2005 California Health and Safety Code Sections 101075-101095 Article 2. Local Health Emergencies

101075.  As used in this article:
   (a) "Hazardous waste" means a waste, or combination of wastes,
that because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical,
or infectious characteristics may do any of the following:
   (1) Cause, or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality
or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating
reversible, illness.
   (2) Pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health
or environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, or
disposed of, or otherwise managed.
   (b) "Waste" means either of the following:
   (1) Any material for which no use or reuse is intended and that is
to be discarded.
   (2) Any material that spills, escapes, or is released from any
manufacturing, industrial, commercial, or other plant, facility, or
process, or that escapes or is released during the transporting or
transferring from one place to another, or during the pumping,
processing, storing, or packaging of any material in, to, or from
such a plant, facility, or process, or that enters or may enter an
uncontained air space or a surface water course that is not totally
contained on the contiguous property of the plant, facility, or
process, or which enters, or may enter, the groundwater underlying
such plant, facility, or process.
101080.  Whenever a release, spill, escape, or entry of waste occurs
as described in paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) of Section 101075
and the director or the local health officer reasonably determines
that the waste is a hazardous waste or medical waste, or that it may
become a hazardous waste or medical waste because of a combination or
reaction with other substances or materials, and the director or
local health officer reasonably determines that the release or escape
is an immediate threat to the public health, the director may
declare a health emergency and the local health officer may declare a
county health emergency in the county or any area thereof affected
by the threat to the public health.  Whenever a local health
emergency is declared by a local health officer pursuant to this
section, the local health emergency shall not remain in effect for a
period in excess of seven days unless it has been ratified by the
board of supervisors.  The board of supervisors shall review, at
least every 14 days until the local health emergency is terminated,
the need for continuing the local health emergency and shall proclaim
the termination of the local health emergency at the earliest
possible date that conditions warrant the termination.
101085.  (a) After the declaration of a health emergency or a county
health emergency pursuant to Section 101080, the director or local
health officer may do any or all of the following:
   (1) Require any person or organization that the director or local
health officer shall specify to furnish any information known
relating to the properties, reactions, and identity of the material
that has been released, spilled, or escaped.  The director or local
health officer may require information to be furnished, under penalty
of perjury, by the person, company, corporation, or other
organization that had custody of the material, and, if the material
is being transferred or transported, by any person, company,
corporation, or organization that caused the material to be
transferred or transported.  This information shall be furnished to
the director or local health officer upon request in sufficient
detail, as determined by the director or local health officer, as
required to take any action necessary to abate the health emergency
or county health emergency or protect the health of persons in the
county, or any area thereof, who are, or may be affected.  However,
the burden, including costs, of furnishing the information shall bear
a reasonable relationship to the need for the information and the
benefits to be obtained therefrom.
   (2) Provide the information, or any necessary portions thereof, or
any other necessary information available to the director or local
health officer to state or local agencies responding to the health
emergency or county health emergency or to medical and other
professional personnel treating victims of the local health
emergency.
   (3) Sample, analyze, or otherwise determine the identifying and
other technical information relating to the health emergency or
county health emergency as necessary to respond to or abate the
county health emergency and protect the public health.
   (b) This section does not limit or abridge any of the powers or
duties granted to the State Water Resources Control Board and to each
regional water quality control board by Division 7 (commencing with
Section 13000) of the Water Code.  This section also does not limit
or abridge the powers or duties granted to the State Air Resources
Board or to any air pollution control district by Division 26
(commencing with Section 39000).
   This section does not limit or abridge any of the powers or duties
granted to the Director of Food and Agriculture or to any county
agricultural commissioner by Division 6 (commencing with Section
11401) or by Division 7 (commencing with Section 12501) of the Food
and Agricultural Code.
101087.  (a) For purposes of this section, the terms  "handler,"
"administering agency," "hazardous material," "release," and
"threatened release" shall have the meaning given in Section 25501.
   (b) After a release or a threatened release of a hazardous
material from the premises of a handler, which release or threatened
release poses a significant present or potential hazard to human
health and safety, property, or the environment, the board of
supervisors may delegate to the county health officer or
administering agency, the responsibility to examine any individual
who has been properly subpoenaed by the chairperson of the board of
supervisors for the purpose of obtaining information as to the cause
of the incident, and to report to the board of supervisors what
actions the board of supervisors should take to prevent a similar
incident from occurring again.  The county health officer or
administering agency shall consider in the report any information
obtained pursuant to subdivision (g) and respond to that information
in the report.  The county health officer or administering agency may
examine the subpoenaed individual in private, except that the
individual may choose to be interviewed in the presence of personal
legal counsel.
   (c) Prior to issuing a subpoena for purposes of subdivision (b),
the board of supervisors shall make a written finding that the county
health officer or administering agency has made a reasonable attempt
to conduct a voluntary examination, and that the attempt was not
successful.
   (d) If the board of supervisors delegates the responsibility to
examine any subpoenaed individual to the county health officer
pursuant to subdivision (b) and the county health officer is not the
administering agency within the jurisdiction where the hazardous
material release or threatened release occurred, the county health
officer shall actively involve the administering agency in all phases
of the examination, the investigation to determine the cause of the
hazardous material release or threatened release, and the preparation
of the report to the board of supervisors concerning what actions
the board of supervisors should take to prevent a similar incident
from occurring.
   (e) (1) If a handler subject to a subpoena believes that
information provided to the county health officer or administering
agency during, or in connection with, an examination conducted
pursuant to this section involves the release of a trade secret, the
handler shall notify the county health officer or administering
agency in the manner specified in subdivision (a) of Section 25538.
Upon receipt of that notification, the county health officer or
administering agency shall handle that information in the same manner
as specified in Section 25538 with regard to the review and
disclosure of that information by an administering agency.
   (2) For purposes of this subdivision, "trade secret" has the same
meaning as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 25538.
   (f) When the county health officer or administering agency is
preparing a report for the board of supervisors pursuant to
subdivision (b), the handler subject to the subpoena may submit to
the health officer or administering agency any information and
analysis gathered or prepared by the handler regarding the cause of
the release or threatened release and any appropriate action for the
prevention of a similar incident.  The health officer or
administering agency shall consider any information and analyses
submitted by the handler pursuant to this subdivision in preparing
the report to the board of supervisors and shall respond to that
information in the report.
   (g) Nothing in this section shall be construed to either limit or
expand the existing subpoena authority of a county board of
supervisors pursuant to Section 25170 of the Government Code.
101090.  When requested by the person furnishing the information
furnished pursuant to Section 101085, the portions of the information
that might disclose trade secrets or secret processes shall not be
made available for inspection by the public, but shall be made
available to governmental agencies for use in abatement of the health
emergency or county health emergency and in judicial review or
enforcement proceedings involving the person furnishing the
information.
101095.  Any person failing or refusing to furnish technical,
toxicological, or other information required pursuant to Section
101085, or falsifying any information provided pursuant to Section
101085 is guilty of a misdemeanor and is also subject to any other
criminal or civil penalties provided by statute.