Spokane Municipal Code

Title 17E Environmental Standards

Chapter 17E.010 Critical Aquifer Recharge Areas – Aquifer Protection

Article I. General Provisions

Section 17E.010.010 Purpose and Applicability

1. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Aquifer Recharge Area Protection Code."

2. The purpose of this chapter is to protect the public health, safety and welfare by providing protection for environmentally sensitive areas and their functions and values, and by preserving and protecting critical aquifer recharge areas through the regulation of development and other activities in critical aquifer recharge areas, and not to create or otherwise establish or designate any particular person, or class, or group of persons who will or should be especially protected or assisted by the terms or provisions of this chapter. It is expressly the purpose of this ordinance to protect the health, safety and welfare of the general public through protection of local groundwater resources and the public drinking water supply. It is further a general purpose to halt and reverse continued degradation of the Spokane aquifer, to improve the quality of the aquifer, to restrict or prohibit adverse land uses and other practices tending to degrade or negatively affect the purity and quality of the aquifer. It is also directed towards the purposes expressed in SMC 17A.010.020, with special emphasis upon the protection of the Spokane aquifer through implementation of the Spokane Aquifer Water Quality Management Plan.

3. The requirements of this chapter apply to all activities and development occurring in critical aquifer recharge areas, as defined in this chapter. Critical aquifer recharge areas (CARA) include locally identified aquifer sensitive areas (ASA) and wellhead protection areas. All areas within the City meeting the definition of a critical aquifer recharge area, regardless of any formal identification, are hereby designated critical areas as regards the Spokane Aquifer and are subject to the provisions of this chapter. It is expressly the purpose of this ordinance to establish a regulatory program consistent with these purposes set forth above in section B, and the goals and policies of the City of Spokane comprehensive plan and shoreline master program or as amended.

4. This chapter provides for:

   1. identification of substances designated “critical materials”, which, in specified amounts, could create a hazard to the Spokane aquifer, and activities associated with them, designated “critical materials activities”;

   2. development of standards for the handling, use, storage and transportation of such substances and precautions attendant to such activities; and

   3. establishment of appropriate disclosure, monitoring and control procedures;

   all as detailed in the Critical Materials Handbook, the Critical Materials List, and the Critical Materials Activities List.

5. It is not a purpose of this chapter to extend specific regulatory protection to any individual person or class of persons, and no duty shall be deemed created or implied to any individual, group or class by virtue of this chapter or any regulation, requirement, order, action or inaction of the City, its employees or agents.

6. Relationship to Other Regulations.

   1. This chapter applies as an overlay to other laws, regulations and requirements, including, and in addition, but not limited to, zoning, land use standards, building standards and codes, stormwater management requirements, solid waste management requirements, wastewater management requirements, the shoreline management plan, critical area protection requirements, wellhead protection plans, and other regulations, presently in effect and as now adopted or hereafter amended from time to time.

   2. Any area constituting a critical aquifer recharge area under this chapter that individual critical area adjoined by another type of critical area shall have the buffer and meet the requirements that provide the most protection to the critical areas involved. When the provisions of this chapter vary from or are inconsistent with any other any provisions of the ordinance or any existing regulation, easement, covenant or deed restriction, conflicts with this chapter, the provision that at which provides the most protection to the critical area shall apply.

   3. This chapter shall apply concurrently with review conducted under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), as locally adopted, SMC 17E.050.020. Any conditions required pursuant to this chapter shall be included in the SEPA review and threshold determination.

   4. The City of Spokane is the authority having jurisdiction for critical material storage within the boundaries of the City. Depending on the circumstances and substances other local, State, and Federal regulations may also apply.

Date Passed: Monday, June 13, 2016

Effective Date: Wednesday, July 27, 2016

ORD C35399 Section 3