BILL NUMBER: SB 1300 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 21, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Senator Hancock
FEBRUARY 21, 2014
An act to amend Section 7870 of, and to add Sections
Section 7872 and 7873 to, the
Labor Code, relating to refineries.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1300, as amended, Hancock. Refineries: turnarounds.
Existing law, the California Refinery and Chemical Plant Worker
Safety Act of 1990, states that its purpose is to prevent or minimize
the consequences of catastrophic releases of toxic, flammable, or
explosive chemicals. Existing law provides for the adoption of
specified process safety management standards for, among others,
refineries that handle acutely hazardous material. Existing law
declares the intent of the Legislature for, among others, the
Division of Occupational Safety and Health, to promote worker safety
through implementation of training and process safety management, as
defined, in refineries and other facilities as deemed appropriate. A
violation of the act is a crime.
This bill would require every petroleum refinery employer to,
every September 15, submit to the division a full schedule of planned
turnarounds, meaning a planned, periodic shutdown of a refinery
process unit or plant to perform maintenance, overhaul, and repair
operations and to inspect, test, and replace process materials and
equipment, for the fl following calendar year, as
specified. Upon the request of the division, the bill would also
require a petroleum refinery employer to provide access on site and
provide the division with specified documentation relating to a
planned turnaround within a certain period of time, as provided.
This bill would prohibit any information that is submitted
to the division that is identified as a trade secret from being
released to the public, as specified.
Existing law requires the division to annually fix and collect
reasonable fees for consultation, inspection, adoption of standards,
and other duties conducted pursuant to the act, and requires all
revenue collected from these fees to be deposited into the
Occupational Safety and Health Fund. Existing law requires the fees
to be sufficient to support, at a minimum, the annual cost of 15
positions and requires the fees to be adopted by March 15, 2014.
This bill would instead authorize the Department of Industrial
Relations to fix and collect reasonable fees to cover all necessary
expenses, including administrative and indirect costs, for
consultation, inspection, adoption of standards, participation in
interagency efforts to improve safety in refineries and chemical
plants, and other duties conducted pursuant to this act. This bill
would require the Director of Industrial Relations to adopt
reasonable rules and regulations governing the criteria and
procedures to fix and collect the fees, including emergency
regulations as necessary.
This bill would require the Director of Industrial Relations to
recoup the full costs of extraordinary expenditures from the owner of
a refinery by adding the amount expended to the next year's
assessment for that facility as a result of the division's response
to a hazardous material release or similar occurrence at a petroleum
refinery.
This bill would authorize the department to hold in reserve any
unexpended funds as a contingency fund for expenditures required by
an emergency response to a hazardous material release or other
emergency situation an unexpended funds, as provided.
Because a violation of the bill's requirements would be a crime,
the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
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.
Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that
limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the
writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings
demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need
for protecting that interest.
This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 7870 of the Labor Code is amended to read:
7870. (a) Notwithstanding the availability of federal funds to
carry out the purposes of this part, the department may fix and
collect reasonable fees to cover all necessary expenses, including
administrative and indirect costs, for consultation, inspection,
adoption of standards, participation in interagency efforts to
improve safety in refineries and chemical plants, and other duties
conducted pursuant to this part. All revenue collected from these
fees shall be deposited into the Occupational Safety and Health Fund.
The expenditure of these funds shall be subject to appropriation by
the Legislature in the annual Budget Act. The director shall adopt
reasonable rules and regulations governing the criteria and
procedures to fix and collect the fees and to implement this section,
including emergency regulations as necessary. All regulations
previously adopted by the division pursuant to this section shall
remain in effect until repealed or amended by the director.
(b) The emergency regulations adopted pursuant to this section
shall be adopted by the director in accordance with Chapter 3.5
(commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of
the Government Code. The adoption of these regulations is an
emergency and shall be considered by the Office of Administrative Law
necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace,
health, safety, and general welfare.
(c) If, as a result of the division's response to a hazardous
material release or similar occurrence at a petroleum refinery, the
division is required to make extraordinary expenditures, including,
but not limited to, transportation, meals, lodging, overtime, or
other costs, the director shall recoup the full costs of such
expenditures from the owner of the refinery by adding the amount
expended to the next year's assessment for that facility. The
director shall provide the owner of the refinery with an accounting
of the costs for which reimbursement is being sought.
(d) In the event the funds collected pursuant to this section are
not fully expended by the department in carrying out its duties
pursuant to this part, the balance shall be carried forward and may,
in the department's discretion, be credited against the subsequent
year's assessment or held in reserve as a contingency fund for
expenditures required by an emergency response to a hazardous
material release or other emergency situation.
SEC. 2. Section 7872 is added to the Labor Code, to read:
7872. (a) For the purposes of this section, "turnaround" means a
planned, periodic shutdown, total or partial, of a refinery process
unit or plant to perform maintenance, overhaul, and repair operations
and to inspect, test, and replace process materials and equipment.
"Turnaround" does not include unplanned shutdowns that occur due to
emergencies or other unexpected maintenance matters in a process unit
or plant. "Turnaround" also does not include routine maintenance,
where routine maintenance consists of regular, periodic maintenance
on one or more pieces of equipment at a refinery process unit or
plant that may require shutdown of such equipment.
(b) Every September 15, every petroleum refinery employer shall
submit to the division a full schedule of planned turnarounds for the
various units for the following calendar year.
(c) At the request of the division, at least 60 days prior to the
shutdown of a process unit or plant as part of a planned turnaround,
a petroleum refinery employer shall provide access on site and allow
the division to review and receive copies of, or, at the division's
discretion, submit in physical format or in electronic format if
available electronically, the following documentation for the process
unit or plant scheduled to be shut down for that turnaround:
(1) Corrosion reports and risk-based inspection reports generated
since the last turnaround.
(2) Process Hazard Analyses generated since the last turnaround.
(3) Boiler permit schedules.
(4) All management of change records related to repairs, design
modifications, and process changes implemented since the last
turnaround or scheduled to be completed in the planned turnaround
referenced in this subdivision and identified in subdivision (b).
(5) Work orders scheduled to be completed in the planned
turnaround referenced in this subdivision and identified in
subdivision (b).
(6) Temporary repairs since the last turnaround, including, but
not limited to, clamps and encapsulations. For the purposes of this
section, "temporary repairs" shall be defined as repairs made to
piping systems in order to restore sufficient integrity to continue
safe operation until permanent repairs can be scheduled.
(d) The division may request additional information as necessary
to perform its responsibilities in this part pursuant to Section
6314.
(e) At the request of the division, at least 30 days prior to the
shutdown of a process unit or plant as part of a planned turnaround,
a petroleum refinery employer shall provide access on site and allow
the division to review and receive copies of, or, at the division's
discretion, submit in physical format or in electronic format if
available electronically, notification and description of any changes
to the information or documents provided pursuant to subdivision (c)
and relevant supporting documents.
(f) By agreement with a petroleum refinery employer, the division
may modify the reporting period as to any individual item of
information.
(g) This section is not intended to limit or increase the division'
s authority in Part 1 (commencing with Section 6300) to prohibit use
of a place of employment, machine, device, apparatus, or equipment or
any part thereof that constitutes an imminent hazard to employees.
(h) The division shall develop an electronic information
management system to facilitate monitoring of petroleum refineries
pursuant to this section.
(i) The Legislature finds and declares the purpose of this section
is to improve the ability of the state to conduct inspections of
petroleum refining operations.
SEC. 3. Section 7873 is added to the Labor
Code, to read:
7873. (a) Any person providing information pursuant to Section
7872 may, at the time of submission, identify all or a portion of the
information submitted to the division as a trade secret and, to the
extent feasible, segregate records designated as a trade secret from
the other records. Information that is so identified at the time of
submission shall not be released to any member of the public, except
that such information may be disclosed to other officers or employees
of the division concerned with carrying out the purposes of the
division or when relevant in any proceeding of the division. This
section does not prohibit the exchange of properly designated trade
secrets between public agencies when those trade secrets are relevant
and necessary to the exercise of their jurisdiction if the public
agencies exchanging those trade secrets preserve the protections
afforded that information by this section. For purposes of this
section, "public agency" has the same meaning as that term is defined
in Section 6252 of the Government Code.
(b) Any information not identified as a trade secret shall be
available to the public unless exempted from disclosure by other
provisions of law. The fact that information is claimed to be a trade
secret is public information. Upon receipt of a request for the
release of information that has been claimed to be a trade secret,
the division shall immediately provide written notice to the person
who submitted the information. Within 10 days from receipt of the
notice of the request for the release of the information claimed to
be a trade secret, the person claiming trade secrecy shall submit to
the division the legal and factual basis for the claim of trade
secrecy.
(c) Within 75 days after receiving the request for disclosure, but
not before 30 days following the later of (1) the notification of
the person who submitted the information or (2) the division's
receipt of the basis for the claim of trade secrecy submitted
pursuant to subdivision (b), the division shall determine whether or
not the information claimed to be a trade secret is to be released to
the public. If the division decides to make the information public,
it shall provide the person who submitted the information 21 days'
notice prior to public disclosure of the information.
(d) If the person requesting the release of the information or the
person who submitted the information institutes proceeding for
injunctive or declaratory relief or a writ of mandate to order or
prohibit disclosure of trade secret information, the person
instituting the proceeding shall name the other person as a real
party in interest. Each party shall bear its own costs and attorney's
fees.
(e) For the purposes of this section, "trade secret" means any
trade secret as defined in subdivision (d) of Section 3426.1 of the
Civil Code, any trade secret as defined in subdivision (d) of Section
6254.7 of the Government Code, and any other information regarding
the scheduling, duration, and type of work to be performed during a
turnaround that may provide economic value to any person other than
the petroleum refinery employer, including the schedule submitted to
the division pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 7872. Upon
completion of a turnaround, the dates on which that turnaround was
conducted shall no longer be considered a trade secret.
SEC. 4. 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.
SEC. 5. The Legislature finds and declares that
Section 3 of this act, which adds Section 7873 to the Labor Code,
imposes a limitation on the public's right of access to the meetings
of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies
within the meaning of Section 3 of Article I of the California
Constitution. Pursuant to that constitutional provision, the
Legislature makes the following findings to demonstrate the interest
protected by this limitation and the need for protecting that
interest:
The limitation upon the disclosure of information identified by
refineries as trade secrets is necessary to protect proprietary
business information of those refineries.