BILL NUMBER: AB 96	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Ruskin

                        JANUARY 6, 2009

   An act to amend Section 25299.105 of the Health and Safety Code,
relating to public health.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 96, as introduced, Ruskin. Gasoline: underground storage tanks.

   Existing law provides for the regulation of underground storage
tanks by the State Water Resources Control Board. Existing law
requires the board to take specified actions with regard to
unauthorized releases from petroleum underground storage tanks,
including, among other things, adopting regulations requiring the
owners of those tanks to undertake certain actions.
   Existing law provides for a grant program for small businesses to
use to pay specified costs of complying with the underground storage
tank regulations adopted by the board. Eligibility for the grant
funds, as specified in existing law, requires that the grant
applicant, the applicant's family, or an affiliated entity, has owned
and operated the project tank since January 1, 1997.
   This bill would delete that ownership requirement from the grant
eligibility criteria.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


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

  SECTION 1.  Section 25299.105 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:
   25299.105.  (a) The board shall make grant funds available from
the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Financing Account to eligible
grant applicants who meet all of the following eligibility
requirements:
   (1) The grant applicant is a small business, pursuant to the
following requirements:
   (A) The grant applicant meets the conditions for a small business
concern as defined in Section 632 of Title 15 of the United States
Code, and in the federal regulations adopted to implement that
section, as specified in Part 121 (commencing with Section 121.101)
of Chapter I of Title 13 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
   (B) The grant applicant employs fewer than 20 full-time and
part-time employees, is independently owned and operated, and is not
dominant in its field of operation.
   (2) The principal office of the grant applicant is domiciled in
the state  ,  and the officers of the grant
applicant are domiciled in this state. 
   (3)  The grant applicant, the applicant's family, or an affiliated
entity, has owned or operated the project tank since January 1,
1997.  
   (4) 
    (3)  All tanks owned and operated by the grant applicant
are subject to compliance with Chapter 6.7 (commencing with Section
25280), and the regulations adopted pursuant to that chapter.

   (5) 
    (4)  The facility where the project tank is located has
sold at retail less than 900,000 gallons of gasoline annually for
each of the two years preceding the submission of the grant
application. The number of gallons sold shall be based upon taxable
sales figures provided to the State Board of Equalization for that
facility. 
   (6) 
    (5)  The grant applicant owns or operates a tank that is
in compliance with Section 25290.1, 25290.2, or 25291, or
subdivisions (d) and (e) of Section 25292, and the regulations
adopted to implement those sections. 
   (7) 
    (6)  The facility where the project tank is located was
legally in business retailing gasoline after January 1, 1999.
   (b) Grant funds may only be used to pay the costs necessary to
comply with the requirements of Section 25284.1, 25292.4, or 25292.5.

   (c) If the total amount of grant requests by eligible grant
applicants to the board pursuant to this section exceeds, or is
anticipated to exceed, the amount in the Petroleum Underground
Storage Tank Financing Account, the board may adopt a priority
ranking list to award grants based upon the level of demonstrated
financial hardship of the eligible grant applicant  ,
 or the relative impact upon the local community where the
project tank is located if the claim is denied.