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Business Taxes Law Guide—Revision 2024
Integrated Waste Management Fee Law
Public Resources Code
Division 30. Waste Management
Part 7. Other Provisions
Chapter 2. Finances
Article 2 Management of the Fund
Article 2.1 State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund
Part 7. Other Provisions
Chapter 2. Finances
Article 2. Management of the Fund
48000. Quarterly fee; rate. (a) Each operator of a disposal facility shall pay a fee quarterly to the State Board of Equalization, which is based on the amount, by weight or volumetric equivalent, as determined by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, of all solid waste disposed of at each disposal site.
(b) (1) The fee for solid waste disposed of shall be one dollar and thirty-four cents ($1.34) per ton. Commencing with the 1995–96 fiscal year, the amount of the fee shall be established by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery at an amount that is sufficient to generate revenues equivalent to the approved budget for that fiscal year, including a prudent reserve, but shall not exceed one dollar and forty cents ($1.40) per ton.
(2) On and after January 1, 2012, the amount of the fee established by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be increased by twelve cents ($0.12) per ton for each operator of a solid waste landfill whose owner has notified the department that it elects to participate in the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund pursuant to Article 2.1 (commencing with Section 48010).
(c) The Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery shall notify the state board on the first day of the period in which the rate shall take effect of any rate change adopted pursuant to paragraphs (1) and (2) of subdivision (b).
(d) The Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery and the state board shall ensure that all the fees for solid waste imposed pursuant to this section that are collected at a transfer station are paid to the state board in accordance with this article.
(e) (1) The fee imposed by paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) shall not be operative on or after January 1, 2012, unless the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery receives, on or before January 1, 2012, letters of participation in the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund from landfill owners representing at least 50 percent of the total volume of waste disposed of in 2010.
(2) The Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery shall notify the state board, on or before February 29, 2012, if the fee imposed by paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) shall become operative pursuant to paragraph (1).
48001. Creation of account; deposit of money. The revenue from the fees paid pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of Section 48000 shall, after payment of refunds and administrative costs of collection, be deposited in the Integrated Waste Management Account, which is hereby created in the fund.
48001.5. Distribution of funds. (a) The revenue from the fees paid pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 48000 shall, after payment of refunds and administrative costs of collection, be deposited in the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund, which is hereby created in the State Treasury.
(b) Fees, revenues, and all interest earned shall be available to the board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to carry out the purposes of Article 2.1, including all of the following:
(1) Corrective action and postclosure activities pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 48011.
(2) Administrative costs incurred by the board in implementing Article 2.1.
(3) Any startup costs incurred by the board in implementing Article 2.1 that were incurred before fees were paid pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 48000.
48002. Rules and regulations. The state board shall adopt rules and regulations to carry out Section 48000, including, but not limited to, provisions governing collections, reporting, refunds, and appeals.
48003. Expenditure of revenues. The state board may not spend more than 1/2 percent of the total revenues deposited, or anticipated to be deposited in the account during a fiscal year for the administration of this chapter during that fiscal year.
48004. Money in account. (a) The money in the account shall be used by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the following purposes:
(1) The administration and implementation of this division by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery.
(2) The state water board's and regional water boards' administration and implementation of Division 7 (commencing with Section 13000) of the Water Code at solid waste disposal sites.
(b) It is the intent of the Legislature that an amount that is sufficient to fund state water board and regional water board regulatory activities for solid waste landfills be appropriated from the account by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act. Those persons who are required to pay the fee imposed pursuant to Section 48000 shall not be required to pay the annual fee imposed pursuant to subdivision (d) of Section 13260 of the Water Code with regard to the same discharge if the requirements for the waiver of that fee set forth in paragraph (3) of subdivision (d) of Section 13260 of the Water Code are met.
(c) Notwithstanding subdivisions (a) and (b), if the fee established pursuant to Section 48000 does not generate revenues sufficient to fund the programs specified in this section, or if the amount appropriated by the Legislature for these purposes is reduced, those reductions shall be equally and proportionally distributed between funding for the solid waste programs of the state water board and the regional water boards and the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery.
48005. Deposit of money; specified use. Unless otherwise specified, all money received by the board shall be deposited in the Integrated Waste
Management Account and shall be used by the board, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the purposes for which it was collected or, if not expressly specified for a particular purpose, for the purposes of this division, except Part 6 (commencing with Section 46000), which shall be funded by fees pursuant to Section 46801.
48006. Exemption. The board may exempt from all fees any operator of a solid waste landfill that receives less than a monthly average of five tons per operating day of solid waste.
Text of Section Operative January 1, 2002
48007. Recycled materials and inert waste. (a) Recycled materials and inert waste removed from the waste stream and not disposed of in a solid waste landfill shall not be included for the purpose of assessing fees imposed pursuant to Section 48000.
(b) This section shall become operative on the operative date of the regulations adopted by the board pursuant to Section 48007.5.
48007.5. Inert waste. (a) On or before January 1, 2004, the board shall adopt and file with the Secretary of State, pursuant to Section 11346.2 of the Government Code, regulations that establish an appropriate level of oversight of the management of construction and demolition waste, and the management of inert waste at mine reclamation sites.
(b) For purposes of this section, "inert waste" has the same meaning as defined in subdivision (c) of Section 48007, as that section read on January 1, 2002.
48008. Administrative fee. (a) Any operator of a solid waste landfill that pays a fee pursuant to this chapter may impose on its users an administrative fee of not more than 5 percent of the fees paid to the State Board of Equalization during the previous quarter pursuant to Section 48000.
(b) Administrative fees imposed pursuant to subdivision (a) shall reflect, to the extent feasible, the actual costs of collecting and accounting for fees paid to the State Board of Equalization.
Article 2.1 State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund *
48010. Election to participate. (a) (1) An owner of a landfill for which evidence of financial ability is maintained pursuant to Article 4 (commencing with Section 43600) of Chapter 2 of Part 4, whose landfill is operating on January 1, 2012, and that elects to participate in the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund pursuant to this article, shall submit written notice to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery on or before January 1, 2012.
(2) Except as provided in paragraph (3), an owner of multiple landfills that elects to participate in the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund is required to submit written notice that includes all of the owner's operating landfills and all other landfills in which that owner has in common ownership.
(3) A landfill with multiple owners may participate only if all owners of that landfill elect to participate. Participation of a landfill with multiple owners shall not obligate a partial owner of that landfill to include any other landfill at which that owner has full or partial ownership.
(4) The Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery shall provide to the state board the name and address, and any other information necessary to administer and collect the fee imposed pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 48000, of every owner of a landfill electing to participate in the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund on or before February 29, 2012.
(b) If an operator that is operating a landfill on January 1, 2012, submits a written notification to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery that it elects to participate after the trust fund fee goes into effect, the operator shall pay all trust fund fees applicable from January 1, 2012, and a 5-percent penalty before being allowed to participate.
(c) For new landfills that receive a solid waste facility permit after January 1, 2012, the owner's election to participate in the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund shall be submitted in writing to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery before the department concurs in the issuance of the permit pursuant to Section 44009.
(d) All elections to participate made by landfill owners pursuant to this section are final, binding, and irrevocable for those owners and their successors and assignees.
48011. Conditions for expenditure. (a) For the purposes of this article, "solid waste landfill" means a disposal site that is required to maintain evidence of financial ability pursuant to Part 4 (commencing with Section 43600) of Chapter 2 of Part 4.
(b) The board may expend money in the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund to pay for corrective action and postclosure activities that have not been performed by the owner or operator of a solid waste landfill, upon a determination by the board that all of the following conditions are met:
(1) The solid waste landfill owner or operator has failed to comply with a final enforcement order issued by the enforcement agency, the regional water board, or the board.
(2) The financial assurance mechanisms are inadequate to pay for the required corrective action or postclosure maintenance activities or both that action and those activities.
(3) The solid waste landfill was operating pursuant to a valid solid waste facilities permit on or after January 1, 1988, when the state's requirements for solid waste landfill financial assurances went into effect as a result of Assembly Bill 2448 of the 1987-88 Regular Session, and is required to have financial assurances pursuant to Article 4 (commencing with Section 43600) of Chapter 2 of Part 4.
(4) The board has first used and exhausted all immediately available financial assurance mechanisms provided by the operator.
(5) The solid waste landfill owner and operator are otherwise unable or unwilling to pay, in a timely manner, for the required corrective action or postclosure maintenance activities or both that action and those activities.
(c) The board may adopt regulations, if necessary, setting forth additional criteria for making expenditures from the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund.
(d) Notwithstanding Section 10295 of the Public Contract Code, a contract entered into by the board for the purposes of this article is not subject to approval by the Department of General Services.
(e) No liability or obligation is imposed on the state under this article, and the board shall not incur any obligation beyond the extent to which money is expended from the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund pursuant to this article.
(f) The board shall, to the maximum extent feasible, recover from the landfill owner or operator the amount of money expended from the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund, including a reasonable amount for any board contract administration costs and an amount equal to the interest that would have been earned on the expended funds. The board shall deposit all funds recovered pursuant to an action authorized by this section into the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund.
(g) The amount of any cost incurred by the board pursuant to this section is recoverable from the landfill owner or operator in a civil action brought by the Attorney General pursuant to Section 40432.
(h) The board may, consistent with Section 48023.5, impose a lien on the owner's or operator's assets or real property as an additional remedy to recover funds from the operator for expenditures from the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund.
48012. Report on expenditures. After January 1, 2016, as part of the annual report required pursuant to Section 40507, the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery shall report on expenditures from the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund, the status of cost recovery actions, and any recommended statutory changes that are necessary to ensure adequate resources are available to carry out the purposes of the State Solid Waste Postclosure and Corrective Action Trust Fund.
48013. Operator of multiple landfills. Except as provided in paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) of Section 48010, an owner of multiple landfills for which evidence of financial ability is maintained pursuant to Article 4 (commencing with Section 43600) of Chapter 2 of Part 4 and whose landfills are operating on January 1, 2012, shall include all other landfills in which that owner has in common ownership in the letter of participation.