BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 120 (Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials) -
Underground storage tanks: school districts.
Amended: As introduced Policy Vote: EQ 9-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: July 1, 2010 Consultant: Marie Liu
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 120 would allow school districts to apply for
reimbursement from the School Districts Account (SDA) within the
Underground Storage Tank Clean-up Fund (USTF) without meeting
the UST permit requirements.
Fiscal Impact: Unknown cost pressures in the hundreds of
thousands to millions of dollars to the USTF for increased
reimbursement applications.
Background: Leaking underground storage tanks contaminate
groundwater, drinking water aquifers and wells, and pose a
threat to public health and safety.
Under the Barry Keen Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Trust Fund
Act of 1989, every owner of an underground storage tank is
required to pay a storage fee for each gallon of petroleum
placed in the tank. The fees are deposited in the Underground
Storage Tank Cleanup Fund (USTCF). The money in the fund may be
expended by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB),
upon appropriation by the Legislature, for various purposes,
including the payment of claims up to $1.5 million per
occurrence to aid owners and operators of petroleum underground
storage tanks (USTs) to take corrective action to clean up
unauthorized releases from those tanks and payment of claims for
certain third party injuries and damages. In order to be
eligible for reimbursement from the USTCF, the claimant must be,
and have been, in compliance with UST permit requirements with
limited exemptions.
Existing law transferred $30 million from the USTCF to the SDA
for claims filed by school districts according to a statutorily
specified priority. Any funds remaining in the SDA on January 1,
AB 120 (ESTM)
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2016 will be transferred back to the USTCF.
The SWRCB reports that there are 700 fuel leaks at school
district sites throughout the state. About 40 school districts
have been denied funding assistance from the USTF, with the vast
majority of them being denied for inability to comply with
permitting requirements.
Proposed Law: This bill would exempt schools applying for
reimbursement from the SDA from the existing statutory
requirement if the tank that is the subject of the claim has not
received petroleum since January 1, 2003 or if the tank was
removed before January 1, 2003.
Related Legislation: AB 2729 (Ruskin) Chapter 644/2008
established the SDA within the USTF. The bill transferred $10
million from the USTF to the SDA to pay for claims filed by
school districts.
Staff Comments: By increasing eligibility to the program, this
bill will create cost pressures on the SDA. Staff notes that the
SWRCB does not believe there will be a large number of new
claims as a result of this bill. Claims are an average of
$400,000 but can be as large as $1.5 million.
According to the SWRCB, the SDA fund is currently not
oversubscribed.