BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 612
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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,
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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;
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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
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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
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