BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 673 (Lara) - Hazardous waste.
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|Version: May 5, 2015 |Policy Vote: E.Q. 5 - 2 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: May 18, 2015 |Consultant: Marie Liu |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: SB 673 would make additional requirements of the
Department of Toxic Substance Control's (DTSC) permitting
process and create an DTSC oversight committee.
Fiscal
Impact:
Ongoing costs of $1.2 annually from the Hazardous Waste
Control Account (special) beginning in 2015-16 and continuing
through 2020-21to DTSC to administer and staff the DTSC
California Communities Committee.
One-time costs of no more than $600,000 costs from the
Hazardous Waste Control Account (special) to develop
additional permit criteria regulations and financial assurance
regulations.
Background: Under the California Hazardous Waste Control Act, facilities
that treat, store, handle, and/or dispose of hazardous waste are
SB 673 (Lara) Page 1 of
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required to be permitted by the DTSC. The hazardous waste
facility permit outlines specific requirements for the facility
to ensure safe operation.
Proposed Law:
SB 673 would revise the Department of Toxic Substance
Control's (DTSC) permitting process and public participation
requirements for hazardous waste facilities. Specifically, this
bill would:
1.Require a person to pay for oversight of any correction action
for which they are required with respect to hazardous waste.
2.Establish the DTSC California Communities Committee
(committee) until January 1, 2021, which would comprise of
five members appointed by the Secretary for Environmental
Protection, four by the Speaker of the Assembly, and four by
the Senate Committee on Rules, all of whom would serve at the
pleasure of his or her appointing authority.
3.Charge the committee with providing information on the
concerns of individual communities impacted by DTSC's
permitting and for making recommendations for changes to that
process.
4.Require the committee to meet at least three times in 2016 and
quarterly thereafter with the secretary for Environmental
Protection Agency, the director of DTSC, and DTSC staff. Its
meetings would be required to be noticed and open to the
public and subject to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act.
5.Require DTSC to adopt regulations by January 1, 2018 that
would establish additional criteria by which DTSC will base
its permitting decisions. At a minimum, the additional
criteria would be required to include the following:
The number and type of past violations.
The vulnerability and existing health risks to
nearby populations.
Minimum setback distances from sensitive
populations.
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Evidence of financial responsibility, qualifications
of ownership, and continuity of ownership and operation.
Provision of financial assurances.
1.Require DTSC to develop and implement programmatic reforms by
January 1, 2018, that are designed to improve the
protectiveness, timeliness, legal defensibility, and
enforceability of the DTSC permitting process.
Related
Legislation: SB 654 (de Leon) 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. SB 654 is currently on the Senate
Appropriations Suspense File.
Staff
Comments: The committee established by this bill is
substantially similar to the committee that was proposed by SB
812 (de Leon, 2014) which was vetoed by the Governor. Similar to
SB 812, DTSC preliminarily estimates that it will cost
approximately $1.2 million to provide administration and staff
to the committee. Staff notes that this is a relatively large
cost for an oversight committee. However, given the ongoing
criticisms of DTSC and its regulation of hazardous waste
facilities, staff believes it is reasonable to assume that the
committee will address a wide range of issues and have
substantial involvement from the public.
To adopt the expanded regulations regarding facilities
permitting, DTSC estimates that it would need one-time costs of
$600,000 to develop the regulations. However, because the bill
would allow DTSC to spread this effort over two years, the
regulatory costs may be lower.
DTSC believes that the programmatic reforms required by the bill
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are consistent with the department's current workplan to improve
their permitting process. Therefore, DTSC does not anticipate
any additional costs from this portion of the bill.
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