Hazardous materials: underground storage tanks.

(1) Existing law requires the owner or operator of an underground petroleum storage tank, or other responsible party, to take corrective action, as defined, in response to an unauthorized release of petroleum from the tank. A person required to perform corrective action may apply to the State Water Resources Control Board for payment of specified portions of the costs of corrective action. Existing law requires the board to pay claims of owners and operators in accordance with a specified order of priority. Existing law establishes the Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund in the State Treasury and authorizes the money in the fund to be used, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to pay those claims, and, among other things, for corrective actions undertaken by the board, a California regional water quality control board, or a local agency, and for the cleanup and oversight of unauthorized releases at abandoned tank sites. Existing law imposes certain petroleum storage fees upon the owner of an underground storage tank for which a permit is required and requires those fees to be deposited in the fund. This bill would temporarily increase a specified petroleum storage fee by $0.006 per gallon of petroleum stored, between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2011. By operation of existing law, the revenue resulting from the increase would be required to be deposited in the fund and be available, upon appropriation, for expenditure for the purposes authorized under existing law for money in the fund. The bill would require the board, within 90 days of completion of any independent program audit or fiscal audit of the fund, to post the results of the program audit or fiscal audit on its Internet Web site. For a reimbursement request received by the board on or after November 7, 2008, but before June 30, 2010, if costs submitted by a claimant are approved by the board, but funding is not available for payment to the claimant at the time of approval, the bill would require the board to reimburse the claimant's carrying costs, as defined, subject to specified limitations. (2) Existing law establishes until July 1, 2014, the School District Account in the Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund and transfers in the 2009–10, 2010–11, and 2011–12 fiscal years $10,000,000 per year from the fund to the account for payment of claims filed by a school district that takes corrective actions to clean up an unauthorized release from a petroleum underground storage tank. This bill would require that these annual transfers be made prior to the allocation of the moneys in the fund for payment of claims by other underground storage tank owners or operators. (3) Existing law provides for a grant and loan program for small businesses to pay specified costs of complying with underground petroleum storage tank regulations adopted by the board, and defines terms for the purposes of that program. If a grant or loan from specified moneys available for the grant and loan program is being requested for purposes of complying with the Enhanced Vapor Recovery Phase II regulations, existing law requires the applicant to have applied for or obtained a permit from an air quality management district by April 1, 2009, and have obtained an enforcement agreement or other binding obligation by June 30, 2009. This bill would revise the definition of "project tank" to include one or more tanks that are upgraded to comply with the Enhanced Vapor Recovery Phase II regulations, and would require a grant application to include a detailed description of the costs incurred to perform the work and complete the Enhanced Vapor Recovery Phase II upgrade, if applicable. If the board received an applicant's grant application on or before April 1, 2009, the bill would authorize grant funds to be used to reimburse up to 100% of the costs that the applicant incurred after the board received the grant application to comply with the Enhanced Vapor Recovery Phase II regulations. (4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.