BILL NUMBER: AB 467 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JANUARY 26, 2012
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 31, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Eng
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Roger Hernández)
( Coauthor: Assembly Member
Portantino )
(Coauthors: Senators Hernandez and Huff)
FEBRUARY 15, 2011
An act to amend Section 75101 of the Public Resources Code,
relating to the environment , and declaring the urgency thereof,
to take effect immediately .
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 467, as amended, Eng. Environment: Safe Drinking Water, Water
Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond
Act of 2006.
The
(1) The Safe Drinking Water,
Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection
Bond Act of 2006, an initiative statute approved by the voters at
the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, makes approximately
$5.4 billion in bond funds available for safe drinking water, water
quality and supply, flood control, natural resource protection, and
park improvements. The bond act makes $60,000,000 available to the
State Department of Public Health for the purpose of loans and grants
for projects to prevent or reduce contamination of groundwater that
serves as a source of drinking water and requires the department to
require repayment for costs that are subsequently recovered from
parties responsible for the contamination. Existing law requires the
State Department of Public Health, in collaboration with the
Department of Toxic Substances Control and the State Water Resources
Control Board, to develop and adopt regulations governing the
repayment of costs that are subsequently recovered from parties
responsible for the contamination of groundwater.
This bill would instead require the State Department of Public
Health, in collaboration with those agencies, to develop guidelines
governing this repayment that would . The
bill would authorize the department to enter into an agreement with a
grantee that would require the grantee to attempt to recover the
costs from responsible parties and would allow
grantees to retain utilize the
repayments to fund ongoing or additional groundwater cleanup
activities authorized in the agreement . The
bill would also make a declaration concerning the
compliance of those grantees with the bond act
utilization of those repayments .
(2) The bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
Vote: majority 2/3 . Appropriation:
no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares that
it is the intent of the Legislature that the State Department of
Public Health, when adopting guidelines pursuant to Section 75101 of
the Public Resources Code, address the criteria under which a grantee
may utilize the repayments recovered from responsible parties to
fund ongoing or additional groundwater cleanup activities within its
jurisdiction. The Legislature further finds and declares that it is
the intent of the Legislature that, in determining the circumstances
when repayments may be utilized by a grantee for additional
groundwater cleanup activities, the department give preference to
projects that meet one or more of the following conditions:
(a) The grant amount awarded to the grantee by the department and
the amount recovered from the responsible party, in total, do not
exceed the grantee's total cost either to clean up the contaminated
groundwater or to prevent the groundwater from becoming contaminated.
(b) The grantee has additional areas of groundwater contamination
within its jurisdiction for which there is no potentially responsible
party, and the repayment will be used to clean up groundwater
contamination in one or more of those locations.
(c) The repayment will be used to clean up areas of groundwater
contamination within the grantee's jurisdiction where costs recovered
from responsible parties are insufficient to pay for the full costs
of cleanup.
(d) Groundwater is the primary source of drinking water, and the
grantee will use the repayment for groundwater contamination cleanup
activities at additional sites within its jurisdiction that are on
the list maintained by the Department of Toxic Substances Control
pursuant to Section 25356 of the Health and Safety Code or the
National Priorities List pursuant to the federal Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, as
amended (42 U.S.C. Sec. 9601 et seq.).
SECTION 1. SEC. 2. Section 75101 of
the Public Resources Code is amended to read:
75101. (a) For the purposes of implementing Section 75025, the
State Department of Public Health shall do all of the following:
(1) Develop guidelines pursuant to Section 75100 in collaboration
with the Department of Toxic Substances Control and the state board.
(2) (A) In collaboration with the Department of Toxic Substances
Control and the state board, develop and adopt guidelines
governing the repayment of costs that are subsequently recovered from
parties responsible for the contamination and that
authorize grantees to retain repayments from the responsible parties
to fund ongoing or additional groundwater cleanup activities in the
grantee's jurisdiction .
(B) A grantee that recovers costs from a party responsible for the
contamination and retains the repayments for ongoing or additional
activities to clean up contaminated groundwater in furtherance of the
program prescribed by the State Department of Public Health and
consistent with guidelines developed under subparagraph (A) shall be
deemed to be in compliance with Section 75025.
(B) The guidelines may include a provision to allocate up to 3
percent of the recovered funds to pay for the oversight costs of the
State Department of Public Health to ensure the grantee expends the
recovered funds on additional groundwater cleanup activities in
furtherance of the purposes of Section 75025.
(b) The State Department of Public Health may include, in an
agreement between a grantee and the department for funds granted
pursuant to Section 75025, all of the following provisions:
(1) A requirement that the grantee take appropriate action to
attempt to recover the costs of cleanup from the parties responsible
for the contamination.
(2) A specification that any funds recovered by the grantee
pursuant to paragraph (1) are deemed to be under the control and
authority of, and thereby repaid to, the state.
(3) A provision that allows the grantee to utilize the costs
recovered from the responsible parties for the purposes specified in
the agreement, including, but not limited to, ongoing groundwater
cleanup activities, in accordance with the purposes for which funds
may be granted pursuant to Section 75025.
(b)
(c) For the purposes of implementing subdivision (a) of
Section 75050, the Department of Fish and Game, when funding a
natural community conservation plan, shall fund only the development
of a natural community conservation plan that is consistent with the
Natural Community Conservation Planning Act (Chapter 10 (commencing
with Section 2800) of Division 3 of the Fish and Game Code).
(c)
(d) The San Francisco Bay Area Conservancy may use the
funds made available pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 75060 to
restore the salt ponds in the south San Francisco Bay and to create
trails and visitor facilities for public use in that area.
SEC. 3. 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 allow a grantee conducting groundwater cleanup
activities to continue those activities, thereby better protecting
public health and safety and the environment, it is necessary that
this act take effect immediately.