BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 380|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 380
Author: Dickinson (D), et al.
Amended: 8/21/14 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 6-0, 6/4/14
AYES: Hill, Gaines, Hancock, Jackson, Leno, Pavley
NO VOTE RECORDED: Fuller
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 6-1, 8/11/14
AYES: De León, Gaines, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
NOES: Walters
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : Not relevant
SUBJECT : Spill response for railroads
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires 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.
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/21/14 clarify a definition and the
disclosure of information.
ANALYSIS :
Existing federal law:
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1. Requires that laws related to railroad safety shall be
nationally uniform "to the extent practicable" and allows a
state to adopt an additional or more stringent law under
certain conditions when not preempted by the Federal Railroad
Safety Act.
2. Requires each state to have a State Emergency Response
Commission to coordinate and supervise federal programs
related to hazardous material emergencies and ensure public
availability of appropriate chemical information.
3. Regulates hazardous materials transportation and requires
inspection of shipments by rail under regulations developed
by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration.
4. Defines certain information related to transportation
security in the form of rail shipments and security as
Sensitive Security Information and places limits on the
dissemination of that information.
Existing state law:
1. Requires the OES to assist local governments in their
emergency preparedness, response, recovery, and hazard
mitigation efforts.
2. Requires that all rail operators provide a risk assessment to
the Public Utilities Commission, the Director of Homeland
Security, and California Emergency Management Agency that
describes the locations, types, and frequency of hazardous
cargo movement through rail facilities, and training and
emergency response procedures.
This bill:
1. Requires rail carriers to submit to the OES the following
information:
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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 one million gallons per train.
These notifications will be required once every six months
beginning January 31, 2015. If there is an anticipated
change of volume that is plus or minus 25%, the rail
carrier must notify the OES within 30 days.
A summary of the rail carrier's hazardous materials
emergency response plan.
2. Requires OES 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.
3. Requires that OES provide access to the information provided
by the rail carriers in accordance with federal law.
4. Requires each rail carrier shall maintain a response
management communications center, which provides real-time
information to an authorized public safety answering point or
911 emergency response center about the train consist
involved in a hazardous material or oil cargo spill or other
critical incident, including, but not limited to, both of the
following:
A. Hazardous material movement shipping papers,
including a way bill or total trace, detailing the
hazardous material or oil cargo; and
B. Information that can assist the primary local public
safety agency in containing and safely removing a
hazardous material spill.
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5. Prohibits a rail carrier's hazardous materials emergency
response plan summary from being posted on a public Web site.
6. Clarify that the definition "Hazardous materials emergency
response plan" has the same meaning as "emergency response
program to hazardous substance release," as specified.
Background
The shipment of crude oil by rail in tank cars into California
is growing exponentially. According to the Association of
American Railroads, roughly 400,000 carloads of crude oil
travelled to West Coast refineries in 2013. This is a 4000%
increase when compared to the amount of oil shipped in 2008.
Looking at it another way, the volume of oil brought into
California by rail has gone from 45,000 barrels in 2008 to more
than six million barrels in 2013?a 135 fold increase.
A series of derailments around the country have raised the
profile of increased crude by rail shipments among local, state,
and federal officials. Large crude oil spills have led to
devastating and deadly fires and explosions. According to data
from the pipeline and hazardous materials and safety
administration, the amount of crude oil spilled from rail cars
in 2013 exceeded the cumulative spill in the previous 40 years.
Further, an increasing amount of crude being shipped by rail
into California is largely from the Bakken oil fields and
Canadian tar sands. Crude from the Bakken oil fields has been
shown to be highly volatile and explosive, and Canadian tar sand
oil particularly heavy and damaging to surface waters.
State and local emergency response agencies face new challenges
when dealing with this amount of hyper-flammable or heavy crude,
as well as an increasing amount of hazardous substances. The
risk to life and property in the event of a crude oil by rail
accident has become enormous. It is essential that emergency
response agencies have critical information about crude cargoes
that may be unavailable to them now, in order to be best able to
respond to crude by rail accidents, should they occur. Further,
there must be greater transparency of plans developed to respond
to crude by rail emergencies.
Prior Legislation
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SB 48 (M. Thompson, Chapter 766, Statutes of 1991) established
the Railroad Accident Prevention and Immediate Deployment Force
(in order to provide immediate onsite response capability in the
event of a hazardous spill by rail. Funds were also established
in order to pay for hazardous spill response, training, and
education. This program ended following a sunset of the law on
December 31, 1995.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, minor and
absorbable costs to the General Fund for OES to review and
disseminate appropriate information to unified program agencies.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/21/14)
California Fire Chiefs Association
City of Sacramento
Contra Costa County
Western States Petroleum Association
Yolo County Board of Supervisors
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/21/14)
Sierra Club California
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : Western States Petroleum Association
writes, "At the federal, state and local levels, the petroleum
industry has been working with appropriate public safety,
emergency response agencies, and the railroad industry to ensure
the safe delivery of transportation fuels. Recently, the
Federal Department of Transportation announced an emergency
order under requiring railroads transporting crude to notify
respective state emergency response commissions, such as the
Office of Emergency Services (OES), about crude oil deliveries.
"AB 380 compliments the federal government's efforts by
requiring railroads to provide to OES, on a quarterly basis,
data for the 25 largest hazardous material commodities and crude
oil transported through California. The data provided will be
by county and track routes, and is intended to provide OES the
ability to disseminate the information to certified unified
program agencies (CUPAs) that may be impacted by a hazardous
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material spill. By providing a copy of a summary report of a
rail carrier's hazardous material business plan, with certain
safeguards in place to protect security sensitive information,
the agencies will be able to improve coordination and public
safety. This improved coordination and planning is a positive
step towards meeting public safety expectations for transporting
crude-by-rail in California.
"In addition to increasing coordination with CUPAs, AB 380 would
require that railroads maintain an emergency response
communications center that can provide information on train
composure, which should help state and local emergency
responders in their prevention, preparation, response, and
hazard mitigation efforts. Overall, AB 380 compliments efforts
by the federal government to coordinate action under its
jurisdiction in California."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Sierra Club California states that
this bill will, "[?] impose more restrictions than federal law
and federal agencies currently impose on information about
contents of railcars carrying crude oil. The federal
transportation Security Administration (TSA) reported in
mid-June that it had not made a determination that information
about oil carried by rail should be included within the category
of security sensitive information. Then, a few days later, the
federal Department of Transportation determined that oil by rail
information is not protected by federal law from disclosure.
Yet [this] bill identifies information about the crude carried
by rail as security sensitive information and it places new
restrictions on public access to that information.
"Given this, Sierra Club California must take an oppose position
on the bill unless it is amended to remove language that would
include in state law new restrictions on information."
RM:d 8/22/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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