(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 this state.

(3) All tanks owned and operated by the grant applicant are subject to compliance with Chapter 6.7 (commencing with Section 25280) and the regulations adopted pursuant to that chapter.

(4) The facility where the project tank is located has sold at retail less than 900,000 gallons of gasoline annually for each of the two years preceding the submission of the grant application. The number of gallons sold shall be based upon taxable sales figures provided to the State Board of Equalization for that facility.

(5) Except as provided in subdivision (b), the grant applicant owns or operates a tank that is in compliance with all of the following:

(A) Section 41954.

(B) Any of the following:

(i) Section 25290.1.

(ii) Section 25290.2.

(iii) Section 25291.

(iv) Subdivisions (d) and (e) of Section 25292.

(C) Any regulation implementing the applicable sections required for compliance with subparagraphs (A) and (B).

(6) The facility where the project tank is located was legally in business retailing gasoline after January 1, 1999.

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

(1) The grant applicant owns or operates a project tank.

(2) The project tank will be removed and will not be replaced with another tank.

(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 Section 25284.1, 25292.05, 25292.4, 25292.5, or 41954.

(Amended by Stats. 2014, Ch. 547, Sec. 30. (SB 445) Effective September 25, 2014. Repealed as of January 1, 2022, pursuant to Section 25299.117.)