BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                       



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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                  AB 1098|
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                                    CONSENT


          Bill No:  AB 1098
          Author:   Saldana (D)
          Amended:  7/3/07 in Senate
          Vote:     21

           
           SENATE ENV. QUALITY COMMITTEE  :  7-0, 7/10/07
          AYES: Simitian, Runner, Aanestad, Florez, Kuehl, Lowenthal,  
            Steinberg

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  :  72-0, 5/3/07 - See last page for vote


           SUBJECT  :    Hazardous materials:  administrative materials:  
           liability

           SOURCE  :     County of San Diego


           DIGEST  :    This bill clarifies provisions of existing law  
          regarding the imposition of administrative and criminal  
          penalties relating to the handling and release of hazardous  
          materials.

           ANALYSIS  :    

           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  
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            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.

          2.Clarifying enforcement options and penalties by  
            separating existing enforcement options for  
            administrative and criminal processes into individual  
            subsections.

           Comments
           
          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.







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          According to the Senate Environmental Quality analysis, 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  
          provisions mandating the governing board of the  
          administrative agency to set the administrative penalty.   
          This bill 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.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  No    
          Local:  No

           SUPPORT :   (Verified  7/12/07)

          County of San Diego (source)
          Biocom
          California Association of Environmental Health  
          Administrators
          Moller International, Inc.

           ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT  :    According to the sponsor, the  
          County of San Diego, this bill will provide greater clarity  
          for both regulators and the regulated community in  
          enforcement of the CUPA program.


           ASSEMBLY FLOOR  : 
          AYES:  Adams, Aghazarian, Anderson, Bass, Beall, Benoit,  
            Berg, Berryhill, Blakeslee, Brownley, Caballero, Carter,  
            Cook, Coto, Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, DeSaulnier,  
            DeVore, Duvall, Dymally, Emmerson, Eng, Evans, Feuer,  
            Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Garcia, Garrick, Hancock,  
            Hayashi, Hernandez, Horton, Houston, Huffman, Jeffries,  
            Jones, Karnette, Keene, Krekorian, La Malfa, Laird, Leno,  
            Levine, Lieber, Lieu, Ma, Maze, Mendoza, Mullin,  
            Nakanishi, Nava, Niello, Parra, Plescia, Portantino,  
            Price, Richardson, Salas, Saldana, Silva, Smyth, Solorio,  
            Strickland, Swanson, Torrico, Tran, Villines, Walters,  
            Wolk, Nunez
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Arambula, Charles Calderon, Huff, Sharon  
            Runner, Ruskin, Soto, Spitzer, Vacancy







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          TSM:do  7/12/07   Senate Floor Analyses 

                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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