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Date: November 5, 2003
To: All Local Enforcement Agencies
This all LEA e-mail was sent on
behalf of Howard Levenson, Deputy Director of the Permitting and Enforcement
Division of the California Integrated Waste Management Board.
On October 12, 2003, Governor
Davis signed AB 1497 into law. The bill amends Public Resources Code sections
44004 and 45011, and adds section 43501.5. The provisions of the bill become
effective January 1, 2004.
The purpose of this message is
to notify you of the major provisions of the bill and provide you with interim
guidance on implementing those provisions.
To assist with your
comprehensive review of the new requirements the attached document (Word
97/6.0, 35 KB or Adobe Acrobat PDF, 20 KB) compares
actual bill text to existing statutory language.
In summary, AB 1497 contains
three major provisions:
1. Labor Transition Plan
- Requires
the operator of a solid waste landfill to submit, with its final closure plan,
a Labor Transition Plan, which must include provisions to ensure preferential
reemployment and transfer rights of displaced employees. The operator must certify
that the Labor Transition Plan will be implemented. The Plan is subject to any
requirements already established under a collective bargaining agreement.
Follow up steps: Remediation, Closure and Technical Services Branch
staff is developing guidance on this provision. Staff will be working with the
EAC and the CIWMB legal office to complete and distribute the guidance to all
landfill operators and Enforcement Agencies.
2. Public Hearing (GC 65091
attached)
- Requires enforcement agencies to hold a
public hearing before making a determination on an application for a revised
permit.
- Increases from 150 to 180 the number of
days in advance of the date when the modification is to take place by which an
application for permit revision must be filed.
- Increases from 30 to 60 the number of
days from the date of receipt of the application for a revised permit by which
the enforcement agency must make a determination on the application.
- Authorizes the Board, to the extent
resources are available, to adopt regulations implementing the public hearing
provision and defining "significant change in the design or operation of
the solid waste facility that is not authorized by the existing permit."
Follow up steps: The Board is currently assessing its 2004 rulemaking
calendar and will determine in December or January if and when it will adopt
regulations on public hearings and on significant change. In any event, the
Board will not adopt regulations prior to the effective date of the bill
(January 1, 2004). The public hearing procedures set forth in statute are
specific enough to implement directly until regulations can be developed.
Enforcement agencies must hold a public hearing for any application for permit
revision received on or after January 1, 2004. CIWMB staff may be providing
additional guidance on other types of permit applications received by the LEAs
as it relates to the public hearing requirements.
The statutory timelines
described in 2.b. and 2.c. above are now inconsistent with regulations
timelines. Until such time as the Board can make conforming changes to the
regulations, enforcement agencies must adhere to the statutory
timelines. Please see Government Code Section 65091 (Word
97/6.0, 22 KB or Adobe Acrobat PDF, 7 KB) with
respect to Public Hearings.
3. Administrative Civil
Penalties (ACP)
- Provides for the imposition of ACPs for disposal sites.
- Removes the $15,000 per calendar
year cap.
- Removes the prohibition on
imposing an ACP for the first three minor violations of the same requirement or
standard.
- Removes the requirement that
enforcement agencies do all of the following before imposing an ACP:
- Notify the governing body.
- Consider nature, circumstances,
extent, and gravity of the violation and appropriate remedies and penalties.
- Consider alternatives to the imposition
of an ACP.
Please feel free to contact me
or Robert Holmes of my staff at (916) 341-6376 if have questions about AB 1497 and its implementation.
Howard Levenson, Ph.D.
Deputy
Director, Permitting & Enforcement
CIWMB,
MS #16
P.O. Box
4025
Sacramento,
CA 95812-4025
phone:
916-341-6360
email: hlevenso@ciwmb.ca.gov
Attachments
Thank you,
Melissa Hoover-Hartwick
LEA Support Services
(916) 341-6813
LEA Correspondence Home
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