SB2124

The committee, working with the environmental commission, must still publish the joint report every year covering its activities and findings from the previous calendar year. June 1 is the latest permitted publication date, not a requirement to withhold a finished report until June. Final law, 26.406(c).

The required contents are unchanged: the status of agency groundwater-monitoring programs at regulated facilities or for regulated activities; descriptions of contamination cases documented in the previous year and older cases whose enforcement was incomplete when the preceding report was issued; and the enforcement status of every included case. The change does not permit dropping unresolved older cases. Final law.

Other provisions of the same section remain in place, including agencies’ duty to maintain public files of documented groundwater contamination reasonably suspected to result from activities they regulate, and the committee’s duty to define by rule which contamination conditions belong in the files and report. This is a report-publication deadline change, not a delay of all monitoring or enforcement duties. Previous deadline and unchanged surrounding duties.

Changes during passage: The operative text is identical across the introduced, Senate-committee, Senate-passed, House-committee and enrolled versions. Both committees reported without amendments, and the official amendment index lists none. The sole substantive edit to existing law is “June” replacing “April.” Introduced; Senate committee; Senate-passed; House committee; Final law; Version index; Amendment index.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

The committee has more time to assemble and check agency information, while readers may receive the consolidated annual report up to two months later than the former deadline allowed. Earlier publication remains possible, and the continuing public-file requirement is separate. The bill does not prove that reports will be more accurate or that groundwater conditions will improve. Final law; Public-file requirement.

The April 4 fiscal note anticipates no significant state or local fiscal impact and assumes implementation costs can be absorbed within existing resources. The act makes no appropriation and quantifies no savings. This explanation states the legal deadline; it does not claim a particular annual report was published on time. Official fiscal note.