BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
AB 380 (Dickinson) - Spill response for railroads.
Amended: August 4, 2014 Policy Vote: EQ 6-0
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: August 11, 2014 Consultant:
Marie Liu
This bill does not meet the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 380 would require rail carriers to submit
specified information regarding the transport of hazardous
materials and Bakken oil to the Office of Emergency Services
(OES) for the purposes of emergency response planning.
Fiscal Impact: Minor and absorbable costs to the General Fund
for OES to review and disseminate appropriate information to
unified program agencies.
Background: Federal law requires each state to have a State
Emergency Response Commission (SERC) to coordinate and supervise
federal programs related to hazardous material emergencies and
ensure public availability of appropriate chemical information.
OES is the chair of the California SERC. Under state law, OES is
required to assist local governments in their emergency
preparedness, response, recover, and hazard mitigation efforts.
Existing federal law requires that laws related to railroad
safety be nationally uniform "to the extent practicable" and
allows the state to adopt an additional or more stringent law
under certain conditions when not preempted by the federal act.
Proposed Law: AB 380 would require rail carriers to submit to
the OES the following information:
Retroactive information regarding the transport of the 25
largest hazardous material commodities through the state for
the previous three months. These notifications would be
required every three months beginning January 31, 2015.
Prospective information regarding routes and volumes for the
planned weekly movements of trains containing Bakken oil in
amounts greater than 1 million gallons per train. These
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notifications would be required once every six months
beginning January 31, 2015. If there is an anticipated change
of volume that is greater than ?25%, the rail carrier must
notify the office within 30 days.
A summary of the rail carrier's hazardous materials emergency
response plan.
OES would be required to disseminate the information it receives
from the rail carriers to a unified program agency for the
purpose of developing emergency response plans when the office
determines that the agency may be impacted by a hazardous
material or oil cargo spill.
This bill would explicitly require that OES provide access to
the information provided by the rail carriers in accordance with
federal law.
This bill would also explicitly prohibit a rail carrier's
hazardous materials emergency response plan from being posted on
a public website or be subject to public agency or public review
and approval processes.
Staff Comments: OES believes that the additional
responsibilities are in line with their current activities and
therefore will cause minor and absorbable increases in workload.
Specifically, OES does not believe that there are any costs
associated with safeguarding rail carrier-specific information
pursuant to federal regulations and laws.
In section 25547.6(a), this bill prohibits the rail carrier's
hazardous materials emergency response plan from being posted on
a public Internet Web site or be subject to public agency or
public review and approval processes. This provision should
refer to the emergency response plan summary as that is the
information that OES will receive. Additionally, to align this
section with recent amendments regarding conformity with federal
laws on disclosure of sensitive information, reference to review
and approval by a public agency or public review should be
deleted.
Recommended Amendments: As discussed in the staff comments,
§25547.6 should be amended as follows:
25547.6. (a) Each rail carrier shall provide the office with
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a summary of the rail carrier's hazardous materials
emergency response plan. The rail carrier's hazardous
materials emergency response plan summary shall not be
posted on a public Internet Web site. or be subject to
public agency or public review and approval processes.