HCS HB 1871 -- ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

SPONSOR:  Bivins (Schoeller)

COMMITTEE ACTION:  Voted "do pass" by the Committee on Energy and
Environment by a vote of 9 to 0.

This substitute changes the laws regarding environmentally
sustainable construction for state-funded buildings, the
Underground Storage Tank Operator Training Program, record
requests to the Department of Natural Resources, water well
regulations, and environmental audits and establishes the
Property Assessment Clean Energy Act and the Missouri Soil
Enrichment Initiative.

ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION FOR STATE-FUNDED
BUILDINGS

The substitute:

(1)  Requires all major state-funded facility projects to be
designed, constructed, and at least certified as receiving two
globes using the Green Globes Rating System or the Silver
standard as established by the Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED);

(2)  Defines "major facility project" as a state-funded new
construction project with more than 5,000 square footage, a
renovation project involving more than 50% of the square footage
or occupancy displacement, or a commercial interior fit-out
project with more than 7,000 square feet of leasable area;

(3)  Exempts a correctional facility constructed for the
departments of Corrections or Mental Health and certain buildings
that do not have air conditioning from the provisions of the
substitute;

(4)  Allows the Office of Administration to petition the General
Assembly to require all major facility projects to be certified
to a high-performance building rating system standard in addition
to or in lieu of the systems in these provisions;

(5)  Requires all facilities which were certified at the LEED
Silver or two globes standard or higher to be inspected by a
third-party commissioning agent, at a minimum, in the fifth,
tenth, and fifteenth year following certification and the agent
to report its findings to the Office of Administration and the
department occupying the facility;

(6)  Requires the Office of Administration to develop and
implement a process to monitor and evaluate the energy and
environmental benefits of each project; and

(7)  Requires the Office of Administration to submit a report
regarding major facility projects to the House of Representatives
and the Senate committees on Energy and Environment.

PROPERTY ASSESSMENT CLEAN ENERGY ACT

The Property Assessment Clean Energy Act is established which:

(1)  Authorizes one or more municipalities to form a clean energy
development board to establish a property assessed clean energy
program to finance energy efficiency or renewable energy
improvement projects.  A property owner can apply to the board to
finance the costs of the project through annual special
assessments levied under an assessment contract;

(2)  Requires each board to consist of at least three members.
The number of board members and their terms are to be specified
in the ordinance or order establishing the board.  If only one
municipality is participating in the board, the chief elected
officer will appoint board members with the consent of the
governing body.  If more than one municipality is participating,
members will be appointed in a manner agreed to by all
participating municipalities;

(3)  Requires the board to be a separate body politic and
corporate and have all powers necessary to carry out the
provisions of the substitute;

(4)  Requires the board, by July 1 of each year, to submit a
report with the state Environmental Improvement and Energy
Resources Authority (EIERA) and each municipality that
participated in the formation of the board.  The report must
include a brief description of each project financed by the
board, the amount of assessments due and the amount collected,
the board's administrative costs, the estimated cumulative energy
savings from the projects financed during the year and to date,
the estimated cumulative energy produced by all renewable energy
improvements financed during the year and to date, and any other
financial information required by EIERA's rules or regulations;

(5)  Specifies that no lawsuit to set aside the formation or to
otherwise question the proceedings related to the formation of
the board may be brought after 60 days from the effective date of
the ordinance establishing the board.  No lawsuit can be brought
to set aside the approval of a project, an assessment contract,
or a special assessment after 60 days from the date that the
assessment contract is executed;

(6)  Specifies the contractual requirements for any assessment
contract between the board and the benefitted property owner or
owners;

(7)  Specifies that the total special assessments levied against
a property under an assessment contract cannot exceed the total
cost of the project including any required energy audits and
inspections;

(8)  Requires the board to provide a copy of the assessment
contract to the local county assessor and collector, as well as
ensure that a copy of the assessment contract is recorded with
the county recorder of deeds;

(9)  Specifies that the special assessments agreed to under the
contract will be a lien on the property against which it is
assessed by the board.  The assessments will be collected by the
county collector in the same manner as other real property taxes;

(10)  Authorizes the board to establish application requirements
and the criteria for project financing approval to effectively
administer the program and ration available funding among
projects.  The board may require an initial energy audit as a
prerequisite to financing and inspections to verify completion of
the project;

(11)  Authorizes the board to finance any number of projects to
be installed within a single parcel of property or within a
unified development consisting of multiple adjoining parcels of
property through a clean energy conduit financing rather than
through a property assessed clean energy program.  Clean energy
conduit financing must consist of the issuance of bonds payable
from the special assessment revenues collected under an
assessment contract with the participating property owners;

(12)  Authorizes the board to issue bonds payable from the
special assessment revenues generated by assessment contracts and
any other revenues.  The state or municipality is not liable for
any bonds issued by a board;

(13)  Authorizes the Director of the Department of Economic
Development to allocate any portion of the state's residual share
of the national qualified energy conservation bond limitation
under the federal Internal Revenue Code for these purposes to the
EIERA, any clean energy development board, the state, any
political subdivision, instrumentality, or any other corporate or
politic body; and

(14)  Creates the Property Assessed Clean Energy Local Finance
Fund for the EIERA to loan funds, when available, to clean energy
development boards for the establishment and operation of
property assessed clean energy programs.  The fund will consist
of grants, contributions, or other moneys received by the
authority from the federal government or other sources, the
proceeds of any revenue bonds or other obligations issued by the
authority for the fund, revenues received from loan agreements,
and any other funds designated by the EIERA for this purpose.
The EIERA may enter into loan agreements with a board for
financing the development and marketing of the programs.

MISSOURI SOIL ENRICHMENT INITIATIVE

The substitute establishes the Missouri Soil Enrichment
Initiative which requires all commercial and local
government-owned composting facilities in operation prior to
January 1, 2011, to register with the Department of Natural
Resources by January 31, 2011, and pay an annual fee.  Composting
facilities commencing operations after January 1, 2011, must
register with the department prior to accepting or composting any
organic material.  The registration must be renewed annually and
include documentation showing that the facility is in compliance
with all applicable permits.

The department must maintain a registry of all commercial
facilities and local government-owned compost facilities which is
easily accessible to the public on its web site, identify
registered facilities by location, and collect a specified fee
based on the facility's acreage.  All fees must be deposited into
the Solid Waste Management Fund and used for activities of the
Solid Waste Management Program.  Municipally owned composting
facilities will not be required to pay a fee.

Each commercial facility must file an annual report with the
department containing certain specified information, submit a
statement certifying that the facility and any affiliated
transfer facility is being operated in a manner that prevents
nuisances and minimizes anaerobic conditions, and pay the annual
fee.

UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANK OPERATOR TRAINING PROGRAM

The Board of Trustees of the Petroleum Storage Tank Insurance
Fund is required by rule, in collaboration with the Department of
Agriculture and affected private citizens, to create, fund, and
maintain an underground storage tank operator program that
satisfies at a minimum the federal training requirements for the
program.  The program must be offered at no cost to required
participants, and the board is required to only meet the
requirements of the substitute after holding a public hearing and
determining by a vote that state action is required.

The department must disregard the manufacturer's expiration date
of motor fuel measuring devices and dispensing equipment, if any,
and must instead continue to require the replacement only when it
fails inspection.  The expiration date must not impose any new or
additional liability on motor fuel retailers or wholesalers.

Any modification to the way motor fuel is measured or dispensed
in a retail sale is prohibited by state rule or the automatic
adoption of national standards or rules unless the modification
is specifically authorized and mandated by state law.

RECORD REQUESTS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES

The substitute specifies that it is the policy of the Department
of Natural Resources to carry out its mission with full
transparency to the public and must make environmental data
collected in the course of its duties available to the public in
a timely fashion and the results of any environmental testing
activities easily accessible.

The department must broadly interpret any request for information
under the Open Meetings and Records Law, commonly known as the
Sunshine Law:

(1)  Even if the request does not use the words "sunshine
request," "open records request," "public records request," or
any similar wording;

(2)  Even if it is only an inquiry into if the data or
information exists; and

(3)  Regardless of the format in which the request is made.

In addition to any other applicable violation of law, any failure
to release the information will be considered a violation of the
department's policy and will constitute a breach of the public's
trust.  These requirements are not to be construed to limit or
exceed the requirements of the Sunshine Law.

WATER WELL REGULATIONS

The substitute specifies that any water system that serves a
charitable or benevolent organization that does not regularly
serve an average of 100 people or more at least 60 days out of
the year and does not serve a school or day-care facility will be
exempt from all rules relating to well construction except those
applying to multifamily wells unless it is determined to present
a threat to groundwater or public health.

If a water system incurs three or more total coliform maximum
contaminant level violations in a 12-month period or one acute
maximum contaminant level violation, the owner must either
provide an alternative source of water, eliminate the source of
the contamination, or provide specified treatment of the viruses.

ENVIRONMENTAL AUDITS

A company may conduct a voluntary environmental audit in order to
discover and correct noncompliance with environmental
regulations.  If a company complies with the voluntary audit
requirement, it will be exempt from certain types of criminal and
administrative penalties and may keep its voluntary audit report
confidential.  However, any environmental audit report can be
made available by court order or subpoena; and companies will not
be exempt from any tort actions by private parties.  In order to
comply with the voluntary audit requirements, a company must:

(1)  Discover noncompliance during a voluntary environmental
audit or through a compliance management system and not through a
legally mandated monitoring or sampling requirement;

(2)  Disclose its specific noncompliance in writing to the
Department of Natural Resources within 21 days or a shorter
period of time as required by law;

(3)  Discover and disclose the potential noncompliance to the
department prior to the commencement of a federal, state, or
local department inspection or investigation;

(4)  Correct any noncompliance within 60 days or a shorter period
of time as determined by the department;

(5)  Agree to take steps acceptable to the department director to
prevent a recurrence of the noncompliance;

(6)  Document that the specific noncompliance or a closed related
noncompliance has not occurred within the previous three years or
within the past five years as part of a pattern at multiple
facilities owned or operated by the company;

(7)  Prove that the noncompliance did not result in actual harm
or present an imminent and substantial endangerment to human
health or the environment or did not violate any judicial or
administrative order or consent agreement; and

(8)  Cooperate as requested by the department and provide any
necessary information.

The department cannot disclose any audit report information
relating to scientific and technological innovations in which the
owner has a proprietary interest of any information that is
otherwise protected from disclosure by law.

FISCAL NOTE:  No impact on General Revenue Fund in FY 2011,
FY 2012, and FY 2013.  Estimated Effect on Other State Funds of a
cost of Unknown to an income of Unknown in FY 2011, FY 2012, and
FY 2013.

PROPONENTS:  Supporters say that composting is one of the most
successful types of recycling in Missouri but the Department of
Natural Resources has no way to track the number of facilities,
what types of materials are being composted, how much compost the
facilities are producing, or the percentage of waste that is
being diverted from landfills.  The registry will help the
department collect accurate data on composting.

Testifying for the bill were Representative Schoeller; Gary Ryan,
Missouri Recycling Association; and Patrick Geraty, St. Louis
Composting, Incorporated.

OPPONENTS:  There was no opposition voiced to the committee.

OTHERS:  Others testifying on the bill say the department should
be given inspection and oversight authority.  The department is
facing budget concerns and will not be able to absorb the new
program into current staffing levels.  Concerns were expressed
about the effect the requirements will have on small composters.

Testifying on the bill was Department of Natural Resources.

Missouri House of Representatives
95th General Assembly, 2nd Regular Session
Last Updated September 14, 2010 at 3:12 pm