A county sanitation district may sue and be sued by its own name.

A county sanitation district may employ such sanitation experts, surveyors, counsel, and other persons as are needed to carry into effect any powers of the district.

By resolution, the board may change the name of the district. The change of name shall be effective upon recording a certified copy in the office of the county recorder of the county or counties in which the district is situated.

The district may acquire by gift, purchase, condemnation, or otherwise, in the name of the district, and own, control, manage, and dispose of any interest in real or personal property necessary or convenient for the construction, maintenance, and operation of a sewerage system and sewage disposal or treatment plant, or a refuse transfer or disposal system, or both. As used in this article “refuse” shall include all of the following:

A district may acquire, construct, and complete within or without the district, sewage collection, treatment and disposal works, including sewage treatment plants, outfalls, intercepting, collecting and lateral sewers, pipes, pumps, machinery, easements, rights-of-way, and other works, property or structures necessary or convenient for sewage collection, treatment, and disposal. No sewerage system shall be constructed, maintained, or operated in any city not in the district except by consent granted by an affirmative vote by a majority of the full membership of the governing body of the city; provided, however, that the district may construct, operate, and maintain intercepting, trunk and outfall sewerlines, other than ocean outfall lines and other terminal outfall lines, together with pumps and like machinery necessary for sewage transportation, in a city pursuant to Section 4759.1. For the purposes of this section, the term “terminal outfall lines” means any outfall sewerlines that discharge within the city any effluent from a sewer treatment plant or any sewage.

It may also acquire lands and acquire and construct refuse transfer or disposal facilities, or both, within or without the district, and it may maintain and operate within the district boundaries a system for transfer or disposal of refuse, or both; provided, however, that the system shall not include “refuse collection” which is defined as the house-to-house pickup of refuse or any part thereof.

A district shall not acquire land for, or establish and operate, a refuse transfer or disposal facility within either a city or the unincorporated area of a county until the city council, if the facility is proposed to be located in the city, or the board of supervisors of the county, if it is proposed to be located in the unincorporated area of the county, has by resolution, consented to the use of the proposed site for that purpose.

If 90 percent or more of the total area of the district is unincorporated territory and the land proposed to be acquired for a refuse transfer or disposal facility is located in the unincorporated territory of the county, the board of supervisors, before adopting any resolution consenting to the use of land for that purpose, shall hold a public hearing upon the question of the adoption of the resolution. Notice of the hearing shall be given by publication in the area pursuant to Section 6066 of the Government Code, not more than 30 nor less than 10 days prior to the hearing. If at any time before the hearing, there is filed with the board of supervisors a written objection to the use of the proposed site for a refuse transfer or disposal facility, signed by 2 percent or more of the registered voters of the district, the board shall submit the matter of the proposed use to the voters of the district at an election. The proposition shall be submitted to the voters in the manner and under the procedure prescribed in Article 5 (commencing with Section 4780) of Chapter 3 of this part for submission of the proposition of incurring a bonded indebtedness. If a majority of the votes cast in an election are in favor of the proposed use, the board shall adopt the resolution consenting thereto, but if a majority of the votes cast are against the proposed use, the board shall dismiss the proceedings, and no resolution consenting to the use of any of such land shall be adopted by the board for at least one year from the date of the election.

A district board desiring to construct, maintain and operate a refuse transfer or disposal system, or both, within or without the district in addition to its sewage collection, treatment and disposal system shall adopt a resolution of its intention to do so. The resolution shall contain the following:

That portion of a political subdivision lying within a district and having representation on the district board of directors, shall be excluded from the proposed refuse transfer or disposal system, or both, and shall not be liable for any cost incurred by said district in acquiring, constructing, operating and maintaining such system; provided, that the governing body of said political subdivision within 90 days after passage of the resolution of intention by the district to form such system, delivers to said district a certified copy of its resolution requesting exclusion from the proposed refuse transfer or disposal system, or both.

At the expiration of not less than 90 days after adoption of the resolution of intention to construct, maintain and operate a refuse transfer or disposal system, or both, the district board may, in its discretion, adopt a resolution declaring the system formed or may rescind its resolution of intention to form said system and declare all prior proceedings in connection therewith void.

Any existing refuse collection and disposal system of a district shall be dissolved without further action by the board upon the adoption by the same district board of a resolution declaring a refuse transfer or disposal system, or both, formed.

The board of directors of a county sanitation district shall be the same for all district purposes, activities, and objectives, whether for collection, treatment and disposal of sewage or the acquisition and operation of a refuse transfer or disposal system, or both, and no director shall be excluded from the board of directors because the political subdivision which he represents on the board has excluded itself from the said refuse transfer or disposal system, or both.

When a refuse transfer or disposal system, or both, is established by a district pursuant to the provisions of this article, the district shall comply with the provisions of Sections 54900 to 54903, inclusive, of the Government Code, by furnishing a statement and map or plat to each assessor whose roll is used for the levy as provided in Section 4815 of this code and to the State Board of Equalization, showing the boundaries of said refuse transfer or disposal system or both.

The provisions of Sections 4741.1 through 4741.5 shall not apply to any district whose resolution of intention pursuant to Section 4710 discloses that the district was formed for the purposes of constructing, maintaining and operating both sewage collection and disposal systems and refuse collection and disposal systems. Also nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed to preclude any district from using its sewerage system to dispose of ground garbage or other acceptable material which is ground into the form of slurry.

Notwithstanding any of the provisions of this chapter, or of Article 4 (commencing with Section 5470) to the contrary, a district may fix and collect a fee or charge in connection with its refuse transfer or disposal system only pursuant to the provisions of Section 5471, and for these purposes “sanitation or sewerage system” includes a refuse transfer or disposal system. Any entity which collects such a fee or charge for a district pursuant to the provisions of Section 5471 may deduct the administrative costs of these collections from the revenue produced from such fee or charge. The revenues of these charges shall not be used for acquisition, construction, maintenance, or operation of any refuse transfer or disposal system, whether by the district, jointly, by contract, or otherwise, unless the system is either a facility for the conversion of solid waste into energy, synthetic fuels, or reusable materials or is open for use by all persons in the district. For the purposes of this section, “person” includes an individual, company, public or private corporation, or public entity.

It may join with any other district, city or other governmental agency in the purchase, ownership, use, construction, maintenance, or operation of a sewerage system or sewage disposal or treatment plant, or a refuse transfer or disposal system, or both, either within or without the district, or so join for any combination of these purposes, but no sewage disposal or treatment plan shall be constructed or maintained in any city not in the district, except by consent granted by the unanimous vote of the governing body of the city.

It may contract with any district, city, governmental agency, or person, for the handling, treatment or disposal by the district of refuse, sewage, or industrial wastes originating within the district or county or within areas outside of the district or county when, in the judgment of the district board, it is for the best interest of the district to do so, upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed upon; provided, that the contract shall be for such term as agreed upon, but in no event for a term in excess of 50 years, or for such time as in the judgment of the district board the district shall have the capacity for handling, treatment or disposal of such refuse, sewage, or industrial wastes.

Whenever a person installs sewers or other facilities for sewers and the district board determines that it is necessary that such sewers or other facilities be constructed so that they can be or will be used for the benefit of property other than that of the person making the installation and such sewers or other facilities are dedicated to the public or become the property of the district, the district board may by contract agree to reimburse such person for such sewers or other facilities. Such contract may provide that the district may collect from any person using such sewer or other facility for the benefit of property not owned by the person making the installation a reasonable fee or charge.

Any county sanitation district and any county may enter into a contract agreeing to pay and apportion between them the costs of locating, removing, repairing, or relocating any facilities owned or to be owned by either party on the roads or other property of the other in such proportion and upon such terms as the governing boards of the parties shall determine to be equitable.

It may make provision for street-cleaning and streetsweeping services upon the roads and streets within the boundaries of the district. It may contract with any district, city, governmental agency or person for the operation of a street-cleaning and streetsweeping service upon the roads and streets within the boundaries of the district, when, in the judgment of the district board, it is for the best interest of the district to do so, upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed upon.

It may sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of any property of the district or any interest therein whenever it is no longer required for the purposes of the district, or when its use may be permitted without interfering with its use by the district.

It may sell, or otherwise dispose of, any water, sewage effluent, fertilizer, or other by-product resulting from the operation of a sewerage system, sewage disposal plant, refuse disposal plant or process, or treatment plant, and construct, maintain, and operate such pipe lines and other works as may be necessary for that purpose.

It may construct, maintain, and operate such pipe lines or other works as may be necessary to conserve and put to beneficial use any water or sewage effluent recovered from the operation of the sewerage system, plant, or works, by sale or disposition for agricultural or industrial purposes, or by discharging or spreading the water or sewage effluent in such a manner as to percolate into the underground gravels and replenish the natural water resources.