19-1-108.  Environmental Quality Restricted Account.

(1)  There is created the Environmental Quality Restricted Account.

Terms Used In Utah Code 19-1-108

  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • Person: means an individual, trust, firm, estate, company, corporation, partnership, association, state, state or federal agency or entity, municipality, commission, or political subdivision of a state. See Utah Code 19-1-103
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes a state, district, or territory of the United States. See Utah Code 68-3-12.5
(2)  The sources of money for the Environmental Quality Restricted Account are:

(a)  radioactive waste disposal fees collected under Sections 19-3-106 and 19-3-106.4 and other fees collected under Subsection 19-3-104(5) or 19-3-104(6);

(b)  hazardous waste disposal fees collected under Section 19-6-118;

(c)  PCB waste disposal fees collected under Section 19-6-118.5;

(d)  nonhazardous solid waste disposal fees collected under Section 19-6-119; and

(e)  the investment income derived from money in the Environmental Quality Restricted Account.

(3)  In each fiscal year the balance of the money collected from the waste disposal fees listed in Subsection (2), collectively, shall be deposited into the Environmental Quality Restricted Account.

(4)  The Legislature may annually appropriate money from the Environmental Quality Restricted Account to the department for the costs of administering:

(a)  radiation control programs; and

(b)  solid and hazardous waste programs.

(5)  Each fiscal year beginning on or after July 1, 2018, and ending on or before June 30, 2022, the Division of Finance shall transfer $200,000 from the Environmental Quality Restricted Account to the Hazardous Substances Mitigation Fund, to provide money to:

(a)  meet the state‘s cost share requirements for cleanup under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, 42 U.S.C. § 9601 et seq. as amended; and

(b)  respond to an emergency as provided in Section 19-6-309.

(6)  After the requirements of Subsection (3) are met, sources of money for the Environmental Quality Restricted Account described in Subsection (2)(a) may only be used for the purpose described in Subsection (4)(a).

(7)  To stabilize funding for the radiation control programs and the solid and hazardous waste programs, the Legislature shall in years of excess revenues reserve in the Environmental Quality Restricted Account sufficient money to meet departmental needs in years of projected shortages.

(8)  The Legislature may not appropriate money from the General Fund to the department as a supplemental appropriation to cover the costs of the radiation control programs and the solid and hazardous waste programs in an amount exceeding 25% of the amount of waste disposal fees collected during the most recent prior fiscal year.

(9)  Money appropriated under this part that is not expended at the end of the fiscal year lapses into the Environmental Quality Restricted Account.

(10) 

(a)  The balance in the Environmental Quality Restricted Account may not exceed $4,000,000 above the anticipated revenue need for the money in the Environmental Quality Restricted Account for the fiscal year.

(b)  Excess funds under Subsection (10)(a) shall be credited on a proportionate basis to each person who paid money to the Environmental Quality Restricted Account in the previous fiscal year.

Amended by Chapter 336, 2022 General Session