BILL ANALYSIS �
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 120
Author: Assembly Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials
Committee, et al.
Amended: As introduced
Vote: 21
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 9-0, 6/19/13
AYES: Hill, Gaines, Calderon, Corbett, Fuller, Hancock,
Jackson, Leno, Pavley
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-0, 8/30/13
AYES: De Le�n, Walters, Gaines, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 5/28/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Underground storage tanks: school districts
SOURCE : Coalition for Adequate School Housing
DIGEST : This bill allows school districts to apply for
reimbursement from the School Districts Account (SDA) within the
Underground Storage Tank Clean-up Fund (UST Fund) without
meeting the underground storage tank (UST) permit requirements.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law under the Barry Keene Underground Storage Tank
Cleanup Trust Fund Act of 1989:
1.Creates the UST Fund in the State Treasury for expenditure by
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the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), upon
appropriation by the Legislature. Specifies fees, interest and
penalties that are required to be deposited into the UST Fund.
Provides that an owner or operator of an UST, as specified,
who is required to perform corrective action on a leaking UST,
may apply to the SWRBC for satisfaction of a claim. Provides
that the SWRCB may pay the claim.
2.Creates the SDA in the UST Fund, for expenditure by the SWRCB,
to pay a claim filed by a school district based on a specified
priority schedule. Transfers $10,000,000 per year, in the
2009-10, 2010-11, and 2011-12 fiscal years, from the UST Fund
to the SDA, for expenditure, upon appropriation by the
Legislature, for the payment of claims filed by a school
district.
3.Requires that to be eligible for a claim payment, the claimant
must have complied with the permit requirements of Underground
Storage of Hazardous Substances statute. Provides that all
claimants who file their claim on or after January 1, 2008, as
specified, may seek a waiver of the requirement to obtain a
permit. Requires the SWRCB to waive the permit requirements as
a condition for payment from the UST Fund if it makes
specified findings, including that the claimant was unaware of
the permit requirement.
This bill:
1.Requires the SWRCB to waive the permit requirement for
applicants to the SDA, if certain requirements are met.
2.Requires, as a condition of eligibility for a permit waiver,
the superintendent of the school district receiving funds from
the SDA to certify that petroleum was not delivered on or
after January 1, 2003, or that the tank was removed prior to
January 1, 2003.
Background
In order to be eligible for reimbursement from the UST Cleanup
Fund, the claimant must be, and have been, in compliance with
the UST permit requirements dictated in Chapter 6.7 of the HSC
(Underground Storage of Hazardous Substances statutory permit
requirements). The exception to this requirement is that if a
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claimant acquires real property where a UST is situated, and,
despite reasonable diligence, the claimant was unaware of the
UST at the time the real property was acquired, then the
claimant can demonstrate permit compliance if the claimant
obtains a UST permit within a reasonable period of time, not to
exceed one year, from the time that the claimant should have
become aware of the UST or when the local agency began issuing
permits, whichever occurs later.
In addition to this exception, if the claimant cannot provide
evidence of having obtained a permit to own or operate the
UST(s), the claimant can request that SWRCB waive the
requirement as a condition for eligibility. Waivers are granted
if SWRCB finds that the claimant was unaware of the permit
requirement, and upon becoming aware of the permit requirement,
the claimant complies with UST permitting requirements or UST
closure requirements; the claimant has complied with financial
responsibility requirements and has obtained and paid for all
permits currently required; and, the claimant has paid all UST
storage fees, interest, and penalties.
Claimants who qualify for the permit waiver must pay a higher
deductible on their claim, depending upon the date the claimant
complies with UST permitting or closure requirements. Current
claimants operating under this scenario must pay a deductible
that is four times the amount that would otherwise apply to the
claim.
Related/Prior Legislation
AB 282 (Wieckowski) extends the sunset, from January 1, 2014
until January 1, 2016, of the increase in the fee for storage in
an underground tank of $0.006 per gallon of petroleum.
SB 574 (Nielsen, 2013) requires SWRCB to pay a claim for the
costs of corrective action to a person who owns property on
which is located a release from a petroleum UST that has been
removed, the site has been the subject of a corrective action,
and for which additional corrective action is required because
of additionally discovered contamination from the previous
release if the person owns the property and is required to
perform corrective action pursuant to those provisions because
of additionally discovered contamination, if the person who
carried out the earlier and completed corrective action did not
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apply for reimbursement, as prescribed. This bill was held in
the Senate Appropriations Committee on the suspense file.
SB 1018 (Senate Budget Committee, Chapter 39, Statutes of 2012),
extended the sunset date of the SDA program from July 1, 2012,
to January 1, 2016.
AB 1188 (Ruskin, Chapter 649, Statutes of 2010), extended SDA
eligibility to Priority Class B and C (smaller) school district
claims.
AB 2729 (Ruskin, Chapter 644, Statutes of 2008), created the SDA
within the UST Fund. The bill transferred from the UST Fund to
the SDA a sum of $10 million per year in fiscal years 2009-10,
2010-11, and 2011-12, to pay for claims filed by school
districts in Priority Class D (claimants with more than 500
employees).
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, unknown cost
pressures in the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to
the UST Fund for increased reimbursement applications.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/30/13)
Coalition for Adequate School Housing (source)
California Association of Environmental Health Administrators
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
California Teachers Association
Clean Water Action
Coalition for Adequate School Housing
Community Water Center
CORE Environmental Reform
Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
Livermore Joint and Unified School District
PolicyLink
San Lorenzo Unified School District
Santa Barbara Unified School District
Small School Districts' Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : Supporters of the bill argue that many
school districts are ineligible for SDA funds because they
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cannot comply with the UST Fund permit requirement. Many
districts have antiquated tanks, and through staff turnover,
facility changes and lack of recordkeeping over time (all common
at school districts), they have failed to maintain current
permits on their unused tanks. Additionally, these school
districts are often ineligible for the existing UST Fund permit
requirement exception and waivers because the school districts
are deemed to have knowledge of the tanks.
There are 700 reported fuel leaks at school district sites in
the State. According to data supplied by SWRCB, as of December
2, 2012, 267 school districts applied for funding through SDA.
Of these, 193 school district sites have been funded and six are
on the priority list (already approved) waiting to be funded.
About 40 school districts have been denied funding due to
ineligibility. SWRCB estimates that 25% of these later
districts were denied eligibility for being unable to comply
with permitting requirements and 48% were denied for more than
one reason; the inability to comply with permitting requirements
most likely being one of those reasons.
Supporters also argue that finding the resources to clean up the
environmental problems associated with USTs is extremely
difficult for school districts, which are already facing reduced
budgets. Costs for cleanup can easily range from $50,000 to
over $1,000,000.
This bill requires SWRCB to waive the permitting requirement for
school districts that haven't used their underground storage
tanks since January 1, 2013, thus making them eligible to access
SDA tank cleanup funds.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 5/28/13
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Blumenfield, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown,
Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Ch�vez, Chesbro, Conway,
Cooley, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez,
Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mitchell, Morrell,
Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson,
Perea, V. Manuel P�rez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas,
Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski,
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Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A. P�rez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Holden, Vacancy
RM:nl 9/3/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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