BILL NUMBER: SB 990 ENROLLED
BILL TEXT
PASSED THE SENATE MAY 21, 2007
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 5, 2007
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 9, 2007
INTRODUCED BY Senator Kuehl
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Brownley)
FEBRUARY 23, 2007
An act to add Article 5.5 (commencing with Section 25359.20) to
Chapter 6.8 of Division 20, of the Health and Safety Code, relating
to hazardous waste.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 990, Kuehl. Hazardous waste: Santa Susana Field Laboratory.
(1) Existing law charges the Director of Toxic Substances Control
with oversight over hazardous waste control in the state. A violation
of the hazardous waste control laws is a crime.
This bill would authorize the Department of Toxic Substances
Control to compel a responsible party or parties to take or pay for
appropriate removal or remediation action, as prescribed, necessary
to protect public health and safety and the environment at the Santa
Susana Field Laboratory site in Ventura County. The sale, lease,
sublease, or other transfer of any land presently or formerly
occupied by the Santa Susana Field Laboratory would be prohibited
unless the Director of Toxic Substances Control certifies that the
land has undergone complete remediation pursuant to specified
protective standards.
Because a violation of this bill's requirements would be a crime,
the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Article 5.5 (commencing with Section 25359.20) is added
to Chapter 6.8 of Division 20 of the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
Article 5.5. Cleanup of Santa Susana Field Laboratory
25359.20. (a) Notwithstanding paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of
Section 25187 of the Health and Safety Code, the department may use
any legal remedies available pursuant to Chapter 6.8 (commencing with
Section 25300) or Chapter 6.5 (commencing with Section 25100) to
compel a responsible party or parties to take or pay for appropriate
removal or remedial action necessary to protect the public health and
safety and the environment at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site
in Ventura County.
(b) A response action taken or approved at the Santa Susana Field
Laboratory site shall be conducted in accordance with the provisions
of this chapter.
(c) A response action taken or approved pursuant to this chapter
for the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site shall be based upon, and
be no less stringent than, the provisions of Section 25356.1.5. In
calculating the risk, the cumulative risk from radiological and
chemical contaminants at the site shall be summed, and the land use
assumption shall be either suburban residential or rural residential
(agricultural), whichever produces the lower permissible residual
concentration for each contaminant. In the case of radioactive
contamination, the department shall use as its risk range point of
departure the concentrations in the Preliminary Remediation Goals
issued by the Superfund Office of the United States Environmental
Protection Agency in effect as of January 1, 2007.
(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of law regarding transfers
of land, no person or entity shall sell, lease, sublease, or
otherwise transfer land presently, or formerly occupied by the Santa
Susana Field Laboratory, except as provided in subdivision (e).
(e) As a condition for a sale, lease, sublease, or transfer of
land presently or formerly occupied by the Santa Susana Field
Laboratory, the Director of the Department of Toxic Substances
Control or his or her designee shall certify that the land has
undergone complete remediation pursuant to the most protective
standards in subdivisions (a) to (c), inclusive.
SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares that due to the
following unique circumstances regarding the former Santa Susana
Field Laboratory, a general statute cannot be made applicable within
the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California
Constitution.
(a) Founded in late 1940s, the Santa Susana Field Laboratory
(SSFL) was a facility dedicated to the development and testing of
nuclear reactors, rockets, missiles, and munitions. The location of
SSFL was chosen for its remoteness in order to conduct work that was
considered too dangerous to be performed in more densely populated
areas. In subsequent years, however, southern California's population
has mushroomed. Today, more than 150,000 people live within five
miles of the facility, and at least half a million people live within
10 miles.
(b) Throughout the years, approximately 10 nuclear reactors were
operated at SSFL, in addition to several "critical facilities" (low
power reactors); a sodium burn pit in which sodium-coated
radioactively contaminated objects were burned in an open pit; a
plutonium fuel fabrication facility; a uranium carbide fuel
fabrication facility; and a Hot Lab used for remotely cutting up
irradiated nuclear fuel.
(c) The Hot Lab suffered a number of fires involving radioactive
materials and at least four of the 10 nuclear reactors suffered
accidents, including a partial meltdown.
(d) The reactors located on the grounds of SSFL were considered
experimental, and, therefore, had no containment structures. Reactors
and highly radioactive components were housed without the large
concrete domes surrounding modern power reactors.
(e) The most famous accident occurred in July of 1959, when the
Sodium Reactor Experiment (SRE) experienced a partial core meltdown
releasing radioactive gasses and particles into the atmosphere over a
period of weeks. Recent studies have concluded that this accident
may have caused hundreds of cancer cases in the Los Angeles area.
(f) One of the disposal procedures at the site in the 1950s and
1960s would consist of workers disposing of barrels filled with
highly toxic substances by shooting the barrels at a distance with
shotguns, so that they would explode and burn, releasing some of
their contents in the form of gasses and particulates into the air.
In the mid-1990s a similar practice involving the illegal disposal by
open air burning led to the death of two workers at the facility.
(g) Additionally, large amounts of toxic chemicals were released
into the soil, air, and groundwater and surface water. For example,
the rocket test stands were routinely washed off with TCE,
approximately half a million gallons of which were allowed to
percolate into the soil and groundwater. Significant contamination
exists by perchlorate, heavy metals, PCBs, dioxins, volatile organic,
and semivolatile organic compounds, in addition to radioactivity.
(h) In 1989, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) found
widespread chemical and radioactive contamination at the site, and a
cleanup program commenced. In 1995 the United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and DOE announced that they had entered into
a Joint Policy Agreement to assure that all DOE sites would be
cleaned up to standards consistent with EPA's Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA)
standards, also known as Superfund. Those standards would have
required a full characterization of the site and cleanup of the
remaining contamination to standards deemed protective by EPA. In
2003, DOE declined to follow the 1995 Joint Policy and chose to
instead rely on less protective cleanup standards. EPA declared that
under the circumstances the site would not be safe for unrestricted
release but only for day hikes with restrictions on picnicking;
however, DOE continues to insist upon unrestricted release despite
the use of sitewide cleanup standards not in keeping with the 1995
Joint Policy and EPA CERCLA guidance.
SEC. 3. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.