BILL NUMBER: AB 1489 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
CHAPTER 539
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE OCTOBER 11, 2009
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR OCTOBER 11, 2009
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 27, 2009
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 1, 2009
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 14, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Smyth
FEBRUARY 27, 2009
An act to amend Sections 25354.5 and 25400.16 of the Health and
Safety Code, relating to hazardous materials.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1489, Smyth. Hazardous materials: methamphetamine laboratories.
(1) Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances
Control to take removal actions with respect to a hazardous substance
that is an illegal controlled substance, a precursor of a controlled
substance, or a material intended to be used in the unlawful
manufacture of controlled substances. Existing law requires the
department, on or before October 1, 2008, and to the extent funding
is available, to develop health-based target remediation standards
for iodine, methyl iodide, and phosphine.
This bill would delete the date by which the department is
required to develop these standards.
(2) Existing law states that property contaminated by
methamphetamine laboratory activity is safe for human occupancy only
if the level of methamphetamine on an indoor surface is less than, or
equal to, 0.1 micrograms per 100 square centimeters. Existing law
establishes additional requirements for safe human occupancy if this
activity included the use of lead or mercury.
This bill would increase the methamphetamine level for this
purpose from 0.1 micrograms per 100 square centimeters to 1.5
micrograms per 100 square centimeters. This bill would provide that
these safety provisions do not preclude the department, in
consultation with the Office of Health Hazard Assessment, from
adopting stricter standards than the law would otherwise require.
This bill would also delete obsolete provisions of law.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 25354.5 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:
25354.5. (a) A state or local law enforcement officer or
investigator or other law enforcement agency employee who, in the
course of an official investigation or enforcement action regarding
the manufacture of an illegal controlled substance, comes in contact
with, or is aware of, the presence of a substance that the person
suspects is a hazardous substance at a site where an illegal
controlled substance is or was manufactured, shall notify the
department for the purpose of taking removal action, as necessary, to
prevent, minimize, or mitigate damage that might otherwise result
from the release or threatened release of the hazardous substance,
except for samples required under Section 11479.5 to be kept for
evidentiary purposes.
(b) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon receipt
of a notification pursuant to subdivision (a), the department shall
take removal action, as necessary, with respect to a hazardous
substance that is an illegal controlled substance, a precursor of a
controlled substance, a material intended to be used in the unlawful
manufacture of a controlled substance, and a container for the
material, a waste material from the unlawful manufacture of a
controlled substance, or any other item contaminated with a hazardous
substance used or intended to be used in the manufacture of a
controlled substance. The department may expend funds appropriated
from the Illegal Drug Lab Cleanup Account created pursuant to
subdivision (f) to pay the costs of removal actions required by this
section. The department may enter into oral contracts, not to exceed
ten thousand dollars ($10,000) in obligation, when, in the judgment
of the department, immediate corrective action to a hazardous
substance subject to this section is necessary to remedy or prevent
an emergency.
(2) The department shall, as soon as the information is available,
report the location of a removal action that will be carried out
pursuant to paragraph (1), and the time that the removal action will
be carried out, to the local environmental health officer within
whose jurisdiction the removal action will take place, if the local
environmental officer does both of the following:
(A) Requests, in writing, that the department report this
information to the local environmental health officer.
(B) Provides the department with a single 24-hour telephone number
to which the information can be reported.
(c) (1) For purposes of Chapter 6.5 (commencing with Section
25100), Chapter 6.9.1 (commencing with Section 25400.10), or this
chapter, a person who is found to have operated a site for the
purpose of manufacturing an illegal controlled substance or a
precursor of an illegal controlled substance is the generator of a
hazardous substance at, or released from, the site that is subject to
removal action pursuant to this section.
(2) During the removal action, for purposes of complying with the
manifest requirements in Section 25160, the department, the county
health department, the local environmental health officer, or their
designee may sign the hazardous waste manifest as the generator of
the hazardous waste. In carrying out that action, the department, the
county health department, the local environmental health officer, or
their designee shall be considered to have acted in furtherance of
their statutory responsibilities to protect the public health and
safety and the environment from the release, or threatened release,
of hazardous substances, and the department, the county health
department, the local environmental health officer, or their designee
is not a responsible party for the release, or threatened release,
of the hazardous substances.
(3) The officer, investigator, or agency employee specified in
subdivision (a) is not a responsible party for the release, or
threatened release, of hazardous substances at, or released from, the
site.
(d) The department may adopt regulations to implement this section
in consultation with appropriate law enforcement and local
environmental agencies.
(e) (1) The department shall develop sampling and analytical
methods for the collection of methamphetamine residue.
(2) The department shall, to the extent funding is available,
develop health-based target remediation standards for iodine, methyl
iodide, and phosphine.
(3) To the extent that funding is available, the department, using
guidance developed by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard
Assessment, may develop additional health-based target remediation
standards for additional precursors and byproducts of
methamphetamine.
(4) On or before October 1, 2009, the department shall adopt
investigation and cleanup procedures for use in the remediation of
sites contaminated by the illegal manufacturing of methamphetamine.
The procedures shall ensure that contamination by the illegal
manufacturing of methamphetamine can be remediated to meet the
standards adopted pursuant to paragraphs (2) and (3), to protect the
health and safety of all future occupants of the site.
(5) The department shall implement this subdivision in accordance
with subdivision (d).
(f) The Illegal Drug Lab Cleanup Account is hereby created in the
General Fund and the department may expend any money in the account,
upon appropriation by the Legislature, to carry out the removal
actions required by this section and to implement subdivision (e),
including, but not limited to, funding an interagency agreement
entered into with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard
Assessment to provide guidance services. The account shall be funded
by moneys appropriated directly from the General Fund.
(g) The responsibilities assigned to the department by this
section apply only to the extent that sufficient funding is made
available for that purpose.
SEC. 2. Section 25400.16 of the Health and Safety Code is amended
to read:
25400.16. (a) Property contaminated by methamphetamine laboratory
activity is safe for human occupancy for purposes of this chapter
only if the level of methamphetamine on an indoor surface is less
than, or equal to, 1.5 micrograms per 100 square centimeters.
(b) Except as provided in subdivision (c), if property is
contaminated by methamphetamine laboratory activity that included the
use of lead or mercury compounds, in addition to the requirements of
subdivision (a), property is safe for human occupancy for purposes
of this chapter only if both of the following standards are met with
regard to that property:
(1) The total level of lead is less than, or equal to, 20
micrograms per square foot.
(2) The level of mercury is less than, or equal to, 50 nanograms
per cubic meter in air.
(c) Subdivisions (a) and (b) shall become inoperative on the
effective date that the department, in consultation with the office,
adopts a health-based target remediation standard for methamphetamine
to determine when a property contaminated by methamphetamine
laboratory activity only is safe for human occupancy, in which case
any reference in this chapter to a human-occupancy standard specified
in this section shall mean only the health-based target remediation
standard for methamphetamine adopted by the department.
(d) This section does not preclude the department, in consultation
with the Office of Health Hazard Assessment, from adopting stricter
health-based remediation standards than required under this section.