BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY Senator Wieckowski, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Bill No: AB 2893 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Author: |Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic | | |Materials | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |-----------+-----------------------+-------------+----------------| |Version: |5/25/2016 |Hearing |6/8/2016 | | | |Date: | | |-----------+-----------------------+-------------+----------------| |Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes | ------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Consultant:|Rachel Machi Wagoner | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUBJECT: Department of Toxic Substances Control: enforcement. ANALYSIS: Existing law: 1) Establishes the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to protect California against threats to public health and degradation to the environment and to restore properties degraded by past environmental contamination. Requires DTSC to regulate management of hazardous wastes, clean up existing contamination, and prevent pollution by working with businesses to reduce their hazardous waste and use of toxic materials. 2) Authorizes DTSC to incur direct cleanup costs and oversight costs in remediating contaminated properties, and authorizes DTSC to recover those costs from responsible parties. 3) Permits DTSC or any local officer or agency authorized to enforce the Hazardous Waste Control Law to require specified parties to furnish and transmit certain information relating to hazardous substances, hazardous wastes, and hazardous materials, and 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. AB 2893 (Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials) Page 2 of ? 4) Authorizes, pursuant to the Carpenter-Presley-Tanner Hazardous Substance Account Act, DTSC to require any potentially responsible party, or any person who has, or may have acquired certain information relating to hazardous substances and hazardous substance release sites in the course of a commercial, ownership, or contractual relationship with a potentially responsible party to furnish that information, and authorizes DTSC to require a person who has or may have information or documents relevant to the ability of a responsible party or liable person to pay for or perform a cleanup, consistent with Section 104 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). 5) 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). This bill: makes conforming changes to the statutes governing the Department of Toxic Substances Control's (DTSC) cost recovery authorities. Specifically, this bill: 1) Modifies and adds terms to strengthen consistency between DTSC's governing statutes; 2) Requires that any person required to furnish information to DTSC pay any costs of photocopying or transmitting the information; and, 3) Makes other technical, conforming changes to clean up the codes. Comments Purpose of Bill. According to the author, Assembly Bill 276 (Chapter 459, Statutes of 2015) gave DTSC authority to ask certain parties for information related to the party's finances AB 2893 (Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials) Page 3 of ? that could demonstrate the party's ability to pay for or perform cleanup. Providing this statutory authority aligned state law with federal law, which, under CERCLA, permits the US EPA to request financial information from potential responsible parties. Having the authority to compel parties to submit pertinent financial information now allows 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, thus increasing DTSC's ability to recover costs effectively. The primary goal of AB 276 was to provide DTSC authority consistent with the US EPA's authority to retrieve financial information. The secondary goal of AB 276, as well as the package of bills it was enacted with in 2015 (AB 273 (Chapter 456), AB 274 (Chapter 457), and AB 275 (Chapter 458)), was to conform Health & Safety Code Chapters 6.5 and 6.8 by clarifying terms used to eliminate obfuscating terminology, create better consistency between the two chapters, and eliminate the possibility of confusion during implementation. The author states that the purpose of AB 2893 is to further conform terms used in those statutes that govern DTSC's hazardous waste cleanup and cost recovery authorities. Specifically, the goal is to conform DTSC's statutes governing their authority to request financial information from potentially responsible parties when assessing costs of hazardous waste cleanup. Related/Prior Legislation AB 276 (Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials, Chapter 459, Statutes of 2015) gave DTSC authority to ask certain parties for information related to the party's finances that could demonstrate the party's ability to pay for or perform cleanup. SOURCE: Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials AB 2893 (Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials) Page 4 of ? SUPPORT: None received OPPOSITION: None received -- END --