BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 612|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 612
Author: Jackson (D)
Amended: 9/4/15
Vote: 21
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE: 7-0, 4/15/15
AYES: Wieckowski, Gaines, Bates, Hill, Jackson, Leno, Pavley
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/28/15
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen
SENATE FLOOR: 37-0, 6/1/15
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Berryhill, Block,
Cannella, De León, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Glazer, Hall,
Hancock, Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson,
Lara, Leno, Leyva, Liu, McGuire, Monning, Moorlach, Morrell,
Nguyen, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Runner, Stone, Vidak, Wieckowski,
Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Mendoza, Mitchell, Nielsen
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 72-2, 9/8/15 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT: Hazardous materials
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill 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.
Assembly Amendments:
1)Require that a generator of hazardous waste include all
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hazardous waste that it has generated in any month, except for
universal wastes, as defined, when computing whether it is
required to comply with specified regulatory requirements and
require the Department of Toxic Substances Control to adopt
regulations by December 1, 2016, incorporating instructions to
hazardous waste generators implementing this requirement.
2)Exclude from the definition of "aboveground storage tank" a
tank or tank facility located on and operated by a farm that
is exempt from specified federal spill prevention, control,
and countermeasure requirements. This bill revises the
definition of a "tank in an underground area," and provides
that a tank in an underground area that is subject to
aboveground tank regulation, as specified, is not subject to
regulation pursuant to laws specific to underground storage
tanks (USTs)
3)Make other technical and clarifying changes.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1) Provides, under the Hazardous Waste Control Act, for the
registration, licensure and permitting of hazardous waste
generators, transporters and storage, transfer and disposal
facilities.
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:
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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.
1) Specifies the contents of the business plan required of the
hazardous materials handler and requires the plan to be
submitted to the administering agency. Requires the
administering agency to submit to the Office of Emergency
Services (OES), the area plan, a plan to conduct onsite
inspection, and a plan to institute a data management system.
2) 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.
3) 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.
4) 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
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substantially or totally above the surface of the ground and
a tank in an underground area.
5) Requires CUPAs to implement the APSA in accordance with
regulations adopted by the OSFM and authorizes the OSFM to
adopt these regulations.
6) 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.
7) Regulates the storage of hazardous substances in USTs and
requires USTs 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.
This bill modifies the statute related to 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 the 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
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
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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
USTs, 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.
Background
Elements of SB 612 - CUPA reforms. This bill 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. This bill
contains numerous technical modifications that address the
following program elements:
1)General duty clause: The objective of the California
Accidental Release Prevention Program is 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
(United States Code Section 654, Title 29), 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. This bill
proposes that if a new local requirement is warranted, it
should be substantiated by a governing body action.
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3)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. This bill proposes to make consistent
distinctions between facilities and business.
4)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.
5)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,
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.
6)Above ground storage tanks and USTs: This bill increases
environmental protection in California by closing gaps in
regulatory programs and rationalizing the regulatory
requirements among the APSA, 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.
7)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
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to local enforcement agencies. This bill 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.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, this bill
will result in first-year costs of $150,000 and $100,000 ongoing
from the UPA to the State Fire Marshal for additional
responsibilities under the Aboveground Petroleum Storage Act.
SUPPORT: (Verified9/8/15)
California Association of Environmental Health Administrators
California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance
California Fire Chiefs Association
OPPOSITION: (Verified9/8/15)
None received
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 72-2, 9/8/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta,
Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chiu, Chu,
Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier,
Beth Gaines, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson,
Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Hadley, Roger Hernández,
Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine,
Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty,
Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell,
Olsen, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NOES: Brough, Gallagher
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NO VOTE RECORDED: Travis Allen, Chávez, Grove, Harper,
Patterson, Ridley-Thomas
Prepared by: Rachel Machi Wagoner / E.Q. / (916) 651-4108
9/8/15 21:47:04
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