Bill Text: CA AB1043 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Passed) 2014-09-16 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 349, Statutes of 2014. [AB1043 Detail]
Download: California-2013-AB1043-Chaptered.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 1043 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
CHAPTER 349
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE SEPTEMBER 16, 2014
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR SEPTEMBER 16, 2014
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 27, 2014
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 28, 2014
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 22, 2014
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 19, 2014
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 19, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 16, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Chau
(Coauthor: Senator Hernandez)
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
An act to amend Section 75101 of the Public Resources Code,
relating to groundwater.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1043, Chau. Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply,
Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006:
groundwater contamination.
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 as Proposition 84 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 initiative bond act makes $60,000,000 available to the State
Water Resources Control Board 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 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 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 eliminate the requirement to develop and adopt
regulations and instead would require that costs subsequently
recovered from a party responsible for the contamination, as defined,
be repaid to the state board and deposited, and separately accounted
for, in the Groundwater Contamination Cleanup Project Fund, which
this bill would create in the State Treasury. This bill would require
moneys in the fund to be available, upon appropriation by the
Legislature, to the state 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. This bill
would require the state board to disburse the funds upon the approval
of an expenditure plan submitted by the grantee. This bill would
prohibit 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 cleanup
contaminated groundwater or prevent the contamination of
groundwater. This bill would require moneys 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 state board, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, for expenditure on orphan
groundwater contamination cleanup projects and would require the
state board to consult with the Department of Toxic Substances
Control when considering expenditures on orphan groundwater
contamination cleanup projects. The bill would authorize the state
board, upon appropriation, to use moneys in the fund for its
administrative costs and for directly recovering moneys from a party
responsible for contamination of groundwater addressed by a grant or
loan under Proposition 84, and would require that if moneys from the
fund are used for legal costs in directly recovering moneys, the
moneys recovered by the judgment in favor of the state board be
deposited into the fund.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 75101 of the Public Resources Code is amended
to read:
75101. (a) (1) Costs subsequently recovered from a party
responsible for the contamination pursuant to Section 75025 shall be
repaid to the state board and deposited in the Groundwater
Contamination Cleanup Project Fund, which is hereby created in the
State Treasury. Costs recovered shall be separately accounted for
within the Groundwater Contamination Cleanup Project Fund.
(2) Moneys in the Groundwater Contamination Cleanup Project Fund
are available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the state
board for the purpose of a grant to the grantee that received funds
and subsequently recovered costs from a responsible party and repaid
those costs to the state in the following priority order:
(A) Projects and activities to clean up areas of groundwater
contamination within the grantee's jurisdiction where the initial
grant awarded pursuant to Section 75025 is insufficient to pay for
the full costs of the cleanup.
(B) Projects and activities to clean up additional areas of
groundwater contamination within the grantee's jurisdiction.
(3) (A) The total amount of the grant awarded pursuant to Section
75025 and the amount awarded pursuant to this subdivision shall not
exceed the grantee's total costs to clean up contaminated groundwater
or prevent the contamination of groundwater.
(B) If costs recovered by the grantee and deposited in the
Groundwater Contamination Cleanup Project Fund exceed the amount that
may be awarded as a grant pursuant to the limit in subparagraph (A),
the excess moneys shall be available to the state board, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, for expenditure on orphan
groundwater contamination cleanup projects. The state board shall
consult with the Department of Toxic Substances Control when
considering expenditures on orphan groundwater contamination cleanup
projects.
(4) The grantee shall use an amount awarded pursuant to this
subdivision for groundwater contamination cleanup activities for
groundwater that is a primary source of drinking water, including,
but not limited to, ongoing treatment and remediation activities in
accordance with the purposes of Section 75025.
(5) When seeking grant funds pursuant to paragraph (2), a grantee
shall submit an expenditure plan to the state board for projects
consistent with this subdivision. The state board shall review the
submitted expenditure plan and consult with the Department of Toxic
Substances Control for sites where the Department of Toxic Substances
Control is the lead state agency. The state board shall notify the
grantee if the expenditure plan is approved, and if approved, the
state board shall disburse the funds.
(6) Grants awarded pursuant to this subdivision may be used for
capital costs and treatment and remediation activities.
(7) Commencing no later than July 1, 2015, and annually thereafter
until the grantee's funds are expended, a grantee of funds awarded
pursuant to this subdivision shall provide public notice, by posting
a list on the grantee's Internet Web site, of projects and activities
that receive grant funds pursuant to this subdivision and the amount
of those funds.
(8) As used in this subdivision, "costs subsequently recovered
from a party responsible for the contamination" means the amount of
any judgment or settlement received by a grantee of funds received
pursuant to Section 75025 from a responsible party that is
attributable to costs funded by the grant received pursuant to
Section 75025, less all reasonable and necessary costs of response
incurred by the grantee of funds received pursuant to Section 75025
to recover these funds. Attorney's fees may be considered reasonable
and necessary costs of response if the attorney's efforts are for
identifying potentially responsible parties, but not if incurred in
pursuit of litigation, consistent with the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, as
amended (42 U.S.C. Sec. 9601 et seq.), and Key Tronic Corp. v. U.S.
(511 U.S. 809 (1994)).
(9) The state board may use moneys in the Groundwater
Contamination Cleanup Project Fund, upon appropriation by the
Legislature, for the costs of administering this subdivision.
(b) The state board may directly recover moneys from a party
responsible for contamination addressed by a loan or grant pursuant
to Section 75025 in accordance with the procedures described in
subdivision (c) of Section 13304 of the Water Code. The state board,
upon appropriation by the Legislature, may use moneys in the
Groundwater Contamination Cleanup Project Fund for this purpose. If
moneys from the Groundwater Contamination Cleanup Project Fund are
used for legal costs pursuant to this subdivision, moneys recovered
by a judgment in favor of the state board shall be deposited in that
fund.
(c) For the purposes of implementing subdivision (a) of Section
75050, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, 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) 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.
