BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Session SB 654 (De León) - Hazardous waste: facilities permitting. ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Version: April 21, 2015 |Policy Vote: E.Q. 5 - 2 | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Hearing Date: May 28, 2015 |Consultant: Marie Liu | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUSPENSE FILE. AS AMENDED. 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 (as approved on May 28, 2015): Ongoing costs of $1.466 million from the Hazardous Waste Control Account (special) to review hazardous waste facilities permits within three years of expiration. Unknown one-time costs, between minor and in the mid-hundreds of thousands, to process additional permits in 2016 and 2017. 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, the facility is allowed to continue to operate past this date while DTSC considers their permit renewal application. These SB 654 (De León) Page 1 of ? 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 January 1, 2017. DTSC would need approximately $623,000 and $298,000 in additional staffing resources to deal with SB 654 (De León) Page 2 of ? 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. Author amendments (as adopted on May 28, 2015): Amend to specify that: Applications to renew permits that expire in 2016 and 2017 are due by January 1, 2018. DTSC has until January 1, 2019 to deal with applications for renewals that are received before January 1, 2016. -- END -- SB 654 (De León) Page 3 of ?