BILL NUMBER: AB 467 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 23, 2012
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, making an appropriation therefor,
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.
(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. Existing law creates the State
Water Pollution Cleanup and Abatement Account in the State Water
Quality Control Fund and continuously appropriates the money in that
fund to the State Water Resources Control Board for specified
purposes with regard to the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act.
This bill would instead require the State Department of
Public Health, in collaboration with those agencies, to develop
guidelines governing this repayment. The bill would authorize
require 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 utilize the repayments to fund activities authorized in
the agreement. The bill would also make a declaration concerning the
utilization of those repayments adopt the implementing
regulations as emergency regulations, pursuant to a specified
procedure, and would require the emergency regulations to
remain in effect for 180 days after the effective date of those
emergency regulations, by which time the department would be required
to adopt regulations .
The bill would require the regulations to include a provision
allowing the department to enter into an agreement with a grantee
that would authorize the expenditure of the recovered funds to
implement ongoing treatment and remediation activities in accordance
with the purposes for which funds may be granted pursuant to the bond
act .
The bill would establish the Groundwater Contamination
Prevention Account in the State Treasury and would require the State
Department of Public Health to deposit in that account the funds
recovered from responsible parties pursuant to the payment recovery
provisions in the bond act. The bill would continuously appropriate
funds in the account to the State Department of Public Health for
purposes of implementing the groundwater contamination cleanup and
prevention provisions of the bond act, thereby making an
appropriation.
The bill would authorize the department to expend up to 3% of
the recovered funds deposited annually in the Groundwater
Contamination Prevention Account to pay for the department's
oversight costs and would authorize the department to
enter into a memorandum of understanding with the State Water
Resources Control Board to expend the funds in the State Water
Pollution Cleanup and Abatement Account to administer the recovered
funds, thereby making an appropriation.
(2) The This bill would declare that
it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no yes .
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.).
SEC. 2. SECTION 1. 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
regulations governing the repayment of costs
that are subsequently recovered from parties responsible for the
contamination.
(B) The guidelines may include a provision to allocate
State Department of Public Health shall
adopt the initial regulations required pursuant to this paragraph as
emergency regulations in accordance with Chapter 3.5 (commencing with
Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government
Code, and for the pur poses of that chapter, including
Section 11349.6 of the Government Code, the adoption of these
regulations is an emergency and shall be considered by the Office of
Administrative Law as necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health and safety, and general
welfare. Notwithstanding Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340)
of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, including
subdivision (e) of Section 11346.1 of the Government Code, any
emergency regulations adopted pursuant to this section shall be filed
with, but not be repealed by, the Office of Administrative Law and
shall remain in effect until 180 days after the effective date of the
emergency regulations. On or before 180 days after the effective
date of the emergency regulations, the State Department of Public
Health shall adopt regulations pursuant to this paragraph in
accordance with Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1
of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code up to 3
(C) There is hereby established the Groundwater Contamination
Prevention Account in the State Treasury. The State Department of
Public Health shall deposit all funds recovered from responsible
parties pursuant to Section 75025 in the Groundwater Contamination
Prevention Account. The funds in the account are hereby continuously
appropriated to the State Department of Public Health for purposes of
implementing Section 75025, as specified in this section.
(D) The State Department of Public
Health may expend percent of the recovered funds deposited
annually in the Groundwater Contamination Prevention Account
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. Notwithstanding Section 13441 of the
Water Code, the State Department of Public Health may also enter into
a memorandum of understanding with the state board to
expend the funds in the State Water Pollution Cleanup and Abatement
Account created pursuant to Section 13440 of the Water Code to
administer the recovered funds.
(E) The regulations adopted pursuant to this paragraph shall
include a provision authorizing the State Department of Public Health
to enter into an agreement with a grantee that would authorize the
expenditure of the recovered funds to implement ongoing treatment and
remediation activities in accordance with the purposes for which
funds may be granted pursuant to 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.
(c)
( b) 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).
(d)
( c) 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. SEC. 2. 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.
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