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 28, 2015      |Consultant: Marie Liu           |
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          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  







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          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  








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          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.








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