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Lake County backs AB 993 to expand CUPA reimbursement, boost hazardous-material response funding
Summary
The Lake County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to authorize a letter of support for Assembly Bill 993, which would expand eligibility and increase reimbursement amounts for Certified Unified Program Agencies (CUPAs) serving hazardous materials programs in smaller counties.
The Lake County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a letter of support for Assembly Bill 993, which would change state reimbursement rules for Certified Unified Program Agencies (CUPAs) and provide additional funding for hazardous-materials programs in smaller counties.
Board members discussed the bill after county staff described the local CUPA certification and funding situation. County environmental health staff said Lake County’s Environmental Health Department certified as a CUPA in February and that some counties that had certified earlier did not receive the state augmentation that later certifications received. “We call ourselves the $60,000 club,” the staff member said, describing how earlier-certified counties did not receive the $60,000 annual augmentation offered by the state to incentivize certification in rural counties.
According to staff summary presented at the meeting, AB 993 would make every county with a population under 150,000 eligible for CUPA reimbursement funds regardless of their certification date and would increase the maximum county allocation for CUPA reimbursement from $60,000 to $100,000. The bill’s sponsors and staff said the funding would support hazardous-materials planning, equipment, training, and local response capacity.
Board discussion was brief. There were no public comments on the item, and the board authorized the chair to sign the letter of support. The motion carried unanimously, 5-0.
County staff said the additional reimbursement would relieve general-fund and realignment expenditures currently used to cover hazardous-material responses and would allow the county and local fire departments to provide more training and equipment for typical local responses, including vehicle spills and incidents affecting Clear Lake.
The board’s action directs staff to transmit a letter expressing Lake County’s support for AB 993 to the bill’s author and relevant legislative contacts.
