BILL ANALYSIS
Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
208 (Kuehl)
Hearing Date: 5/19/03 Amended: 5/8/03
Consultant: Miriam Barcellona Ingenito Policy Vote:
EQ 5-2
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 208 would direct the Department of Health
Services (DHS) to direct the owner of any parcel of land at
the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County
to do the following if it determines that a partial or full
reactor meltdown has occurred on the site: (1) establish
and use thorough and rigorous monitoring of the site, as
specified, to provide assurance that all residual
radioactive contamination is identified; (2) ensure that
monitoring is consistent with measures provided by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA); (3) ensure that
the monitoring measures at the site consist of at least 80
percent of the surface and subsurface soil samples
identified by the US EPA in a specified document.
SB 208 also would (1) prohibit the sale, transfer, or lease
of the site for any subsequent land use unless DHS
certifies that the radioactive contamination has been
remediated; (2) require that radioactive contaminants are
disposed of only at a facility licensed by DHS, the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, or the Department of Energy, or at a
site pursuant to the Low Level Radioactive Waste Policy
Act.
SB 208 has provisions that would require Department of
Toxic Substances Control to implement the provisions of
this bill if SB 201 (Romero) is enacted and becomes
effective on or before January 1, 2004.
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06
Fund
DHS costs $600 $1,200 $1,200
SF*
*Radiation Control Fund
STAFF COMMENTS: This bill may meet the criteria to be
placed on the Suspense file. Both the proponents and
opponents of SB 208 seem to agree that SB 208 would impose
a more restrictive standard than DHS currently uses to
evaluate the cleanup of radioactively contaminated sites.
There is serious disagreement about what DHS would have to
do to ensure that the more restrictive standard is met.
According to DHS, it would need to acquire more
sophisticated equipment to ensure that the new standards of
SB 208 could be met. Additionally, while SB 208 does not
mandate additional testing, DHS indicates that it would
need to increase its sample size by a factor of over 54 to
achieve the 80 percent monitoring measures of surface and
subsurface area using the new standard.
DHS is unable to accommodate such additional volume of
sample testing and estimates that it would contract with a
certified laboratory to perform the analysis. Additionally,
DHS states that it would perform confirmatory surveys and
collect samples and provide technical assistance in writing
the contract, quality assurance, consultation, and
regulatory oversight to the contracted laboratory, as well
as data review, data analysis, and final reports to ensure
that the more restrictive requirements of this bill are
met. Based on DHS assumptions, SB 208 could result in
costs of approximately $1.2 million annually ($5.84 million
over a 5 year-period).