BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 654 (De León) - Hazardous waste: facilities permitting.
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|Version: April 21, 2015 |Policy Vote: E.Q. 5 - 2 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: May 11, 2015 |Consultant: Marie Liu |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: SB 654 would revise the Department of Toxic Substance
Control's (DTSC) permitting process and public participation
requirements for hazardous waste facilities.
Fiscal
Impact: First year costs of $3.115 million, second year costs
of $2.240, and ongoing costs of $1.466 million from the
Hazardous Waste Control Account (special) to review hazardous
waste facilities permits within three years of expiration
beginning on J January 1, 2016.
Background: Under the California Hazardous Waste Control Act, facilities
that treat, store, handle, and/or dispose of hazardous waste are
required to be permitted by the DTSC. The hazardous waste
facility permit specifies specific requirements for the facility
to ensure safe operation. There are currently 117 facilities
permitted by DTSC. While these permits expire after 10-years,
SB 654 (De León) Page 1 of
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the facility is allowed to continue to operate past this date
while DTSC considers their permit renewal application. These
permits are referred to as "continued permits."
Proposed Law:
This bill would require that a complete permit renewal
application be submitted by a regulated facility at least two
years prior to the expiration of the permit. DTSC would be
required to approve or deny the permit renewal application
within 36 months of the permit's expiration or the facility
would be deemed in violation of the California Hazardous Waste
Control Act.
Related
Legislation: SB 812 (de Leon, 2014) would have required DTSC to
adopt regulations by January 1, 2017, to specify conditions for
new permits and the renewal of existing permits, as specified,
and establishes deadlines for the submission and processing of
facility applications, as specified. SB 812 was vetoed by the
Governor.
Staff Comments: In order for DTSC to operate its facilities
permitting activities within the timeframes established in this
bill, it would need ten additional positions for an ongoing cost
of $1.466 million annually.
In addition to these on-going cost, DTSC would have extra work
in the first two years of implementation of this bill to review
existing continued permits and permits set to expire before
January 1, 2017. Should this bill become law, it would be
effective January 1, 2016. There are 28 permits that expire in
2016 and 13 permits that expire in 2017. The owners of these
permits would be unable to submit their permit renewal
application two years prior to the permit expiration date. As
such, DTSC would need approximately $1.026 million and $476,000
in additional staffing resources to deal with additional permit
reviews in FY 2015-16 and in FY 2016-17, respectively.
Currently there are 17 facilities that have been operating on
continued permits for over 36 months. And additional 8
facilities will have a continued permit over 36 months old as of
SB 654 (De León) Page 2 of
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January 1, 2017. DTSC would need approximately $623,000 and
$298,000 in additional staffing resources to deal with
additional continued permit reviews in FY 2015-16 and in FY
2016-17, respectively.
Staff notes that DTSC submitted a budget change proposal (BCP)
in the Governor's proposed 2015-16 budget for $1.632 million and
16 limited term positions for two years to address the
permitting backlog. These positions would be on top of the 8
limited positions and $1.2 million approved for DTSC in the
2014-15 budget for its facility permitting. Should this BCP not
be approved, this bill may have additional costs.
Staff notes that hazardous waste facilities are required to pay
fees with their applications. However, applicants may pay a flat
fee, which is established in statute (HSC §25153, 25205.7,
25205.18 and 25247(d)(3)) but only covers a small portion of
DTSC's actual regulatory costs. If the statute was amended to
better cover DTSC's regulatory costs, it is unclear whether such
a change could be retroactively applied to the facilities that
have renewal applications pending. Thus, a change to the fee
structure would not eliminate the costs associated with dealing
with the backlog of applications, but could allow greater
recovery of DTSC's permitting costs for future applications.
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