State Water Quality Control Fund: State Water Pollution Cleanup and Abatement Account.

Existing law, the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, authorizes the imposition and collection of civil and criminal penalties for specified violations of that act. The act requires certain moneys, including General Fund revenues of penalties, collected pursuant to these provisions to be deposited in the State Water Pollution Cleanup and Abatement Account in the State Water Quality Control Fund. The act continuously appropriates the money in the account to the State Water Resources Control Board for specified cleanup programs. The act authorizes the state board, upon application by a public agency with authority to clean up or abate the effects of waste on waters of the state, to order moneys in the account to be paid to the agency to assist in cleaning up or abating the effects of the waste. This bill would additionally authorize the state board to pay these moneys to specified tribal governments and not-for-profit organizations serving disadvantaged communities, as defined, that have authority to clean up or abate the effects of waste. By authorizing new expenditures from a continuously appropriated account, this bill would make an appropriation.