BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                       AB 1075|
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                                   THIRD READING 


          Bill No:  AB 1075
          Author:   Alejo (D)
          Amended:  9/2/15 in Senate
          Vote:     21  

           SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE:  5-0, 7/15/15
           AYES:  Wieckowski, Hill, Jackson, Leno, Pavley
           NO VOTE RECORDED:  Gaines, Bates

           SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE:  5-2, 8/27/15
           AYES:  Lara, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza
           NOES:  Bates, Nielsen

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR:  45-28, 5/28/15 - See last page for vote

           SUBJECT:   Hazardous waste: enforcement


          SOURCE:    Author

          DIGEST:   This bill creates additional considerations and civil  
          penalties on a person who has multiple violations of the  
          Hazardous Waste Control Act of 1972 (HWCA). 

          Senate Floor Amendments of 9/2/15 clarify that a "violation" or  
          "noncompliance" for purposes of this section, creates a  
          significant risk of harm to the public health or safety of the  
          environment resulting from acute or chronic exposure to  
          hazardous waste or hazardous waste constituents.

          ANALYSIS: 

          Existing law governs the disposal of hazardous waste, under the  
          federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976: 









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          1)Sets standards, through regulation, for the treatment,  
            storage, transport, tracking and disposal of hazardous waste  
            in the United States.   

          2)Authorizes states to carry out many of the functions of the  
            federal law through their own hazardous waste laws if such  
            programs have been approved by the United States Environmental  
            Protection Agency (US EPA).

          Existing law, under the HWCA:

          3)Establishes the Hazardous Waste Control program;

          4)Regulates the handling, transport and disposal of hazardous  
            waste and authorizes the Department of Toxic Substances  
            Control (DTSC) to deny, suspend, or revoke any permit,  
            registration, or certificate applied for, or issued to, a  
            person or entity if that person or entity engaged in specified  
            activities in violation of the Hazardous Waste Control Law or  
            other laws.

          5)Authorizes the DTSC to temporarily suspend any permit,  
            registration, or certificate prior to a hearing if the  
            department determines that action is necessary to prevent or  
            mitigate an imminent and substantial danger to the public  
            health or safety or the environment.

          6)Requires the DTSC, upon receipt of a notice of defense to the  
            accusation from the holder of the permit, registration, or  
            certificate, to set the matter for hearing within 15 days and  
            to hold the hearing as soon as possible, but not later than 30  
            days after receipt of the notice and requires the hearing to  
            be held without delay and completed as soon as possible.

          7)Requires a petition for judicial review of a final decision of  
            the department to grant, issue, modify, or deny a permit,  
            registration, or certificate be filed no later than 90 days  
            after the date that the notice of final decision is served.

          8)Provides for the imposition of civil and criminal penalties  
            upon persons who violate the requirements of the hazardous  
            waste control law or take other actions with regard to the  








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                                                                     Page 3



            handling of hazardous waste.

          This bill establishes standards for what constitutes a repeat,  
          serious hazardous waste facility violation and specifies the  
          enforcement action to be taken by the DTSC.  Specifically, this  
          bill:  

          1)Requires the DTSC to consider, except under specified  
            circumstances, three or more violations of, or noncompliance  
            with, specified provisions for which a person or entity has  
            been found liable or has been convicted, with respect to a  
            single hazardous waste facility within a five-year period, as  
            compelling cause to deny, suspend, or revoke a permit,  
            registration, or certificate applied for by, or issued to,  
            that person or entity. 


          2)Authorizes the DTSC to temporarily suspend any permit,  
            registration, or certificate prior to a hearing if the DTSC  
            determines that conditions may present an imminent and  
            substantial endangerment to the public health or safety or the  
            environment.  This bill repeals the requirement that the  
            hearing be held without delay and completed as soon as  
            possible.


          3)Imposes upon a person who is subject to the imposition of  
            those civil or criminal penalties, an additional civil penalty  
            of not less than $5,000 or more than $50,000 for each day of  
            each violation, if the person has been found liable for, or  
            been convicted of, two or more previous violations of certain  
            of these hazardous waste-related provisions within any  
            consecutive 60 months.


          Background

          1)Permitting hazardous waste storage, treatment, and disposal  
            facilities:  The DTSC is responsible for the review of RCRA  
            and non-RCRA hazardous waste permit applications to ensure  
            safe design and operation; issuance and denial of operating  
            permits; issuance of post-closure permits; approval and denial  








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            of permit modifications; issuance and denial of emergency  
            permits; review and approval of closure plans; providing  
            closure oversight of approved closure plans; issuance and  
            denial of variances; providing assistance to regulated  
            industry on permitting matters; and providing for public  
            involvement.

            There are currently 118 DTSC permitted hazardous waste  
            facilities in California.  These facilities include:  44  
            storage sites, 43 treatment facilities, 3 disposal sites, and  
            28 post-closure sites.

          2)CPS HR Consulting Audit.  The DTSC has undertaken a review of  
            permitting and enforcement processes for hazardous waste  
            facilities.  To do this, the DTSC contracted for an outside  
            program evaluation by CPS HR Consulting which provided a  
            review of the DTSC permit process in order to develop a  
            standardized process with decision criteria and corresponding  
            standards of performance.  The DTSC evaluation included a  
            review and assessment of the current timeliness of decisions,  
            and evaluates the adequacy of program staffing.  It will make  
            recommendations for process improvement.   

            The program analysis of the DTSC carried out by CPS HR  
            Consulting of DTSC permitting process found that there has  
            been significant dissatisfaction with the performance of the  
            permitting office, due to the cost and length of time in  
            completing the permit process and a perception that the office  
            does not deny or revoke permits as often as it should to  
            address community concerns.  The stakeholders included in the  
            review identified the following major concerns:

                 The need to create clear and objective criteria for  
               making denial and revocation decisions that are based on  
               valid standards of performance and risk;

                 A clear standard for violations that would lead to a  
               denial or revocation;

                 The need for the DTSC to document and measure a  
               "scorecard" of attributes that would be perceived as a  
               "good result" for the permitting program;








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                 The need to identify and measure appropriate permitting  
               process timelines; and,

                 The need to document, maintain and implement effective  
               financial assurance standards to ensure that facilities can  
               meet their permitted obligations. 

            The CPS HR Consulting report recommended that the DTSC develop  
            a new system of categorizing violations that reflects whether  
            they present an immediate and direct threat to human health  
            and safety, versus a less urgent threat that can be mitigated  
            or resolved through further actions of the DTSC.  The current  
            definition of "Class I violations," although mandated by law,  
            includes both violations that pose immediate and direct  
            threats along with many that are relatively low- or long-term  
            threats.  Until the DTSC has a system to assess violations  
            that can distinguish between significant threats to human  
            health and safety and lesser threats, it will not be able to  
            provide an objective standard to guide its own staff actions  
            and to inform the public that the significant threats have  
            been mitigated through actions such as permit modification,  
            denial or revocation. 

          Comments

          Purpose of Bill.  According to the author, "AB 1075 establishes  
          a bright regulatory line for permit denial and revocation.  The  
          key feature of AB 1075 is to strengthen the authority of the  
          DTSC by specifying that three or more serious violations during  
          a five-year period results in a clear obligation on the DTSC to  
          revoke a hazardous waste facility permit.  AB 1075 was developed  
          based on the information gathered at the Environmental Safety  
          and Toxic Materials oversight hearing in September of 2014,  
          where community groups came forward to report on issues in their  
          neighborhood."

          FISCAL EFFECT:   Appropriation:    No          Fiscal  
          Com.:YesLocal:   No


          According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, minor if any  








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          costs to the HWCA (special) for the DTSC to administer the  
          additional considerations and civil penalties for persons with  
          multiple violations.




          SUPPORT:   (Verified9/3/15)


          Asian Pacific Environmental Network 
          California District Attorneys Association
          California Environmental Justice Alliance
          Center for Community Action & Environmental Justice 
          Center for Environmental Health
          Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment 
          Clean Water Action
          Communities for a Better Environment
          Concerned Neighbors of Wildomar
          Environmental Action Committee of West Marin 
          Environmental Working Group 
          Pesticide Action Network North America 
          Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles 
          Physicians for Social Responsibility - San Francisco Bay Area
          Sierra Club California
          Teens Against Toxins 
          The People's Senate and Leadership Institute 
          Worksafe


          OPPOSITION:   (Verified9/3/15)




          None received



          ASSEMBLY FLOOR:  45-28, 5/28/15
          AYES:  Alejo, Bonilla, Bonta, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos,  
            Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier,  








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                                                                     Page 7



            Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,  
            Roger Hernández, Holden, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lopez, Low,  
            McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Perea, Quirk,  
            Rendon, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Mark Stone, Thurmond,  
            Ting, Weber, Williams, Wood, Atkins
          NOES:  Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Brough, Chang, Chávez,  
            Dababneh, Dahle, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Gatto, Hadley,  
            Harper, Irwin, Jones, Kim, Lackey, Linder, Maienschein,  
            Mathis, Mayes, Obernolte, Olsen, Patterson, Steinorth, Wagner,  
            Waldron, Wilk
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Achadjian, Bloom, Gipson, Gray, Grove,  
            O'Donnell, Ridley-Thomas

          Prepared by:Rachel Machi Wagoner / E.Q. / (916) 651-4108
          9/3/15 18:28:56


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