Mendocino County Local Governance Landmark Legislation Passed
Reclaiming our Rights
CRNMC
PO Box 1133 Ukiah, CA 95482-1133
PO Box 1133 Ukiah, CA 95482-1133
Measure S
Measure S establishes a Community Bill
of Rights for the people of Mendocino County, built on the right to
local community self governance, in order to exercise and secure our
unalienable right to protect our health, safety and well being. These
rights include the right to live in a healthy and safe ecosystem and
the right to protect local water from harm caused by unconventional
gas extraction. In order to uphold and protect those rights, this
initiative bans all fracking related activities within the County,
including the transportation of fracking fluids, and the use of local
water for fracking.
Our nation was founded on the concept
that government is instituted to secure our unalienable rights and
derives it’s just powers from the consent of the governed.
Activities such as fracking affect our health and safety, our quality
of life, the health of our natural environment as well as our
property values and must be decided by the Citizens who live here and
who will be directly affected, or there is no “consent of the
governed.”
Yet States routinely issue permits to
chartered corporations that make it “legal” for them to violate
the rights of the people and refuse to recognize our right to say
“no!’ to harmful activities.
Measure S challenges those illegitimate
laws which violate our fundamental rights. This measure elevates the
rights of the people of Mendocino where they belong, above the
claimed "rights" of corporations and state agencies that
enable fracking corporations to profit from the destruction of local
ecosystems and to harm residents and communities.
Measure S protects our water by banning
fracking and asserts the right of the people of Mendocino to make
those kinds of decisions now and into the future.
TEXT OF PROPOSED INITIATIVE MEASURE
Whereas, We the People of Mendocino
County declare that we have the right and the duty to safeguard our
water both on and beneath the Earth’s surface, and in the process,
come together as a community to insure that local water decisions are
made by local people, for the preservation of human and natural
communities, whose existence depends on clean, accessible, abundant
water; and
Whereas, this Ordinance establishes a
Community Bill of Rights which recognizes and secures certain civil
and political rights for the people of Mendocino County; and
Whereas, this ordinance bans industrial
activities associated with unconventional extraction of fossil fuels,
("fracking"), because these activities violate the civil
and human rights of the people of the County by threatening the
health, safety, and welfare of the people, environment and future
generations of Mendocino County; and
Whereas, private corporations engaged
in industrial activities that violate the rights of the people of the
County are wrongly recognized by international, federal and state
laws as having more “rights” than the people who live in our
community, and thus, recognition of corporate rights” is a denial
of the rights of the residents of Mendocino County; and
Whereas, such a denial violates the
California Constitution, which declares in Article I, Section 1 that
All people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable
rights. Among these are enjoying and defending life and liberty,
acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and
obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy;” and
Whereas, in addition to corporate
“rights,” the state and federal government as well as
international trade laws have been routinely used by those
corporations to preempt local lawmaking, thus denying the people’s
right to local self-government; and
Whereas, the Board of Supervisors
adopted the Mendocino County Precautionary Policy Number 43 in June
2006 which states, "Every resident, present and future, of
Mendocino County has an equal right to a healthy and safe environment
. . . The duty to enhance, protect and preserve Mendocino County’s
environment, community health, and quality of life rests on the
shoulders of local government, residents, citizen groups, and
businesses alike." and
Whereas, the use of hydraulic
fracturing as an unconventional hydrocarbon extraction method has
been shown to inflict damage, disease and toxic trespass upon people,
flora and fauna, as well as water, air and soil; and
Whereas, the people have
responsibilities to future generations to secure their right to local
self-government, to protect the natural environment of this County,
to preserve the local ecosystems' ability to sustain agriculture,
business, and tourism, as well as promote human health,
Therefore, We the People of Mendocino
County hereby adopt this Community Bill of Rights Ordinance.
Section 1—Definitions
(a) “Corporations,” for purposes of
this Ordnance, shall include any corporation, limited partnership,
limited liability partnership, business trust, other business entity,
public benefit corporation, or limited liability company organized
under the laws of any state of the United States or under the laws of
any country.
(b) “Ecosystem” shall include, but
not be limited to, wetlands, creeks, aquifers, and other water
systems, forests, and meadows, as well as naturally occurring
habitats that sustain humans, wildlife, flora and fauna, and other
organisms.
(c) “Extraction” shall include the
digging or drilling of a well for the purposes of exploring for,
developing, or producing hydrocarbons.
(d) “Hydraulic fracturing” shall
mean an activity in which water, propane, diesel, chemicals and a
solid proppant or any other agent are pumped into a wellbore at a
rate sufficient to increase the pressure downhole to a value in
excess of the fracture gradient of the formation rock, causing the
formation to crack, thus allowing the fracturing fluid to enter and
extend the crack farther into the formation, forming passages through
which hydrocarbons can flow.
(e) “Hydrocarbons” shall mean any
of numerous organic compounds, including but not limited to methane,
benzene, propane, petroleum and oil.
(f) “Infrastructure” shall include,
but not be limited to, pipelines or other vehicles of conveyance of
hydrocarbons, and any ponds or other containments used for
wastewater, “frack” water, or other materials used during, or
resulting from, the process of unconventional hydrocarbon extraction.
(g) “Natural Community” shall mean
wildlife, flora, fauna, soil and air-dwelling and aquatic organisms,
as well as humans and human communities that have established
sustainable interdependencies within a diverse matrix of organisms,
within a natural ecosystem.
(h) “Unconventional Extraction of
Hydrocarbons” shall include, but not be limited to, hydraulic
fracturing, “fracking,” directional and horizontal drilling, and
waste injection wells. The term shall also include, but not be
limited to, extraction of water from any surface or subsurface source
for use in these activities; depositing, disposal, storing,
transporting and processing of waste water, produced water, frack
water, flow-back, brine or other materials, chemicals or by- products
used in, or resulting from, these activities; the construction and
siting of any new infrastructure to support these activities, as well
as application for, or issuance of, permits for engaging in these
activities.
Section 2—Statements of Law — A
Local Bill of Rights
(a) Right to Community Self-Government.
All residents of Mendocino County possess the right to a form of
governance where they live which recognizes that all power is
inherent in the people and that all free governments are founded on
the people’s consent. Use of the Mendocino County government by the
sovereign people to make law and policy shall not be deemed, by any
authority, to eliminate or reduce that self-governing authority.
(b) Right to Clean Water, Air and Soil.
All residents, natural communities and ecosystems in Mendocino County
possess the right to water, air and soil that is untainted by toxins,
carcinogens, particulates, nucleotides, and hydrocarbons introduced
into the environment through the unconventional extraction of
hydrocarbons.
(c) Rights of Natural Communities and
Ecosystems. Natural communities and ecosystems possess rights to
exist and flourish within Mendocino County without harm resulting
from the unconventional extraction of hydrocarbons.
(d) Right to be Free from Chemical
Trespass. All residents, natural communities and ecosystems in
Mendocino County possess the right to be free from chemical trespass
resulting from the unconventional extraction of hydrocarbons.
(e) Rights as Self-Executing,
Fundamental, and Unalienable. All rights delineated and secured by
this Ordinance are inherent, fundamental, and unalienable; and shall
be self-executing and enforceable against both private and public
actors.
Section 3—Statements of Law —
Prohibitions Necessary to Secure the Bill of Rights
(a) It shall be unlawful for any
government, corporation or natural person to engage in the
unconventional extraction of hydrocarbons within Mendocino County.
(b) The prohibitions in section 3(a) of
this Ordinance shall not apply to hydrocarbon extraction wells
installed and operating in the County prior to the enactment of this
Ordinance, only if the extraction process used for those wells prior
to the enactment of this ordinance is not changed to a different
extraction process after the enactment of this ordinance.
(c) Governments, corporations, and
natural persons engaged in unconventional extraction of hydrocarbons,
whether in Mendocino County or in a neighboring jurisdiction or
offshore location; shall be strictly liable for all harms resulting
from those activities caused to natural water sources, ecosystems,
people and communities within Mendocino County.
(d) It shall be unlawful for any
corporation, government or natural person to violate the rights
recognized and secured by this Ordinance.
(e) No permit, license, privilege,
charter, or other authority issued by any State, federal or
international entity which would violate the prohibitions of this
Ordinance or deprive any County resident of any rights secured by
this Ordinance, the California Constitution, the United States
Constitution, or other laws, shall be deemed valid within Mendocino
County.
Section 4—Enforcement
(a) Sec.4(a) Any corporation,
government or natural person that violates any prohibition
established by this Ordinance shall be guilty of misdemeanor. Those
liable for a violation are each and every officer and director of any
corporation that engages in fracking in Mendocino County, and each
and every person who operates any fracking machinery in Mendocino
County. Upon conviction the violator(s) shall be sentenced to one
year in county jail and shall pay a fine of $10,000 for each
violation. Each time the pump is turned on, and each stroke of the
pump shall be a separate violation, and violation of each section of
this Ordinance shall count as a separate violation. Each day that
fracking infrastructure equipment is staged or located in Mendocino
County for more than 8 hours, whether or not that equipment is
actually used for fracking, and each separate location in Mendocino
County where such equipment is situated, is a separate violation. The
court shall not authorize probation for any person convicted of any
portion of this ordinance, under any circumstance.
(b) The County, or any resident of the
County, may enforce the rights and prohibitions of this Ordinance
through an action brought in any court possessing jurisdiction over
activities occurring within the County. In such an action, the County
or the resident shall be entitled to recover all costs of litigation,
including, without limitation, expert and attorney’s fees.
(c) Any action brought by either a
resident of the County or by the County to enforce or defend the
rights of ecosystems or natural communities secured by this Ordinance
shall bring that action in the name of the ecosystem or natural
community in a court possessing jurisdiction over activities
occurring within the County. Damages shall be measured by the cost of
restoring the ecosystem or natural community to its state before the
injury, and shall be paid to the County to be used exclusively for
the full and complete restoration of the ecosystem or natural
community.
Section 5—Enforcement — People’s
Rights to Superior to Corporate Power
(a) Corporations which violate or seek
to violate this Ordinance, or which are alleged to have violated this
Ordinance, shall not be deemed to be “persons,” nor possess any
other legal rights, privileges, powers, or protections which would
interfere with the rights or prohibitions enumerated by this
Ordinance. “Rights, privileges, powers, or protections” shall
include the power to assert state, federal or international
preemptive laws in an attempt to overturn this Ordinance, and the
power to assert that the people of this municipality lack the
authority to adopt this Ordinance.
(b) All laws adopted by the legislature
of the State of California, and rules adopted by any State agency,
shall be the law of Mendocino County only to the extent that they do
not violate the rights or prohibitions of this Ordinance.
Section 6—Effective Date and Existing
Permit holders
This Ordinance shall be effective
immediately on the date of its enactment, at which point the
Ordinance shall apply to any and all actions that would violate this
Ordinance regardless of the date of any applicable permit.
Section 7—People’s Right to
Self-Government
Use of the courts or the legislature by
any government, corporation or natural person to attempt to overturn
the provisions of this Ordinance shall require the County to schedule
community meetings focused on changes to County government that would
secure the rights of the people to local self-government.
Section 8—California and Federal
Constitutional Changes
Through the adoption of this Ordinance,
the people of the County call for amendment of the California
Constitution and the federal Constitution to recognize the right to
local self-government free from governmental preemption and or
nullification by corporate “rights” when local laws expand and
are more protective of the rights of individuals, the community and
nature.
Section 9—Severability
The provisions of this Ordinance are
severable. If any court decides that any section, clause, sentence,
part, or provision of this Ordinance is illegal, invalid, or
unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect, impair, or
invalidate any of the remaining sections, clauses, sentences, parts,
or provisions of the Ordinance.
Section 10—Repealer
All inconsistent provisions of prior
Ordinances, laws and rules adopted by Mendocino County are hereby
repealed, but only to the extent necessary to remedy the
inconsistency.
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