BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2891
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
2891 (Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials)
As Amended August 19, 2016
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |79-0 |(May 05, 2016) |SENATE: |26-13 |(August 23, |
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(vote not relevant)
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|COMMITTEE VOTE: | 5-0 | (August 25, |RECOMMENDATION: |concur |
| | |2016) | | |
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(E.S. & T.M.)
Original Committee Reference: E.S. & T.M.
SUMMARY: Eliminates statutory formulas that inform how much the
annual Budget Act appropriates to the Department of Toxic
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Substances Control (DTSC) for federal Superfund site and
state-only orphan site cleanup and operations and maintenance
(O&M) costs. Requires DTSC to estimate the funding needed to
meet the state's obligation at those sites for cleanup and O&M
and revises the state's statutory intent to provide funding
suitable to meet the state's financial obligation under federal
law.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of the bill,
and instead:
1)Delete legislative intent that not less than $6,750,000 be
appropriated in the annual Budget Act each year to the Site
Remediation Account (SRA) for direct site remediation costs,
and replace it with intent to appropriate an amount sufficient
to cover the estimated costs identified by DTSC that is not
less than $10.75 million.
2)Require DTSC, at the same time as the Governor's January 10
Budget, and annually thereafter, to report to the Legislature
an estimate of the funding needed to meet the state's
obligation at federal Superfund orphan sites and at state-only
orphan sites. Require the estimate to include projected
budget-year and two out-year costs for new and ongoing
operations and maintenance budget obligations at federal
Superfund sites, and new and ongoing remediation, and any
other related orphan site costs.
3)Delete a requirement that DTSC report to the Legislature a
determination that the state's obligation under the federal
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
Liability Act (CERCLA) will exceed $3,300,000 in any fiscal
year (FY).
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY, this bill authorized the Department
of Resources, Recycling and Recovery to consult with the State
Water Resources Control Board and when preparing guidelines and
state policy to guide the efforts of local agencies when
providing household hazardous waste collection, recycling, and
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disposal programs.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, enactment of this bill could result in cost pressures
in the millions of dollars to appropriate funds necessary to
meet demonstrated need.
COMMENTS:
Funding Superfund cleanup: CERCLA, also known as Superfund, was
enacted to address the problem of remediating abandoned
hazardous waste sites. Through CERCLA, the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and California were
given power to seek out those parties responsible for any
hazardous waste release and recovery costs from financially
viable individuals and companies.
According to DTSC, both the US EPA and DTSC have identified
sites which represent an immediate threat to public health and
the environment and/or for which no viable responsible parties
have been identified to address these projects. These are known
as National Priorities List (NPL) sites and state-only orphan
sites. Sites on the NPL, also known as the federal Superfund
list, are the nation's worst hazardous substances sites and pose
a significant threat to the environment and public health.
Under federal law, the State is required to provide, at a
minimum, a 10% match for design and implementation of
remediation, or cleanup federal Superfund sites. Ultimately,
California is also required to cover 100% of the long-term O&M
costs for NPL sites where no viable responsible party has been
identified. State-only orphan sites are not on the NPL, but
also are contaminated by hazardous substances that pose an
environmental or public health threat; the responsible parties
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for both types of sites are unknown or are unwilling or unable
to pay for cleanup.
The US EPA estimates that there are between 96,000 and 212,000
contaminated sites in California. DTSC has a database of
approximately 9,800 known contaminated sites statewide.
Short on funding: DTSC's Independent Review Panel (IRP)
reported in its January 28, 2016, report that there are
projected shortfalls in DTSC's SRA for funding orphan and
Superfund site cleanup.
DTSC has estimated the demand for funding for state-only orphan
sites to be between $15 million to $20 million annually in FY
2015-16 through FY 2020-21. However, based on US EPA's
estimates of the state's increasing financial obligations for
NPL sites beginning in federal FY 2016-17, the state will have
significantly less available for state-only orphan sites in
future years.
With today's funding levels, the state's share of remedial phase
and O&M costs at NPL orphan sites takes priority over state-only
orphan site funding. Funding for state-only orphan sites is
generally available only to the extent that there are funds
available in the SRA after meeting federal obligations, and the
state is not obligated to pay any state-only orphan site costs
that exceed the available funding. In some years, this means
that federal orphan sites can "crowd out" state-only orphan
sites for the limited amount of SRA funds.
The unfortunate reality is that when DTSC doesn't have enough
funding to address all Superfund and state-identified orphan
site cleanup, some sites get lower priority, therefore leaving
communities to live with the contamination for years on end.
Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO): The Assembly Environmental
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Safety & Toxic Materials Committee requested the LAO to complete
a review of DTSC's federal requirements and cost share
obligations under CERCLA as it relates to Superfund cleanup; the
anticipated resource demand for Superfund site cleanup and the
gap between resource need and resource availability; and,
programmatic and/or policy changes that could be made at DTSC to
better manage the growing cleanup demand.
The LAO found that annual combined California costs for
remediation and O&M at federal NPL sites are projected to range
from $2.2 million to $17.3 million between Fiscal Years
2015-2016 and 2020-2021. The funds in the SRA to support these
costs are projected to grow over this period from $10.6 million
to $12 million. Under federal regulation, California is
required to pay its share of the NPL site cleanup and O&M first,
which means state-designated orphan sites are second priority.
Given the estimated increases in future state costs for NPL
sites, California will have significantly less available in the
SRA for state-orphan sites, and may end up with no funds for
state orphan site cleanup.
To address the projected demand for increased state spending to
meet the state's financial obligations at Superfund and
state-only orphan sites, the LAO recommends the Legislature
require DTSC to prepare an annual estimate of its funding
demand, and adopt legislation to move away from a statutory
funding formula to an annual appropriation as part of the state
budget process, among other recommendations. This bill would
codify those recommendations while maintaining a statutory
minimum of $10.75 million to reflect current inflation and the
current appropriation to DTSC, which is $10.5 million.
Senate amendments: This bill was substantially amended in the
Senate and the Assembly-approved version of this bill was
deleted. This bill, as amended in the Senate, is inconsistent
with Assembly actions and the provisions of this bill, as
amended in the Senate, have not been heard in an Assembly policy
committee.
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Analysis Prepared by:
Paige Brokaw/ E.S. & T.M. / (916) 319-3965 FN:
0004947