(a) A person may apply to the department to remove a land use restriction imposed by the department on the grounds that the waste no longer creates a significant existing or potential hazard to present or future public health or safety. A person shall not make a subsequent application pursuant to this section within 12 months of a final decision on an application by the department. A person applying to the department pursuant to this section shall pay the department all costs incurred by the department relating to the application. An application shall contain sufficient evidence for the department to make a finding upon any or all of the following grounds:
(1) The hazardous waste that caused the land to be restricted or designated has since been removed or altered in a manner that precludes any significant existing or potential hazard to present or future public health.
(2) New scientific evidence is available since the restriction or designation of the land or the making of any previous application pursuant to this section, concerning either of the following:
(A) The nature of the hazardous waste that caused the land to be designated.
(B) The geology or other physical environmental characteristics of the designated land.
(b) An aggrieved person may appeal a determination of the department made pursuant to subdivision (a) by submitting a request for a hearing to the director. The request shall be mailed by certified mail not later than 30 days after the date of the mailing of the department’s decision on the application.
(c) Upon receipt of a timely appeal, the director shall give notice of a hearing pursuant to the procedures set forth in this article.
(d) The department shall record within 10 days any new and final determination made by the department pursuant to this section as provided in Section 25225.
(e) A determination made by the department, after a hearing held pursuant to this section, shall be reviewable pursuant to Section 1094.5 of the Code of Civil Procedure and shall be upheld if the court finds that it is supported by substantial evidence.
(f) Whenever there is a final determination pursuant to this section removing a land use restriction, the easement, covenant, restriction, or servitude imposed on the land created by Section 25221 or 79055 or the former Section 25222.1 or 25230 shall automatically terminate. The department shall record or cause to be recorded within 10 days a termination of the easement, covenant, restriction, or servitude, which shall particularly describe the real property subject to the easement, covenant, restriction, or servitude and shall be indexed by the recorder in the grantee index in the name of the record title owner of the real property subject to the easement, covenant, restriction, or servitude and in the grantor index in the name of the department.
(Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 258, Sec. 61. (AB 2327) Effective January 1, 2023. Operative January 1, 2024, pursuant to Sec. 130 of Stats. 2022, Ch. 258.)