BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 612 Page 1 Date of Hearing: June 30, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND TOXIC MATERIALS Luis Alejo, Chair SB 612 (Jackson) - As Amended June 23, 2015 SENATE VOTE: 37-0 SUBJECT: Hazardous materials SUMMARY: Modifies the statute related to Certified Unified Program Agencies (CUPA) administration to clarify the provisions of the Health and Safety Code related to CUPAs to provide consistent interpretation of the statute statewide. Specifically, this bill: 1)Requires the CUPA to certify to Office of Emergency Services (OES) every three years that it has conducted a review of its area plan and has made any necessary revisions or that no substantial changes have been made. 2)Provides that any additional map requirements required by a CUPA be adopted pursuant to a local ordinance. 3)Revises the definition of "aboveground storage tank" to SB 612 Page 2 include a tank or container that has the capacity to store 55 gallons or more of petroleum, including drums, intermediate bulk containers, totes, mobile refuelers, oil-filled operational equipment, and oil-filled manufacturing equipment, and that is substantially or totally above the surface of the ground and a tank in an underground area. 4)Revises the exception to the plan and inspection requirements to require that the tank facility be operated by, instead of located on, the farm, nursery, logging site, or construction site and requires that the plan address best management practices to prevent petroleum releases, as specified. 5)Revises the definition of "storage" and "store" for purposes of the regulation of the storage of hazardous substances in underground storage tanks, to exempt storage that is in compliance with specified alternative laws for the regulation of hazardous materials. 6)Provides a due process for the CUPA enforcement of the Medical Waste Management Act. EXISTING LAW: 1)Provides, under the Hazardous Waste Control Act (HWCA), for the registration, licensure and permitting of hazardous waste generators, transporters and storage, transfer and disposal facilities. SB 612 Page 3 2)Requires the Secretary for the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) to adopt regulations and implement a unified hazardous waste and hazardous materials management regulatory program. 3)Establishes the respective responsibilities of CUPAs, designated to implement that unified program, locally, and requires the Secretary of CalEPA to establish a statewide information management system for purposes of receiving data collected by CUPAs. 4)Establishes the responsibility of a local administering agency authorized to implement and enforce statutory provisions that require: a) The administering agency to establish area plans for emergency response to a release or threatened release of a hazardous material, and, b) A business that handles a hazardous material to establish and implement a business plan for such a response. Authorizes a CUPA to implement and enforce these provisions as an administering agency. 5)Specifies the contents of the business plan required of the hazardous materials handler and requires the plan to be SB 612 Page 4 submitted to the administering agency. Requires the administering agency to submit to the OES, the area plan, a plan to conduct onsite inspection, and a plan to institute a data management system. 6)Requires the OES to adopt, after consultation with the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) and other appropriate public entities, regulations for minimum standards for business plans and area plans, and requires all business plans and area plans to meet the standards adopted by OES. Requires a CUPA, in consultation with local emergency response agencies, to establish an area plan for emergency response to a release or threatened release of a hazardous material within its jurisdiction. 7)Requires a business handling hazardous materials to establish and implement a business plan for emergency response to a release or threatened release of a hazardous material in accordance with the standards prescribed by OES. Requires the business plan to contain specified information, including a site map that contains north orientation, loading areas, internal roads, adjacent streets, storm and sewer drains, access and exit points, emergency shutoffs, evacuation staging areas, hazardous material handling and storage areas, and emergency response equipment. 8)Defines, under the Aboveground Petroleum Storage Act (APSA) an "aboveground storage tank" as a tank that has the capacity to store 55 gallons or more of petroleum and that is substantially or totally above the surface of the ground and a tank in an underground area. SB 612 Page 5 9)Requires CUPAs to implement the APSA in accordance with regulations adopted by the OSFM and authorizes the OSFM to adopt these regulations. 10)Requires, under the APSA, each owner or operator of a storage tank at a tank facility to prepare a spill prevention control and countermeasure plan and to conduct periodic inspections of the storage tank, except for certain tank facilities located on a farm, nursery, logging site, or construction site. 11)Regulates the storage of hazardous substances in underground storage tanks and requires underground storage tanks that are used to store hazardous substances and that are installed after January 1, 1984, to meet certain requirements and obtain a permit from the CUPA. FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, first-year costs of $150,000 and $100,000 ongoing from the UPA (special) to the State Fire Marshall for additional responsibilities under the Aboveground Petroleum Storage Act. COMMENTS: Need for the bill: According to the California Association of Environmental Health Administrators (CAEHA), "SB 612 is the third bill authored by Senator Jackson and co-sponsored by CAEHA and the Fire Chiefs that is intended to help in clarifying the complex codes that govern the seven elements in the "Unified Program". Like SB 483 and SB 1261, this measure updates, rearranges, and clarifies parts of the law in an attempt to make the requirements clearer for both the regulated community and SB 612 Page 6 the regulators?. SB 612 will improve clarity, reduce inconsistencies and ambiguities, and increase environmental protection by closing gaps in certain regulatory programs. These changes will ensure that the programs under the jurisdiction of CUPAs operate as efficiently as possible, which in turn will facilitate compliance for regulated businesses without reducing the protection of public health, safety and the environment." Certified Unified Program Agencies: The Secretary of Cal/EPA has established a "unified hazardous waste and hazardous materials management" regulatory program (Unified Program). Currently, there are 83 CUPAs in California. The Unified Program consolidates, coordinates the following six existing programs: 1) Hazardous Materials Release Response Plans and Inventories (Business Plans); 2) California Accidental Release Prevention (CalARP) Program; 3) Underground Storage Tank Program; 4) Aboveground Petroleum Storage Act; 5) Hazardous Waste Generator and Onsite Hazardous Waste Treatment Programs; and, 6) California Uniform Fire Code: Hazardous Material Management Plans and Hazardous Material Inventory Statements. Elements of SB 612 - CUPA reforms: SB 612 is designed to provide technical clarification to both the language of the Unified Program enforcement act as well as operational definitions of hazardous materials management. The bill contains numerous technical modifications that address the following program elements: 1)General duty clause: The objective of the CalARP Program is SB 612 Page 7 to prevent accidental releases and to minimize the consequences of any such release at facilities that fall under the program. The owners and operators of stationary sources producing, processing, handling or storing hazardous materials have a general duty, in the same manner and to the same extent as federal law (§654, Title 29 of the United States Code), to identify hazards which may result from such releases using appropriate hazard assessment techniques to design and maintain a safe facility taking such steps as are necessary to prevent releases and to minimize the consequences of accidental releases which do occur. 2)Additional map requirements: Concern has been raised by businesses that each CUPA may have additional map requirements for hazardous material business plans. This poses an extra burden of inconsistency for regulated businesses. SB 612 proposes that if a new local requirement is warranted, it should be substantiated by a governing body action. 7)Business or facility amendments: Previous legislative actions (SB 1261 (Jackson) Chapter 715, Statutes of 2014) made numerous changes to the terms "facility" and "business." Some of these changes remain confusing to both local regulators and businesses. SB 612 proposes to make consistent distinctions between facilities and business. 8)Used Oil Collection Centers (UOCC): For several years, the Hazardous Waste Technical Advisory Group of the CUPA Board has identified an issue related to the regulatory responsibility of UOCC and the need to provide clear authority for CUPAs to inspect and regulate these types of facilities. The ambiguity in the law was raised by a UOCC who argued that the facility was not under the UPA regulatory authority. This amendment will provide such authority. 9)Hazardous waste counting: The amount of hazardous waste generated by a business determines their generator status. Businesses that generate more waste have additional requirements for emergency preparedness, employee training, SB 612 Page 8 inspection frequency, disposal frequency, state/federal reporting and more. Larger generators are expected to pay for their disposal through pickup by a registered transporter and may be subject to professional engineer's assessments of tank systems. Smaller generators have less training and documentation requirements, and may be allowed to take small quantities of their own waste to a collection event. There is no clear law or regulation that explains how to count hazardous waste to determine generator status. A survey of the CUPAs showed they generally do not count wastes that have an alternative set of management standards towards the hazardous waste generator standards, such as universal wastes, treated wood wastes and automotive batteries. This bill addresses hazardous material counting by directing DTSC to provide guidance through regulations. 10)Above ground storage tanks and underground storage tanks: SB 612 increases environmental protection in California by closing gaps in regulatory programs and rationalizing the regulatory requirements among the APSA, Underground Storage Tank (UST) law and Hazardous Waste Control Law. Compliance with one set of rules is easier for regulated facilities to achieve and regulatory agencies to enforce. Specifically, the changes to the UST and APSA in SB 612 provide the following: a) Align the California laws governing the aboveground storage of petroleum and the underground storage of petroleum for a tank in an underground area; b) Require tanks in underground areas, and associated piping, to be visually inspected by direct viewing or have secondary containment and leak detection with environmental equivalence options for existing tanks used for emergency systems and for hazardous waste tanks required to be in compliance with the tank standards specified in Title 22, California Code of Regulations; SB 612 Page 9 c) Provide facilities, with an aggregate petroleum storage capacity of less than 1,320 gallons, the option to manage their tanks containing petroleum in underground areas, currently regulated as USTs, as aboveground storage tanks; d) Close a gap in the regulatory scheme by regulating tanks that collect or treat hazardous waste in underground areas as hazardous waste tanks. e) Require the regulations to be developed in order for the statutory change related to tanks in underground areas to become effective; and, f) Align APSA with recent changes in the federal Oil Spills Prevention and Preparedness Regulations (SPCC) that provide exemptions for farms from the SPCC regulations with the exemptions for farms under APSA. 11)Due process for Medical Waste Management Act: Twenty five counties and one city have been delegated with the authority by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) to administer the Medical Waste Management Act in their local jurisdictions. CDPH has not adopted regulations specifying the existing administrative penalty process that is available to local enforcement agencies. SB 612 provides administrative enforcement procedures established for the enforcement of the Unified Program consistent with the Medical Waste Management Act in these provisions will establish the necessary due process and enhance regulatory consistency. Related legislation: 1)AB 1620 (Wieckowski, Chapter 190, Statutes of 2012). Modified SB 612 Page 10 the definition of hazardous waste treatment so that various types of activities that often take place when hazardous wastes are accumulated or stored are exempted from the regulatory requirements that apply to hazardous waste treatment facilities. 2)SB 483 (Jackson, Chapter 419, Statutes of 2013). Made various changes to update, rearrange, and clarify provisions of the Health and Safety Code related to CUPAs. 3)SB 1261 (Jackson, Chapter 715, Statutes of 2014). Revised and recasted the area and business plan requirements for CUPAs. REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION: Support California Association of Environmental Health Administrators California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance California Fire Chiefs Association Opposition None on file. Analysis Prepared by:Bob Fredenburg / E.S. & T.M. / (916) 319-3965 SB 612 Page 11