BILL NUMBER: AB 96 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 1, 2009
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 15, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 21, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 26, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Ruskin
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Chesbro)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Carter, Miller, and Nielsen)
(Coauthors: Senators Hancock, Lowenthal, and Steinberg)
JANUARY 6, 2009
An act to amend Sections 25299.81, 25299.105, 25299.109, and
25299.117 of, and to amend and repeal Section 41964 of, the Health
and Safety Code, relating to public health, making an appropriation
therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect
immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 96, as amended, Ruskin. Gasoline: underground storage tanks.
(1) 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 and loan program for small
businesses to pay specified costs of complying with the underground
storage tank regulations adopted by the board. Existing law contains
various eligibility criteria for grant funds, including a requirement
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.
(2) Under existing law, the grant and loan program is funded
through the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Financing Account.
Existing law allows not more than 33% of the available funds to be
used for the purpose of providing grants. Existing law requires the
interest and other increments resulting from the investment of the
funds in the account to be placed in a separate subaccount to be
expended for the administration of the program.
This bill would make a one time transfer of $8,000,000 from the
administrative subaccount to be appropriated for the purpose of
making grants and loans in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 fiscal years. The
bill would establish specified criteria for the grants and loans
awarded from funds made pursuant to this transfer.
(3) Existing law, the Barry Keene Underground Storage Tank Cleanup
Trust Fund Act of 1989, provides for the establishment of an
Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund to pay for various costs of
corrective action and abatement for the unauthorized release of
hazardous materials from underground storage tanks. The provisions of
this act will expire January 1, 2016. Under existing law, upon the
expiration of the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Financing
Account on January 1, 2011, the funds remaining in that account
revert to the Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund. The grant and
loan program provisions would be repealed on January 1, 2011.
This bill would extend the repeal date of the grant and loan
program as well as the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Financing
Account to January 1, 2016. Additionally, it would make provisions
for the payment of loans and grants, conditions of which were
effective prior to January 1, 2016, from the Underground Storage Tank
Cleanup Fund and the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Financing
Account, as specified.
(4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 25299.81 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:
25299.81. (a) Except as provided in subdivisions (b) and (c),
this chapter shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2016, and
as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, which is
enacted before January 1, 2016, deletes or extends that date.
(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), Article 1 (commencing with
Section 25299.10), Article 2 (commencing with Section 25299.11), and
Article 4 (commencing with Section 25299.36) shall not be repealed
and shall remain in effect on January 1, 2016.
(c) The repeal of certain portions of this chapter does not
terminate any of the following rights, obligations, or authorities,
or any provision necessary to carry out these rights and obligations:
(1) The filing and payment of claims against the fund, including
the costs specified in subdivisions (c), (e), and (h) of Section
25299.51, and claims for commingled plumes, as specified in Article
11 (commencing with Section 25299.90), until the moneys in the fund
are exhausted. Upon exhaustion of the fund, any remaining claims
shall be invalid.
(2) The repayment of loans, outstanding as of January 1, 2016, due
and payable to the board.
(3) The recovery of moneys reimbursed to a claimant to which the
claimant is not entitled, or the resolution of any cost recovery
action.
(4) The collection of unpaid fees that are imposed pursuant to
Article 5 (commencing with Section 25299.40), as that article read on
December 31, 2015, or have become due before January 1, 2016,
including any interest or penalties that accrue before, on, or after
January 1, 2016, associated with those unpaid fees.
(5) (A) The filing of an application for funds from, and the
making of payments from, the Underground Storage Tank Petroleum
Contamination Orphan Site Cleanup Fund pursuant to Section
25299.50.2, any action for the recovery of moneys paid pursuant to
Section 25299.50.2 to which the recipient is not entitled, and the
resolution of that cost recovery action.
(B) Upon liquidation of funds in the Underground Storage Tank
Petroleum Contamination Orphan Site Cleanup Fund, the obligation to
make a payment from the Underground Storage Tank Petroleum
Contamination Orphan Site Cleanup Fund is terminated.
(6) (A) The payment of loans and grants, consistent with the terms
of agreements that were effective prior to January 1, 2016, from the
Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund, pursuant to this chapter or
the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Financing Account pursuant to
Chapter 6.76 (commencing with Section 25299.100). Upon exhaustion of
the Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund, any remaining claims for
payment of grants or loans shall be invalid.
(B) The amount of money disbursed for grants and loans pursuant to
Chapter 6.76 (commencing with Section 25299.100) shall not exceed
the sum of following:
(i) The amount that reverts to the Underground Storage Tank
Cleanup Fund pursuant to Section 25299.111.
(ii) Amounts recovered through the repayment of loans granted
pursuant to Chapter 6.76 (commencing with Section 25299.100).
(iii) The resolution of any cost recovery action filed prior to
January 1, 2016, or the initiation of an action or other collection
process to recover defaulted loan moneys due to the board or to
recover money paid to a grant or loan recipient pursuant to Chapter
6.76 (commencing with Section 25299.100) to which the recipient is
not entitled.
(d) The board shall continuously post and update on its Internet
Web site, but at a minimum, annually on or before September 30,
information that describes the status of the fund and shall make
recommendations, when appropriate, to improve the efficiency of the
program.
SEC. 2. 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) 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.
(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.
(5) The grant applicant owns or operates a tank that is in
compliance with all of the following:
(A) Section 41954.
(B) Any of the following:
(i) Section 25290.1.
(ii) Section 25290.2.
(iii) Section 25291.
(iv) Subdivisions (d) and (e) of Section 25292.
(C) Any regulation implementing the applicable sections required
for compliance with subparagraphs (A) and (B).
(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.
SEC. 3. Section 25299.109 of the Health and Safety Code is amended
to read:
25299.109. (a) The Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Financing
Account is hereby created in the State Treasury. The Petroleum
Underground Storage Tank Financing Account is created for both of the
following purposes:
(1) Receiving federal, state, and local money.
(2) Receiving repayments of loans and interest and late fees on
those accounts.
(b) Upon appropriation by the Legislature, funds in the account
shall be used by the board only to make loans and grants pursuant to
this chapter.
(c) The board shall annually make available not more than 33
percent of the available funds from the account for the purposes of
providing grants pursuant to this chapter. Funds transferred pursuant
to subdivision (e) shall not be used in calculating the maximum
amount that may be made available for grant funding.
(d) Notwithstanding Section 16305.7 of the Government Code, all
interest or other increments resulting from the investment of the
funds in the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Financing Account
pursuant to Article 4 (commencing with Section 16470) of Chapter 3 of
Part 2 of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code shall be
deposited in a subaccount of the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank
Financing Account, and expended only pursuant to Section 25299.113.
(e) (1) The sum of eight million dollars ($8,000,000) is hereby
transferred from the subaccount established in subdivision (d) to the
Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Financing Account and is
appropriated for the purpose of making grants and loans pursuant to
this chapter in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 fiscal years.
(2) An application for grant funding pursuant to this subdivision
must have been received not later than April 1, 2009
June 30, 2009 .
(3) If a grant or loan from moneys transferred pursuant to this
subdivision is being requested for the purpose of compliance with
Enhanced Vapor Recovery Phase II regulations, then the applicant must
have applied for or obtained a permit from the air quality
management district by April 1, 2009, and have obtained an
enforcement agreement or other binding obligation by June 30, 2009.
SEC. 4. Section 25299.117 of the Health and Safety Code is amended
to read:
25299.117. This chapter is repealed as of January 1, 2016, unless
a later enacted statute that is enacted on or before January 1,
2016, deletes or extends that date.
SEC. 5. Section 41964 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to
read:
41964. (a) The state board shall not require a gasoline
dispensing facility that meets all of the following requirements to
undergo an Enhanced Vapor Recovery Phase II upgrade, as required
pursuant to Section 41954 and implementing regulations, until April
1, 2011:
(1) As of January 1, 2009, have installed a state board certified
Phase II vapor recovery system.
(2) Have an annual gasoline throughput of 240,000 gallons or less.
(3) Operate in a county that has a population of less than
100,000.
(4) Operate in a basin not classified as nonattainment for ozone.
(b) This section shall remain in effect only until July 1, 2011,
and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that
is enacted before July 1, 2011, deletes or extends that date.
SEC. 6. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the
immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within
the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into
immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to immediately finance projects critical to the
protection of the environment, it is necessary that this act take
effect immediately.