AB 355: Water pollution: enforcement.

Under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, the State Water Resources Control Board (state board) and the California regional water quality control boards (regional boards) are the principal state agencies with primary authority over water quality matters. The act authorizes a regional board to investigate the quality of state waters, and grants to a regional board certain authority in connection with those investigative functions. The act authorizes a regional board to administratively impose civil liability in connection with violations of certain water quality provisions, and authorizes the executive officer of a regional board to issue a complaint to any person on whom administrative civil liability may be imposed pursuant to the act.

The state act, with certain exceptions, imposes a mandatory minimum penalty of $3,000 for serious violations, as defined, and for exceeding certain effluent limitations, failing to file a required report, or filing that report incomplete, if those violations occur 4 or more times in any period of 6 consecutive months. Existing law permits the state board or regional board, in lieu of assessing all or a portion of the mandatory minimum penalties against a publicly owned treatment works serving a small community, as defined, to elect to require the publicly owned treatment works to spend an equivalent amount towards completion of a compliance project proposed by the publicly owned treatment works if the state board or regional board makes certain findings. Existing law, for these purposes, defines a publicly owned treatment works serving a small community as a publicly owned treatment works serving a population of 10,000 persons or fewer or a rural county, with a financial hardship, as specified.

This bill, for purposes of the exception, would instead define publicly owned treatment works serving a small community as a publicly owned treatment works serving a population of 20,000 persons or fewer or a rural county, with a financial hardship.

Existing law requires the state board to continuously report and update information on its Internet Web site, but at a minimum annually on or before January 1, regarding its enforcement activities.

This bill would instead require the state board to continuously report and update information on its Internet Web site and to annually report on its enforcement activities on or before December 31.

Existing law provides for the regulation of underground storage tanks by the state board. Existing law imposes a civil or criminal penalty, as specified, for violations of specified provisions relating to underground storage tank systems, and requires that civil penalties or criminal fines be deposited into the State Water Pollution Cleanup and Abatement Account, to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature, for purposes of activities relating to water pollution or the cleaning up of waste or abating its effects on waters of the state.

This bill would allow the state board to impose civil liability administratively for those violations pursuant to the administrative liability provisions of the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, to be deposited in the State Water Pollution Cleanup and Abatement Account. The bill would require the executive director of the state board to consult with the appropriate local agency before issuing a complaint.