Vessels: abandonment: abatement.

Existing law makes it an infraction with a minimum $500 fine and maximum $3,000 fine for a person to abandon a vessel upon a public waterway or public or private property without the express or implied consent of the owner or person in lawful possession or control of the property, except for the urgent and immediate concern for the safety of those aboard the vessel. Existing law provides that 80% of the moneys collected as fines shall be deposited in the Abandoned Watercraft Abatement Fund. Upon appropriation by the Legislature, moneys in the fund may be used for grants to be awarded by the Department of Boating and Waterways to local agencies for the abatement and removal of abandoned, wrecked, and dismantled vessels, or parts of those vessels. This bill would increase the minimum fine to $1,000. The bill would also allow the moneys in the fund to be used for the abatement and removal of a hulk, derelict, wreck, or parts of any ship, or other watercraft sunk, beached, or allowed to remain in an unseaworthy or dilapidated condition upon municipal or other public corporation property, and for the disposal of a surrendered vessel, as defined. This bill would prohibit the state from assuming liability for any injuries or damages to a person or entity, public or private, connected to or resulting from the processing or disposal of a surrendered vessel. These changes would be repealed as of January 1, 2014. Existing law authorizes wrecked property that is an unseaworthy derelict or hulk, or abandoned property removed from a navigable waterway, as specified, to be sold or otherwise disposed of by the public agency that removed or caused the removal of the property, subject to specified conditions, including that the property has been appraised by disinterested persons, and has an estimated value of less than $2,000. This bill would, until January 1, 2014, except from these specified conditions the removal and sale or disposition of a surrendered vessel, as defined. The bill would require the Department of Boating and Waterways to track the number of surrendered vessels accepted by a public agency that disposes of those vessels using grant funds from the Abandoned Watercraft Abatement Fund from January 1, 2010, to January 1, 2013, inclusive, and the total amount of expenditure from that fund for surrendered vessels during the same period. The bill would require the department to report that information to the Assembly Committee on Transportation and the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water with any recommendations for revising or continuing the use of fund moneys for those purposes.