(a) The board shall make grant funds available from the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Financing Account to eligible grant applicants who meet all of the following eligibility requirements:

(1) The grant applicant is a small business, pursuant to the following requirements:

(A) The grant applicant meets the conditions for a small business concern, as defined in Section 632 of Title 15 of the United States Code, and in the federal regulations adopted to implement that section, as specified in Part 121 (commencing with Section 121.101) of Chapter I of Title 13 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

(B) The grant applicant employs fewer than 20 full-time and part-time employees, is independently owned and operated, and is not dominant in its field of operation.

(2) The principal office of the grant applicant is domiciled in the state and the officers of the grant applicant are domiciled in the state.

(3) All tanks, except for project tanks, owned or operated by the grant applicant are in compliance with Chapter 6.7 (commencing with Section 25280), Section 41954, and implementing regulations.

(4) (A) The facility where the project tanks are located has sold at retail less than 1,500,000 gallons of gasoline annually for each of the two years preceding the submission of the grant application. Except as provided in subparagraph (B), the number of gallons sold shall be based upon taxable sales figures provided to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration for that facility.

(B) The board may rely on other documentation where taxable sales figures provided to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration are unavailable because the facility was not in operation for any part of the two years or the grant applicant did not own or operate the underground storage tanks at the facility for any part of the two years.

(5) Except as provided in subdivision (b), the facility meets either of the following:

(A) The project tanks are in compliance with Chapter 6.7 (commencing with Section 25280), Section 41954, and implementing regulations.

(B) All of the following requirements are met:

(i) The project tanks will be in compliance with Chapter 6.7 (commencing with Section 25280), Section 41954, and implementing regulations after the completion of the project.

(ii) The grant applicant submitted the grant application no more than 180 days after the applicable regulatory agency notified the grant applicant that the project tanks are not in compliance with Chapter 6.7 (commencing with Section 25280), Section 41954, or any implementing regulation.

(iii) The project tanks are not currently red tagged by the local agency pursuant to Section 25292.3.

(iv) The facility, at the time of application, is not subject to any enforcement action seeking to impose administrative civil liability, civil liability, or criminal liability pursuant to this chapter, or a regulation adopted pursuant to this chapter, unless the underlying violations that are the subject of that enforcement action have been corrected.

(6) Except as provided in subdivision (b), the facility where the project tanks are located is, or was during any part of the two years preceding the submission of the grant application, legally in the business of retailing motor vehicle fuel.

(b) The board may grant a waiver from requirements of paragraphs (5) and (6) of subdivision (a) if the board finds all of the following:

(1) The grant applicant owns or operates the project tanks.

(2) The project tanks will be removed and will not be replaced with new tanks.

(3) The grant applicant does not meet the requirements to obtain a loan pursuant to this chapter.

(c) Grant funds may only be used to pay the costs necessary to upgrade, remove, or replace project tanks to comply with Chapter 6.7 (commencing with Section 25280), Section 41954, and implementing regulations.

(Amended by Stats. 2020, Ch. 296, Sec. 7. (AB 3220) Effective January 1, 2021. Repealed as of January 1, 2036, pursuant to Section 25299.117.)