BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 276
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
276 (Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials)
As Amended May 28, 2015
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes |Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+----------------------|
|Environmental |6-0 |Alejo, Dahle, | |
|Safety | |Gallagher, | |
| | |Gonzalez, McCarty, | |
| | |Ting | |
| | | | |
|----------------+------+--------------------+----------------------|
|Appropriations |17-0 |Gomez, Bigelow, | |
| | |Bonta, Calderon, | |
| | |Chang, Daly, | |
| | |Eggman, Gallagher, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Eduardo Garcia, | |
| | |Gordon, Holden, | |
| | |Jones, Quirk, | |
| | |Rendon, Wagner, | |
| | |Weber, Wood | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
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AB 276
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SUMMARY: Authorizes the California Department of Toxic Substances
Control (DTSC) to request financial information from specified
entities. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires any person that is managing or has managed hazardous
waste, including those that have applied for a permit, to
provide information to DTSC regarding the ability of those
persons to pay for or perform a cleanup;
2)Authorizes DTSC to issue an order directing compliance with a
request for information if a person intentionally or negligently
fails to provide requested information;
3)Authorizes DTSC to disclose the information under certain
circumstances to authorized representatives, contractors, or
government agencies, including the United States Environmental
Protection Agency (US EPA);
4)Requires any person providing the specified information to DTSC
to identify all of the information that is considered a trade
secret and imposes penalties for failure to comply with the
measures protecting information;
5)Authorizes DTSC to require a person who has or may have
information relevant to the ability of a person to pay for or
perform a cleanup;
6)Authorizes DTSC to impose penalties if a person intentionally or
negligently fails to furnish the required information or makes
false statements or representations; and
7)Provides that there will be no reimbursement by the state for
any costs incurred by a local agency.
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FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill could result in the ongoing increased costs
to DTSC in the $200,000 per year range for the increased workload
associated with requesting, processing, and collecting financial
information, and could result in potential unknown revenue
increases and cost savings achieved from increased collections and
avoided litigation.
COMMENTS:1)
Need for the bill: Under existing state law, DTSC may ask certain
parties for information related to hazardous waste, but cannot
request information about a party's finances that could
demonstrate the party's ability to pay for or perform cleanup.
This lack of authority is inconsistent with federal law, which
permits the US EPA to request financial information from potential
responsible parties.
Having the authority to compel parties to submit pertinent
financial information would allow DTSC to identify those
potentially responsible parties who genuinely lack the ability to
pay for cleanup and no longer require DTSC to first sue these
parties to obtain the relevant financial information. This
authority could expedite the cost recovery process by obviating
the need for costly litigation to obtain the necessary financial
information, thus increasing DTSC's ability to recover costs
effectively.
State Audit Report: On August 7, 2014, the Bureau of State Audits
(BSA) released a report on DTSC's cost recovery. The BSA found
that long-standing shortcomings with DTSC's recovery of costs have
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resulted in millions of dollars in unbilled and billed but
uncollected cleanup costs dating back to 1987.
According to the State Auditor: "[DTSC] is also limited in its
ability to recover costs effectively because it lacks the
authority to require a potentially responsible party to provide
information related to the financial ability to pay cleanup costs.
Unlike the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, [DTSC] does not
have the authority to require that potentially responsible parties
provide financial information when searching for responsible
parties. Instead, [DTSC] can only request potentially responsible
parties to provide financial information voluntarily. Having the
authority to compel parties to submit pertinent financial
information would allow [DTSC] to identify those potentially
responsible parties who genuinely lack the ability to pay for
cleanup and no longer require [DTSC] to first sue these parties to
obtain financial information... The ability to require this type
of information could better inform the [DTSC's] decision making
about whether to file cost recovery actions because it could
better differentiate between parties capable of paying for cleanup
costs, thus increasing the department's ability to recover costs
effectively."
Analysis Prepared by:
Paige Brokaw / E.S. & T.M. / (916) 319-3965 FN:
0000533
AB 276
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