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DTSC reports improved fee collections and awards community cleanup grants despite budget reductions
Summary
DTSC summarized reforms to its generation-and-handling fee and progress on the Cleanup in Vulnerable Communities Initiative (CBCI); the department reported revenue improvements after emergency rulemaking and said it awarded assessment and cleanup grants across two rounds but that budget changes reduced planned rounds from three to two.
The Department of Toxic Substances Control updated the subcommittee on the generation-and-handling fee reforms and the Cleanup in Vulnerable Communities Initiative (CBCI), which funds assessment and cleanup work with an emphasis on environmental justice.
DTSC Director-level staff (Catherine Butler) said the 2021 reform (SB 158) consolidated multiple fees into a per‑ton generation-and‑handling fee. DTSC reported a revenue shortfall after implementation as generators under‑reported or paid late and the department's data systems lagged behind the new fee structure. The 2024–25 budget included statutory changes and emergency rulemaking so DTSC could clarify exemptions, increase penalties for nonpayment, require better reporting, and improve outreach to generators. Butler said those changes have yielded improved collections: since February, generation-and-handling fee revenues were up by about $19,000,000 compared to the same point the prior year.
Butler also described the Cleanup in Vulnerable Communities Initiative (CBCI), originally funded at $500,000,000 in 2021 but reduced because of budget constraints and partially backfilled with greenhouse gas reduction funds; total CBCI funding now stands at $231,500,000 through 2026–27. DTSC said it awarded 58 assessment and cleanup grants in round one ($88,000,000) and a second round (with greenhouse gas funds) awarded 32 additional grants totaling more than $43,000,000. Because of budget reductions there will be no third round, DTSC said, but the department said it worked with community groups and tribes to prioritize projects and believes the grants are producing beneficial uses such as affordable housing conversions at some sites.
Committee members asked for geographic breakdowns of the awards; DTSC said it would provide a list of grantees and regions. Members also asked whether hazardous waste generated by recent fires created disposal challenges; DTSC said the tonnage recovered from private properties tied to the fires was an exemption (natural-disaster waste) and was not large enough to create disposal capacity problems.
Members asked whether the recent statutory and regulatory changes are closing the prior structural shortfall in DTSC—s hazardous-waste account; DTSC and Department of Finance said it was too early to know and that additional collections and implementation of emergency regulations would clarify the outlook by the May revise.
