Bill Text: CA AB536 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Hazardous waste: financial assurances.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-02 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB536 Detail]

Download: California-2009-AB536-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 536	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Arambula

                        FEBRUARY 25, 2009

   An act to amend Section 25245 of the Health and Safety Code,
relating to hazardous waste.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 536, as introduced, Arambula. Hazardous waste: financial
assurances.
   (1) Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances
Control to adopt and revise standards and regulations to, among other
things, specify financial assurances to be provided by an owner or
operator of a hazardous waste facility that are necessary to respond
adequately to provide for the cost of closure and subsequent
maintenance of the facility. Existing law specifies, if the facility
is required to obtain a permit under the federal Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, as amended, various mechanisms
that satisfy the financial assurance obligation.
   This bill, additionally, would include a financial test as a
financial assurance mechanism. The bill would specifically provide
that a local government owner of a hazardous waste facility would be
eligible to meet its postclosure financial obligations by utilizing
financial assurance mechanisms authorized by the federal act.
   (2) This bill would also state that the changes made by this bill
to the above provisions are declaratory of existing law.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 25245 of the Health and Safety Code is amended
to read:
   25245.  (a) The department shall adopt, and revise when
appropriate, standards and regulations  which  
that  shall do both of the following:
   (1) Specify the financial assurances to be provided by the owner
or operator of a hazardous waste facility that are necessary to
respond adequately to damage claims arising out of the operation of
that type of facility and to provide for the cost of closure and
subsequent maintenance of the facility, including, but not limited
to, the monitoring of groundwater and other aspects of the
environment after closure. If the facility is required to obtain a
permit under the federal act, the financial assurance shall be a
trust fund, surety bond, letter of credit, insurance,  financial
test,  or any other mechanism authorized under the federal act
and the regulations adopted pursuant to the federal act. If the
facility is not required to obtain a permit under the federal act,
the financial assurance may include any other equivalent financial
arrangement acceptable to the department.  For purposes of this
section, a local government owner of a hazardous waste facility is
eligible to meet its own postclosure financial assurance obligations
by utilizing any of the financial assurance mechanisms authorized by
the federal act and the regulations authorized by the federal act,
including, but not limited to, a financial test.
   (2) Provide that every hazardous waste facility can be closed and
maintained for at least 30 years subsequent to its closure in a
manner that protects human health and the environment and minimizes
or eliminates the escape of hazardous waste constituents, leachate,
contaminated rainfall, and waste decomposition products to ground and
surface waters and to the atmosphere.
   (b) In adopting regulations pursuant to subdivision (a), to carry
out the purposes of this chapter, the department may specify policy
or other contractual terms, conditions, or defenses which are
necessary or are unacceptable in establishing evidence of financial
responsibility.
   (1) If an owner or operator is in bankruptcy, reorganization, or
other arrangement pursuant to Title 11 of the United States Code, or
where, with reasonable diligence, jurisdiction in any state or
federal court cannot be obtained over an owner or operator likely to
be solvent at the time of judgment, any claim arising from conduct
for which this section requires evidence of financial responsibility
may be asserted directly against the guarantor who provided the
evidence of financial responsibility.
   (2) The total liability of any guarantor is limited to the
aggregate amount which the guarantor has provided as evidence of
financial responsibility to the owner or operator under this chapter.

   (3) This subdivision does not limit any other state or federal
statutory, contractual, or common law liability of a guarantor to the
owner or operator, including, but not limited to, the liability of
the guarantor for bad faith in either negotiating or in failing to
negotiate the settlement of any claim.
   (4) This subdivision does not diminish the liability of any person
under Section 107 or 111 of the Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. Secs.
9607 and 9611).
   (5) For purposes of this subdivision, "guarantor" means any
person, other than the owner or operator, who provides evidence of
financial responsibility for an owner or operator under this section.

  SEC. 2.  The amendment of Section 25245 of the Health and Safety
Code made by this act does not constitute a change in, but is
declaratory of, existing law.