BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1043|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1043
Author: Chau (D), et al.
Amended: 8/22/14 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/18/14
AYES: Hill, Gaines, Fuller, Hancock, Jackson, Leno, Pavley
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-0, 8/14/14
AYES: De Le�n, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Walters, Gaines
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 5/29/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply,
Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act
of 2006: groundwater contamination
SOURCE : San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority
DIGEST : This bill eliminates the requirement for the
Department of Public Health (DPH), in collaboration with the
State Water Resources Control Board (Board) and the Department
of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), to develop and adopt
regulations governing the repayment of specified costs, and
instead requires that costs subsequently recovered from a party
responsible for the contamination, as defined, be repaid to the
Board and deposited, and separately accounted for, in the
Groundwater Contamination Cleanup Project Fund (Fund), which
this bill creates in the State Treasury.
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AB 1043
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Senate Floor Amendments of 8/22/14 (1) specify that attorney's
fees qualify as reasonable and necessary costs of response in
the cost recovery process of site remediation for purposes of
this bill and (2) authorize the Board to directly recover monies
from a responsible party pursuant to this bill.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Under the California Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), requires
the DPH to regulate drinking water and enforce the federal
SDWA and other regulations.
2.Under the Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood
Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006
(Proposition 84):
A. Authorizes $5.388 billion in general obligation bonds to
fund safe drinking water, water quality and supply, flood
control, waterway and natural resource protection, water
pollution and contamination control, state and local park
improvements, public access to natural resources, and water
conservation efforts.
B. Provides $60 million to the DPH for loans and grants for
projects to prevent or reduce contamination of groundwater
that serves as a source of drinking water for the San
Gabriel Valley.
C. Requires the DPH, when implementing the provisions of
Proposition 84, among other things, to develop and adopt
guidelines and regulations for establishing a project,
grant, loan or other financial assistance program,
including specific provisions for the repayment of costs
that are subsequently recovered from parties responsible
for the contamination.
D. Requires repayment to the DPH of costs that are
subsequently recovered from parties responsible for the
contamination.
This bill:
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1.Eliminates the requirement for the DPH, in collaboration with
the Board and DTSC, to develop and adopt regulations governing
the repayment of specified costs that are subsequently
recovered from parties responsible for the contamination of
groundwater, and instead requires that these costs be repaid
to the Board and deposited, and separately accounted for, in
the Fund, which this bill creates in the State Treasury.
2.Requires monies recovered from a responsible party in excess
of the amount that may be awarded as a grant to be available
from the Fund to the Board, upon appropriation by the
Legislature, for expenditure on orphan groundwater
contamination cleanup projects and requires the Board to
consult with the DTSC when considering expenditures on orphan
groundwater contamination cleanup projects.
3.Requires monies in the Fund to be, available, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, to the Board for a grant to
the grantee that received a grant to prevent or reduce
contamination of groundwater pursuant to Proposition 84 and
subsequently recovered costs from a responsible party and
repaid those costs to the state.
4.Prohibits the total amount of a grant from the Fund and a
grant received to prevent or reduce contamination of
groundwater pursuant to Proposition 84 from exceeding the
grantee's total costs to clean-up contaminated groundwater or
prevent the contamination of groundwater.
5.Requires that if monies from the Fund are used for legal costs
in directly recovering monies, the monies recovered by the
judgment in favor of the Board be deposited into the Fund.
6.Requires, when seeking grant funds, a grantee to submit an
expenditure plan to the Board for projects consistent with
this bill. Requires the Board to review the submitted
expenditure plan and consult with the DTSC for projects where
the DTSC is the lead state agency. Requires the Board to
notify the grantee if the expenditure plan is approved, and if
approved, the Board shall disburse the funds.
Background
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SB 1679 (Russell, Chapter 776, Statutes of 1992) enacted the San
Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority Act (Authority Act). The
Board and the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board
had investigated the groundwater conditions since 1979. The
basin is the primary drinking water source for residents and the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) had placed four
areas of the basin on its Superfund list in 1984. US EPA
released a "San Gabriel Basinwide Technical Plan" in 1990,
describing a strategy to remediate groundwater pollution. The
above three entities prepared a "white paper" describing
institutional and financial aspects of a comprehensive local
groundwater management program and concluded that a local
program must possess powers to construct and operate cleanup
works, to coordinate and regulate groundwater extraction and
cleanup, and to finance activities.
The three water agencies in the basin formed a joint powers
authority (JPA) and the watermaster (i.e., a judicially created
association of private and public groundwater users) obtained
authority to regulate pumping for water quality protection.
However, because of concerns that the JPA was not effective, SB
1679 created the Authority Act with certain powers to address
the contamination problems.
In 1992, the Legislature considered SB 44 (Torres), a bill
giving the JPA more power to address the problem. AB 2173
(Margett, Chapter 281, Statutes of 1996) extended a 1998 sunset
to 2002, reduced the cap on the annual pumping right assessment
from $35 to $20 per acre foot, and established a "limited
function status" provision. AB 2544 (Calderon, Chapter 905,
Statutes of 2000) increased the number of San Gabriel Basin
Water Quality Authority Board members from five to seven and
required two members to be producer members, reduced the annual
pumping right assessment cap from $20 to $13, revised the board
voting practices for certain actions, and made various other
changes to the act. SB 334 (Romero, Chapter 192, Statutes of
2003) reduced the annual pumping right assessment cap from $13
to $10.
SB 822 (Margett, Chapter 271, Statutes of 2005) authorized the
San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority to receive state funds
for the purpose of meeting certain nonfederal matching fund
requirements.
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FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Unknown costs, but potentially in the millions of dollars, to
the General Fund by redirecting recovered funds for further
groundwater cleanup.
Unknown costs to the Board to receive recovered funds.
Recoverable from recovered funds.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/25/14)
San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority (source)
Association of California Water Agencies
California Groundwater Coalition
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The Association of California Water
Agencies (ACWA) writes in support:
In order to be eligible to use funds recovered from
responsible parties, a local agency must present an eligible
site and submit an expenditure plan to the Department of Toxic
Substances Control (DTSC) for its review and approval. The
total amount of the grant awarded would not be able to exceed
the total groundwater cleanup or contamination prevention
costs. Any recovered costs which exceed that amount would be
transferred to the Site Remediation Account and used by DTSC
for orphan groundwater contamination cleanup projects.
ACWA supports the ability of local agencies to recover the
often substantial costs of groundwater remediation from the
responsible parties. AB 1043 would improve this process by
allowing an agency to use recovered funds for cleanup purposes
without first sending the funds to the state - the existing
cumbersome process.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 5/29/13
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Blumenfield, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown,
Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Ch�vez, Chesbro, Conway,
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Cooley, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez,
Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mitchell, Morrell,
Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson,
Perea, V. Manuel P�rez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas,
Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski,
Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A. P�rez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Holden, Vacancy
RM:k 8/25/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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