STATUS OF THE CALIFORNIA DRY CLEANER REMEDIATION FUND

California does not have a dry cleaner remediation reimbursement fund at this point. According to the State Coalition for Remediation of Dry Cleaners (SCRD; http://www.drycleancoalition.org thirteen other states have solved the issue of funding dry cleaner assessment and remediation projects. Unlike fuel stations in California where the funding is paid by consumers and currently 2¢ per gallon is collected by the gasoline and diesel tank owners and submitted to the Board of Equalization for disbursement to the California Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund (USTCF), there is no current dry cleaner fund or program in the state. For fuel stations, many of which were owned by major oil companies at one time, the USTCF helped to allow these properties to be sold and allowed financing by banks. Even large insurance companies may have been involved with the underwriting of the environmental claim on fuel leak sites, so there were many interested and highly funded and motivated responsible parties to encourage that the USTCF program was well funded by the state. By contrast, the dry cleaners in California tend to be owned by individuals or families. Most are not associated with national chains or brands. As such, organization of these business owners into a cohesive group has been limited due to funding and knowledge of environmental issues. The reason dry cleaner sites are important is that most of the dry cleaner sites contain tetrachloroethylene (PCE; also called perchloroethylene or PERC) and breakdown products, including, but not limited to, trichloroethylene (TCE) and vinyl chloride. These chemicals are far more toxic than petroleum hydrocarbons. In addition to their toxicity, these chemicals tend to be more recalcitrant than hydrocarbon fuels. The dry cleaning chemicals are more likely to impact drinking water sources and wells in California than petroleum hydrocarbons. Without a state-sponsored remediation fund, obtaining bank loans or selling current and former dry cleaner properties is difficult, leaving many of these urban properties abandoned or derelict.

STATE COALITION FOR REMEDIATION OF DRY CLEANERS
The State Coalition for Remediation of Drycleaners was established in 1998, with support from the U.S. EPA Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation. It is comprised of representatives of states with established drycleaner remediation programs. Currently the member states are Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. In addition, participation in SCRD as "Represented States" is open to states without drycleaner-specific programs, but active in the remediation of drycleaner sites under other authorities. California, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Virginia currently are SCRD "Represented States." The Coalition's primary objectives are to provide a forum for the exchange of information and the discussion of implementation issues related to established state drycleaner programs; share information and lessons learned with states without drycleaner-specific programs; and encourages the use of innovative technologies in drycleaner remediation. The Coalition conducts regular conference calls and has an annual meeting that focus on administering drycleaner cleanup programs and site assessment and remediation technologies.

CALIFORNIA 2003 AB698
In February 2003, a bill (AB698) was introduced and sponsored by the Santa Clara Valley Water District. The regulatory agency noted that PCE, is a synthetically produced organic compound used as a cleaning solvent and that over 900 water production wells (an estimated 5% of state supply wells) have detectable concentrations of PCE in California. According to the sponsor, historic dry cleaning operations have had a high incidence of PCE spills and releases, many of which are only now being identified. An estimated 90% of the 5,000 professional dry cleaners in California leaked. The sponsors also noted that once in the groundwater, PCE and the breakdown products are difficult to remove. The maximum contaminant level (MCL) for drinking water is 5 ppb for PCE. PERC is linked to multiple types of cancer, reproductive disorders and infertility in both men and women, defects to the brain and nervous system, and impaired functioning of the liver and kidneys. Everyone who comes into contact with PERC is at risk: Workers directly exposed to PERC suffer on a daily basis from nausea, vertigo, headaches, fatigue, irritability, and dizziness.

The bill (AB698) would have provided financial assistance to dry cleaning facility owners to properly investigate and clean up PCE contamination and helps regulatory agencies oversee cleanup or assist in replacing affected drinking water supplies. Unlike the USTCF, this bill would have set up a priority ranking system to award claims for reimbursement at high priority sites where the drinking water needs are combined with the release characteristics to provide a dry cleaner treat index. This type of financial triage is needed at the current USTCF.

When finally proposed, the California PCE (Tetrachloroethylene) Environmental Cost Recovery Act and would have required the owner or operator of a dry cleaning facility and each wholesale distributor of PCE, to register the facility with the BOE and to pay an annual registration fee of $1500.00. In addition, a $10 per gallon fee of purchased PCE was also to be established which would have generated a modest $10 million dollars per year. The bill died in committee because it was advanced at a time that the state was in a budget crisis. Any legislation that would create new state staff positions did not occur at that time and future bills will need to be sensitive to these issues. The program would have required assigning staff by the state water board or other regulatory agency to administer it. So, even though the California dry cleaners remediation program would generate funds for the state to disburse to support remediation of orphan dry cleaner sites, the appropriations committee could not approve bills that created new state expenditures.

FUTURE DRY CLEANER REMEDIATION FUND
On June 22, 2010 the California Council of Geoscience Organizations (CCGO; www.ccgo.org) and CORE Environmental Foundation (www.coreenvironmental.org) met with key California legislators who showed an interest in the dry cleaner remediation challenge. The next step is to prepare a white paper with the key points. After a white paper is prepared and reviewed, strong support from owners, consultants, insurers, equipment manufacturers, environmental attorneys and current and former PCE manufacturers. It is apparent that the current and former dry cleaners that have leaked PCE into the groundwater are in need of legislative funding associated with fees to create a sustainable dry cleaner remediation fund.

CONTACT
Please contact Jim Jacobs at CCGO and CORE for questions or comments. CORE is a 501c3 non-profit organization. (email: jimjacobs@ebsinfo.com; tel: 415-381-5195)