Assembly committee advances bill capping DTSC hazardous-waste fees for infill housing

SB 328, authored in the Senate by Senator Scott Wiener and presented to the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee by Senator Scott Wiener and Senator Scott Grayson, would cap the Department of Toxic Substances Control(DTSC) hazardous-waste generator/handling fee at $100,000 per project per year for infill housing projects and $250,000 per project per year for master development projects and require specified DTSC response timelines for development-related cleanup actions.

The measure aims to limit sharp increases in fees charged after the Legislature replaced a tiered fee model with a fixed per-ton fee in 2022, proponents said. "Builders who are repurposing land for productive use should not be penalized," Senator Grayson said during his presentation to the committee.

Proponents told the committee the 2022 fee change, which set a per-ton rate of $46.20, has raised monitoring costs for developers and, in some cases, made projects financially infeasible. Luis Morante of the Bay Area Council, a bill sponsor, and Ally Zaferman of Housing Action Coalition said the change removed a prior $100,000 cap and produced unexpectedly large bills that disrupted projects. Zaferman cited an example involving UC Law San Francisco: remediation in 2020and 2021 generated bills that previously totaled about $105,000 but, after the 2022 fee structure, resulted in additional charges (about $117,445) and penalties and interest (about $21,814), for a combined post-change bill of more than $240,000, testimony shows.

Dawn Koepke of the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance testified in respectful opposition unless amended, saying the billwould shift DTSC funding shortfalls onto other hazardous-waste generators and asking for a broader fee-reform process with DTSC and the board that sets fees. Committee members pressed proponents on whether the bill simply shifts costs to other users such as hospitals and schools; supporters said further study of fee-setting is needed and committed to continued stakeholder talks.

The committee established a quorum and voted to pass SB 328 to the Committee on Revenue and Taxation. The chair recorded the bill as passing the committee for referral. The author said he would seek additional conversations about systemwide fee reform in the interim.

Votes at a glance: The committee recorded the bill as passed to the Committee on Revenue and Taxation (committee action). Tallies reported in committee proceedings record the bill as passing with a favorable recommendation to the next committee (recorded as 6 yes, 0 no; one member absent during an earlier roll call).