Amended in Senate April 21, 2014

Senate Bill No. 1300

Introduced by Senator Hancock

February 21, 2014

An act to amend Section 7870 of, and to add begin delete Sections end delete begin insert Section end insert 7872 begin delete and 7873 end delete to, the Labor Code, relating to refineries.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 1300, as amended, Hancock. Refineries: turnarounds.

Existing law, the California Refinery and Chemical Plant Worker Safety Act of 1990, states that its purpose is to prevent or minimize the consequences of catastrophic releases of toxic, flammable, or explosive chemicals. Existing law provides for the adoption of specified process safety management standards for, among others, refineries that handle acutely hazardous material. Existing law declares the intent of the Legislature for, among others, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, to promote worker safety through implementation of training and process safety management, as defined, in refineries and other facilities as deemed appropriate. A violation of the act is a crime.

This bill would require every petroleum refinery employer to, every September 15, submit to the division a full schedule of planned turnarounds, meaning a planned, periodic shutdown of a refinery process unit or plant to perform maintenance, overhaul, and repair operations and to inspect, test, and replace process materials and equipment, for the begin insert fl end insert following calendar year, as specified. Upon the request of the division, the bill would also require a petroleum refinery employer to provide access on site and provide the division with specified documentation relating to a planned turnaround within a certain period of time, as provided. begin delete This bill would prohibit any information that is submitted to the division that is identified as a trade secret from being released to the public, as specified. end delete

Existing law requires the division to annually fix and collect reasonable fees for consultation, inspection, adoption of standards, and other duties conducted pursuant to the act, and requires all revenue collected from these fees to be deposited into the Occupational Safety and Health Fund. Existing law requires the fees to be sufficient to support, at a minimum, the annual cost of 15 positions and requires the fees to be adopted by March 15, 2014.

This bill would instead authorize the Department of Industrial Relations to fix and collect reasonable fees to cover all necessary expenses, including administrative and indirect costs, for consultation, inspection, adoption of standards, participation in interagency efforts to improve safety in refineries and chemical plants, and other duties conducted pursuant to this act. This bill would require the Director of Industrial Relations to adopt reasonable rules and regulations governing the criteria and procedures to fix and collect the fees, including emergency regulations as necessary.

This bill would require the Director of Industrial Relations to recoup the full costs of extraordinary expenditures from the owner of a refinery by adding the amount expended to the next year’s assessment for that facility as a result of the division’s response to a hazardous material release or similar occurrence at a petroleum refinery.

This bill would authorize the department to hold in reserve any unexpended funds as a contingency fund for expenditures required by an emergency response to a hazardous material release or other emergency situation an unexpended funds, as provided.

Because a violation of the bill’s requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

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Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.

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This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

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Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 7870 of the Labor Code is amended to
read:

7870.  

(a) Notwithstanding the availability of federal funds to
carry out the purposes of this part, the department may fix and
collect reasonable fees to cover all necessary expenses, including
administrative and indirect costs, for consultation, inspection,
adoption of standards, participation in interagency efforts to
improve safety in refineries and chemical plants, and other duties
conducted pursuant to this part. All revenue collected from these
fees shall be deposited into the Occupational Safety and Health
Fund. The expenditure of these funds shall be subject to
appropriation by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act. The
director shall adopt reasonable rules and regulations governing the
criteria and procedures to fix and collect the fees and to implement
this section, including emergency regulations as necessary. All
regulations previously adopted by the division pursuant to this
section shall remain in effect until repealed or amended by the
director.

(b) The emergency regulations adopted pursuant to this section
shall be adopted by the director in accordance with Chapter 3.5
(commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title
2 of the Government Code. The adoption of these regulations is
an emergency and shall be considered by the Office of
Administrative Law necessary for the immediate preservation of
the public peace, health, safety, and general welfare.

(c) If, as a result of the division’s response to a hazardous
material release or similar occurrence at a petroleum refinery, the
division is required to make extraordinary expenditures, including,
but not limited to, transportation, meals, lodging, overtime, or
other costs, the director shall recoup the full costs of such
expenditures from the owner of the refinery by adding the amount
expended to the next year’s assessment for that facility. The
director shall provide the owner of the refinery with an accounting
of the costs for which reimbursement is being sought.

(d) In the event the funds collected pursuant to this section are
not fully expended by the department in carrying out its duties
pursuant to this part, the balance shall be carried forward and may,
in the department’s discretion, be credited against the subsequent
year’s assessment or held in reserve as a contingency fund for
expenditures required by an emergency response to a hazardous
material release or other emergency situation.

SEC. 2.  

Section 7872 is added to the Labor Code, to read:

7872.  

(a) For the purposes of this section, “turnaround” means
a planned, periodic shutdown, total or partial, of a refinery process
unit or plant to perform maintenance, overhaul, and repair
operations and to inspect, test, and replace process materials and
equipment. “Turnaround” does not include unplanned shutdowns
that occur due to emergencies or other unexpected maintenance
matters in a process unit or plant. “Turnaround” also does not
include routine maintenance, where routine maintenance consists
of regular, periodic maintenance on one or more pieces of
equipment at a refinery process unit or plant that may require
shutdown of such equipment.

(b) Every September 15, every petroleum refinery employer
shall submit to the division a full schedule of planned turnarounds
for the various units for the following calendar year.

(c) At the request of the division, at least 60 days prior to the
shutdown of a process unit or plant as part of a planned turnaround,
a petroleum refinery employer shall provide access on site and
allow the division to review and receive copies of, or, at the
division’s discretion, submit in physical format or in electronic
format if available electronically, the following documentation for
the process unit or plant scheduled to be shut down for that
turnaround:

(1) Corrosion reports and risk-based inspection reports generated
since the last turnaround.

(2) Process Hazard Analyses generated since the last turnaround.

(3) Boiler permit schedules.

(4) All management of change records related to repairs, design
modifications, and process changes implemented since the last
turnaround or scheduled to be completed in the planned turnaround
referenced in this subdivision and identified in subdivision (b).

(5) Work orders scheduled to be completed in the planned
turnaround referenced in this subdivision and identified in
subdivision (b).

(6) Temporary repairs since the last turnaround, including, but
not limited to, clamps and encapsulations. For the purposes of this
section, “temporary repairs” shall be defined as repairs made to
piping systems in order to restore sufficient integrity to continue
safe operation until permanent repairs can be scheduled.

(d) The division may request additional information as necessary
to perform its responsibilities in this part pursuant to Section 6314.

(e) At the request of the division, at least 30 days prior to the
shutdown of a process unit or plant as part of a planned turnaround,
a petroleum refinery employer shall provide access on site and
allow the division to review and receive copies of, or, at the
division’s discretion, submit in physical format or in electronic
format if available electronically, notification and description of
any changes to the information or documents provided pursuant
to subdivision (c) and relevant supporting documents.

(f) By agreement with a petroleum refinery employer, the
division may modify the reporting period as to any individual item
of information.

(g) This section is not intended to limit or increase the division’s
authority in Part 1 (commencing with Section 6300) to prohibit
use of a place of employment, machine, device, apparatus, or
equipment or any part thereof that constitutes an imminent hazard
to employees.

(h) The division shall develop an electronic information
management system to facilitate monitoring of petroleum refineries
pursuant to this section.

(i) The Legislature finds and declares the purpose of this section
is to improve the ability of the state to conduct inspections of
petroleum refining operations.

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SEC. 3.  

Section 7873 is added to the Labor Code, to read:

7873.  

(a) Any person providing information pursuant to
Section 7872 may, at the time of submission, identify all or a
portion of the information submitted to the division as a trade
secret and, to the extent feasible, segregate records designated as
a trade secret from the other records. Information that is so
identified at the time of submission shall not be released to any
member of the public, except that such information may be
disclosed to other officers or employees of the division concerned
with carrying out the purposes of the division or when relevant in
any proceeding of the division. This section does not prohibit the
exchange of properly designated trade secrets between public
agencies when those trade secrets are relevant and necessary to
the exercise of their jurisdiction if the public agencies exchanging
those trade secrets preserve the protections afforded that
information by this section. For purposes of this section, “public
agency” has the same meaning as that term is defined in Section
6252 of the Government Code.

(b) Any information not identified as a trade secret shall be
available to the public unless exempted from disclosure by other
provisions of law. The fact that information is claimed to be a trade
secret is public information. Upon receipt of a request for the
release of information that has been claimed to be a trade secret,
the division shall immediately provide written notice to the person
who submitted the information. Within 10 days from receipt of
the notice of the request for the release of the information claimed
to be a trade secret, the person claiming trade secrecy shall submit
to the division the legal and factual basis for the claim of trade
secrecy.

(c) Within 75 days after receiving the request for disclosure,
but not before 30 days following the later of (1) the notification
of the person who submitted the information or (2) the division’s
receipt of the basis for the claim of trade secrecy submitted
pursuant to subdivision (b), the division shall determine whether
or not the information claimed to be a trade secret is to be released
to the public. If the division decides to make the information public,
it shall provide the person who submitted the information 21 days’
notice prior to public disclosure of the information.

(d) If the person requesting the release of the information or the
person who submitted the information institutes proceeding for
injunctive or declaratory relief or a writ of mandate to order or
prohibit disclosure of trade secret information, the person
instituting the proceeding shall name the other person as a real
party in interest. Each party shall bear its own costs and attorney’s
fees.

(e) For the purposes of this section, “trade secret” means any
trade secret as defined in subdivision (d) of Section 3426.1 of the
Civil Code, any trade secret as defined in subdivision (d) of Section
6254.7 of the Government Code, and any other information
regarding the scheduling, duration, and type of work to be
performed during a turnaround that may provide economic value
to any person other than the petroleum refinery employer, including
the schedule submitted to the division pursuant to subdivision (b)
of Section 7872. Upon completion of a turnaround, the dates on
which that turnaround was conducted shall no longer be considered
a trade secret.

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begin delete SEC. 4. end delete
begin insert SEC. 3. end insert   

No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of
the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within
the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.

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SEC. 5.  

The Legislature finds and declares that Section 3 of
this act, which adds Section 7873 to the Labor Code, imposes a
limitation on the public’s right of access to the meetings of public
bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies within the
meaning of Section 3 of Article I of the California Constitution.
Pursuant to that constitutional provision, the Legislature makes
the following findings to demonstrate the interest protected by this
limitation and the need for protecting that interest:

The limitation upon the disclosure of information identified by
refineries as trade secrets is necessary to protect proprietary
business information of those refineries.

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