Bill Text: CA AB777 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Hazardous waste: Stringfellow Quarry Class I Hazardous Waste Disposal Site.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Passed) 2023-09-08 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 165, Statutes of 2023. [AB777 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB777-Chaptered.html
Assembly Bill
No. 777
CHAPTER 165
An act to amend Section 79490 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to hazardous waste.
[
Approved by
Governor
September 08, 2023.
Filed with
Secretary of State
September 08, 2023.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 777, Cervantes.
Hazardous waste: Stringfellow Quarry Class I Hazardous Waste Disposal Site.
Existing law provides that the Department of Toxic Substances Control regulates the handling and management of hazardous substances, materials, and waste. Existing law requires the department to, among other things, issue hazardous waste facilities permits to facilities handling hazardous waste and to enforce the requirements of the hazardous waste control laws.
The Carpenter-Presley-Tanner Hazardous Substance Account Act establishes a program authorizing certain responses to releases of hazardous substances, including spills and hazardous waste disposal sites that pose a threat to the public health or the environment, and imposes liability for hazardous substance removal or remedial actions. The act requires any treatment, storage, transfer, or disposal facility built on the Stringfellow Quarry Class I Hazardous Waste
Disposal Site to only be used to treat, store, transfer, or dispose of hazardous substances removed from that site.
This bill would prohibit any sample or waste generated from a site other than the Stringfellow Quarry from being treated, stored, transferred to, or disposed of at the Stringfellow Quarry Class I Hazardous Waste Disposal Site. The bill would require the department to provide notice, as specified, if any material or substance generated from a site other than the Stringfellow Quarry is treated, stored, transferred to, or disposed of at the Stringfellow Class I Hazardous Waste Site. The bill would exempt any material or substance necessary to implement the
ongoing cleanup of the site from the notice provision.
This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Stringfellow Quarry.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares the following:(a) In the 1970s, the mostly Latino communities that now comprise the City of Jurupa Valley in the Inland Empire were traumatized by the disclosure that more than 33,000,000 gallons of toxic industrial waste had been deposited in the Stringfellow Quarry between 1956 and 1972.
(b) This led to the discovery that the toxic waste deposited at the Stringfellow Quarry had contaminated the community’s groundwater and drinking water supply, posing a serious threat to the health and safety of the community’s residents.
(c) By the 1980s, many experts considered the
Stringfellow Quarry to be the most contaminated Superfund site in California. After decades of litigation, community activism, and legislative efforts, cleanup of the Stringfellow Quarry began in the 1980s, administered by the Department of Toxic Substances Control. The cleanup effort is expected to take 500 years to complete.
(d) In the spring of 2022, the Department of Toxic Substances Control disclosed to residents of the City of Jurupa Valley that it had transferred six 40-foot containers of lead-contaminated soil samples taken from the Exide Battery Plant site in the County of Los Angeles to the Stringfellow Quarry.
(e) The soil samples from the Exide Battery Plant were eventually removed from the Stringfellow Quarry after intense advocacy by residents of the City of Jurupa Valley, community organizations, the City of Jurupa Valley, and members of the Legislature.
(f) It is the intent of the Legislature that, henceforth, no samples or waste generated from any other site, including lead-contaminated soil samples like those transferred from the Exide Battery Plant, be treated, stored, transferred, or disposed of at the Stringfellow Quarry.
(g) It is also the intent of the Legislature that the Department of Toxic Substances Control shall serve as a collaborative partner with the residents of the City of Jurupa Valley, community groups, the City of Jurupa Valley, and the Riverside County Board of Supervisors in continuing the ongoing cleanup of the Stringfellow Quarry in an equitable, transparent, and trustworthy manner.
SEC. 2.
Section 79490 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:79490.
(a) Any treatment, storage, transfer, or disposal facility built on the Stringfellow Quarry Class I Hazardous Waste Disposal Site, that was built for the purpose of a remedial or removal action at that site, shall only be used to treat, store, transfer, or dispose of hazardous substances removed from that site.(b) No sample or waste from a site other than the Stringfellow Quarry shall be treated, stored, transferred to, or disposed of at the Stringfellow Quarry Class I Hazardous Waste Disposal Site. For purposes of this subdivision, waste includes, but is not limited to, hazardous waste, liquid
waste, and solid waste. For the purposes of this subdivision, a “sample” includes, but is not limited to, the samples listed in Section 66261.4 of Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations, as it read on June 1, 2023.
(c) (1) If any material or substance that is generated from a site other than the Stringfellow Quarry, other than those necessary to implement the ongoing cleanup of the Stringfellow Quarry Class I Hazardous Waste Disposal Site, is treated, stored, transferred to, or
disposed of at the Stringfellow Class I Hazardous Waste
Site, then the department shall, no later than three business days before the treatment, storage, transfer, or disposal is scheduled to occur, notify the City of Jurupa Valley, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, and the Secretary for Environmental Protection,
and post a notification on its internet website.
(2) If the treatment, storage, transfer, or disposal of any material or substance pursuant to paragraph (1) does not occur on the time and date indicated in the notification provided by the department, the department shall provide the City of Jurupa Valley, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, and the Secretary for Environmental Protection with subsequent notification of the new time and date, and post a notification on its internet website.
