AB28 - Solid waste landfills: subsurface temperatures.

Amended IN Senate August 27, 2026 Amended IN Senate August 21, 2026 Amended IN Senate June 11, 2026 Amended IN Senate September 03, 2025 Amended IN Senate July 18, 2025 Amended IN Senate July 03, 2025 Amended IN Assembly May 06, 2025 Amended IN Assembly March 24, 2025 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 28 Introduced by Assembly Member Schiavo (Coauthors: Assembly Members Aguiar-Curry, Ahrens, Bennett, Bonta, Bryan, Garcia, Hart, Lowenthal, Pellerin, Ramos, Rogers, and Schultz) (Coauthor: Senator Stern) December 02, 2024 An act to add Sections 43031 and 43031.2 to the Public Resources Code, relating to solid waste, and making an appropriation therefor. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 28, as amended, Schiavo. Solid waste landfills: subsurface temperatures. (1) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), generally regulates the disposal, management, and recycling of solid waste, as defined. The act authorizes CalRecycle to certify a local enforcement agency and requires CalRecycle and certified local enforcement agencies to perform specified functions with regard to the regulation of solid waste management, including issuing and enforcing solid waste facility permits. The act prohibits a person from operating a solid waste facility without a solid waste facilities permit, as provided. The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 charges the State Air Resources Board with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming in order to reduce emission of greenhouse gases. The act requires the state board to adopt rules and regulations to achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions reductions, as provided. This bill would require the owner or operator of a solid waste landfill, as defined, to, among other things, notify the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery if a subsurface elevated temperature event occurs. The bill would define “subsurface elevated temperature event” to mean an event where subsurface gas or waste temperatures at a solid waste landfill persistently exceed 131 degrees Fahrenheit over a substantial area and meets other performance criteria, as determined by the department. The bill would authorize the department to require the owner or operator of a solid waste landfill experiencing a subsurface elevated temperature event to create a corrective action plan that includes, but is not limited to, a cost assessment for fully implementing the corrective action plan. The bill would authorize the department or a local enforcement agency to impose an administrative civil penalty of $100,000 per day for failing to comply with these requirements, as provided. The bill would require all penalties collected to be deposited into the Landfill Subsurface Fire Mitigation Community Fund, which the bill would create in the State Treasury. The bill would continuously appropriate moneys in the fund to the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority, to be paid to counties in which a subsurface elevated temperature event occurred, occurred to mitigate harm to a person or community affected by a subsurface elevated temperature event. event and to be paid to the authority for its costs of implementation. The bill would require the authority to develop guidelines for dispersing these funds, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to become the enforcement agency for a solid waste landfill experiencing a subsurface elevated temperature event, as specified. This bill would authorize the Secretary for Environmental Protection to select and coordinate a multiagency coordination group to investigate and provide recommendations on how to achieve resolution of a subsurface elevated temperature event, as specified. The bill would require a local health department to initiate community health needs assessments to identify and collect information regarding the effects of a subsurface elevated temperature event on an affected community and to share the findings, as provided. By requiring a local health department and a local air pollution control district to perform additional duties, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would, upon request by a multiagency coordination group, require the owner or operator of a solid waste landfill that experiences a subsurface elevated temperature event to implement an air monitoring and sampling plan, as specified. The bill would require the owner and operator of a solid waste landfill that experiences a subsurface elevated temperature event to reimburse the members of a multiagency coordination group and the local health department for all reasonable and necessary expenses incurred, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to adopt regulations to implement and enforce them as emergency regulations, as specified. (2) This bill would declare its provisions to be severable. (3) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. Digest Key Vote: 2/3 Appropriation: YES Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YES Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (1) The Chiquita Canyon Landfill, a 639-acre facility in Castaic, is currently experiencing a subsurface elevated temperature event that has created significant and continuing public health, environmental, and safety impacts for nearby communities. (2) A known subsurface elevated temperature event since 2022, the subsurface smoldering event has now grown to approximately 100 acres and has resulted in the release of noxious and poisonous gases, the generation of toxic leachate, and runoff affecting surrounding neighborhoods and the local environment within a five-mile radius or more. Many residents report suffering symptoms such as nosebleeds, migraines, difficulty breathing, vertigo, high blood pressure, and more. (3) Despite substantial expenditures on mitigation efforts and coordinated responses by multiple local, state, and federal agencies, the subsurface event is expected to continue for many more years, resulting in the prolonged release of hazardous compounds such as benzene, a known carcinogen, and acrolein, a chemical used as a nerve agent in past world wars. (4) Neighboring residents have had significant impacts to their health, some to the point of being disabled, unable to work, losing their businesses, and even losing their homes. This disaster is devaluing homes for families trying to sell their homes and leave the community, and threatens the health of anyone moving in. The subsurface elevated temperature event is causing significant financial harm beyond the physical and health impacts, threatening to eliminate the lifetime investments families made in their homes, undoing retirement security, and upending the financial stability of the community. (5) Many families continue to face uncertainty regarding their health and safety, and some medical professionals have advised affected residents to temporarily or permanently relocate to reduce potential exposure. However, many impacted individuals lack the financial resources necessary to relocate. (b) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature to enact all of the following: (1) Authorize the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to require a corrective action plan in order to mitigate a subsurface elevated temperature event and impose penalties of up to $100,000 per day to landfill operators that do not follow the requirements of the corrective action plan. (2) Authorize the Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency to create a multiagency coordination group to address a landfill’s subsurface elevated temperature event. (3) Create a Landfill Subsurface Fire Mitigation Community Fund to deposit penalties into and appropriate funds to mitigate harm to people and communities impacted by a subsurface elevated temperature event. SEC. 2. Section 43031 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read: 43031. (a) For purposes of this section, all of the following definitions apply: (1) “Local enforcement agency” means the enforcement agency, as defined by Section 40130, that had jurisdiction over a solid waste landfill at the time a subsurface elevated temperature event was discovered. (2) “Solid waste landfill” has the same meaning as in Section 40195.1, except that “solid waste landfill” does not include any of the following: (A) A landfill that receives only hazardous waste. (B) A landfill that contains only construction and demolition wastes, inert wastes, or nondecomposable wastes. (C) A landfill with fewer than four hundred fifty thousand tons of waste-in-place. (3) “Subsurface elevated temperature event” means an event where subsurface gas or waste temperatures at a solid waste landfill persistently exceed 131 degrees Fahrenheit over a substantial area and meets other performance criteria, as determined by the department. (b) If a subsurface elevated temperature event occurs, the owner or operator of the solid waste landfill shall do all of the following: (1) Notify the department, state water board, State Air Resources Board, local enforcement agency, local air pollution control district, local health department, State Department of Public Health, and the appropriate regional water quality control board. (2) Provide subsurface gas and waste temperature data to the department, state water board, State Air Resources Board, local air pollution control district, Department of Toxic Substances Control, and the appropriate regional water quality control board when requested by the department. (3) Notwithstanding Section 40055, take action that the department deems necessary to mitigate and resolve the subsurface elevated temperature event, including, but not limited to, creating a corrective action plan. If a corrective action plan is required under Section 95469 of Title 17 of the California Code of Regulations, then the plan adopted by the department shall not conflict with that corrective action plan. (c) If the department requires a corrective action plan, the department may require the owner or operator of the solid waste landfill to do one or more of the following: (1) Complete a cost assessment for fully implementing the corrective action plan, including, but not limited to, the costs for cleanup, abatement, other remedial actions, and for reimbursing the multiagency coordination group pursuant to subdivision (g) of Section 43031.2. (2) Provide, in a form and manner determined by the department, evidence of financial ability sufficient to address costs to implement the corrective action plan. This requirement is in addition to existing financial assurance requirements established under Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 22200) of Subdivision 1 of Division 2 of Title 27 of the California Code of Regulations. (3) Pursuant to the regulation adopted pursuant to Section 43509, revise the closure and postclosure maintenance plan to account for additional costs resulting from the subsurface elevated temperature event. (d) If the owner and operator of a solid waste landfill cannot sufficiently cover the cost to manage and implement a corrective action plan, including the cost to make reimbursement pursuant to subdivision (g) of Section 43031.2, the Attorney General may, if warranted, pursue an action against the parent company of the owner and operator of the solid waste landfill. This subdivision does not create a cause of action or liability. (e) (1) If the department finds that a solid waste landfill within the jurisdiction of a local enforcement agency is experiencing a subsurface elevated temperature event, the department may, at its sole discretion, become the enforcement agency for all or part of the solid waste landfill. (2) If the department becomes the enforcement agency pursuant to paragraph (1), the department shall return the solid waste facility to the jurisdiction of the local enforcement agency upon the department’s finding that the subsurface elevated temperature event has been satisfactorily mitigated or resolved. The department has the sole discretion to return the solid waste facility to the jurisdiction of the local enforcement agency before the subsurface elevated temperature event has been satisfactorily mitigated or resolved. (3) If the department becomes the enforcement agency pursuant to paragraph (1), the department may recover its reasonable and necessary costs for being the enforcement agency from the owner or operator of the solid waste facility that experienced the subsurface elevated temperature event, in a manner determined by the department. (f) (1) In addition to any other remedies provided by law, the department or local enforcement agency may impose an administrative civil penalty of up to one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) per day for failing to comply with subdivision (b) or (c) or any regulation adopted pursuant to this section. No penalty shall accrue before the 31st day after the department issues a notice of violation. (2) All penalties collected pursuant to this section shall be deposited into the Landfill Subsurface Fire Mitigation Community Fund, which is hereby created in the State Treasury. Notwithstanding Section 13340 of the Government Code, moneys in the Landfill Subsurface Fire Mitigation Community Fund are continuously appropriated, without regard to fiscal year, to the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority, to Authority for both of the following: (A) To be paid to counties in which a subsurface elevated temperature event occurred to mitigate harm to a person or community adversely affected by a subsurface elevated temperature event. The (B) To pay the costs incurred by the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority in performing the duties required by this subdivision. (3) The California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority shall develop guidelines for dispersing these funds in the Landfill Subsurface Fire Mitigation Community Fund for compensation for loss, damages, expenses, relocation, suffering, loss in real property value, closing costs with respect to real property, including realtor commissions, or inconvenience, including access to real property, resulting from a subsurface elevated temperature event. These guidelines shall not be subject to the requirements of Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Gove [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]