§ 23-88. Right of entry/access to facilities.

(a)

The town manager or authorized enforcement staff shall be permitted to enter and inspect facilities as often as may be necessary to determine compliance with this article.

(b)

Dischargers shall allow the town manager or authorized enforcement staff immediate access to all parts of the facility for the purposes of inspection, sampling and examining all discharges into the stormwater drainage system and for copying records that must be kept under the conditions of an NPDES permit or to enforce compliance with any additional duties mandated by this article, state or federal law.

(c)

The town manager shall have the right to install or to require the discharger to install on any facility such devices as are necessary, in the opinion of the town manager, to monitor and/or sample the facility's discharges into the stormwater drainage system, including the MS4 or waters of the state. The discharger shall maintain such sampling and monitoring equipment in a safe and proper operating condition at the discharger's expense. All devices used to measure the flow and quality of discharges to the stormwater drainage system shall be calibrated to ensure their accuracy.

(d)

Upon the town manager's or authorized enforcement staff's request, a discharger shall immediately remove any temporary or permanent obstruction to the safe and easy access to a facility. The obstruction shall not be replaced. The discharger shall bear the costs of clearing the access. If a discharger has security measures in force which require proper identification and clearance before entry into its premises, the discharger shall make the necessary arrangements to allow access to the town manager and authorized enforcement staff.

(e)

If the town manager or authorized enforcement staff has been refused access to any part of a facility and if the town manager is able to demonstrate probable cause to believe that the portion of the facility to which access has been refused contains a discharge into the stormwater drainage system, including the MS4 or waters of the state, and that there is a need to inspect and/or sample the discharge as part of a routine sampling and inspection program or probable cause to believe that there is a condition, object, activity or circumstance which legally justifies such a search or inspection of that property, then the stormwater manager may seek issuance of an administrative search warrant pursuant to G.S. 15-27.2.

(Ord. No. 2016-11-14/O-1 , § 1)