Hazardous substances: lead: cleanup: Exide Technologies facility.

(1) Existing law establishes the Toxic Substances Control Account in the General Fund and authorizes the expenditure of moneys in the account, upon appropriation, for, among other purposes, the payment of all costs of removal and remedial action incurred by the state in response to a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance, as specified. Existing law appropriated $176,600,000 from the Toxic Substances Control Account to the department, for expenditure through June 30, 2018, for specified purposes, including activities related to the cleanup and investigation of properties contaminated with lead in the communities surrounding the Exide Technologies facility in the City of Vernon, California. This bill would authorize the expenditure of those funds through June 30, 2021. (2) Existing law, the Lead-Acid Battery Recycling Act of 2016, prohibits a person from disposing of, or attempting to dispose of, a lead-acid battery at a solid waste facility or on or in any land, surface waters, watercourses, or marine waters, but authorizes a person to dispose of a lead-acid battery at certain locations. The act imposes a fee on manufacturers of lead-acid batteries for each lead-acid battery sold at retail to a person in California, or sold to a dealer, wholesaler, distributor, or other person for retail sale in California, and imposes a fee on a person who purchases a replacement lead-acid battery from a dealer, as provided. The act creates in the State Treasury the Lead-Acid Battery Cleanup Fund and requires that the fees collected pursuant to the act, except for specified administrative expenses, be deposited into the fund. The act requires that moneys in the fund be expended for specified purposes, including for investigation, site evaluation, cleanup, remedial action, removal, monitoring, or other response actions at any area of the state that is reasonably suspected to have been contaminated by the operation of a lead-acid battery recycling facility. This bill would appropriate $12,000,000 from the fund to the department for specified purposes, including, among others, for interim removal or remedial action measures in public parkway sites in the communities surrounding the Exide Technologies facility with lead levels that could pose a substantial danger to human health or the environment. The bill would require the County of Los Angeles, to the extent feasible, to use any lead-based paint remediation federal funding, consistent with federal law, or grant funding that it receives for lead-based paint remediation to provide specified services to residents in the communities surrounding the Exide Technologies facility. Because the bill would impose new duties on the County of Los Angeles, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Los Angeles. (4) 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.