SECTIONS 25396-25396.2 - California Statutes

HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE

SECTION 25396-25396.2

25396. Unless the context indicates otherwise, the following
definitions govern the construction of this chapter.
(a) "Affected community" means the local residents or workers
living or working, and owners of businesses operating, in proximity
to the site, who are, or may be, directly impacted by the conditions
at the site, or by any response action. "Affected community" also
includes the legislative body of the jurisdiction in which a site is
located.
(b) "Agency" means the California Environmental Protection Agency.
(c) "Arbitration panel" means the arbitration panel convened
pursuant to Section 25398.10.
(d) "Beneficial uses of water" means uses of the waters of the
state that are identified in the current State Water Resources
Control Board and California regional water quality control boards'
water quality control plans for the area in which the site is
located.
(e) "Department" means the Department of Toxic Substances Control.
(f) "Engineering controls" means measures to control or contain
migration of hazardous substances or to prevent, minimize, or
mitigate environmental damage which may otherwise result from a
release or threatened release, including, but not limited to, caps,
covers, dikes, trenches, leachate collection systems, treatment
systems, and groundwater containment systems or procedures.
(g) "Federal act" means the Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act, as amended (42 U.S.C. Sec. 9601 et
seq.).
(h) "Fund administrator" means the state officer assigned the
responsibility of protecting the viability of the trust fund as the
representative of the state for the orphan share in all actions
concerning apportionment of liability if there is a potential
apportionment of liability to the orphan share for payment from the
trust fund.
(i) "Hazardous substance" shall have the same meaning as set forth
in Sections 25316 and 25317.
(j) (1) "Insolvent" means a person or entity who has received a
discharge of liability under Section 727, 944, 1141, 1228, or 1328 of
Title 11 of the United States Code, for prepetition response costs
relating to a site selected for response actions pursuant to this
chapter.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), a person or entity is not
insolvent with respect to any payment that the department receives or
will receive for any prepetition response costs as a result of the
bankruptcy, or with respect to any postpetition response costs.
(k) "Interim endangerment" means conditions at a site which pose a
significant risk either of harm to human health or of serious
environmental damage unless immediate response action is initiated
before remedial action measures set forth in a remedial action plan
prepared for the site are implemented.
(l) "Land use controls" means recorded instruments restricting the
present and future uses of the site, including, but not limited to,
recorded easements, covenants, restrictions, or servitudes, or any
combination thereof, as appropriate. Land use controls shall run with
the land from the date of recordation, shall bind all of the owners
of the land, and their heirs, successors, and assignees, and the
agents, employees, and lessees of the owners, heirs, successors, and
assignees, and shall be enforceable by the department pursuant to
Article 8 (commencing with Section 25180) of Chapter 6.5.
(m) "Orphan share" means that share of liability for the costs of
response actions apportioned to responsible persons who are insolvent
or cannot be identified or located. The department may adopt
regulations to further define a process to determine when a
responsible person cannot be identified or located.
(n) "Person" shall have the same meaning as set forth in Section
25319.
(o) "Planned use" means the reasonably expected future land uses
based on all of the following factors:
(1) The land use history of the site and surrounding properties,
the current land uses of the site and surrounding properties and
recent development patterns in the area where the site is located.
(2) Land use designations at the site and surrounding properties,
including current and likely future zoning and local land use plans
and the presence, if any, of groundwater and surface water recharge
areas.
(3) The potential for economic redevelopment.
(4) Current plans for the site by the property owner or owners.
(5) Affected community comments on the proposals for use of the
site.
(p) "Release" has the same meaning as set forth in Sections 25320
and 25321.
(q) "Remedy" or "remedial action" means actions that are necessary
to prevent, minimize, or mitigate damage that may result from a
release or threatened release of a hazardous substance and that, when
carried through to completion, allow a site to be permanently used
for its planned use without any significant risk to human health or
any significant potential for future environmental damage. "Remedy"
or "remedial action" includes, but is not limited to, all of the
following:
(1) Actions at the location of the release, such as storage;
confinement; perimeter protection using dikes, trenches, or ditches;
clay cover; neutralization; cleanup of released hazardous substances
and associated contaminated materials; recycling, reuse, diversion,
destruction, or segregation of reactive wastes; dredging, excavation,
repair, or replacement of leaking containers; collection of leachate
and runoff; onsite treatment or incineration; provision of
alternative water supplies; and any monitoring reasonably required to
ensure that these actions protect human health and safety, or the
environment.
(2) The costs of permanent relocation of residents and businesses
and community facilities where the Governor determines that, alone or
in combination with other measures, that relocation is more cost
effective than, and environmentally preferable to, the
transportation, storage, treatment, destruction, or secure
disposition offsite of hazardous substances, or may otherwise be
necessary to protect human health and safety, or the environment.
(3) Offsite transport and offsite storage, treatment, destruction,
or secure disposition of hazardous substances and associated
contaminated materials.
(r) "Remove" or "removal" means the cleanup or removal of released
hazardous substances from the environment; those actions that may be
necessarily taken in the event of the threat or release of hazardous
substances into the environment; those actions that may be necessary
to monitor, assess, and evaluate the release, or threat of release,
of hazardous substances; the disposal of removed material; and the
taking of other actions which may be necessary to prevent, minimize,
or mitigate damage to human health and safety, or the environment,
that may otherwise result from a release or threat of release.
"Remove" or "removal" also includes, but is not limited to, security
fencing or other measures to limit access, provision of alternative
water supplies, and temporary evacuation and housing of threatened
individuals not otherwise provided.
(s) "Respond," "response," or "response action" means removal
actions, and remedial actions, including, but not limited to,
operation and maintenance measures.
(t) "Response costs" means all costs incurred by the state or a
responsible person in taking response actions under this chapter at a
specific site, including costs incurred by a state agency in
implementing and administering this chapter pursuant to the
limitations established in subdivision (f) of Section 25399, and in
overseeing response actions under this chapter. Those costs shall
include all costs incurred by the state in relation to any judicial
review of a decision of an arbitration panel pursuant to subdivision
(e) of Section 25398.10 or any arbitration conducted pursuant to this
chapter.
(u) "Responsible person" has the same meaning as set forth in
Section 25323.5 for "responsible party" or "liable person."
(v) "Secretary" means the Secretary for Environmental Protection.
(w) "Site" means any building, structure, installation, equipment,
pipe or pipeline (including any pipe into a sewer or publicly owned
treatment works), well, pit, pond, lagoon, impoundment, ditch,
landfill, storage container, motor vehicle, rolling stock, or
aircraft, or any area where a hazardous substance has been deposited,
stored, disposed of, or placed, or otherwise come to be located; but
does not include any consumer product in consumer use or any vessel.
(x) "Site Designation Committee" or "committee" means the Site
Designation Committee created pursuant to Section 25261.
(y) "State board" means the State Water Resources Control Board.
(z) "Trust fund" means the Expedited Site Remediation Trust Fund
created pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 25399.1.

25396.1. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the
California Expedited Remedial Action Reform Act of 1994.

25396.2. Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 856) of Title 3 of Part
2 of Division 2 of the Civil Code does not apply to a site which is
subject to a response action pursuant to this chapter.