AB 110: Public Resources.

(1)Existing law regulates real property acquired and operated by the state as wildlife management areas, and requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife, when income is directly derived from that real property, as provided, to annually pay to the county in which the property is located an amount equal to the county taxes levied upon the property at the time it was transferred to the state. Existing law further requires the department to pay the assessments levied upon the property by any irrigation, drainage, or reclamation district, and requires all of those payments to be made from funds available to the department.

This bill would authorize, instead of require, the department to make these payments and only from funds appropriated to the department for those purposes. The bill would also prohibit allocations of these moneys to a school district, community college district, or a county superintendent of schools.

(2)Existing law authorizes the California Science Center to enter into a site lease with the California Science Center Foundation, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation, with the approval of the Natural Resources Agency, the Department of Finance, and the Department of General Services, for the purpose of the foundation developing, constructing, equipping, furnishing, and funding the project known as Phase II of the California Science Center.

This bill would further authorize the California Science Center to enter into one or more agreements or leases with the California Science Center Foundation, with the approval of the Natural Resources Agency, the Department of Finance, and the Department of General Services, for the purpose of developing, designing, constructing, equipping, furnishing, operating, and funding the project known as the Phase III Project of the California Science Center. This bill would require the agreements or leases to include specific provisions that include, among others, provisions that the foundation agrees to indemnify, defend, and save harmless the state from any and all claims and losses arising out of the design and construction of the Phase III Project, the entire design and construction cost of the Phase III Project would be the sole responsibility of the foundation, and the foundation would develop the Phase III Project in a manner that is consistent with the states climate change goals, as specified.

(3)Existing law establishes the Repatriation Oversight Commission, comprised of 10 members, with specified duties relating to the process of repatriation of human remains or cultural items to the appropriate California Native American tribes. Existing law establishes the Native American Heritage Commission and vests the commission with specified powers and duties.

This bill would abolish the Repatriation Oversight Commission and require the Native American Heritage Commission to assume its duties and responsibilities, as provided, and would make conforming changes.

(4)Existing law requires various entities, including the State Fire Marshal, to seize certain prohibited fireworks. Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to dispose of the fireworks in a manner prescribed by the State Fire Marshal.

This bill would, until January 1, 2016, instead require seized fireworks to be managed by the State Fire Marshal, would require the State Fire Marshall to contract with a federal permitted hazardous waste hauler for the hauling and disposal of seized illegal and dangerous fireworks, and would require the State Fire Marshall to store fireworks determined not to be hazardous, as provided.

Existing law authorizes the State Fire Marshal to dispose of dangerous fireworks after specified requirements are satisfied, including that a random sampling of the dangerous fireworks has been taken. Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to acquire and use statewide mobile dangerous fireworks destruction units to collect and destroy seized dangerous fireworks from local and state agencies.

This bill would, until January 1, 2016, make those sampling and destruction provisions inoperative.

(5)The existing Hazardous Waste Control Law requires materials that require special handling, as defined, to be removed from major appliances in which they are contained before the crushing, baling, shredding, sawing, shearing apart, disposal, or other processing of the appliance in a manner that could result in the release or prevent the removal of those materials. Existing law prohibits a person who is not a certified appliance recycler from removing materials that require special handling from major appliances and imposes specified requirements regarding transporting, delivering, or selling discarded major appliances to a scrap recycling facility.

Existing law establishes the Toxic Substances Control Account in the General Fund. Existing law authorizes the moneys deposited in the account to be appropriated to the Department of Toxic Substances Control for specified purposes, including the administration and implementation of activities of the department related to pollution prevention and technology development authorized pursuant to the Hazardous Waste Control Law, and the departments expenses for staff to perform oversight of investigations and characterizations, among other things.

This bill would, commencing July 1, 2015, and until June 30, 2018, authorize moneys in the Toxic Substances Control Account to be appropriated to the department for the administration and implementation of the Hazardous Waste Control Law as it applies to metal recycling facilities, as defined. The bill would, commencing July 1, 2015, and until June 30, 2017, also authorize moneys in the Toxic Substances Control Account to be appropriated to the department for review of the departments enforcement of the Hazardous Waste Control Law.

Existing law requires the California Environmental Protection Agency, and the offices, boards, and departments within the agency, to institute quality government programs, as defined, to achieve increased levels of environmental protection and the publics satisfaction through improving the quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of the state programs that implement and enforce state and federal environmental protection statutes. Existing law requires the agency, and each board, department, and office within the agency, to submit a biennial report to the Governor and Legislature on the extent to which these agencies have attained their performance objectives, and on their continuous quality improvement efforts.

This bill would establish the assistant director for environmental justice in the department with specified duties.

This bill would also, until January 1, 2018, create an independent review panel within the department, comprising three members, to advise the department on issues related to the departments reporting obligations, make recommendations for improving the departments programs, advise the department on increasing levels of environmental protection in the departments programs, and report to the Governor and the Legislature, as provided.

(6)Existing law creates the enhanced fleet modernization program to provide compensation for the retirement of passenger vehicles and light-duty and medium-duty trucks that are high polluters. Existing law creates the Enhanced Fleet Modernization Subaccount, with the moneys in the subaccount available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Bureau of Automotive Repair to establish and implement the enhanced fleet modernization program.

This bill would additionally authorize the moneys in the Enhanced Fleet Modernization Subaccount to be available, upon appropriation, to the State Air Resources Board to implement and administer the enhanced fleet modernization program.

(7)Existing law generally prohibits the state, or a county, city, district, or other political subdivision, or any public officer or body acting in its official capacity on behalf of any of those entities, from being required to pay any fee for the performance of an official service. Existing law exempts from this provision any fee or charge for official services required pursuant to specified provisions of law relating to water use or water quality, including the fees charged to public water systems under the California Safe Drinking Water Act.

This bill would specifically exempt from that provision any fee or charge required pursuant to other provisions of law relating to water use and water quality, including the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Law of 1997 and provisions relating to cross-connections of water users, water treatment devices, and operator certification of water treatment plants and water distribution systems.

(8)The California Safe Drinking Water Act provides for the operation of public water systems and imposes on the State Water Resources Control Board various duties and responsibilities for the regulation and control of drinking water in the state. The act requires a public water system serving 1,000 or more service connections, and any public water system that treats water on behalf of one or more public water systems for the purpose of rendering it safe for human consumption, to reimburse the state board for the state boards actual costs of conducting specified mandated activities that relate to that specific public water system. The act requires the state board to submit an invoice to the public water system according to specified provisions. The act requires a public water system serving fewer than 1,000 service connections to pay an annual drinking water operating fee to the state board, as specified, for the state boards costs of conducting specified mandated activities relating to public water systems. The act authorizes the state board to increase this annual drinking water operating fee according to specified procedures. The act also requires a public water system serving less than 1,000 service connections applying for a domestic water supply permit to pay a permit application processing fee to the state board. The act requires a public water system under the jurisdiction of a local primacy agency to pay the above-described fees to the local primacy agency in lieu of the state board.

This bill would, on and after July 1, 2016, require the state board to adopt, by regulation, a fee schedule, to be paid annually by each public water system for the purpose of reimbursing the state board for specified activities. The bill would, on and after July 1, 2016, prohibit the reimbursement from exceeding the state boards cost of conducting the activities, as specified. The bill would require the state board to set the total amount of revenue collected through the fee schedule to be equal to the amount appropriated by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act from the Safe Drinking Water Account for expenditure for the administration of the act. The bill would require the state board to review and revise the fee schedule each fiscal year, as necessary, and, if the state board determines that the amount of revenue collected during the preceding year was greater than, or less than, the amounts appropriated by the Legislature, the bill would authorize the state board to further adjust the fees. The bill would require the state board to adopt regulations subsequent to the initial regulations as emergency regulations.

This bill would allow the emergency regulations to include provisions relating to the administration and collection of fees and would require that any emergency regulations adopted by the state board, or adjustments to the annual fees, not be subject to review by the Office of Administrative Law and remain in effect until revised by the state board. The bill would require a public water system under the jurisdiction of a local primacy agency to pay these fees to the local primacy agency in lieu of the state board.

The act also generally requires each public water system to reimburse the state board for actual costs incurred by the state board for specified enforcement activities related to that water system and, for a public water system serving less than 1,000 service connections, restricts the maximum reimbursement to specified amounts. Under the act, the state board is not entitled to these enforcement costs if either a court or the state board determines that the enforcement activities were in error. The act imposes similar provisions upon a public water system under the jurisdiction of a local primacy agency.

This bill would delete the maximum reimbursement limitation for public water systems serving less than 1,000 service connections. The bill would require that payment of the invoice for reimbursement costs be made within 90 days of the date of the invoice, with a 10% late penalty, and would authorize the state board or local primacy agency to waive payment of all or any part of the invoice or penalty.

The act requires the state board to adopt primary drinking water standards for contaminants in drinking water and requires the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to prepare and publish an assessment of the risks to public health posed by each contaminant for which the state board proposes a primary drinking water standard. The act requires the risk assessment to contain an estimate of the level of the contaminant in drinking water that is not anticipated to cause or contribute to adverse health effects, or that does not pose a significant risk to health, known as the public health goal for the contaminant. The act authorizes any person, within 15 calendar days of completion of a specified public workshop on a risk assessment, to request the office to submit the risk assessment to external scientific peer review before the risk assessments publication, as specified. The act requires the office to submit the risk assessment to external scientific peer review if the person requesting the peer review agrees to fully reimburse the office for the costs associated with conducting the external scientific peer review.

This bill would delete the provision authorizing a person to request the office to submit the risk assessment to external scientific peer review and would instead require external scientific for peer review of the risk assessment pursuant to specified provisions of law.

(9)The Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 governs surface mining operations and the reclamation of mined lands. Existing law requires the first $2,000,000 of certain moneys from mining activities on federal lands disbursed by the United States each fiscal year to be deposited in the Surface Mining and Reclamation Account in the General Fund, which is authorized to be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes of that act.

This bill instead would require moneys from mining activities on federal lands disbursed by the United States each fiscal year to be deposited in the account in an amount equal to the appropriation for the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 contained in the annual Budget Act for that fiscal year.

(10)The federal Safe Drinking Water Act regulates certain wells as Class II wells, as defined. Under existing federal law, the authority to regulate Class II wells in California is delegated to the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources in the Department of Conservation. Under existing law, the division implements the Underground Injection Control Program pursuant to this federal delegation. The federal act prohibits certain well activities that affect underground sources of drinking water, unless those sources are located in an exempted aquifer. Existing federal law authorizes a state delegated with the responsibility of regulating Class II wells to propose that an aquifer or a portion of an aquifer be an exempted aquifer and authorizes the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to approve the proposal if the aquifer or a portion of the aquifer meets certain criteria.

This bill would require the division, prior to proposing an aquifer or a portion of an aquifer for exemption, to consult with the State Water Resources Control Board and the appropriate regional water quality control board concerning conformity of the proposal with certain requirements. If the division and the state board concur that the exemption proposal may merit consideration by the USEPA, the bill would require those agencies to provide a public comment period on the proposal and to jointly conduct a public hearing. If, after the review of public comments, those agencies concur that the exemption proposal merits consideration by the USEPA, the bill would require the division to submit the exemption proposal to that federal agency. The bill, until March 1, 2019, would also require the division to notify the relevant policy committees of the Legislature before submitting the exemption proposal to USEPA.

This bill would require the Department of Conservation and the State Water Resources Control Board, by January 30, 2016, and every 6 months thereafter, until March 1, 2019, to provide to the fiscal and relevant policy committees of the Legislature certain reports regarding the implementation of the Underground Injection Control Program. The bill would require the state board, by January 30, 2016, and every 6 months thereafter, until March 1, 2019, to post on its Internet Web site a report on the status of the regulation of oil field produced water ponds within each region of the regional water quality control boards.

This bill would also require the Secretary for Environmental Protection and the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to appoint an independent review panel to evaluate the Underground Injection Control Program and to make recommendations on how improve the effectiveness of the program.

(11)Existing law imposes, among other things, an annual charge upon each person operating or owning an interest in an oil or gas well, with respect to the production of the well, which charge is payable to the Treasurer for deposit into the Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Administrative Fund. Existing law requires that moneys from charges levied, assessed, and collected upon the properties of every person operating or owning an interest in the production of a well be used exclusively, upon appropriation, for the support and maintenance of the Department of Conservation, which is charged with the supervision of oil and gas operations.

This bill would additionally authorize the use of those moneys for the support of the State Water Resources Control Board and the regional water quality control boards for their activities related to oil and gas operations that may affect water resources.

(12)Existing law establishes the California Environmental Protection Program, which provides funding for identifiable projects and programs of state agencies and others that have a clearly defined benefit to the people of the state and have one or more specified environmental protection purposes including, among other things, pollution control, the acquisition of land for natural areas or ecological reserves, and the purchase of real property consisting of sensitive natural areas for the state park system and for local and regional parks. Existing law authorizes the issuance of environmental license plates, as defined, for vehicles, upon application and payment of certain fees, and requires that specified revenues derived from those fees be deposited in the California Environmental License Plate Fund in the State Treasury and used, upon appropriation, for program purposes.

This bill would additionally authorize the moneys in the fund to be used, upon appropriation, for deferred maintenance projects at state parks.

This bill would require the Natural Resources Agency, no later than October 1, 2015, in collaboration with the relevant policy committees of the Senate and the Assembly, to convene a working group to review and make recommendations regarding legislative and other action that may be necessary to adjust the priorities for the expenditure of moneys from the Environmental License Plate Fund.

(13)Existing law authorizes the Department of Parks and Recreation to receive and accept in the name of the people of the state any gift, dedication, devise, grant, or other conveyance of title to or any interest in real property and to be added or used in connection with the state park system and to receive and accept gifts, donations, contributions, or bequests of money and personal property to be used for state park purposes, subject to the approval of the Director of Finance, except as provided.

This bill would, authorize the department to receive and accept conditional gifts or bequests of money valued at $100,000 or less without the approval of the director, but would require the department to annually report those gifts or bequests of money to the Department of Finance.

(14)The Warren-Alquist State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Act establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and requires it to certify sufficient sites and related facilities that are required to provide a supply of electricity sufficient to accommodate projected demand for power statewide. Existing law requires that a person who submits an application to the commission for a proposed generating facility submit with the application a fee of $250,000, plus $500 per megawatt of gross generating capacity, not to exceed $750,000, as adjusted for inflation.

This bill would require that a person who submits a petition to amend an existing project that previously received certification to submit with the petition a fee of $5,000. The bill would require the commission to conduct a full accounting of the actual cost of processing the petition to amend, for which the project owner would be required to reimburse the commission, with total fees owed by the project owner pursuant to each petition to amend not to exceed $750,000, as adjusted for inflation. The bill would delete a requirement that the commission report specified information to the Legislature by July 1, 2012.

(15)Existing law establishes the Energy Efficient State Property Revolving Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, administered by the Department of General Services for loans for projects on state-owned buildings and facilities to achieve greater long-term energy efficiency, energy conservation, and energy cost and use avoidance. Existing law, for the 200910 fiscal year, transfers $25,000,000 from moneys received by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Existing law establishes the State Energy Conservation Assistance Account administered by the commission for grants and loans to local government and public institutions for projects to maximize energy savings in existing and planned buildings or facilities. Existing law authorizes the commission to augment funding for grants and loans from federal funds, including the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Existing law requires the establishment of a separate subaccount in the State Energy Conservation Assistance Account to track the award and repayment of loans from federal funds.

Existing law establishes the Clean and Renewable Energy Business Financing Revolving Loan Program and authorizes the commission to use funds available to the commission from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (federal moneys) to provide low interest loans to California clean and renewable energy manufacturing businesses.

This bill would require the commission to transfer, as specified, to the Energy Efficient State Property Revolving Fund repayments of, and accrued interest on, loans funded by those federal moneys and made from to the State Energy Conservation Assistance Account or pursuant to the Clean and Renewable Energy Business Financing Revolving Loan Program. Because the moneys transferred would be used for a new purpose, this bill would make an appropriation.

(16)Existing law requires the California-Mexico Border Relations Council to coordinate activities of state agencies that are related to cross-border programs, initiatives, projects, and partnerships that exist within state government, to improve the effectiveness of state and local efforts that are of concern between California and Mexico, and to identify and recommend to the Legislature changes necessary to achieve this goal. Existing law requires the council to annually submit a report to the Legislature on its activities.

This bill would also require the council to establish the Border Region Solid Waste Working Group to develop and coordinate long-term solutions to address and remediate problems associated with waste tires, solid waste, and excessive sedimentation along the border, as specified, and would require the council to identify and recommend to the Legislature changes in law necessary to achieve these goals.

The California Tire Recycling Act requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to administer a tire recycling program, and imposes a California tire fee on a new tire purchased in the state. The revenue generated from the fee is deposited in the California Tire Recycling Management Fund for expenditure, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for programs related to waste tires, including border region activities. Under the act, border region activities include the development of a waste tire abatement plan and the development of projects in Mexico in the California-Mexico border region, including education, infrastructure, mitigation, cleanup, prevention, reuse, and recycling projects that address the movement of used tires from California to Mexico that are eventually disposed of in California.

This bill would instead specify that border region activities include the development of a waste tire abatement plan, in coordination with the California-Mexico Border Relations Council, which may also provide for the abatement of solid waste. The bill would instead provide that border region activities include the development of projects in Mexico in the California-Mexico border region that address the movement of used tires from California to Mexico, and support the cleanup of illegally disposed waste tires and solid waste along the border that could negatively impact Californias environment.

This bill would appropriate $300,000 from the California Tire Recycling Management Fund to the California Environmental Protection Agency to support the California-Mexico Relations Council.

(17)Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, as defined. Existing law requires every electric utility, as defined, to develop a standard contract or tariff providing for net energy metering, as defined, and to make this contract or tariff available to eligible customer-generators, as defined, upon request for generation by a renewable electrical generation facility, as defined.

This bill would include as an eligible customer-generator, a United States Armed Forces base or facility, as defined, if the base or facility uses a renewable electrical generation facility, or a combination of those facilities, that is located on premises owned, leased, or rented by the base or facility, is interconnected and operates in parallel with the electrical grid, is intended primarily to offset part or all of the base or facilitys own electrical requirements, and has a generating capacity that does not exceed the lesser of 12 megawatts or one megawatt greater than the minimum load of the base or facility over the prior 36 months.

Existing law requires that every electric utility ensure that requests for an interconnection agreement from an eligible customer-generator are processed in a time period not to exceed 30 working days from the date it receives a completed application form from the eligible customer-generator for an interconnection agreement.

This bill would require that an electrical corporation be afforded a prudent but necessary time, as determined by the executive director of the commission, to study the impacts of a request for interconnection of a renewable electrical generation facility with a capacity of greater than one megawatt that is located on a United States Armed Forces base or facility. If the study reveals the need for upgrades to the transmission or distribution system arising solely from the interconnection, this bill would require that the electrical corporation be afforded the time necessary to complete those upgrades before the interconnection and that the costs of those upgrades be borne by the a United States Armed Forces base or facility.

The bill would require an electrical corporation to make a tariff, to be approved by the commission, available pursuant to the above requirements for a United States Armed Forces base or facility by November 1, 2015.

Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.

Because these provisions require action by the commission to implement its requirements, a violation of these provisions would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime.

(18)Decisions of the Public Utilities Commission adopted the California Solar Initiative administered by electrical corporations and subject to the Public Utilities Commissions supervision. Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission and State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to undertake certain steps in implementing the California Solar Initiative and requires the Public Utilities Commission to ensure that the total cost over the duration of the program does not exceed $3,550,800,000. Existing law specifies that the financial components of the California Solar Initiative include the New Solar Homes Partnership Program, which is administered by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission. Existing law requires the program to be funded by charges in the amount of $400,000,000 collected from customers of the states 3 largest electrical corporations. If moneys from the Renewable Resource Trust Fund for the program are exhausted, existing law authorizes the Public Utilities Commission, upon notification by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, to require those electrical corporations to continue the administration of the program pursuant to the guidelines established by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission for the program until the $400,000,000 monetary limit is reached. Existing law authorizes an electrical corporation to elect to have a 3rd party, including the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, administer the electrical corporations continuation of the program.

This bill would make the New Solar Homes Partnership Program inoperative on June 1, 2018. If the Public Utilities Commission requires the continuation of the program pursuant to the above authorization, the bill would authorize the Public Utilities Commission to determine whether a third party, including the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission should implement the continuation of the program and would require any funding made available to be encumbered no later than June 1, 2018, and disbursed no later than December 31, 2021.

(19)Existing law requires a person who digs, bores, or drills a water well, cathodic protection well, or a monitoring well, or abandons or destroys a well, or deepens or reperforates a well, to file a report of completion with the Department of Water Resources. Existing law prohibits those reports from being made available to the public, except under certain circumstances.

This bill would instead require these reports to be made available to governmental agencies and to the public, upon request, as prescribed. The bill would authorize the department to charge a fee for the provision of a report to the public that does not exceed the reasonable costs to the department of providing the report.

(20)The California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks, and Coastal Protection Act of 2002, a measure approved by the voters at the March 5, 2002, statewide general election, authorizes, for the purposes of financing certain acquisition and development projects, the issuance of bonds in the amount of $2,600,000,000. Of that amount, the act requires $832,500,000 be available for appropriation for specified local assistance programs and requires that any grant funds that have been appropriated pursuant to these provisions, but have not been expended before July 1, 2011, be reverted back to the California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks, and Coastal Protection Fund. The act requires reverted funds be available for appropriation by the Legislature for the specified local assistance programs.

This bill would make available, of the funds that have been reverted to the fund and upon appropriation, $10,000,000 for outdoor environmental education and recreation programs, consistent with the above-described local assistance programs.

(21)The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

(22)This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.