(1) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, generally regulates the disposal, management, and recycling of solid waste, as defined. The act authorizes the department to certify a local enforcement agency and requires the department and certified local enforcement agencies to perform specified functions with regard to the regulation of solid waste management, including issuing and enforcing solid waste facility permits. The act prohibits a person from operating a solid waste facility without a solid waste facilities permit, as provided.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 charges the State Air Resources Board with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming in order to reduce emission of greenhouse gases. The act requires the state board to adopt rules and regulations to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reductions, as provided.
Pursuant to that authority, the state board adopted regulations governing methane emissions from solid waste landfills. The regulations require an owner or operator of those landfills to install and operate a gas collection and control system that is routed to a gas control device, as provided. The regulations define "gas control device" to mean a device used to dispose of or treat collected landfill gas, including, but not limited to, an enclosed flare. The regulations require a flare to be equipped and be monitored with continuous recording temperature sensors.
If the gas temperature is 131 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for longer than 60 days, this bill would require the operator of the landfill to take specified actions, including filing a corrective action plan. If the gas temperature is 146 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for longer than 60 days, the bill would require additional actions, including, but not limited to, the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery forming and leading a multiagency coordination group to investigate the subsurface elevated landfill gas temperature and provide advice on how to resolve it and the inclusion of that advice in a corrective action plan by the operator or the local enforcement agency, as specified. By requiring a local enforcement agency to perform additional duties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. If the gas temperature is 162 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for longer than 60 days, the bill would require additional actions, including, but not limited to, the issuance of a corrective action order. The bill would make it a crime to provide a false certification that a violation subject to a corrective action order is corrected. By expanding the scope of a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
If an operator of a solid waste landfill fails to incorporate the multiagency coordination group advice into a corrective action plan or fails to provide notice of a sustained gas temperature by the specified due date, the bill would require the department or a local enforcement agency to impose a penalty not to exceed $10,000 per day. The bill would require the department or local enforcement agency to impose a penalty not to exceed $1,000,000 for each week that gas temperature is 162 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for longer than 60 days, if specified criteria are met. The bill would require all penalties to be deposited into the Landfill Subsurface Fire Mitigation Account, which the bill would create, to be used upon appropriation by the Legislature to mitigate harm to a person or community adversely affected by a solid waste landfill with a gas temperature of 131 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for longer than 60 days. The bill would require any permit suspended pursuant to these provisions to be reinstated when, among others, gas temperature decreases to below 131 degrees Fahrenheit for 60 days or longer.
This bill would require an operator of a solid waste landfill to reimburse public entities for their costs, as specified.
(2) 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 with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.