BILL NUMBER: SB 983 ENROLLED
BILL TEXT
PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 31, 2000
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 25, 2000
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 18, 2000
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 7, 2000
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 6, 2000
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 5, 1999
INTRODUCED BY Senator Bowen
FEBRUARY 26, 1999
An act to amend Section 25354.5 of the Health and Safety Code,
relating to hazardous substances.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 983, Bowen. Hazardous substances: controlled substances
remedial actions.
Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control
to take removal actions with respect to a hazardous substance that is
an illegal controlled substance, including waste material from the
unlawful manufacture of a controlled substance. The department is
required to take specified actions upon the request of the local
environmental health officer. The department is authorized to expend
funds appropriated from the Illegal Drug Lab Cleanup Account in the
General Fund for this purpose and to adopt regulations to implement
these provisions, in consultation with appropriate law enforcement
and local environmental agencies.
This bill would require the department, by January 1, 2002, to
adopt regulations, in consultation with the Office of Environmental
Health Hazard Assessment, to provide state and local agencies with
standards and procedures, for taking a remedial action at such a
hazardous substance release site, including providing for a level of
cleanup that would protect the health and safety of the future
occupants of the site.
The bill would additionally authorize the designated local
response agency to make this request to the department and would also
make conforming changes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 25354.5 of the Health and Safety Code is
amended to read:
25354.5. (a) Any state or local law enforcement officer or
investigator or other law enforcement agency employee who, in the
course of an official investigation or enforcement action regarding
the manufacture of any illegal controlled substance, comes in contact
with, or is aware of, the presence of a substance that the person
suspects is a hazardous substance at a site where an illegal
controlled substance is or was manufactured, shall notify the
department for the purpose of taking removal action, as necessary, to
prevent, minimize, or mitigate damage that might otherwise result
from the release or threatened release of the hazardous substance,
except for samples required to be kept for evidentiary purposes.
(b) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon receipt
of a notification pursuant to subdivision (a), the department shall
take removal action, as necessary, with respect to any hazardous
substance that is an illegal controlled substance, a precursor of a
controlled substance, a material intended to be used in the unlawful
manufacture of a controlled substance, or a waste material from the
unlawful manufacture of a controlled substance. The department may
expend funds appropriated from the Illegal Drug Lab Cleanup Account
created pursuant to subdivision (e) to pay the costs of removal
actions required by this section. The department may enter into oral
contracts, not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000) in
obligation, when, in the judgment of the department, immediate
corrective action to a hazardous substance subject to this section is
necessary to remedy or prevent an emergency.
(2) The department shall, as soon as the information is available,
report the location of any removal action that will be carried out
pursuant to paragraph (1), and the time that the removal action will
be carried out, to the local environmental health officer or
designated local response agency within whose jurisdiction the
removal action will take place, if the local environmental officer or
designated local response agency does both of the following:
(A) Requests, in writing, that the department report this
information to the local environmental health officer or designated
local response agency.
(B) Provides the department with a single 24-hour telephone number
to which the information can be reported.
(c) (1) For purposes of Chapter 6.5 (commencing with Section
25100) or this chapter, any person who is found to have operated a
site for the purpose of manufacturing an illegal controlled substance
or a precursor of an illegal controlled substance is the generator
of any hazardous substance at, or released from, the site that is
subject to removal action pursuant to this section.
(2) During the removal action, for purposes of complying with the
manifest requirements in Section 25160, the department, the county
health department, the local environmental health officer, the
designated local response agency, or their designee may sign the
hazardous waste manifest as the generator of the hazardous waste. In
carrying out that action, the department, the county health
department, the local environmental health officer, the designated
local response agency, or their designee shall be considered to have
acted in furtherance of their statutory responsibilities to protect
the public health and safety and the environment from the release, or
threatened release, of hazardous substances, and the department, the
county health department, the local environmental health officer,
the designated local response agency, or their designee are not
responsible parties for the release or threatened release of the
hazardous substances.
(3) The officer, investigator, or agency employee specified in
subdivision (a) is not a responsible party for the release or
threatened release of any hazardous substances at, or released from,
the site.
(d) (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), the department may
adopt regulations to implement this section in consultation with
appropriate law enforcement agencies, local environmental agencies,
and designated local response agencies.
(2) On or before January 1, 2002, the department shall adopt
regulations, in consultation with the Office of Environmental Health
Hazard Assessment, to provide state and local agencies with
procedures and standards for taking remedial actions with respect to
any hazardous substance release that is an illegal controlled
substance, a precursor of a controlled substance, a material intended
to be used in the unlawful manufacture of a controlled substance, or
a waste material from the unlawful manufacture of a controlled
substance. The procedures and standards shall assure that the site
of the release is cleaned to a level that the department determines
would adequately protect the health and safety of all future
occupants of the site.
(e) The Illegal Drug Lab Cleanup Account is hereby created in the
General Fund and the department may expend any money in the account,
upon appropriation by the Legislature, to carry out the removal
actions required by this section. The account shall be funded by
moneys appropriated directly from the General Fund.
(f) The responsibilities assigned to the department by this
section apply only to the extent that sufficient funding is made
available for that purpose.