Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control to establish a Lead-Acid Battery Recycling Facility Investigation and Cleanup Program to identify areas of the state that are eligible for expenditure of moneys from the Lead-Acid Battery Cleanup Fund for certain purposes. Existing law requires the program to provide public notice of the initiation of the investigation or site evaluation of any area reasonably suspected to have been contaminated by the operation of a lead-acid battery recycling facility. Existing law requires the department to accept and review comments or information from the public on the public notice submitted at any time after the release of the public notice until the department completes its investigation. Existing law requires the department to investigate and respond to any reasonable information provided by the public that might suggest the area was not contaminated by the operation of a lead-acid battery recycling facility or that the facility in question was not involved in the recycling of lead-acid batteries. Existing law provides that expenditure from the fund for purposes of further investigation or evaluation for a site is no longer authorized if, within 2 years of the public notice, the department is unable to designate a site as determined with reasonable certainty to have been contaminated by the operation of a lead-acid battery recycling facility. Existing law authorizes the department to extend the deadline for the completion of an investigation, with good cause shown and adequate public notice of the basis for that extension, to no more than 3 months after the original 2-year deadline.
This bill would require the department to accept comments and information from the public that are submitted within 90 days after the issuance of the public notice and to review, and respond in writing to, the comments and information before the department completes its investigation. The bill would require the department to investigate and respond to any information provided by the public that indicates either of the two circumstances described above, or that indicates that another source may be responsible for the contamination. The bill would authorize the department to extend the deadline for the completion of an investigation additional times in increments of up to 3 months, not to exceed one year after the original 2-year deadline in total.

Statutes affected:
AB2104: 25215.51 HSC
02/06/20 - Introduced: 25215.51 HSC
03/04/20 - Amended Assembly: 25215.51 HSC