The Legislature hereby finds and declares that hazardous and certain idle-deserted oil and gas wells and hazardous and deserted facilities, as defined in this article, are public nuisances and that it is essential, in order to protect life, health, and natural resources that those oil and gas wells and facilities be abandoned, reabandoned, produced, or otherwise remedied to mitigate, minimize, or eliminate their danger to life, health, and natural resources.

The Legislature further finds and declares that, although the abatement of such public nuisances could be accomplished by means of an exercise of the regulatory power of the state, such regulatory abatement would result in

unfairness and financial hardship for certain landowners, while also resulting in benefits to the public. The Legislature, therefore, finds and declares that the expenditure of funds to abate such nuisances as provided in this article is for a public purpose and finds and declares it to be the policy of this state that the cost of carrying out such abatement be charged to this state’s producers of oil and gas as provided in Article 7 (commencing with Section 3400).

For the purposes of this article, the following definitions apply:

potential danger to life, health, or natural resources and for which there is no operator determined by the supervisor to be responsible for its plugging and abandonment under Section 3237.

As used in this article, “natural resources” includes land, water, air, minerals, vegetation, wildlife, historical or aesthetic sites, or any other natural resource which, irrespective of ownership, contributes to the health, safety, welfare, or enjoyment of a substantial number of persons, or to the substantial balance of an ecological community.

If any provisions of this article or the application thereof in any circumstances or to any person or public agency is held invalid, the remainder of this article or the application thereof in other circumstances or to other persons or public agencies shall not be affected thereby.

This article shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its purposes.

carried out with respect to a hazardous well, an idle-deserted well, a hazardous facility, or a deserted facility and that operation will, by virtue of the physical occupation or destruction of all or any part of the property or the extraction of oil or gas from the property, substantially interfere with the enjoyment of the property, the supervisor may acquire, as provided in Section 3256, a minimal interest in the property as is necessary to carry out the operation. No acquisition may be made pursuant to this subdivision unless the supervisor finds and determines that the public benefits to be derived therefrom in remedying, mitigating, minimizing, or eliminating danger to life, health, and natural resources will exceed the cost of the acquisition, irrespective of the manner in which the acquisition is to be funded.

supervisor to carry out any of the operations listed in subdivision (a) may be appealed by the owner of the property pursuant to Article 6 (commencing with Section 3350), except that in the case of an emergency no stay of the supervisor’s order shall accompany the appeal.

To effect the purpose of this article, the division is authorized to enter into agreements with any person, public agency, corporation, or other entity for the management or operation of property acquired or for the conduct of any operation ordered pursuant to this article.

Fund appropriation for the 2022–23 fiscal year for the purposes of plugging and abandoning wells, decommissioning facilities, and site remediation pursuant to this article.

2026–27 fiscal year for the purposes of plugging and abandoning wells, decommissioning facilities, and site remediation pursuant to this article.

Any moneys recovered by the division pursuant to Section 3226 shall be deposited in the Oil and Gas Environmental Remediation Account, unless the moneys are recovered against expenditures that have been or will be made from the Hazardous and Idle-Deserted Well Abatement Fund.

account.

subdivision (e). The Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code) does not apply to the development of criteria by the division pursuant to this subdivision.

(B) As part of the report required in subparagraph (A), the department shall provide recommendations to the Legislature for improving and optimizing the involvement of local agencies in the process of plugging and abandoning wells and decommissioning facilities. In drafting these recommendations, the department shall consider factors unique to each of the division’s districts, and shall consult with local agencies in developing recommendations.

(C) In collecting the information for the report required in subparagraph (A), the division shall conduct field inspections of hazardous wells, idle-deserted wells, deserted facilities, and hazardous facilities and include information in the report from the field inspections that can be used to prioritize those wells and facilities in the specific schedule of goals.

October 1, 2023, and annually thereafter, the department shall provide to the Legislature an update on the report required in paragraph (1) that describes the total costs, average costs per well and facility, the number of wells plugged and abandoned, the number of facilities decommissioned, the total number of projects completed, and any additional wells and facilities identified by the department requiring abandonment or decommissioning. The update shall include the location, including the county, of applicable wells, facilities, and projects identified in the report.