establishing a trust fund for money from soil and water environmental contamination court settlements.

This bill creates a new state trust fund specifically to hold money from legal settlements related to soil and water contamination. When the attorney general receives settlement funds for environmental damage, they must deposit the money into this separate account rather than mixing it with other state funds. The state treasurer will manage and invest the money, and the legislature will decide how to spend it on cleanup efforts, testing, health monitoring, or further investigation for the specific contamination involved. If funds remain unused after four years or if the contamination is already fixed, the money will be moved to other dedicated environmental funds. The law does not apply to criminal fines, penalties, or settlements that already have specific funding rules under existing statutes.