BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1126|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|1020 N Street, Suite 524 | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1126
Author: Gordon (D), et al
Amended: 8/14/13 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 9-0, 6/26/13
AYES: Hill, Gaines, Calderon, Corbett, Fuller, Hancock,
Jackson, Leno, Pavley
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 5/29/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Solid waste: biomass conversion: engineered
municipal solid waste conversion
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill establishes regulatory standards for
facilities that convert engineered municipal solid waste (EMSW).
ANALYSIS :
Existing law under the Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989
(Act):
1.Requires each city or county source reduction and recycling
element to include an implementation schedule that shows a
city or county must divert 25% of solid waste from landfill
disposal or transformation by January 1, 1995, and must divert
CONTINUED
AB 1126
Page
2
50% of solid waste on and after January 1, 2000 through source
reduction, recycling, and composting activities.
2.Declares that it is the policy goal of the state to divert 75%
of the state's solid waste through source reduction, recycling
and composting by 2020.
3.Defines "transformation" as incineration, pyrolysis,
distillation, or biological conversion and does not include
composting, gasification, or biomass conversion.
4.Defines "transfer or processing station" as those facilities
utilized to receive solid wastes, temporarily store, separate,
convert, or otherwise process the materials in the solid
wastes, or to transfer the solid waste directly from smaller
to larger vehicles for transport and those facilities utilized
for transformation.
5.Defines "solid waste disposal" for the purposes of preparing
integrated waste management plans, as the management of solid
waste through landfill disposal, transformation.
6.Defines "disposal facility" to mean a facility or location
where disposal or solid waste occurs.
7.Specifies that "solid waste facility" include a solid waste
transfer or processing station, a composting facility,
gasification facility and a disposal facility.
8.Requires each county to prepare a countywide siting element
that provides a description of the areas to be used for
development of adequate transformation or disposal capacity
concurrent and consistent with the development and
implementation of the county and city source reduction
recycling requirements and requires the countywide siting
element to be approved by the county and by a majority of
cities within the county with a majority of the population.
9.Prohibits a person from disposing of solid waste, arranging
for the disposal of solid waste, transporting solid waste for
purposes of disposal, or accepting solid waste for disposal,
except at a solid waste disposal facility for which a solid
waste facilities permit has been issued, as specified.
CONTINUED
AB 1126
Page
3
10.Prohibits the establishment or expansion of a solid waste
facility in the county unless the solid waste facility is a
disposal facility or a transformation facility which is
identified in the countywide siting element or amendment to
the element, or is a solid waste facility that is designed to
recover for reuse or recycling at least 5% of the total volume
of material received by the facility and has been identified
in the nondisposal facility element that has been approved, as
specified.
This bill:
1.Defines "EMSW conversion," as the conversion of solid waste
through a process that meets all the following requirements:
A. The waste to be converted is beneficial and effective in
that it replaces or supplants the use of fossil fuels.
B. The waste to be converted, the resulting ash, and any
other products of conversion do not meet the criteria or
guidelines for the identification of a hazardous waste
adopted by the Department of Toxic Substances Control, as
specified.
C. The conversion is efficient and maximizes the net
calorific value and burn rate of the waste.
D. The waste to be processed contains less than 25%
moisture and less than 25% noncombustible waste.
E. The waste to be processed is handled in compliance with
the solid waste handling requirements, as specified, and no
more than a seven-day supply of that waste, based on the
throughput capacity of the operation or facility, is stored
at the facility at any one time.
F. No more than 500 tons per day of waste is converted at
the facility where the operation takes place.
G. The waste has energy content equal to or greater than
5,000 British Thermal Units per pound after conversion.
H. The waste to be converted is mechanically processed at a
transfer or processing station to reduce the fraction of
chlorinated plastics and materials that do not maximize the
CONTINUED
AB 1126
Page
4
net calorific value and burn rate of the waste.
1.Defines an "EMSW conversion facility" as a facility where
municipal solid waste conversion that meets the above
requirements takes place. Excludes EMSW conversion from the
definition of transformation, and provides that a
transformation facility that conducts EMSW conversion is an
EMSW conversion facility.
2.Specifies that "recycling" does not include EMSW conversion.
3.Specifies that "solid waste disposal" includes processed EMSW
conversion and that a "solid waste facility" or "disposal
facility" includes an EMSW conversion facility.
4.Specifies that a "transfer or processing station" does not
include an EMSW conversion facility.
5.Specifies that "transformation" does not include processed
EMSW conversion.
6.Requires a countywide siting element to include a description
of areas to be used for MSW conversion and allows a siting
element provided for an MSW conversion facility to only is
approved by the city in which it is located, or if the MSW is
not located in a city, by the county.
7.Specifies that tires and biomass processed by conversion
facilities are not considered disposal under the Act.
8.Prohibits the establishment or expansion of a solid waste
facility in the county unless the solid waste facility is a
disposal facility, transformation, or EMSW facility, which is
identified in the countywide siting element or amendment to
the element, or is a solid waste facility that is designed to
recover for reuse or recycling at least 5% of the total volume
of material received by the facility and has been identified
in the nondisposal facility element that has been approved, as
specified.
9.Excludes certain used tires or waste tires or biomass
materials from the solid waste calculation used in that base
rate determination and the per capita disposal determination
and requires the amount of solid waste to include solid waste
diverted from an EMSW conversion facility.
CONTINUED
AB 1126
Page
5
Background
Municipal solid waste . MSW refers to the stream of garbage
collected through community sanitation services. Although MSW
consists mainly of renewable resources such as food, paper, and
wood products, it also includes nonrenewable materials derived
from fossil fuels, such as tires and plastics. According to the
2008 Statewide Waste Characterization Study, the California
waste stream is composed of primarily food and green waste
(e.g., lumber, leaves, etc.) at about 47%, with the next highest
contributors being paper, plastic and metal waste comprising
17.3%, 9.6%, and 4.6%, respectively.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author, "AB 1126
defines an EMSW conversion facility and properly identifies it
as a solid waste facility under CalReycle's regulatory
authority. This permitting pathway is needed because current
statute is outdated and does not adequately address the new
types of waste-to-energy technologies and processes that have
started to be commercialized in California. Existing state
solid waste rules do not adequately define these facilities to
provide the best-possible environmental protection and oversight
while minimizing unnecessary burdens. Under this bill, EMSW
conversion would be clearly defined, and would allow these
facilities to replace fossil fuel energy sources such as coal,
thereby reducing California's GHG emissions. Properly utilized,
AB 1126 would help California meet the goals outlined in AB 32."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 5/29/13
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom,
Blumenfield, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown,
Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway,
Cooley, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández,
Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mitchell, Morrell,
Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson,
Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas,
Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski,
CONTINUED
AB 1126
Page
6
Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Holden, Vacancy
RM:ej 8/21/13 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: NONE RECEIVED
**** END ****
CONTINUED