Bill Text: CA SB1178 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: California Water Quality and Public Health Protection Act.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Engrossed) 2024-06-26 - From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (June 25). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. [SB1178 Detail]
Download: California-2023-SB1178-Amended.html
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Amended
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Assembly
June 17, 2024 |
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Amended
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Senate
April 29, 2024 |
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Amended
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Senate
April 04, 2024 |
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Amended
IN
Senate
March 18, 2024 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Senate Bill
No. 1178
| Introduced by Senator Padilla (Coauthor: Assembly Member Alvarez) |
February 14, 2024 |
An act to add Chapter 28 (commencing with Section 16150) to Division 7 of the Water Code, relating to water quality.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1178, as amended, Padilla.
California Water Quality and Public Health Protection Act.
Under existing law, the State Water Resources Control Board and the 9 California regional water quality control boards regulate water quality and prescribe waste discharge requirements in accordance with the federal national pollutant discharge elimination system permit program established by the federal Clean Water Act and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act.
This bill would require the board to, on or before August 1, 2025, establish regulations governing annual reporting by compliance entities, as defined, regarding waste discharges, as provided. The bill would require compliance entities to submit a report to the board by June 1, 2026, and annually thereafter on waste discharges and their locations, as provided. The bill would require the board to quantify the cost of mitigating contamination, if any, caused by those reported waste discharges and would require the board to notify the compliance entities of the cost of mitigating their contamination. The bill would authorize the compliance entity to elect to mitigate the contamination caused by the entity’s reported waste
discharges, or to have the board impose a surcharge for the cost of mitigating the compliance entity’s contamination. The bill would create the California Water Quality and Public Health Impact Fund for receipt of revenue from the surcharge. The bill would require, within 3 months of reporting to the board waste discharges that affect the quality of the water of the state within any region, any nonexempt compliance entity to prominently label any product sold in California whose production resulted in waste discharge contaminating California’s water quality with a warning label, as specified. The bill would authorize the board to adopt regulations to seek administrative penalties for nonfiling, late filing, or other failures to meet the requirements of these provisions, and would require these penalties to be deposited into the California Water Quality and Public Health Impact Fund, which the bill would create.
The bill would require the moneys in the fund to be used exclusively to mitigate the impacts of the contamination on waters of the state caused by the reported waste discharges. The bill would authorize the board to charge compliance entities a reasonable fee necessary to cover the board’s reasonable costs of administering and implementing these provisions and to impose noncompliance penalties, not to exceed $1,000,000. The bill would exempt from these provisions certain discharge requirements prescribed by the state board or a regional board and permits issued by a state in accordance with a program approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act.
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.
Chapter 28 (commencing with Section 16150) is added to Division 7 of the Water Code, to read:CHAPTER 28. California Water Quality and Public Health Protection Act
16150.
This chapter shall be known, and may be cited, as the California Water Quality and Public Health Protection Act.16151.
For purposes of this chapter:(a) “Compliance entity” means any partnership, corporation, limited liability company, or other business entity formed under the laws of this state, the laws of any other state of the United States or the District of Columbia, or under the act of Congress with a minimum of 2,500 employees and that conducts business in California.
(b) “Reported waste discharges” means those waste discharges included in the reports to the board by compliance entities pursuant to Section 16152.
16152.
(a) On or before August 1, 2025, the board shall establish regulations governing annual reporting by compliance entities regarding the waste discharges(b)The board shall establish boundaries governing reporting by compliance entities of location of waste
discharges that the board determines may impact the water quality of waters of the state, not to exceed 50 miles from the California border.
(c)
(b) (1) Compliance entities shall submit a report to the board by June 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, on waste discharges pursuant to the regulations established in subdivision (a) and disclose the locations of those waste discharges.
(2) The report shall include the compliance entity’s name and any fictitious names, trade names, assumed names, and logos used by that entity.
(3) The board shall regularly post reports filed pursuant to this subdivision on its internet website and make them publicly available in a format designed to clearly inform the public of the waste discharges affecting their communities.
(d)
(c) The board may charge compliance entities a reasonable fee necessary to cover the board’s reasonable costs of administering and implementing this chapter.
The board shall quantify the cost of mitigating the contamination, if any, caused by the reported waste discharges of each compliance entity. The board shall notify each compliance entity of the cost of mitigating their contamination and inform the compliance entity that it can elect to do one of the following:
(a)(1)Have the board impose a surcharge for the cost of mitigating the compliance entity’s contamination.
(2)Revenues from the surcharge shall be deposited into the California Water Quality and Public Health Impact Fund, which is hereby created in the State Treasury. The moneys in the fund shall be used exclusively to mitigate the impacts of the contamination on waters of the state caused by the reported waste discharges.
(b)(1)Mitigate the contamination caused by the entity’s reported waste discharges.
(2)If the compliance entity chooses to mitigate the contamination, the compliance entity shall submit a separate report to the board outlining the mitigation work completed and when the work was completed.
16153.
Within three months of reporting to the board waste discharges that affect the quality of the water of the state within any region, any compliance entity not exempt under Section 16155 shall prominently label any product sold in California whose production resulted in waste discharge contaminating California’s water quality with the following warning label that is at least ¼ inch in height: “Warning: The creation of this product contributed to the contamination of California water quality potentially threatening the health and safety of its residents.”16154.
(a) The board may adopt regulations that authorize the board to seek administrative penalties for nonfiling, late filing, or other failures to meet the requirements of this chapter. The administrative penalties authorized by this section shall be imposed by the(b) Penalties for noncompliance shall not exceed one million dollars ($1,000,000) in a reporting year. In imposing noncompliance penalties, the board shall consider all relevant circumstances and avoid maximum penalties for good faith errors.
