BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2893|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 2893
Author: Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials,
et al.
Amended: 5/25/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE: 6-0, 6/8/16
AYES: Wieckowski, Gaines, Bates, Hill, Leno, Pavley
NO VOTE RECORDED: Jackson
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/12/16 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Department of Toxic Substances Control: enforcement
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill makes conforming changes to the statutes
governing the Department of Toxic Substances Control's (DTSC)
cost recovery authorities.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Establishes 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
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Page 2
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.
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
DTSC's cost recovery authorities. Specifically, this bill:
1)Modifies and adds terms to strengthen consistency between
DTSC's governing statutes;
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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, AB 276 (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.
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
Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials 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
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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 (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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
SUPPORT: (Verified6/22/16)
None received
OPPOSITION: (Verified6/22/16)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 78-0, 5/12/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Calderon,
Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines,
Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson,
Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger
Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder,
Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina,
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Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen,
Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Burke, Jones-Sawyer
Prepared by:Rachel Machi Wagoner / E.Q. / (916) 651-4108
6/22/16 15:15:07
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