Our History

Responding to a massive oil spill off the Santa Barbara coast a year earlier – the nation’s largest at that time – U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin helped launch April 22 as the first Earth Day, proclaiming that “a polluted countryside represents the antithesis of freedom.” More than 20 million people participate in Earth Day events around the country.

---

The Hazardous Waste Control Act of 1972 defines “hazardous waste” under the laws of California. The Department of Health Services (DHS) accepts the task of formalizing the state’s management of hazardous waste.

---

DHS’s Hazardous Waste Management Unit, led by Dr. Harvey Collins, employs four people to develop regulations that would set fees for the disposal of hazardous waste. Emergency regulations include definitions of the terms “hazardous,” “toxic,” and “waste,” as well as protocols for appropriate handling, processing, and disposal of hazardous waste. These early regulations also establish a tracking system for the handling and transportation of hazardous waste and a system of fees to cover the costs of operating the program.

---

Congress enacts the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), bringing hazardous waste handling and disposal under federal and state regulation.

---

The Hazardous Waste Management Unit continues to fight for funding, staff, and resources. This changes when Love Canal, a New York community built atop a toxic waste site, brings hazardous wastes to the forefront of news and legislation. By 1978, nearly 70 people are working in the Unit.

---

Congress enacts The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly referred to as the federal “Superfund.” The Stringfellow site in Riverside County is one of the first on California’s Superfund list.

---

The Hazardous Waste Management Unit becomes the Toxic Substances Control Division, still within DHS. It has a laboratory in Berkeley and a Sacramento office.

---

Voters approve the California Superfund Act, an initiative to provide money for the state to clean up abandoned waste sites by raising $100 million in state bond money.

---

DHS’s Toxic Division establishes a peace officer program with eight investigators. Called the Criminal Investigations Program, it investigates complaints from a variety of sources, including legislators, neighbors, and even disgruntled employees of polluting businesses.

---

The federal government announces the first of 22 major military base closures in the U.S.; most are in California. The Department of Defense (DOD) is adamant that it is not going to pay for cleanup costs. The Toxic Division threatens to sue the military for reimbursement, and the DOD relents. McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento is described as one of the worst hazardous waste sites in California.

---

Governor Pete Wilson’s Reorganization Plan shifts the Toxic Substances Control Division from the Department of Health Services (DHS) to the new California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) and elevates it to department status when CalEPA opens its doors on July 17, 1991. William F. Soo Hoo, previously the program’s Chief Counsel, is appointed DTSC’s first director.

---

The United States Environmental Protection Agency authorizes DTSC to implement the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act’s Subtitle C requirements and associated regulations in California. Included in this foundational federal environmental law are standards for the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. DTSC has requested and received authorization to implement additional elements of the federal program since then.

---

DTSC adopts permit by rule regulations allowing fixed and transportable treatment units to be used for hazardous wastes or materials. These regulations led to the enactment of Senate Bill 1082 (SB 1082 Calderon, 1993) which established the Unified Program and created Certified Unified Program Agencies (CUPAs) to consolidate and coordinate multiple environmental and emergency management programs at local levels.

Also in 1993, DTSC creates the Office of Military Facilities (OMF) to coordinate cleanups as more than 100 military bases and former defense sites close around the state, and to ensure cleanups are complete before the bases are transferred to local entities. An Executive Order from the Governor gives OMF the responsibility for coordinating all California state agencies’ environmental work at the facilities.

---

As the drug scourge continues, Health and Safety Code section 25354.5 puts DTSC in charge of removing and disposing of hazardous substances discovered by law enforcement officials while investigating clandestine drug laboratories. Toxic waste from the illegal drug labs poses a significant human health issue and an environmental threat. DTSC’s Illegal Drug Lab Removal Program has funded and coordinated removal and disposal actions at more than 19,000 illegal drug labs and sites.

Also in 1995, DTSC staff discover that a new school is under construction across the street from a state Superfund site. The school site had never been properly characterized for contamination, and many questions about cleanup activities at the site were unanswered. The controversy leads to the creation of DTSC’s Brownfields Restoration and School Evaluation Program to ensure that proposed school sites are free of contamination or have been cleaned up to a level that protects students and staff. It’s reportedly the only comprehensive school environmental evaluation program in the country.

---

The Legislature adjusts a number of fees that DTSC depends on for much of its funding. The fees, paid by hazardous waste generators, facilities, and transporters, as well as chemical manufacturers, processors, and importers, remain generally unchanged for years afterward, limiting DTSC’s protection of health and the environment until a comprehensive fee and governance reform package is passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2021.

---

DTSC’s Environmental Chemistry Lab, which serves as California’s reference laboratory for analysis of toxic chemicals that may have adverse effects on public health and the environment, finds evidence that alarmingly high levels of flame retardant chemicals used in furniture and electronics are showing up in people and marine life.

---

California adopts its first set of universal waste regulations, allowing individuals and businesses to handle TVs, cell phones, computers, batteries, fluorescent tubes, and other low-hazard wastes under less stringent requirements than other hazardous wastes. DTSC is in charge of enforcing the regulations.

---

DTSC launches EnviroStor, an online data management system for tracking the Department’s cleanup, permitting, enforcement, and investigation operations at hazardous waste facilities and sites with known or suspected contamination issues. EnviroStor also helps communities, businesses, and consumers keep informed about hazardous waste issues affecting them.

---

DTSC becomes the Certified Unified Program Agency for Imperial and Trinity counties. More broadly, DTSC’s Enforcement and Emergency Response Division (EERD) administers the technical implementation of the entire state’s Unified Program – a consolidation of six environmental and emergency management programs at the local level. EERD reviews the state’s in 81 local CUPAs to ensure their programs are consistent statewide, conform to standards, and deliver quality environmental protection at the local level. EERD also oversees the hazardous waste generator and on-site waste treatment surveillance and enforcement programs carried out by the local CUPAs.

---

SB 1379 establishes the first biomonitoring monitoring program in the nation. DTSC teams with the California Department of Public Health and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment on the California Environmental Biomonitoring Program to detect and measure toxic chemicals accumulating in the bodies of Californians. In part, the work builds on work that DTSC’s Environmental Chemistry Lab has been doing for years.

Also in 2006, DTSC is tasked with enforcing the new Lead-Containing Jewelry Law (now the Metal-Containing Jewelry Law), targeting lead, mercury, cadmium, and other toxic substances in children’s jewelry, body-piercing jewelry, and other products. DTSC’s Toxics in Packaging Program also begins, limiting cadmium, lead, mercury, and hexavalent chromium in product packaging.

---

DTSC’s Emergency Response Unit issues emergency guidance on the removal of hazardous materials following the Angora Fire, which burned 3,100 acres and destroyed 280 structures near the sensitive environment of Lake Tahoe. By 2021, the program that operates in partnership with CalRecycle has cleaned 22,000 home sites around California.

---

The state Legislature enacts the Green Chemistry Initiative to protect Californians from toxic chemicals in products and designates DTSC as the lead agency. The initiative includes Assembly Bill 1879, which creates DTSC’s Safer Consumer Products Program with a mandate to evaluate chemicals of concern in products and their potential alternatives, and to encourage innovations in green chemistry.

---

The Green Ribbon Science Panel, established in California’s Green Chemistry laws to advise DTSC on its three-year Priority Product Work Plan and other matters, holds its first meeting. Panelists’ expertise ranges from chemistry, materials science, and public health to toxicology, nanotechnology, pollution prevention, and beyond.

---

SB 546 takes effect, amending the used oil management programs of DTSC and CalRecycle to ensure that used oil from California generators is managed in ways that are equivalent to California’s tough environmental standards, whether recycled in California or out of state. Used oil is the highest volume of hazardous waste generated in California, with approximately 100 million gallons recycled in the state each year, and some 14 million gallons recycled elsewhere.

---

DTSC adopts regulations to implement the groundbreaking Safer Consumer Products Program. This four-step process lists Candidate Chemicals of concern; identifies Priority Products containing them; calls on industries to produce Alternatives Analyses studying potential substitute chemicals for their products, subject to DTSC review and approval; and develops Regulatory Responses to address the hazards. Fulfilling the first step, the program identifies 2,300 hazardous Candidate Chemicals from authoritative, peer-reviewed lists developed by national and international environmental agencies.

On April 24, DTSC orders the Exide Technologies facility in Vernon (Los Angeles County) to suspend operations, effective immediately. DTSC issued the order after receiving reports of airborne emissions from the plant’s operations and of subsurface releases from degraded underground pipes. DTSC also orders Exide to pay penalties, improve its operations, conduct on-and off-site corrective action, and provide financial assurance for safe closure of the facility.

---

Elevated levels of lead are found in soil at homes and a preschool near the Exide lead-acid battery recycling plant. This is the first time state officials have found widespread ground contamination in residential areas near the facility, prompting expanded testing in additional neighborhoods.

Later in 2014, DTSC orders Exide to pay for the cleanup of homes and yards contaminated by its battery recycling plant. DTSC also fines Exide $526,000 and orders it to set up a $9 million trust fund for needed cleanups that are sure to come.

---

To avoid criminal charges by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Exide announces it will permanently close its battery recycling plant in Vernon. The facility had operated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act as an interim status treatment and storage facility, and then under similar authorization from DTSC’s predecessor, the Department of Health Services’ Toxic Substances Control Program. Exide had entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2013, and operations at the facility ceased in 2014, when DTSC required Exide to set aside a total of $38.6 million for safe closure of the plant and cleanup of nearby neighborhoods. It’s the largest residential cleanup of its kind in state history.

Also in 2014, DTSC begins to implement rigorous, data-driven process improvement strategies such as Kaizen and Lean Six Sigma, borrowing from proven private-sector efficiency processes to increase the effectiveness of its programs. One example from the Permitting Division: The average processing time for 90 percent of permits falls from over five years to approximately two years, and the permits are clearer and more enforceable.

---

In July, DTSC dedicates a new $52 million groundwater treatment facility at the Stringfellow Superfund site on the outskirts of the city of Riverside. The state-of-the-art Pyrite Canyon Treatment Facility replaces an aging pretreatment plant at the federal Superfund site, and is designed to provide efficient, reliable cleanup for the next 30 years. Stringfellow had operated as a liquid industrial waste disposal site from 1956 until its closure in 1972.

In August, facilitated mediation sessions between DTSC and environmental justice organizations lead to one of the first examples of a voluntary resolution jointly developed by state agencies and community groups under Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act. DTSC agrees to help the groups conduct a community-based public health assessment, improve third-party and community-based environmental monitoring, and establish an asthma intervention program for residents of Kettleman City, 3.5 miles away from the Kettleman Hills hazardous waste disposal facility that operates under a permit from DTSC.

---

In July, the Safer Consumer Products Program requires manufacturers of children’s foam-padded sleep mats and similar products made with chemical flame retardants TDCPP or TCEP to find safer alternatives or otherwise halt their use of the chemicals, which are known to cause cancer and have been associated with endocrine disruption and reproductive and developmental toxicity. This is SCP’s first Priority Product regulation. Two more follow in the next 18 months: Spray polyurethane foam systems with unreacted methylene diphenyl diisocyanates and methylene chloride paint strippers.

SCP also releases an Alternatives Analysis Guide to help manufacturers identify safer alternatives to hazardous ingredients in certain consumer products. DTSC launches the online CalSAFER information management system to facilitate a transparent process of stakeholder information exchange regarding SCP’s regulatory activities.

In December, high winds and electric power lines in Ventura County spark the Thomas Fire. A total of 281,893 acres burn, destroying 1,063 structures and killing one civilian and one firefighter. The conflagration signals that disastrous wildfires now threaten California year-round. DTSC leads the cleanup of household hazardous wastes before property owners can return. A new feature debuts on DTSC’s website: Wildfire Public Dashboards, which track progress on fighting wildfires and the safe cleanup of affected properties. As long as wildfires continue to plague California, other agencies and the public can continue to rely on the DTSC Dashboards for timely updates.

---

Following several years of DTSC outreach and extensive public input, the Department adopts more rigorous and protective permitting regulations for facilities that manage hazardous waste. Enacted in SB 673, the Violations Scoring Procedure looks at permit compliance over a 10-year period and requires permittees to conduct community and health risk assessments, implement improved safety training, and establish financial assurances that eventual closure of the facilities is adequately funded.

DTSC hosts an international chemical management symposium, attracting experts from around the world to CalEPA Headquarters in Sacramento to discuss the latest efforts to find safer substitutes for toxic chemicals in common consumer products. The Association for the Advancement of Alternatives Assessment, organized by The Lowell Center for Sustainable Production at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, is launched at the symposium.

DTSC also adopts new regulations to strengthen the protectiveness and enforceability of hazardous waste cleanups across the state. The Toxicity Criteria Rule requires that cleanups use the best available peer-reviewed science on contaminants’ harmful health effects. The rule defines the process for selecting toxicity criteria and ensures that risk assessments and the cleanup process will be based on the most current, sound scientific methods in risk assessment and toxicology, California’s environmental justice laws and policies, children’s special vulnerabilities to environmental hazards, and other factors.

---

DTSC’s Safer Consumer Products Program (SCP) proposes to list nail care products containing toluene as a Priority Product. Extended exposure to the chemical has been linked to nervous system damage, harm to the respiratory tract, and developmental effects. Nail salon staff, many of whom are Vietnamese, are especially at risk. Working with DTSC’s Office of Environmental Justice and Tribal Affairs, local governments, and the salon community, SCP had already issued Healthy Nail Salon Recognition Program guidelines to help local agencies establish voluntary program to benefit nail product workers, owners, and customers.

DTSC assists with the cleanup and removal of household hazardous waste and electronic waste following flooding of the Russian River northeast of San Francisco. DTSC partners with Sonoma County to remove batteries, compressed gas cylinders, bulk pesticides, fertilizers, pool chemicals, paints, aerosol cans, asbestos siding, pipe insulation and other common hazardous wastes from about 2,500 properties, including homes and businesses. It’s the state’s first major flood event since the mid-1990s, underscoring a troubling long-term trend of decreasing rainfall.

---

DTSC orders the U.S. Department of Energy to remove the last of its contaminated buildings from the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a former nuclear research and rocket engine test facility in Ventura County. DTSC acted to avoid the potential release of hazardous substances in the event of a fire followed by heavy rain, responding to concerns about extraordinary wildfire and weather conditions that are becoming more frequent as climate change continues.

DTSC releases its 2020-2024 Strategic Plan, centered on five goals: building strong partnerships to collaborate with all stakeholders; promoting environmental justice to prevent harm and protect the most vulnerable; delivering high-performing programs and services effectively and on time; enhancing our organizational health so that we are more inclusive, productive, and accountable; and Improving our fiscal stewardship through greater transparency, fortified by secure and reliable funding. Progress is tracked on a dashboard of Key Performance Indicators.

---

Governor Gavin Newsom signs SB 158, giving DTSC sustainable funding and essential tools to fulfill its mission, along with a five-member Board of Environmental Safety. For the first time since 1998, the comprehensive legislation restructures and increases fees related to the handling of hazardous substances and hazardous waste, providing a level of funding commensurate to DTSC’s statutory responsibilities and workload. The Board, expected to begin work in 2022, will increase transparency, conduct public meetings, adjust fees, and make recommendations to the Department’s leadership.

DTSC’s solar panel regulations take effect, placing California in the forefront among states that streamline waste management options for these increasingly common energy sources. The Department had to first obtain authorization from U.S. EPA for DTSC’s Universal Waste Program, which allows widely produced hazardous wastes that pose relatively low risks, such as batteries and electronic devices, to be managed under alternative management standards.

In July, SCP adds “forever chemicals” in carpets and rugs to its list of Priority Products containing chemicals of concern; study of the chemicals in other products continues. These PFASs (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) have been found in the bodies of almost every human studied; they can cause liver problems, kidney and testicular cancer, and disrupt hormone functions.

DTSC Implements Governor Gavin Newsom’s Cleanup in Vulnerable Communities Initiative (CVCI), allocating $500 million to expedite the cleanup and beneficial reuse of contaminated properties, with priority given to properties in historically vulnerable and disadvantaged communities. In June, as part of CVCI, DTSC’s Office of Brownfields awards the first round of Equitable Community Revitalization Grants (ECRG) – $75 million of more than $250 million – to incentivize cleanup and investment in disadvantaged areas. Also as part of CVCI, DTSC establishes a Discovery and Enforcement (D&E) Program – with more than $152 million to investigate and clean up current and former dry-cleaning sites – and begins to accelerate cleanups at 21 existing orphan sites, thanks to a $40 million CVCI infusion.

In March, the inaugural Board of Environmental Safety (BES) convenes, with the purpose of overseeing DTSC’s reforms as described in SB 158 (2021). The five Board Members – three appointed by the Governor with Senate confirmation and two appointed by the Legislature – hold at least six public meetings per year (in person and online), at least three of them within impacted communities across the state. The Board is responsible for: annually aligning fees with legislative mandates; hearing and deciding appeals of hazardous waste facility permit decisions; providing opportunities for public hearings on permit and remediation decisions; reviewing and approving the Director’s annual priorities and adopting performance metrics; developing long-term goals for DTSC’s programs; and analyzing its fee structure.

In April, SCP adds “forever chemicals” in After-Market Treatments for Textile and Leather Products to its list of Priority Products containing chemicals of concern. The rule requires manufacturers to consider safer alternatives to PFASs (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in products such as cleaners, spot removers, and water repellants intended for use on textile or leather products such as clothing, upholstery, and carpets after they are manufactured. The regulation does not apply to treatments used during the process of manufacturing textile and leather products, nor to the actual textile or leather products themselves.

In July, DTSC petitions the federal government to add the former Exide battery recycling facility and its surrounding communities in Southeast Los Angeles to U.S. EPA’s Superfund list. This would provide potentially millions of federal dollars for cleanup and would expedite the remainder of the cleanup. The plant operated for more than 100 years until it went bankrupt in 2020 without investigating the full extent of, or cleaning up, its contamination. To date, California has allocated $700 million for cleanup, and has remediated nearly 4,000 properties. DTSC estimates it will cost an additional $150 million to complete the facility cleanup, for which there was no funding in place as of FY 2022-23.

In August, DTSC holds Boeing accountable for cleanup of contaminated soil, groundwater, and stormwater runoff at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County, where the company and its predecessors, along with NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy, conducted research, development, assembly, and testing of rocket engines, small-scale nuclear reactors, and chemical lasers from 1947 to 2006. As part of a settlement agreement, Boeing agrees to clean up radionuclides in soil to levels that would exist naturally and to remediate chemical contamination to a level that would be safe for people to live on site and consume homegrown produce from a backyard garden.

In January, DTSC designates nail care products containing toluene as a Priority Product, the first Priority Product Listing to establish an Alternatives Analysis Threshold. Manufacturers must demonstrate and certify that the concentration of toluene in their nail products does not exceed 100 parts per million (ppm). Exposure to toluene through normal use of nail products may contribute to or cause significant or widespread adverse impacts to Californians, including sensitive subpopulations such as nail salon workers, pregnant women and their fetuses, infants, children, and adolescents.

In July, DTSC certifies the Final Program Environmental Impact Report (FPEIR) for soil and groundwater cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County. The FPEIR requires the responsible parties – Boeing, NASA, and the U.S. Department of Energy – to develop detailed cleanup plans for public review and comment beginning early 2024, prior to finalization and DTSC approval. Soil cleanup is anticipated to take approximately 15 years; groundwater cleanup and long-term monitoring will continue as long as necessary to ensure the site does not present a danger to human health or the environment.

In October, DTSC becomes the first public entity in the world to regulate 6PPD in motor vehicle tires. The Priority Product Listing requires manufacturers of tires sold in California to evaluate safer alternatives to the chemical. 6PPD reacts with ozone in the air to form another chemical, 6PPD-quinone, which has been found to kill coho salmon as they migrate upstream to spawn. This toxic chemical has been detected in California streams at concentrations shown to kill at least half of coho in laboratory studies.

In November, DTSC publishes the Hazardous Waste Management Report as required by Senate Bill 158. It is the first step in an iterative process to establish a baseline understanding of the management of hazardous waste in California in order to guide the state’s hazardous waste planning efforts. The first Hazardous Waste Management Plan required by SB158 is to be published in 2025.