BILL NUMBER: AB 1728	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  MARCH 18, 2010

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Gilmore

                        FEBRUARY 3, 2010

   An act to amend  Sections   Section 
13385.1 of the Water Code, relating to water quality.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1728, as amended, Gilmore. Mandatory minimum civil penalties:
 serious waste discharge violations.   automatic
composite sampler. 
   Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and
the California regional water quality control boards prescribe waste
discharge requirements in accordance with the federal Clean Water Act
and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act (state act). The
state act, with certain exceptions, imposes a mandatory minimum
penalty of $3,000 for each serious waste discharge violation or for
certain other described violations if those violations occur 4 or
more times in any period of 6 consecutive months.  A "serious
waste discharge violation" is defined to include a failure to file a
certain discharge monitoring report for each complete period of 30
days following the deadline for submitting the report if certain
conditions are met. Civil liability may be imposed administratively
by the state board or a regional board or those boards may request
the Attorney General to petition the superior court to impose the
liability.  
   This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to those
provisions.  
   This bill would provide a publicly owned treatment works with the
option of using an automatic composite sampler, in lieu of grab
samples, to collect representative samples for monitoring
constituents that are subject to the mandatory minimum penalties.

   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 13385.1 of the Water Code is amended to read:
   13385.1.  (a) (1) For the purposes of subdivision (h) of Section
13385, a "serious violation" also means a failure to file a discharge
monitoring report that is required pursuant to Section 13383 for
each complete period of 30 days following the deadline for submitting
the report, if the report is designed to ensure compliance with
limitations contained in waste discharge requirements that contain
effluent limitations.
   (2) Paragraph (1) applies only to violations that occur on or
after January 1, 2004.
   (b) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, moneys
collected pursuant to this section for a failure to timely file a
report, as described in subdivision (a), shall be deposited in the
State Water Pollution Cleanup and Abatement Account.
   (2) Notwithstanding Section 13340 of the Government Code, the
funds described in paragraph (1) are continuously appropriated,
without regard to fiscal years, to the state board for expenditure by
the state board to assist regional boards, and other public agencies
with authority to clean up waste or abate the effects of the waste,
in responding to significant water pollution problems.
   (c) For the purposes of this section, paragraph (2) of subdivision
(f) of Section 13385, and subdivisions (h), (i), and (j) of Section
13385 only, "effluent limitation" means a numeric restriction or a
numerically expressed narrative restriction, on the quantity,
discharge rate, concentration, or toxicity units of a pollutant or
pollutants that may be discharged from an authorized location. An
effluent limitation may be final or interim, and may be expressed as
a prohibition. An effluent limitation, for those purposes, does not
include a receiving water limitation, a compliance schedule, or a
best management practice. 
   (d) A publicly owned treatment works shall have the option of
using an automatic composite sampler, in lieu of grab samples, to
collect representative samples for monitoring constituents that are
subject to the minimum mandatory penalties contained in Section
13385.