BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1098
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator S. Joseph Simitian, Chairman
2007-2008 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1098
AUTHOR: Saldana
AMENDED: July 3, 2007
FISCAL: No HEARING DATE: July10, 2007
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Rachel Machi
SUBJECT : HAZARDOUS MATERIALS PENALTIES AND
LIABILITY
SUMMARY :
Existing law :
1)Requires the Secretary for Environmental Protection (CalEPA)
to adopt regulations and implement the Unified Hazardous
Waste and Hazardous Materials Management Regulatory Program.
A city or local agency that meets specified requirements
can be authorized to assume enforcement duties of the
program as a Certified Unified Program Agency (CUPA).
2)Under the CUPA program, authorizes local city and county
agencies to unify the administration and enforcement of six
environmental programs - the hazardous waste, aboveground
and underground storage tank, hazardous materials inventory,
extremely hazardous materials accidental release, and
hazardous materials/fire code programs.
3)Provides an administrative order/administrative penalty
program to enforce the corrective action order provisions of
the hazardous materials/waste laws.
This bill clarifies provisions of the CUPA program regarding
the imposition of administrative and criminal penalties
relating to the handling and release of hazardous materials
by:
1)Deleting the reference to "governing body" in the Business
Plan Administrative Enforcement Order (AEO) for setting
administrative penalties.
AB 1098
Page 2
2)Clarifying enforcement options and penalties by separating
existing enforcement options for administrative and criminal
processes into individual subsections.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of Bill According to the sponsor, County of San
Diego, prior to AB 2481 (Frommer), Chapter 999, Statutes of
2002, of the six programs overseen by a CUPA, four had
different administrative order procedures and two had none
at all. AB 2481 created a single, uniform system of
administrative actions (AEOs) for all six CUPA programs.
However, AB 2481 failed to include a revision to a
previously existing provision for imposition of penalties by
a governing board in the hazardous materials business plan
program. Because this resulted in conflicting statutory
provisions, this has been an obstacle in implementing the
AEO program for Business Plans. This has created
inconsistency and confusion in the program for regulators
and the regulated.
2)Background . The new AEO procedure requires the CUPA to
follow the state Administrative Procedures Act for issuing
an enforcement order or assessing an administrative penalty.
In creating the new system, AB 2481 (Frommer) did not
remove a provision mandating the governing board of the
administrative agency to set the administrative penalty. AB
1098 clarifies that it is not the local governing body, but
the CUPA or participating agency, that sets the penalty as
it does for other CUPA programs.
3)According to the sponsor, County of San Diego, this bill
will provide greater clarity for both regulators and the
regulated community in enforcement of the CUPA program.
SOURCE : County of San Diego
SUPPORT : Biocom
California Association of Environmental Health
Administrators
Moller International, Inc.
AB 1098
Page 3
OPPOSITION : None on file