Section 44360 Of Chapter 4. Risk Assessment From California Health And Safety Code >> Division 26. >> Part 6. >> Chapter 4.
44360
. (a) Within 90 days of completion of the review of all
emissions inventory data for facilities specified in subdivision (a)
of Section 44322, but not later than December 1, 1990, the district
shall, based on examination of the emissions inventory data and in
consultation with the state board and the State Department of Health
Services, prioritize and then categorize those facilities for the
purposes of health risk assessment. The district shall designate
high, intermediate, and low priority categories and shall include
each facility within the appropriate category based on its individual
priority. In establishing priorities pursuant to this section, the
district shall consider the potency, toxicity, quantity, and volume
of hazardous materials released from the facility, the proximity of
the facility to potential receptors, including, but not limited to,
hospitals, schools, day care centers, worksites, and residences, and
any other factors that the district finds and determines may indicate
that the facility may pose a significant risk to receptors. The
district shall hold a public hearing prior to the final establishment
of priorities and categories pursuant to this section.
(b) (1) Within 150 days of the designation of priorities and
categories pursuant to subdivision (a), the operator of every
facility that has been included within the highest priority category
shall prepare and submit to the district a health risk assessment
pursuant to Section 44361. The district may, at its discretion, grant
a 30-day extension for submittal of the health risk assessment.
(2) Health risk assessments required by this chapter shall be
prepared in accordance with guidelines established by the Office of
Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. The office shall prepare
draft guidelines which shall be circulated to the public and the
regulated community and shall adopt risk assessment guidelines after
consulting with the state board and the Risk Assessment Committee of
the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association and after
conducting at least two public workshops, one in the northern and one
in the southern part of the state. The adoption of the guidelines is
not subject to Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1
of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code. The scientific
review panel established pursuant to Section 39670 shall evaluate the
guidelines adopted under this paragraph and shall recommend changes
and additional criteria to reflect new scientific data or empirical
studies.
(3) The guidelines established pursuant to paragraph (2) shall
impose only those requirements on facilities subject to this
subdivision that are necessary to ensure that a required risk
assessment is accurate and complete and shall specify the type of
site-specific factors that districts may take into account in
determining when a single health risk assessment may be allowed under
subdivision (d). The guidelines shall, in addition, allow the
operator of a facility, at the operator's option, and to the extent
that valid and reliable data are available, to include for
consideration by the district in the health risk assessment any or
all of the following supplemental information:
(A) Information concerning the scientific basis for selecting risk
parameter values that are different than those required by the
guidelines and the likelihood distributions that result when
alternative values are used.
(B) Data from dispersion models, microenvironment characteristics,
and population distributions that may be used to estimate maximum
actual exposure.
(C) Risk expressions that show the likelihood that any given risk
estimate is the correct risk value.
(D) A description of the incremental reductions in risk that occur
when exposure is reduced.
(4) To ensure consistency in the use of the supplemental
information authorized by subparagraphs (A), (B), (C), and (D) of
paragraph (3), the guidelines established pursuant to paragraph (2)
shall include guidance for use by the districts in considering the
supplemental information when it is included in the health risk
assessment.
(c) Upon submission of emissions inventory data for facilities
specified in subdivisions (b) and (c) of Section 44322, the district
shall designate facilities for inclusion within the highest priority
category, as appropriate, and any facility so designated shall be
subject to subdivision (b). In addition, the district may require the
operator of any facility to prepare and submit health risk
assessments, in accordance with the priorities developed pursuant to
subdivision (a).
(d) The district shall, except where site specific factors may
affect the results, allow the use of a single health risk assessment
for two or more substantially identical facilities operated by the
same person.
(e) Nothing contained in this section, Section 44380.5, or Chapter
6 (commencing with Section 44390) shall be interpreted as requiring
a facility operator to prepare a new or revised health risk
assessment using the guidelines established pursuant to paragraph (2)
of subdivision (a) of this section if the facility operator is
required by the district to begin the preparation of a health risk
assessment before those guidelines are established.