Lawmakers OK waste cleanup
SB271, sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Kilpack, R-Syracuse, waltzed through the House Monday on a 68-1 vote under sponsorship of Majority Leader Rep. David Clark, Santa Clara. The bill unanimously passed the Senate on Friday.
The amendments to the Solid and Hazardous Waste Act deal with "multiple permittees" of potentially contaminated property, Clark said.
Until now, the state's Solid and Hazardous Waste Board could only accept land for cleanup if all parties involved approve. That included previous owners who no longer manage the property.
Under SB271, he said, "if the current owner wants to go ahead and clean up the site, then it will allow the current owner to do so" without permission of the original owner.
"When the new owner then gets the opportunity to clean that up, does that also indemnify the previous owners based on what they find in the cleanup?" asked Minority Whip Brad King, D-Price.
"Some of these sites have, I'll call it genealogy. There's a history" of what happened there, replied Clark. If the first owner created the mess, he said, even though the new owner authorized a cleanup, legal liability remains with owners who caused the problem. "They can't fast-forward to the current owner."
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