BILL NUMBER: AB 2746 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 13, 2000
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Nakano
FEBRUARY 25, 2000
An act to amend Section 13160.1 of the Water Code,
relating to water. An act to add Division 9.8
(commencing with Section 20000) to the Water Code, relating to water.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2746, as amended, Nakano. Water Large
passenger vessels: water quality .
Under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, the State
Water Resources Control Board is the principal state agency with
primary authority over water quality matters. Under the act, the
board prescribes waste discharge requirements for the discharge of
waste into the waters of the state.
This bill would require an owner or operator of a large passenger
vessel, as defined, not later than 10 days from the close of a
calendar month in which the vessel has operated in the marine waters
of the state, to submit to the board a report itemizing the
offloading or release of pollutants from that vessel that occurred
during the previous calendar month while the vessel was located in
the marine waters of the state. The bill would require the owner or
operator of a large passenger vessel, for the time during any
calendar month in which that vessel is operated in the marine waters
of the state, to record, or cause to be recorded, information
required for the preparation of the report. The bill would require
the owner and operator of the vessel, during each calendar month in
which the vessel is operated in the marine waters of the state, to
measure and record prescribed visible emissions from the vessel. The
bill would exempt from these requirements vessels that operate in
the marine waters of the state solely in innocent passage. The bill
would define various terms.
The bill would subject an owner or operator who fails to comply
with these requirements to a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed
$500 per day for each day on which the violation occurs. The bill
would subject a person who falsifies, as specified, a report required
under the bill to an administrative civil penalty in an amount not
to exceed $5,000 per violation. The bill would authorize the board
to board and inspect a vessel in the marine waters of the state for
the purposes of carrying out the bill's provisions. The bill would
authorize the board to adopt regulations to carry out these
provisions. The bill would require the board to prepare and submit a
report to the Legislature, on or before June 1, 2003, that includes
prescribed information.
Existing law authorizes the State Water Resources Control Board to
establish a fee schedule to cover the costs of providing any
certificate required or authorized by federal law regarding the
effect of any existing or proposed facility or project on the quality
of water in the state.
This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change in those
provisions.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee:
no yes . State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 13160.1 of the Water Code is
SECTION 1. Division 9.8 (commencing with Section 20000) is added
to the Water Code, to read:
DIVISION 9.8. LARGE PASSENGER VESSELS
20000. (a) Unless the context otherwise requires, the definitions
set forth in subdivision (b) govern the construction of this
chapter.
(b) "Air contaminant" has the meaning set forth in Section 39013
of the Health and Safety Code.
(c) "Emission" means release of one or more pollutants into the
atmosphere.
(d) "Graywater" means galley, bath, and shower waters.
(e) "Hazardous waste" means "hazardous waste," as defined in
Section 25117 of the Health and Safety Code.
(f) "Large passenger vessel" or "vessel" means a vessel of 300
gross registered tons or greater that is engaged in the carrying of
passengers for hire, excluding all of the following vessels:
(1) Vessels without berths or overnight accommodations for
passengers.
(2) Noncommmercial vessels, warships, vessels operated by
nonprofit entities as determined by the Internal Revenue Service, and
vessels operated by the state, the United States, or a foreign
government.
(g) "Marine waters of the state" means "coastal waters" as defined
in Section 13181.
(h) "Medical waste" means medical waste subject to regulation
pursuant to Part 14 (commencing with Section 117600) of Division 104
of the Health and Safety Code.
(i) "Offloading" means the removal of pollutants onto or into a
controlled storage, processing, or disposal facility or treatment
works.
(j) "Oil" has the meaning set forth in Section 8750 of the Public
Resources Code.
(k) "Operator" has the meaning set forth in Section 651 of the
Harbors and Navigation Code.
(l) "Owner" has the meaning set forth in Section 651 of the
Harbors and Navigation Code.
(m) "Pollutant" means air contaminant, biological materials,
chemical wastes, graywater, hazardous substances, hazardous waste,
industrial waste, incinerator residue, medical waste, munitions, oil,
radioactive materials, sewage, sewage sludge, solid wastes, toxic
wastes, and wrecked or discarded equipment, but does not include
ballast water, consumer products in consumer use, or, with respect to
offloading, products that remain capable of being put to the
beneficial use for which they were intended.
(n) "Release" means spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting,
emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping,
placing, or disposing of pollutants into the environment, including
the abandonment or discarding of bags, containers, and other
receptacles containing a pollutant, and without regard to whether the
pollutants left the vessel through a discrete conveyance or nonpoint
source.
(o) "Responsible party" means the owner, operator, or lessee of,
or person who charters by demise, any vessel, or a person or entity
accepting responsibility for the vessel.
(p) "Sewage" has the meaning set forth in Section 775.5 of the
Harbors and Navigation Code, and also includes material that has been
collected or treated through a marine sanitation device as that term
is used in Section 312 of the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. Sec. 1322).
(q) "Solid waste" has the meaning set forth in Section 40191 of
the Public Resources Code.
(r) "Stack" means a chimney or conduit through which air or air
contaminants are emitted into the atmosphere.
20001. (a) An owner or operator of a large passenger vessel, for
the time during any calendar month in which that vessel is operated
in the marine waters of the state, shall record, or cause to be
recorded, information required for the preparation of the report
pursuant to Section 20003.
(b) At least once during each calendar month in which a large
passenger vessel is present in the marine waters of the state, and
more often if so required by the board, the owner or operator of the
vessel shall measure and record visible emissions, excluding
condensed water vapor, of the vessel while the vessel is at berth or
at anchor in a port of this state. The board shall approve the
measuring technique to be employed and the duration of the
measurement to be applicable for the purposes of carrying out this
subdivision.
(c) The board may adopt regulations directing owners or operators
of large passenger vessels to quantify and qualify the releases of
waterborne pollutants from their vessels into the marine waters of
the state.
20002. An owner or operator subject to Section 20001 shall
maintain the information collected pursuant to that section for three
years from the date on which the information was collected.
20003. (a) (1) An owner or operator of a large passenger vessel,
not later than 10 days from the close of a calendar month in which
the owner or operator has operated, or caused to be operated, a large
passenger vessel in the marine waters of the state, shall submit to
the board a report itemizing, among other matters, the offloading or
release of pollutants from that vessel that occurred during the
previous calendar month while the vessel was located in the marine
waters of the state.
(2) The owner or operator shall include in the report the
information required by this section. The owner or operator, in the
preparation of the report, may refer to and include copies of other
state or federal reports that require identical information.
(3) The board shall implement the reporting requirements in this
section in a manner that is designed to coordinate those requirements
with other reporting requirements that may be applicable to the same
vessel.
(b) For each release of a pollutant, except an emission to ambient
air from a stack, the report shall include a description of all of
the following:
(1) Location of the release, including latitude and longitude.
(2) Date and time of the release.
(3) Volume or weight, type, and source of the pollutant released.
(4) Processing or treatment used on the pollutant prior to
release.
(5) The circumstances surrounding and cause of the release,
including a statement as to whether the release was intentional or
accidental.
(6) Environmental damage caused by the release, to the extent that
the damage can be reasonably identified.
(7) Remedial efforts taken to prevent accidental releases.
(c) For sewage, if released into the marine waters of the state,
the report shall describe the results of regular samples of the
effluent collected from the onboard sewage treatment works, which
should test for fecal caliform, biological oxygen demand (BOD), and
total suspended solids (TSS).
(d) For graywater and other wastewater, other than sewage,
released into the marine waters of the state, the report shall
describe the results of regular samples of the graywater, which
should test for pH, oil and grease, total dissolved and suspended
solids, ammonia nitrogen, phosphate, and metals.
(e) For emissions to ambient air from a stack, the report shall
include a record of visible emissions measured pursuant to
subdivision (b) of Section 20001 and, if a stack on the vessel is
equipped with continuous emission monitors, the recordings printed by
the monitors for the period during that month that the vessel was in
the marine waters of the state.
(f) For pollutants that were offloaded onto or into the state,
except as provided in subdivision (g), the report shall include a
description of all of the following:
(1) Location of offloading.
(2) Date of offloading.
(3) Volume or weight, type, and source of the offloaded material.
(4) Ultimate destination of the offloaded material.
(5) Treatment or processing received by the material prior to, or
during, offloading.
(g) For hazardous waste subject to Subchapter III (commencing with
Section 6921) of Chapter 82 of Title 42 of the United States Code,
the report may include a copy of the manifest prepared in accordance
with that chapter instead of the information required by subdivision
(f). If hazardous waste was offloaded without a manifest, the report
shall include the information required by subdivision (f) and an
explanation as to why the hazardous waste was offloaded without a
manifest.
(h) For graywater, sewage, and other wastewater that was offloaded
onto or into the state, the report shall state whether those waters
were mixed with one another or with any pollutants prior to, or
during, offloading.
(i) To the extent permitted by federal law, the board, by
regulation, may require an owner or operator to submit supplemental
or additional information concerning the releases or offloading of
pollutants and the types and quantities of fuels and other materials
combusted by large passenger vessels while they are in the marine
waters of the state.
(j) A record or report submitted under this section shall be
signed under penalty of perjury by the owner, operator, or a
responsible party of the reporting vessel and shall include the
following statement: "Based on information and belief formed after
reasonable inquiry, I certify, under penalty of perjury, that the
statements and information in and attached to this document are true,
accurate, and complete."
(k) If requested by the board, the report shall also be submitted
in electronic format.
(l) Nothing in this section relieves an owner or operator from
other reporting requirements imposed pursuant to other state or
federal law.
20004. (a) An owner or operator who fails to comply with this
division is subject to a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed
five hundred dollars ($500) per day for each day on which the
violation occurs.
(b) A person who, knowingly and with intent to deceive, falsifies
a report required pursuant to this division may be liable for an
administrative civil penalty in an amount not to exceed five thousand
dollars ($5,000) per violation. Each day of a continuing violation
constitutes a separate violation.
20005. The board may board and inspect a vessel in the marine
waters of the state for the purposes of carrying out this division.
20006. (a) This division does not apply to a large passenger
vessel that operates in the marine waters of the state solely in
innocent passage.
(b) For the purposes of this section, a vessel is engaged in
innocent passage if its operation in state waters would constitute
innocent passage under either the Convention on the Territorial Sea
and Continguous Zone, dated April 29, 1958, or the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea, dated December 10, 1982.
20007. The board may adopt regulations to carry out this
division.
20008. The board shall prepare and submit a report to the
Legislature, on or before June 1, 2003, that includes all of the
following:
(a) A summary of the information collected in the reports required
by this division, including the volume or weight, type, or source of
pollutants released or offloaded, and locations or destinations of
those releases or offloads.
(b) An assessment of the potential impacts of reported quantities
and characteristics of those releases on water quality, the marine
environment, and human health, taking into consideration applicable
water quality standards, with a view to contributing to actions
undertaken pursuant to Section 13191 and 13192 and with particular
attention to these water bodies identified pursuant to Section 303(d)
of the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C.A. Sec. 1313(d)), as described in
the 1998 California "303(d) list" and the TMDL priority schedule.
(c) Recommendations regarding whether and to what extent waste
discharge requirements should be established for the pollutants
subject to this division and other recommendations.
amended to read:
13160.1. The state board may establish a reasonable fee schedule
to cover the cost of giving any certificate that is required or
authorized by any federal law with respect to the effect of any
existing or proposed facility, project, or construction work upon the
quality of waters of the state, including certificates requested by
applicants for a federal permit or license pursuant to Section 401 of
the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and certificates requested
pursuant to Section 169 of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended in
1969, with respect to water pollution control facilities.