BILL NUMBER: SB 208 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 22, 2003
INTRODUCED BY Senator Kuehl
FEBRUARY 13, 2003
An act to add Section 114716 to the Health and Safety Code,
relating to radiation.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 208, as amended, Kuehl. Radiation: contamination.
The
(1) The existing Radiation Control Law requires the State
Department of Health Services, among other things, to issue licenses,
and prohibits the state department from issuing a license to receive
radioactive material for disposal on land unless specified
requirements are satisfied. Existing law prohibits any person from
burying, throwing away, or disposing of radioactive waste except in a
manner that will result in no significant radioactive contamination
of the environment.
This bill would require the department to direct a person who owns
a site, as defined to mean all parcels of land that
comprise or operates the Santa Susana Field
Laboratory in Ventura County , for which the department
determines that a partial or full reactor meltdown has occurred,
to establish and use thorough and rigorous
monitoring of the site using best available technology, equipment,
and methodology, as specified , to provide assurance that all
residual radioactive contamination is identified .
The bill would prohibit a person from selling,
transferring, or leasing that site, for which the department has made
that determination, for any subsequent land use unless the site
cleanup require the owner or operator of the site to
clean up the site until it meets specified radiation
dose cancer risk standards , before
selling, transferring, or leasing the site for a subsequent land use
. The bill would require that a person who
removes material from that site that has radioactive contamination
above background to transfer the material to a disposal facility
specifically licensed for that type of waste.
The bill would make legislative findings and declarations
regarding the necessity of a special statute.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 114716 is added to the Health and Safety Code,
to read:
114716. (a) The department shall require a person who owns
114716. On and after January 1, 2004, the department shall impose
the following conditions on the site consisting of all parcels of
land that comprise the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura
County:
(a) The owner or operator of the site shall establish and use
thorough and rigorous monitoring of the site using best available
technology, equipment, and methodology, to provide a high assurance
that all residual radioactive contamination is identified. The
monitoring required pursuant to this subdivision shall be consistent
with those measures provided in the United States Environmental
Protection Agency's September 2001 Draft Scoping Document for
Development of Workplan for a Soil Radiation Survey of Santa Susana
Field Laboratory Area IV, and shall consist of at least 80 percent of
the amount of surface and subsurface soil samples identified in that
document.
(b) Prior to the sale, transfer, or lease of the site for a
subsequent land use, the owner or operator of the site shall clean it
up to a level that results in a cancer risk no greater than that
provided in Section 15 of the "Guidance for Cleanup of Radioactivity
on Closing Military Bases for Unrestricted Public Use of Property"
issued by the Radiological Health Branch of the department on April
5, 1994.
(c) All material that is removed from the site and has radioactive
contamination above background shall be transferred to a disposal
facility specifically licensed for that type of waste by any of the
following:
(1) The department, pursuant to Chapter 8 (commencing with Section
114960).
(2) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
(3) A state that has entered into an agreement pursuant to Section
2021 of Title 42 of the United States Code.
(4) An authorized disposal site at a Department of Energy
facility.
(d) For purposes of this section, "background" means the local
level of radioactivity resulting from all of the following sources of
radioactivity:
(1) Materials in nature without enhancement by human activity.
(2) The fallout from nuclear weapons testing.
(3) The local deposition of fallout from past nuclear accidents
located elsewhere in the world, including, but not limited to, the
nuclear accident in Chernobyl.
SEC. 2. The Legislature finds and declares that a special law is
necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable within the
meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution
because of the unique circumstances regarding radioactivity at Santa
Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County. a site, for
which the department determines that a partial or full reactor
meltdown has occurred on that site, to use thorough and rigorous
monitoring of the site using best available technology, equipment,
and methodology, to provide a high assurance that any residual
contamination is identified. The monitoring of the site shall be
consistent with those measures provided in the United States
Environmental Protection Agency's September 2001 Draft Scoping
Document for Development of Workplan for a Soil Radiation Survey of
Santa Susana Field Laboratory Area IV. The department shall require
the monitoring measures at the site to consist of at least 80 percent
of the amount of surface and subsurface soil samples identified in
that document.
(b) No person shall sell, transfer, or lease a site for which the
department has made the determination specified in subdivision (a)
for any subsequent land use unless the site cleanup meets the
radiation dose standards provided in Section 15 of the "Guidance for
Cleanup of Radioactivity on Closing Military Bases for Unrestricted
Public Use of Property" issued by the Radiological Health Branch of
the department on April 5, 1994.
(c) If any person removes material removed from a site for which
the department has made the determination specified in subdivision
(a) and the material has radioactive contamination above background,
the material shall be transferred to a disposal facility specifically
licensed for that type of waste by any of the following:
(1) The department, pursuant to Chapter 8 (commencing with Section
114960).
(2) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
(3) A state that has entered into an agreement pursuant to Section
2021 of Title 42 of the United States Code.
(4) An authorized disposal site at a Department of Energy
facility.
(d) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) "Background" means the local level of radioactivity from
nature of like materials without enhancement by human activity, plus
the local levels of fallout from nuclear weapons testing and the
local deposition of fallout from past nuclear accidents located
elsewhere in the world, including, but not limited to, the nuclear
accident in Chernobyl.
(2) "Partial or full reactor meltdown" means an event at a nuclear
reactor that results in more than 2 percent of the fuel elements
experiencing any melting of fuel or cladding or fuel-cladding
eutectic.
(3) "Site" means all parcels of land that comprise the Santa
Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County.