Agenda Special Meeting Board Of
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
AGENDA SPECIAL MEETING BOARD OF DIRECTORS ORANGE COUNTY WATER DISTRICT 18700 Ward Street, Fountain Valley, CA (714) 378-3200 Friday, March 28, 2014 – 12:10 p.m., Conference Room C-2 PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ROLL CALL VISITOR PARTICIPATION Members of the audience wishing to address the Board on items of interest to the public are requested to identify themselves. If the matter on which they wish to comment is an Agenda item, the visitor will be called on when that matter comes up for consideration on the Agenda. If the item is on the Consent Calendar, it will be removed from the Consent Calendar for separate consideration. Visitors are requested to limit comments to three minutes. MATTERS FOR CONSIDERATION 1. LEGISLATION UPDATE - ASSEMBLY BILL 2712 RECOMMENDATION: Adopt the following position: AB 2712 (Daly) - Oppose unless Amended 2. ASSEMBLY BILL 2712 – PUBLIC RELATIONS ASSISTANCE RECOMMENDATION: Authorize the ad-hoc Executive Committee to select a public relations firm to assist the District with AB 2712 issues and other potential legislation; and authorize the General Manager to negotiate terms and conditions and execute Agreement with the selected firm ADJOURNMENT Agenda Posting: In accordance with the requirements of California Government Code Section 54954.2, this Agenda has been posted in the main lobby of the Orange County Water District, 18700 Ward Street, Fountain Valley, CA not less than 24 hours prior to the special meeting date and time above. All written materials relating to each agenda item are available for public inspection in the office of the District Secretary. Backup material for the Agenda is available at the District offices for public review and can be viewed online at the District’s website: www.ocwd.com. Accommodations to the Disabled: Pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, persons with a disability who require a disability-related modification or accommodation in order to participate in a meeting, including auxiliary aids or services, may request such modification or accommodation from the District Secretary at (714) 378- 3233, by email at [email protected] by fax at (714) 378-3373. Notification 24 hours prior to the meeting will enable District staff to make reasonable arrangements to assure accessibility to the meeting. Availability of Agenda Material: As a general rule, agenda reports or other written documentation has been prepared or organized with respect to each item of business listed on the agenda, and can be reviewed at www.ocwd.com. Copies of these materials and other disclosable public records distributed to all or a majority of the members of the Board of Directors in connection with an open session agenda item are also on file with and available for inspection at the Office of the District Secretary, 18700 Ward Street, Fountain Valley, California, during regular business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. If such writings are distributed to members of the Board of Directors on the day of a Board meeting, the writings will be available at the entrance to the Board of Directors meeting room at the Orange County Water District office. 1 AGENDA ITEM SUBMITTAL Meeting Date: March 28, 2014 Budgeted: No Budgeted Amount: N/A To: Board of Directors Cost Estimate: N/A Funding Source: N/A Program/Line Item No.: N/A From: Mike Markus General Counsel Approval: N/A Engineers/Feasibility Report: N/A Staff Contact: R. Ennis CEQA Compliance: N/A Subject: LEGISLATION UPDATE - ASSEMBLY BILL 2712 SUMMARY Assembly Bill (AB) 2712, authored by Assembly member Tom Daly and co-authored by Senator Lou Correa, substantially constrains OCWD’s existing authority and autonomy to remediate local groundwater contamination and its ability to seek cost recovery from polluters for cleanup projects. Attachment(s): AB 2712 (Daly) Proposed District Act Amendment RECOMMENDATION Adopt the following position: AB 2712 (Daly) - Oppose unless amended. DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS The Orange County Water District (“OCWD” or the “District”) is an independent special district, created by an act of the California Legislature in 1933 and is the sole groundwater manager of the vast basin that underlies north and central Orange County. Under the OCWD Act, the District has broad tools to manage groundwater quality and supply in the best interests of the 2.4 million residents it serves. Section 8(b) of the OCWD Act, authorizes the District to perform any cleanup, abatement or remedial work to prevent, abate or contain any threatened or existing groundwater pollution or contamination. The cleanup work can be performed either directly by OCWD or contract out, and may be commenced regardless of whether the polluter has already begun its own cleanup activities. Section 8(c) of the OCWD Act provides that the District may sue to recover the reasonable costs of cleanup from the polluter causing the contamination; and, if OCWD seeks recovery, the need for the cleanup and the reasonableness of the costs incurred by the District are presumed in favor of OCWD. 1 Assembly Bill (AB) 2712, by Assemblymember Tom Daly, indirectly repeals sections 8(b) and 8(c) of the OCWD Act and creates extraordinary barriers for OCWD to fulfill its duties to the region prescribed by the California Legislature under its Act. Under AB 2712, OCWD would be prohibited from implementing a remediation project to clean up groundwater contamination located in OCWD’s service area unless OCWD submitted a plan to the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), the Regional Water Quality Control Board (presumably the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board), or a “certified unified program agency”, and received review and approval from that respective agency. Moreover, OCWD would be barred from seeking cost recovery from polluters unless the cleanup plan was reviewed and approved by one of these agencies. AB 2712 would add significant delay to cleanup efforts. Based upon information available to the District, DTSC approval of a District cleanup plan would likely take a minimum of two years. Moreover, though the proposal is a state mandated program, AB 2712 fails to provide any funding for the process it requires, finding instead that OCWD must raise any necessary fees and costs for implementation from its ratepayers. Additionally, AB 2712 is written broadly and encompasses virtually every remediation project imaginable. Any remediation project that is conducted, authorized, or contracted for by OCWD would be subject to the process provided in AB 2712. This would include emergency remediation projects, minor remediation projects, and routine remediation projects. AB 2712 fails to provide for any exceptions and does not attempt to distinguish between remedial projects subject to its extensive regulatory process by size, scope or nature. As such, OCWD would be barred by law from engaging in any remedial cleanup activity unless it secured plan review and approval prior to initiation. The failure to provide any exception in the interest of public health or safety is indicative of the haphazard construction of AB 2712. AB 2712 singles out OCWD as perhaps the only local water agency in California that is prohibited from cleaning up pollution without first submitting a plan and seeking its review and approval from a state agency. AB 2712 would require OCWD to follow new, unknown and untested administrative procedures for groundwater cleanup projects thereby providing new opportunities for polluters seeking to delay important groundwater contamination cleanup to challenge projects utilizing a variety of procedural mechanism. If passed into law, AB 2712 would have a significant negative impact on groundwater quality, water supply costs, water supply reliability and public health. AB2712 would add unnecessary additional regulatory burdens and costs, and grind even basic and routine remedial activities to a halt, while providing ratepayers little to no benefit. 2 california legislature—2013–14 regular session ASSEMBLY BILL No. 2712 Introduced by Assembly Member Daly (Principal coauthor: Senator Correa) February 21, 2014 An act to add Chapter 6.655 (commencing with Section 25268.1) to Division 20 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to hazardous materials. legislative counsel’s digest AB 2712, as introduced, Daly. Hazardous materials: Orange County Water District. (1) Under existing law, the Site Designation Committee in the California Environmental Protection Agency is authorized to designate an administering agency for oversight of a remedial action to a hazardous substance release. Existing law requires the administering agency to supervise the site investigation and remedial action conducted by the responsible party and, upon determining that the site investigation and remedial action has been satisfactorily completed, to issue a certi®cate of completion to the responsible party. This bill would impose requirements on the Orange County Water District when conducting a remediation project at a hazardous waste release site located in the district and would prohibit the district from implementing a remediation project unless the plan for the proposed remediation project is approved pursuant to the speci®ed procedures. The bill would require the district to develop a plan for a proposed remediation project and to submit the plan, for review and approval, to the Department of Toxic Substances Control, a California regional water quality control board, or a certi®ed uni®ed program agency, as speci®ed. 99 AB 2712 Ð 2 Ð If the regulatory agency does not approve the plan, the bill would allow the district to submit the plan to the site designation committee for review. The site designation committee would be required to disapprove the plan, approve the plan, or conditionally approve the plan. If the regulatory agency disapproves the plan and the plan is not submitted for review, or if the site designation committee disapproves the plan, the bill would prohibit the district from seeking cost recovery from a responsible party for the hazardous materials release site pursuant to speci®ed state and local laws.