BILL NUMBER: SB 1722	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JUNE 14, 2004
	AMENDED IN SENATE  APRIL 27, 2004
	AMENDED IN SENATE  MARCH 23, 2004

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Ducheny

                        FEBRUARY 20, 2004

   An act to add Section  25249.37   25249.7.3
 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to toxic substances.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 1722, as amended, Ducheny.  Proposition 65:  enforcement:
judgments.
   (1) The existing Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of
1986 (Proposition 65) prohibits any person, in the course of doing
business, from knowingly and intentionally exposing any individual to
a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive
toxicity without giving a specified warning, or from discharging or
releasing such a chemical into any source of drinking water, except
as specified.  The act imposes civil penalties upon persons who
violate those prohibitions, and provides for the enforcement of those
prohibitions by the Attorney General, a district attorney, or
specified city attorneys or prosecutors, and by any person in the
public interest.  Existing law requires 75% of all civil and criminal
penalties collected pursuant to the act  to  be deposited
in the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Fund in the State
Treasury, which may be expended by the director of the lead agency,
who is designated by the Governor to implement the act, to implement
and administer the act, upon appropriation by the Legislature.
Existing law requires 25% of all civil and criminal penalties
collected pursuant to the act be paid to the prosecuting office or
the person who brought the action in the public interest.  The act
requires any person bringing an action in the public interest, or any
private person filing an action in which a violation of the act is
alleged, to notify the Attorney General that such an action has been
filed.
   This bill would provide that where a court finds that the doctrine
of res judicata bars the relitigation of an issue or a cause of
action,  a later   as specified, another 
action  brought in the public interest  would be barred.
   (2) The bill, in conformance with the requirements of Proposition
65, would make a legislative finding and declaration that this change
would further the purposes of the act.
   Vote:  2/3.  Appropriation:  no.  Fiscal committee:  yes.
State-mandated local program:  no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  Section 25249.7.3 is added to the Health and Safety
Code, to read:
   25249.7.3.  A court judgment in a case filed pursuant to
subdivision  (c) or  (d) of Section 25249.7,  a
settlement in a case filed pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section
25249.7,  or a settlement approved by the court pursuant to
paragraph (4) of subdivision (f) of Section 25249.7, shall bar
a later   another  action, or a part
thereof, brought in the public interest pursuant to subdivision (d)
of Section 25249.7 where the court  , in the later action,
 finds that the doctrine of res judicata bars relitigation
of an issue or cause of action.
  SEC. 2.  The Legislature finds and declares that this act furthers
the purposes of the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of
1986.