§ 25215.5. — 25215.5. (Amended by Stats. 2020, Ch. 276, Sec. 2.)

(a)
Lead-acid battery fees collected pursuant to this article shall be managed as follows:
(1)
The board shall retain moneys necessary for the payment of refunds and reimbursement of the board for expenses in the collection of the fees.
(2)
The remaining moneys shall be deposited into the Lead-Acid Battery Cleanup Fund, which is hereby created in the State Treasury, and is available upon appropriation by the Legislature to the department for the purposes specified in this section.
(b)
(1)
Moneys in the Lead-Acid Battery Cleanup Fund shall be expended for the following activities:
(A)
Investigation or site evaluation of any area of the state that is reasonably suspected to have been contaminated by the operation of a lead-acid battery recycling facility.
(B)
Cleanup, remedial action, removal, monitoring, or other response actions to address contamination from a lead-acid battery recycling facility at any area of the state that, pursuant to Section 25215.51, the department determines with reasonable certainty was contaminated by releases from the operation of that lead-acid battery recycling facility.
(C)
Oversight or performance of closure activities and response and corrective actions to protect public health and the environment from hazardous substances and hazardous waste at or from the former Exide Technologies lead-acid battery recycling facility in the City of Vernon. This subparagraph shall apply retroactively to oversight or performance of closure activities and response and corrective actions conducted on or after September 26, 2016.
(D)
Administration of the Lead-Acid Battery Cleanup Fund and the department’s administration and implementation of this article.
(E)
Repayment of a loan described in Section 25215.59 that was made before September 26, 2016, or any other loan made for purposes set forth in subparagraphs (A) to (C), inclusive. Moneys shall be expended for purposes of this subparagraph only after the activities specified in subparagraphs (A) to (D), inclusive, have been fully funded in a given fiscal year.
(2)
(A)
Moneys in the Lead-Acid Battery Cleanup Fund shall not be used to implement Article 14 (commencing with Section 25251) with respect to lead-acid batteries or to loan moneys to any other program.
(B)
Any government action not required by this article that would have the effect of reducing the availability of fee revenue to the Lead-Acid Battery Cleanup Fund shall be considered a negative economic impact pursuant to subparagraph (M) of paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 25253.
(3)
Notwithstanding any other law, any costs incurred by the department using moneys from the Lead-Acid Battery Cleanup Fund pursuant to paragraph (1) that are recovered shall be deposited into the Lead-Acid Battery Cleanup Fund.
(c)
The
department shall report to the Legislature by March 1 of each year on the status of the Lead-Acid Battery Cleanup Fund and on the department’s progress implementing this article, including, but not limited to, the sites at which actions were performed using moneys from the fund, the status of cleanup at those sites, including total anticipated costs of cleanup at those sites, the balance of the fund, the amount of fees remitted to the fund, the amount spent by the fund and the purposes for which those amounts were spent, the amounts reimbursed to the board pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (a), and any other information requested by the Legislature. Each annual report shall be released to the public on the same day it is provided to the Legislature.

Legislative History

Amended by Stats. 2020, Ch. 276, Sec. 2. (AB 2104) Effective January 1, 2021.