Lead-Acid Battery Recycling Act of 2016.

The Lead-Acid Battery Recycling Act of 2016 prohibits a person from disposing, 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, and authorizes a person to dispose of a lead-acid battery only at certain locations. The act imposes a manufacturer battery fee on a manufacturer of lead-acid batteries for each lead-acid battery it sells at retail to a person in California, or that it sells to a dealer, wholesaler, distributor, or other person for retail sale in California. 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 provides that moneys in the fund are available upon appropriation by the Legislature to the Department of Toxic Substances Control for specified activities relating to lead-acid battery recycling facilities, including for specified activities relating to the former Exide Technologies lead-acid battery recycling facility in the City of Vernon, as provided, for repayment of a loan made for one of those activities, and for repayment of another loan made before September 26, 2016. Existing law authorizes moneys to be expended for the repayment of those loans only after certain other activities for which expenditure from the fund is authorized have been fully funded in a given fiscal year. The act defines "lead-acid battery recycling facility" for purposes of the act. This bill would exclude from the definition of "lead-acid battery recycling facility" a facility that incidentally processes lead-acid batteries. The bill would authorize moneys in the fund to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature for the repayment of loans made for additional specified activities for which direct expenditure from the fund is authorized under existing law, as provided. The bill would require that moneys be expended for the repayment of those loans only after additional specified activities related to the former Exide Technologies lead-acid battery recycling facility in the City of Vernon, for which expenditure from the fund is authorized under existing law, have been fully funded in a given fiscal year. The bill would revise to apply retroactively to September 26, 2016, the authorization to expend moneys in the fund for those activities related to the former Exide Technologies lead-acid battery recycling facility in the City of Vernon. Existing law requires the department to establish a Lead-Acid Battery Recycling Facility Investigation and Cleanup Program to identify areas of the state that are eligible for expenditure of moneys from the fund. Existing law requires the program to provide public notice of the initiation of the investigation or site evaluation of any area reasonably suspected to have been contaminated by the operation of a lead-acid battery recycling facility. Existing law requires the department to accept and review comments or information submitted from the public on the public notice until the department completes its investigation. This bill would revise the public notice and public comment requirements to, among other things, require the department to accept comments and information from the public that are submitted within 90 days after the issuance of the public notice and to review, and respond in writing to, the comments and information before the department completes its investigation. Existing law requires the department, upon completion of an investigation or site evaluation, to provide notice and an opportunity to comment on the proposed designation of a site as determined with reasonable certainty to have been contaminated by releases from the operation of a facility known to have been a lead-acid battery recycling facility. Existing law requires the department to investigate and respond to any reasonable information provided by the public that might suggest the area was not contaminated by the operation of a lead-acid battery recycling facility or that the facility in question was not involved in the recycling of lead-acid batteries. This bill would instead require the department to evaluate, investigate, if appropriate, and respond to any reliable information provided by the public that indicates either of the two circumstances described above. The bill would make other changes relating to that proposed designation, as provided. Existing law provides that expenditure from the fund for purposes of further investigation or evaluation for a site is no longer authorized if, within 2 years of the public notice of the initiation of the investigation or site evaluation, the department is unable to designate a site as determined with reasonable certainty to have been contaminated by the operation of a lead-acid battery recycling facility. Existing law authorizes the department to extend the deadline for the completion of an investigation to no more than 3 months after the original 2-year deadline, as provided. The bill would authorize the department to extend the deadline for the completion of an investigation additional times in increments of up to 3 months, not to exceed one year after the original 2-year deadline in total.