§ 1. PIPELINES, LAYING OR REPLACING OF
A.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
All terms used herein shall be taken in their ordinary signification except the following:
(1)
Commodity means any substance capable of being transmitted through a pipeline which is, or may become, flammable, toxic, or otherwise hazardous to human, animal, or plant health and/or life.
(2)
Pipeline means a line of pipe with pumps, valves, and control devices for conveying a commodity or commodities.
(3)
Shut-off Valve means any device installed in a pipeline and used to stop the conveyance of a commodity or commodities through a pipeline.
B.
PERMIT REQUIRED
No person, firm, or corporation shall lay any pipeline, nor shall an existing pipeline be entirely replaced, across, or along and under the public streets, highways, sidewalks, parks, public squares, and/or public places within the City of Santa Fe, unless and until a permit has been obtained for such pipeline under the terms of this section.
(Ordinance 17-79 of October 11, 1979)
C.
BOND REQUIRED
(1)
In the event that the city shall issue a permit under the provisions of this section, the applicant therefor shall post a satisfactory corporate obligation commercial or cash bond with the city council conditioned to secure the city against all loss, damage, or injury of any kind which may result to the city by reason of the construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, extension, or laying of the pipeline. The amount and type of such bond shall be based upon the location of such pipeline, the length of such line, and the potential hazards involved by reason of such construction.
(2)
Said bond shall become effective on or before the date the same is filed with the city secretary and remain in force and effect and on deposit for at least a period of one (1) year from completion of construction, and in addition the bond will be conditioned that the permittee will promptly pay off fines, penalties, and other assessments imposed upon provisions, and conditions of this section and the ordinance granting the permit, and that the permittee will promptly restore the streets and sidewalks and other public property of the city, which may be disturbed or damaged by reason of the construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, extension, or laying of the pipeline, to their former condition; and that the permittee will promptly clear all premises of all litter, trash, waste, and other substances used, allowed, or occurring in the operations, and will, after completion, grade, level, and restore said property to the same surface condition, as nearly as possible, as existed when pipeline work first commenced; and that the permittee will indemnify and hold the City of Santa Fe harmless form any and all liability growing out of or attributable to the granting of such permit, including the payment of any expenses incurred by the city for reasonable attorney's fees for representation of the city for any legal action which may be filed by either party hereto by reason of seeking or recovery of damages to the city as aforesaid. If at any time, the city council shall deem any permittee's bond to be insufficient for any reason, it may require the permittee's bond to be insufficient for any reason, it may require the permitted to make an additional cash bond. If after completion of construction, permittee has complied with all of the provisions of this section, and the ordinance granting the permit, the permittee may apply to the city council for a refund of said bond.
(Ordinance 11-95 of October 26, 1995)
D.
TRUNK LINE PERMIT-TO BE GRANTED BY ORDINANCE; DEPTH OF PIPES
A permit to lay or construct a trunk pipeline across or along and under any street or streets in the city shall only be granted by ordinance which shall state the streets across or along and under which the pipeline is to be laid and shall state with particularity the point or points at which the pipeline will cross or run along and under any such street. No such permit will be granted nor any such ordinance passed unless so much of the entire pipeline as is proposed to be laid through or under any undeveloped or unplatted area within the limits of the city is to be buried and laid to a depth of at least four feet (4') measured between the top of the line and the natural surface of the ground; provided, that at any point or points where such line is to cross or run along and under an existing street or streets and/or any proposed street which has been designated on the master plan for the City of Santa Fe or the official city map of the City of Santa Fe, said line must be buried to a depth of at least six feet (6') measured between the top of the line and the natural surface of the ground and encased. Provided further, if at any particular point or points the city council recommends that a greater or lesser depth be required, if known and reasonable facts presented show that the recommendation is prudent and reasonable, such permit will not be granted except upon agreement by the permittee to comply with such required depth.
E.
LOCATION OF OIL, GAS, CHEMICAL, AND PETROLEUM PRODUCT PIPELINES WITH STREETS, ALLEYS, AND PUBLIC PLACES
(1)
All oil, gas, chemical, or petroleum product pipelines, which shall be constructed within the streets, alleys, and other public places in the City of Santa Fe, Texas, shall be located wholly not less than four feet (4') below the surface of the ground, and twelve inches (12") from any water main, storm sewer, sanitary sewer, or other subsurface structure, when traversing such water main, storm sewer, sanitary sewer, or other subsurface structure.
(2)
All oil, gas, chemical, or petroleum product pipelines shall be located wholly not less than four feet (4') from the outside extremity of any other oil, gas, chemical, or petroleum product pipeline except when both pipes are encased. If both pipes are encased they may be located wholly not less than twelve inches (12") from the outside extremity of each pipeline.
(3)
All oil, gas, chemical, or petroleum product pipelines shall be located wholly not less than four feet (4') from the outside extremity of any water main or sanitary sewer main when constructed parallel to such water main or sewer main.
(4)
No oil, gas, chemical, or petroleum product pipeline shall be constructed within sixteen feet (16') of a building or structure designed or built for human habitation.
(5)
All oil, gas, chemical, or petroleum product pipelines constructed within the City of Santa Fe, Texas, shall be so constructed that a cutoff valve is installed within one hundred feet (100') of each city limit line location. These valves shall be constructed in the pipeline in a manner that permits isolation of the city from other facilities in the event of an emergency.
F.
APPLICATION FOR PERMIT; SUBMITTING PLANS; REPORT TO COMMISSION
Any person desirous to construct any trunk pipeline across or along and under any street within the limits of the city shall first submit to the city council a plan accurately showing the proposed location, course, and alignment of the proposed pipeline, accompanied by a written application for the passage of an ordinance as hereinabove provided, which application shall show (unless the same are sufficiently shown on the plan) the time, manner, means and methods of the proposed construction, the particular commodity proposed to be transported through such line, and the maximum pressure and maximum temperature under which the same may be pumped or otherwise caused or permitted to flow through any and all of the particular portions of the line. Such plan, which shall consist not only of the plan but also of a suitable alignment map as drawn for the applicant for its own records, shall accurately show the location of all existing streets, all proposed streets designated on the master plan for the City of Santa Fe or on the official map of the City of Santa Fe across or along and under which the pipeline is intended to be laid. Two (2) copies thereof and of the application shall be presented to the city engineer. The city engineer shall report to the city council upon his examination of such application and plans (including such changes in the plans as the applicant may have made upon his suggestion) with his recommendations as to the granting or denying of the application. He shall, in his report and recommendation, state whether the depth or depths at which it is proposed to be laid through undeveloped or unplatted areas is, to the extent economically feasible, consistent with the probable location of and opening of future streets and the probable laying of water, sanitary sewer, and storm sewer lines incident to such probable future development.
G.
PERMIT FEES
Every such ordinance granted for the carrying of trunk pipelines under city streets shall provide that the permittee pay to the city an initial permit fee in the amount of three hundred dollars ($300.00) and shall further provide for the payment of an annual fee thereafter in the amount of two hundred dollars ($200.00) per year, payable annually in advance each year that said pipeline is in operation, on or before the anniversary date of the final passage of the ordinance granting such permit.
H.
CONDITIONS IMPOSED BY ORDINANCES; SAVING CITY HARMLESS, REFILLING DEPRESSIONS, REPAIRING STREETS
An ordinance granting any permit shall require the permittee to save the city harmless from liability for injury or damage to any person or persons or property caused by the construction, maintenance, operation, repair, or removal of any part or all of such pipeline within the right-of-way of any street of the city, whether existing at the time such ordinance is passed or thereafter dedicated or otherwise coming into existence; and shall require the permittee to pay to the city all damages caused to the city or any of its agencies by the construction, maintenance, operation, repair, or removal of such pipeline or any part thereof. Such ordinance shall further require the permittee to refill all excavations made by it within the right-of-way of any unimproved (unpaved) street, whether existing at the time such ordinance is passed or thereafter dedicated or otherwise coming into existence, in the construction, operating, maintaining, or removing of such pipeline or any part thereof; and if after once refilling such excavation the earth within the excavated area settles so as to leave a depression, the permittee shall be required to make further necessary fills from time to time as ordered by the city council. The permittee will be required by such ordinance to repair all portions of any street across or along and under which its such pipeline is laid and place the same in as good a state of repair and condition as they were in at the time the construction, repair, or removal was commenced, such repairs to be to the satisfaction of the city council. Such ordinance shall further require that all such work of repairing or refilling shall be done under plans and specifications approved by the city council and subject to the city council's approval of the completed work; provided, however, no open cuts of paved streets and alleys shall be permitted, and the permittee shall tunnel and bore under said paved streets and alleys; and, provided further, all pipelines laid in public rights-of-way shall be installed in casing. Except in an emergency the permittee shall notify the city council before commencing at any time excavation in any portion of any said unpaved or unimproved street, and shall not wholly close any street, but shall at all times maintain a route of travel along and within such roadway area which shall include any sidewalk area, except in the event of an emergency, it being evident that immediate action is necessary for protection of the public and to minimize property damage and loss of investment, permittee may, at its own responsibility and risk make necessary emergency repairs, notifying the city council and the mayor of this action in writing, as soon as practical. Such ordinance shall also provide that in the event the permittee fails to commence or thereafter to diligently prosecute any repair, refilling, or other work required to be done by it within a reasonable time after being notified to do so by the city council, the city may cause such work to be done at the expense of the permittee and may recover all such expense from the permittee together with all costs and reasonable attorney fees.
I.
RELOCATION OF LINE
Each permit granted to an applicant shall provide that any such lines which shall cross or be laid within and along any street or street right-of-way in existence will at any time thereafter be relocated or lowered by the permittee at his cost if found necessary by the city council incident to any future construction or improvement of such street or of any water line, sanitary sewer line, storm sewer line, or other public improvements within such street. In the event it becomes necessary to require such relocation, the city shall give the permittee thirty (30) days written notice of its requirement in this connection, and the permittee shall accomplish the said work at his sole expense within a reasonable time thereafter.
J.
REGISTRATION OF PIPELINES
The owner of every pipeline now located across or along and under the public streets, highways, sidewalks, parks, public squares, and/or public places within the City of Santa Fe and the owner of any pipeline constructed, or replaced under a permit hereinafter granted under the terms of this section, shall prepare and file with the city on or before April, 1979, three (3) official scaled, City of Santa Fe, Texas, street maps as currently revised by the city engineer, upon which the owner shall fully delineate the area within the city's corporate limits traversed by the existing or proposed pipeline with the route, distances, and shut-off valve locations clearly and indelibly drawn thereon together with the name and mailing address of the owner and the telephone number of at least one (1) officer or person available on a twenty-four (24) hour basis who can furnish or obtain immediately, information as to the pressure at the point or points of input nearest to the city and the common name of the commodity carried by the pipeline or pipelines of such owner. Immediately upon receipt of said maps the city secretary shall transmit one (1) copy to the city council, one (1) copy to each fire department operating in the city, including volunteer fire departments, and shall retain one (1) copy in the city files. The city secretary shall issue a receipt for each registration filed. Any change in the twenty-four (24) hour contact information must be promptly reported to each fire department in the city.
K.
PIPELINE SIGNS
Every pipeline, new or existing, within the corporate limits of the city shall bear at all times, in plain, indelible lettering, signs denoting the ownership of said pipeline, permanently affixed in the pipeline right-of-way. No person, except the owner, or his or its duly authorized agent, shall tamper with or remove any such sign.
L.
EXCEPTIONS
Those lands within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the city, which have been heretofore, or which may hereafter be declared industrial districts by the city council under the Texas Municipal Annexation Act, are wholly occupied by and subject to industrial development and; therefore, pipelines within said lands are excepted from the operation and effect of this section.
M.
SHUT-OFF VALVE OPERATION; EXCAVATION AND CONSTRUCTION ON OR ACROSS PIPELINES
No person shall turn off, on, or otherwise operate or tamper with any pipeline shut-off valve within the city's corporate limits unless such person be an employee of the owner or operator of said pipeline or a duly authorized agent of such owner or operator. No person, other than the owner of the pipeline or his or its duly authorized agent, shall excavate over or change the grade of, operate on or construct anything on or across the right-of-way of any pipeline without first notifying the city council and the owner of the pipeline and giving them reasonable opportunity to have an observer present during such activity.
N.
PENALTIES
Any violation of any subsection or part of this section shall be deemed a misdemeanor, and such violation thereof during all or any portion of any day shall be a separate offense and misdemeanor; and, upon final conviction, every person, firm, association, corporation, or partnership guilty of such violation shall be fined in accordance with chapter 1, section 5 of this Code of Ordinances.
(Ordinance 17-79 of October 11, 1979)