BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1330
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator Jerry Hill, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1330
AUTHOR: J. Perez
AMENDED: April 9, 2013
FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: June 19, 2013
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Rachel Machi
Wagoner
SUBJECT : ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
SUMMARY :
Existing law :
1)Defines "environmental justice" to mean the fair treatment of
people of all races, cultures, and incomes with respect to the
development, adoption, implementation, and enforcement of
environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
2)Requires the California Environmental Protection Agency
(CalEPA) to:
a) Conduct its programs, policies, and activities, and
enforce all health and environmental statutes within its
jurisdiction in a manner that ensures the fair treatment of
people of all races, cultures, and income levels, including
minority and low-income populations.
b) Convene a Working Group on Environmental Justice
(Working Group) comprised of the Secretary for
Environmental Protection, the Chairs of the Air Resources
Board (ARB) and State Water Resources Control Board, the
Director of Resources Recycling and Recovery, the Director
of Toxic Substances Control, the Director of Pesticide
Regulation, the Director of Environmental Health Hazard
Assessment, and the Director of Planning and Research. The
Working Group has been tasked with examining existing data
and studies on environmental justice and recommending
policies for implementation by CalEPA.
c) No later than July 1, 2002, adopt an agency-wide
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strategy for identifying and addressing gaps in existing
programs, policies, or activities of CalEPA's boards,
departments, and offices that may impede the achievement of
environmental justice.
d) No later than January 1, 2004, and every three years
thereafter, prepare and submit a report to the Governor and
the Legislature on the implementation of these
requirements.
3)Establishes the Environmental Justice Small Grant Program,
administered by CalEPA, to award funds to community-based,
grassroots nonprofit organizations serving communities
adversely impacted by environmental justice issues.
4)Names the Office of Planning and Research (OPR) as the
coordinating agency in state government for environmental
justice programs.
5)Pursuant to open meeting requirements, requires the
legislative body of a city, county, or state agency to:
a) During regular meetings, provide an opportunity for a
member of the public to address the legislative body on any
item of interest to the public, before or during the
legislative body's consideration of that item;
b) During special meetings, provide an opportunity for a
member of the public to address the legislative body
concerning any item described in the notice of the special
meeting, before or during consideration of that item; and,
c) Not prohibit public criticism of the policies,
procedures, programs, or services of the agency, or of the
acts or omissions of the legislative body.
6)Requires CalEPA to identify disadvantaged communities based on
geographic, socioeconomic, public health, and environmental
hazard criteria for investment opportunities using the
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (i.e., cap-and-trade action
revenues).
This bill requires CalEPA to update its environmental justice
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strategy. Specifically, this bill:
1)States numerous findings and declarations relating to the
current statutory requirements for environmental justice and
the Administration's implementation of those requirements.
2)Specifies that, under the Government Code requirements
relating to open meetings, when a non-English speaker uses a
translator in a public meeting, the time used by the
translator to translate the speaker's comments does not count
toward the speaker's allotted speaking time.
3)Requires CalEPA, with the assistance of the Environmental
Justice Working Group, to periodically revise and update the
agency-wide strategy developed in 2004 to address any
additional gaps in existing programs, policies, or activities
that impede the achievement of environmental justice. On or
before July 1, 2014, requires the Secretary of CalEPA to
submit a report to the Governor and the Legislature on the
implementation of this provision.
4)Requires each board, department, or office within CalEPA to
maintain a public database on its Internet Web site of its
ongoing enforcement cases, to the extent that the information
on the database would normally be available through a Public
Records Act request, and compliance histories of its regulated
entities that have committed violations focused on information
related to how the entities rectified the violation, address
any additional gaps in existing programs, policies, or
activities that impede the achievement of environmental
justice.
COMMENTS :
1) Purpose of Bill . Existing law requires CalEPA to conduct all
its programs "?in a manner that ensures the fair treatment of
people of all races, cultures, and income levels, including
minority populations and low-income populations in the
state."
According to the author, despite existing law and the clear
evidence and cost of environmental injustices, there has been
no regular reporting to the Legislature on progress and
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impediments to achieving environmental justice.
The author states that compounding this lack of progress and
reporting, residents in low-income communities and
communities of color burdened by pollution face barriers to
participating in local decisionmaking. The barriers range
from lack of adequate translation and interpretation to lack
of sufficient notification time. This makes it nearly
impossible for Californians to advocate on their own behalf
for healthier communities.
2) Background . According to the Office of Environmental Health
Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), approximately 8 million
Californians (21 percent) live in ZIP Codes that are
considered "highly impacted" by environmental, public health,
and socioeconomic stressors. Nearly half of all Californians
live within six miles of a facility that is a significant
greenhouse gas emitter (46 percent), but they are
disproportionately people of color (62 percent). Throughout
California, people of color face a 50 percent higher risk of
cancer from ambient concentrations of air pollutants listed
under the Clean Air Act. These impacts are felt by all
Californians. ARB estimates that air pollution exposure
accounts for 19,000 premature deaths, 280,000 cases of
asthma, and 1.9 million lost work days every year.
3) California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool
(CalEnviroScreen) . CalEPA and OEHHA have developed the
nation's first comprehensive screening methodology to
identify California communities that are disproportionately
burdened by multiple sources of pollution and presents the
statewide results of the analysis using the screening tool.
CalEPA released two public review drafts of the
CalEnviroScreen on July 30, 2012 and January 3, 2013. Public
comments on the draft reports were received at a series of
regional and stakeholder-specific workshops held throughout
the state, an Academic Expert Panel workshop, at two meetings
of the Cumulative Impacts and Precautionary Approaches Work
Group, and in written comments from the public.
CalEnviroScreen is meant to be used primarily to assist
CalEPA and its boards, departments, and office in carrying
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out its environmental justice mission: to conduct its
activities in a manner that ensures the fair treatment of all
Californians, including minority and low-income populations.
CalEnviroScreen is the next step in the implementation of
CalEPA's 2004 Environmental Justice Action Plan, which called
for the development of guidance to analyze the impacts of
multiple pollution sources in California communities.
The initial drafts show which portions of the state have
higher pollution burdens and vulnerabilities than other
areas, and therefore are most in need of assistance. In a
time of limited resources, it will provide meaningful insight
into how decisionmakers can focus available time, resources,
and programs to improve the environmental health of
Californians, particularly those most burdened by pollution.
The tool uses existing environmental, health, demographic and
socioeconomic data to create a screening score for
communities across the state. An area with a high score
would be expected to experience much higher impacts than
areas with low scores.
CalEPA and OEHHA are committed to revising the tool in the
future, in an open and public process, as new information
becomes available in order to make the tool as meaningful and
as current as possible. Over the next several years, CalEPA
plans to refine the tool by considering additional
indicators, modifying the geographic scale, enhancing the
current indicators, and reassessing the tool's methodology.
In addition, CalEPA will look for new ways to ensure the tool
is accessible and comprehensible to the public.
4) Previous legislation . SB 535 (De Leon) Chapter 830, Statutes
of 2012, requires CalEPA to identify disadvantaged
communities for investment opportunities using the Greenhouse
Gas Reduction Fund.
SB 89 (Escutia), Chapter 728, Statutes of 2000, requires
CalEPA to convene the Environmental Justice Working Group and
develop an agency-wide environmental justice strategy.
SB 828 (Alarcon), Chapter 765, Statutes of 2001, establishes a
timeline for the requirements of SB 89 and requires CalEPA to
update its report to the Legislature every three years. (In
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October of 2004, CalEPA released its Environmental Justice
Action Plan; however, CalEPA has never completed the required
updates.
5) Double Referral to Senate Governance and Finance Committee .
If this measure is approved by the Senate Environmental
Quality Committee, the do pass motion must include the action
to re-refer the bill to the Senate Governance and Finance
Committee.
SOURCE : Author
SUPPORT : American Association of University Women
Asian Pacific Environmental Network
Breathe California
California Environmental Justice Alliance
Center for Community Action and Environmental
Justice
Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment
Central Basin Municipal Water District
Communities for a Better Environment
Environmental Health Coalition
People Organizing to Demand Environmental and
Economic
Rights
OPPOSITION : None on file