or for two periods of not more than six minutes in any one calendar day.
It shall be unlawful for a railroad locomotive to emit smoke of a density greater than No. 2 of the Ringelmann Chart for more than one minute at any one time or for more than 10 such one-minute periods in any consecutive period of 60 minutes. This provision shall apply to any locomotive in service or being prepared for service in transfer yards or engaged in switching operations, except as set forth in Paragraphs (4) and (5) herein.
When a firebox is being cleaned out or a new fire being built therein, smoke of a density greater than No. 2 of the Ringelmann Chart shall be permitted for one period of not more than 10 minutes in any one calendar day, or for two periods of not more than six minutes in any one calendar day.
Railroad locomotive cranes and railroad wrecking equipment are exempted from the requirements of the definition of dense smoke, and §§ 79-7, 9, 10, 15 and 18.
The emission from any stack or premises within the city into the open air of such quantities of dust, soot, cinders, fly ash, noxious or obnoxious acids, vapors, fumes or gases so as to cause injury or detriment to persons or to the public, or to endanger the reasonable comfort, health or safety of any person or the public, or in such manner as to cause unreasonable injury or to cause damage to business or property is prohibited and also is hereby declared to be a nuisance and may be abated in the manner provided by law.
The quantity of dust and/or fly-ash emission shall be limited to 0.75 grains per cubic foot of flue gas at stack temperature, of which amount not more than 0.2 grains per cubic foot shall be of such a size as to be retained on a three-hundred-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 in accordance with the methods outlined in the Test Code for Dust Separating Apparatus of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
There is hereby established the office of Smoke Inspector, who shall serve at the pleasure of the Common Council, at a compensation to be determined by the Common Council from time to time.
The investigation of complaints, the making of observations of smoke conditions, and taking the necessary and proper steps to abate the nuisance therefrom and the enforcement of this ordinance.
The issuance of permits, certificates and notices under this ordinance; the keeping and custody of applications, plans, permits, certificates, violations, complaints and other records on file for Department purposes only.
The examination of the plans for all new buildings and for the alteration of all existing buildings in order to assure that they are in accordance with this ordinance and with the rules and regulations established by this ordinance.
The examination of the application and plans for the construction, installation or alteration of any fuel-burning equipment or any equipment pertaining thereto and, if found to meet the requirements of this ordinance and of the said rules and regulations, the issuance of an installation permit.
The inspection of the installation of all equipment for which a permit has been issued and, when found that the work is completed in accordance with this ordinance and with the said rules and regulations, the issuance of an operating permit.
The inspection annually of all the fuel-burning equipment under the jurisdiction of this ordinance and, when found to comply with its provisions and the said rules and regulations, the issuance of a certificate of operation.
Such other duties as are not hereinbefore enumerated as the Common Council may assign to him.
Make, prepare and promulgate rules and regulations with the advice and counsel of the Advisory Board for the installation and operation of fuel-burning equipment, subject to approval thereof by the Common Council after a public hearing thereon.
The Common Council may appoint such assistants and employees as it may deem necessary to help, aid and assist the Smoke Inspector, or to work independently of the Smoke Inspector, and pay them such compensation as the Common Council may determine from time to time.
There is hereby established a Smoke Regulations Advisory Board to consist of five members, who shall be appointed by the Common Council as follows: two for a term of one year; two for a term of two years and one for a term of three years. At the expiration of the several terms, appointment of successors shall thereafter be made by the Common Council for a term of three years. One of the members of of said Board shall be a qualified engineer. The Common Council shall appoint the Chairman, who shall serve as such until the Common Council shall thereafter appoint a Chairman at the first meeting of the Common Council in January of each year. The Smoke Advisory Board shall elect a Secretary from among its members. If a vacancy shall occur in said Board other than by expiration of term, such vacancy shall be filled by the Common Council by appointment for the unexpired term. The Common Council shall have the power to remove any member for cause after a public hearing.
The duties of said Advisory Board shall be to advise and counsel with the Smoke Inspector and assist him in the promulgation of rules and regulations as provided in § 79-5 hereof.
The kind of fuel or refuse to be used and the rate of burning, including all provisions made for securing complete combustion of the fuel or refuse and the manner in which it is to be burned, for the purpose of preventing and eliminating dense smoke or other air-pollution.
The location and dimensions of the premises, room, basement or other portion of the building in which such plant, equipment or device now is or may be located; also, the doors, windows, air shafts, fans and other means of ventilation in such premises, room, basement or other portion of such building to be sufficient to prevent the temperature therein from rising to a point higher than 120° F., and sufficient also to provide that the atmosphere of any such room, basement or other portion of the building may be changed at least every 10 minutes.
The locations and dimensions of all stacks used in connection with or as a part of said fuel- or refuse-burning plant.
The Smoke Inspector may require such additional data as he may deem necessary for the purpose of issuing a permit.
No plans and specifications shall be approved nor shall a permit be issued for the installation, construction, erection or alteration of or addition to such fuel- or refuse-burning plant, equipment or device unless adequate and approved provisions are shown thereon for securing reasonably complete combustion of the fuel or refuse to be used, for the purpose of preventing dense smoke or other air-pollution.
After a permit has been issued, no fuel- or refuse-burning plant, equipment or device shall be operated or used with a type of fuel materially different from that specified, nor in a manner different from the plans and specifications and the terms and conditions relating to the operation and use.
Nothing in this section contained shall be construed so as to prohibit the making of repairs to any stack, fuel- or refuse-burning equipment or device.
The Building Commissioner shall not issue a permit for the erection, construction, reconstruction or alteration of any building or structure which includes or requires a stack connected with a fuel- or refuse-burning plant, equipment or device unless a permit has been issued as provided in § 79-5 hereof. It shall be the duty of the Smoke Inspector, after such permit has been issued, to inspect the premises wherein said fuel-or refuseburning plant, equipment or device is to be located to see that the execution of the work so authorized by said permit shall be done in conformity with the approved plans and specifications and the existing standards, rules and regulations applicable thereto.
It shall be unlawful for any person to use any new or reconstructed fuel- or refuse-burning plant, equipment or device until he shall have first procured a certificate of operation. No original certificate of operation shall be issued for such plant, equipment or device unless such plant, equipment or device is so constructed that it can consistently be managed to do the work required with the type of fuel and equipment to be used without emitting from the stack dense smoke, dust, soot, cinders, fly ash, noxious or obnoxious acids, fumes or gases.
Every fuel- or refuse-burning plant, equipment or device shall be subject to annual inspection: and it shall be unlawful for any person to use or operate any fuel- or refuse-burning plant, equipment or device without first obtaining therefor an annual certificate of operation.
The first annual inspection shall commence one year from the effective date of this ordinance, and each annual certificate of operation shall be effective for one year from the date thereof.
Upon due application and upon furnishing proof that plans and specifications have been or are being prepared for the reconstruction or alteration of or addition to any premises or fuel- or refuse-burning plant, equipment or device to prevent or eliminate air-pollution or the emission of dense smoke, and that the necessary steps have been taken to provide for compliance with the provisions of this chapter, but that the proper equipment or device cannot be obtained immediately, a certificate of extension may be granted for a period of not more than six months, and such period may be extended further not more than three months at any one time. All extensions of time shall be reported to the Common Council.
The issuance and delivery of a permit for the construction, reconstruction or alteration of or addition to any fuel- or refuse-burning plant, equipment or device or any stack connected thereto, or the issuance and delivery of an original or an annual certificate of operation shall not be a bar to prosecution because of a violation of any of the provisions of this chapter.
Fuel-burning equipment or devices installed to heat buildings used exclusively for private residences containing less than five dwelling units or flats shall be equipped with efficient smoke-eliminating apparatus, unless such equipment or device is fueled with anthracite coal, coke, oil, gas or other smokeless fuel.
All boilers used in connection with steam shovels or used for stationary work shall, when operated, use only smokeless type (bituminous) or anthracite coal, coke, oil, gas or other smokeless fuel.
A smoke indicator installed so as to accurately indicate type, volume and character of smoke being discharged.
The Smoke Inspector and/or his assistants shall be permitted to enter any premises within the city and inspect said premises and the fuel- or refuse-burning plant, equipment or device therein at all reasonable hours for the purpose of administering and enforcing the provisions of this chapter. No person shall in any manner hinder, obstruct, delay, resist, prevent or interfere with the agents or employees of the city while administering or enforcing the provisions of this chapter nor refuse them entrance to premises for that purpose.
A violation of this ordinance or any rule or regulation adopted hereunder by the Common Council is hereby declared a misdemeanor except as otherwise provided by law.
Any person who violates the provisions of this ordinance or any rule or regulation duly adopted by the Common Council hereunder, and upon conviction thereof in a court of competent jurisdiction, may be punished by a fine of not more than $100, or imprisonment for not more than 30 days for each violation or both.
The Common Council may also maintain an action or proceeding in the name of the city in a court of competent jurisdiction to collect a civil penalty of not over $200 for each violation of this ordinance.
Each unlawful emission of dense smoke, dust, soot, cinders, fly ash, noxious or obnoxious acids, fumes or gases shall constitute a separate violation.
A person participating in any such violation either as owner, proprietor, lessee, agent, tenant, manager, superintendent, captain, engineer, fireman or janitor or otherwise shall be liable therefor and subject to the fines or penalties fixed by this chapter upon conviction thereof.
If any clause, sentence, paragraph or part of this chapter or the application thereof to any person or circumstances shall for any reason be adjudged by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unconstitutional or invalid, said judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder of this chapter and the application of such provision to any other person or circumstances, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered and to the person or circumstance involved. It is hereby declared to be the legislative intent of the Common Council that this ordinance would have been adopted had such invalid provision not been included.
This ordinance shall become effective 10 days after the publishing and posting thereof as provided by law.

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