Hazardous waste control laws: exemption: geothermal resources., the official text

An act to amend Section 25205.5 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to hazardous waste.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

The hazardous waste control laws require the Department of Toxic Substances Control to regulate the handling and management of hazardous waste and hazardous materials. Existing law requires a generator of hazardous waste to pay to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration a generation and handling fee for each generator site, and requires the Board of Environmental Safety to establish a schedule of rates for the fee, as provided. A violation of the hazardous waste control laws is a crime.
Existing law generally exempts geothermal waste that is generated from the exploration, development, or production of geothermal energy and that does not result from drilling for geothermal resources from the hazardous waste control laws. Existing law limits that exemption under various circumstances, including, among other circumstances, when the waste is no longer contained in a piping system, nonearthen trench, or other specified form of containment, or is left in a lined surface impoundment 18 months after the date the surface impoundment has last received waste.
This bill would limit the generation and handling fee rate for geothermal waste that is not exempt from the hazardous waste control laws to no more than $10 per ton.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.
Section 25205.5 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:
25205.5.
(a) (1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, a generator of hazardous waste shall pay to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration a generation and handling fee for each generator site that generates an amount equal to, or more than, five tons for each calendar year, or portion of the calendar year.
(2) (A) For the 2022–23 fiscal year, the fee rate shall be forty-nine dollars and twenty-five cents ($49.25) for each ton or fraction of a ton of hazardous waste generated in calendar year 2021.
(B) Commencing January 1, 2026, the fee rate for geothermal waste not exempt from this chapter pursuant to Section 25143.1 shall not exceed ten dollars ($10) for each ton.
(3) Commencing July 1, 2023, the fee rates established pursuant to Section 25205.5.01 shall apply to each ton, including the first five tons, or fraction of a ton rounded up to the next nearest ton, of hazardous waste generated.
(4) For purposes of calculating the amount of the fee imposed pursuant to paragraph (1), a generator of hazardous waste that is issued a hazardous waste facilities permit from the department and that pays the annual facility fee, as specified in Section 25205.2, may deduct, from the amount of hazardous waste otherwise subject to this subdivision that is generated per calendar year, the amount of hazardous waste that is stored, bulked, and transferred solely through the location of the permitted hazardous waste facility and that is in route to another facility that is authorized to do any of the following:
(A) Manage the hazardous waste for reclamation and recovery, including fuel blending before energy recovery at another site.
(B) Manage the hazardous waste through destruction methods or treatment before disposal at another site.
(C) Manage the hazardous waste by any form of treatment.
(D) Dispose of the hazardous waste.
(b) The fee imposed pursuant to this section shall be paid in accordance with Part 22 (commencing with Section 43001) of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code.
(c) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2022, and applies to the generation and handling fees imposed pursuant to subdivision (a) for hazardous waste generated on or after January 1, 2021.