(a) On or before July 1, 1986, the department shall, by emergency regulation, adopt a fee schedule that assesses a fee upon any person discharging any hazardous wastes into an injection well. The department shall include in this fee schedule the fees charged for filing a hazardous waste injection statement specified in former Section 25159.13, as added by Chapter 1591 of the Statutes of 1985, the report specified in Section 25159.18, and applications for, and renewals of, the exemptions specified in Section 25159.15. The department shall also include provisions in the fee schedule for assessing a penalty pursuant to subdivision (c). These fees shall be based on the reasonable anticipated costs that will be incurred by the department to implement and administer this article. The department may also request an appropriation to be used in combination with these fees to perform the monitoring, inspections, review of reports, or any other implementation and administrative actions required by this article.
(b) The emergency regulations that set the fee schedule shall be adopted by the department in accordance with Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, and for the purposes of that chapter, including Section 11349.6 of the Government Code, the adoption of these regulations is an emergency and shall be considered by the Office of Administrative Law as necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety, and general welfare. Notwithstanding Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, any emergency regulations adopted by the department pursuant to this section shall be filed with, but not be repealed by, the Office of Administrative Law and shall remain in effect until revised by the department.
(c) The department shall send a notice to each person subject to the fee specified in subdivision (a). If a person fails to pay the fee within 60 days after receipt of this notice, the department shall require the person to pay an additional penalty fee. The department shall set the penalty fee at not more than 100 percent of the assessed fee, but in an amount sufficient to deter future noncompliance, as based upon that person’s past history of compliance and ability to pay, and upon additional expenses incurred by this noncompliance.
(d) The department shall collect and deposit the fees and penalties collected pursuant to this section in the Hazardous Waste Injection Well Account, which is hereby created in the General Fund. The money within the Hazardous Waste Injection Well Account is available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for purposes of administering this article.
(e) This section applies only to injection wells into which hazardous waste is discharged.
(Amended by Stats. 2004, Ch. 193, Sec. 96. Effective January 1, 2005.)