BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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| SENATE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES AND WATER |
| Senator Fran Pavley, Chair |
| 2013-2014 Regular Session |
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BILL NO: AB 2764 HEARING DATE: June 10, 2014
AUTHOR: Assembly Natural Resources URGENCY: No
VERSION: April 21, 2014 CONSULTANT: Toni Lee
DUAL REFERRAL: Environmental QualityFISCAL: Yes
SUBJECT: Public resources: State Lands Commission: State Air
Resources Board.
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
Periodically, state entities within the jurisdiction of the
Assembly Committee on Natural Resources identify
noncontroversial technical and clarifying changes necessary to
correct and
refine existing law. This omnibus committee bill contains five
sections to amend the Government (GOV), Health and Safety (HSC),
and Public Resources (PRC) Codes, as well as Chapter 321 of the
Statutes of 1961.
1. Existing law establishes the State Lands Commission (SLC) in
the Natural Resources Agency and prescribes its functions and
duties (PRC §6101 et seq.). The federal government may hold
state lands for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals,
dockyards, and other buildings or the establishment,
consolidation, or extension of national forests. The SLC may
cede concurrent criminal jurisdiction to the United States in
these lands for up to five years (GOV §126). SLC cannot make a
cession without first having held a noticed public hearing.
Currently, these cession hearings occur separately from regular
public SLC meetings.
In a January 2014 memorandum, SLC staff report that since 1981,
the federal government has generally not attended cession
hearings, and there have only been two occasions when members of
the public attended a cession hearing. According to this
memorandum, staff invest considerable time, effort, and expense
in organizing these hearings. SLC staff suggested streamlining
this process through incorporating the cession hearings into the
regular SLC meetings and extending the cession period by five
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years.
2. Existing law requires that every local trustee of granted
public trust lands file a statement by October 1 of each year
detailing all related revenues and expenditures for the fiscal
year preceding submission of the statement (PRC §6306). SLC
staff suggest changing the annual financial reporting deadline
from October 1st to December 31st since the auditing of many
local trustees' financial records is often not completed until
the end of December, prompting regular request extensions by
trustees.
3. Existing law, the Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill
Prevention and Response Act, requires the administrator for oil
spill response to implement activities relating to oil spill
response (PRC §8750). Persons violating specified provisions of
the act must incur various administrative civil and criminal
penalties. For the provisions of the act under the jurisdiction
of SLC, marine waters are defined to exclude specified waters in
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers and Delta. However, these
provisions also require SLC to assert oil spill jurisdiction
over parts of the Sacramento Delta pursuant to the definition of
"marine facility," which includes a facility located where a
discharge could impact marine waters.
4. Existing law establishes the State Air Resources Board (ARB),
which is responsible for controlling motor vehicle emissions and
is designated as the air pollution control agency for all
provisions of federal law (HSC §8750). ARB consists of twelve
total members with six members chosen from professions relevant
to air quality and six members from the boards of air districts
within California. Current law provides for compensation of
these members.
5. Existing law, the common law doctrine of the Public Trust
(Public Trust Doctrine), protects the right of the public to use
waterways in California for commerce, navigation, fishing,
boating, natural habitat protection, and other water oriented
activities. Tide and submerged lands, lake beds, and navigable
waterways are held in trust by the state for the benefit of
Californians as "public trust lands." These lands include
parcels at Dana Point granted to the County of Orange for the
construction of facilities, the promotion of commerce,
recreational, and other public uses (Ch. 321, Stats. 1961).
Since the late 90s, the County of Orange has been engaged in the
Dana Point Revitalization Plan, which, among other goals, seeks
to improve harbor infrastructure, water quality, parking
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capacity, and restroom availability.
6. Existing law establishes the Solid Waste Disposal and
Codisposal Site Cleanup Program (Program) executed under the
Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) to
address cleanup of solid waste disposal and codisposal
(hazardous substance, hazardous waste, and solid waste) sites
where the responsible party cannot be identified or is unable or
unwilling to pay for timely remediation to protect public health
and safety or the environment (PRC §48020 et seq.). To execute
these provisions, existing law establishes the Solid Waste
Disposal Site Cleanup Trust Fund (Fund).
Using Fund monies, CalRecycle had previously engaged with SLC to
remove vessels abandoned on state submerged lands. The legal
office at CalRecycle, however, has raised doubts concerning use
of the Fund for this purpose. According to CalRecycle staff,
specifying that the Program applies to sites in state waters
would resolve this issue. Since PRC §40192 already includes the
waters of the state as a potential area for a solid waste
disposal site, this may be accomplished through adding a simple
cross reference.
PROPOSED LAW
This bill would:
1. With regard to SLC's authority to cede concurrent
criminal jurisdiction to the United States within federal
lands, make technical cleanup changes, require that the
United States must bear all costs incurred by SLC in making
cessions, extend the maximum period of cession from 5 to 10
years, and authorize SLC to approve cessions at regularly
noticed Commission meetings.
2. Fix an erroneous cross-reference to clarify that members
of ARB selected from the boards of various air districts in
the state must be reimbursed for their expenses from the
district in which they serve.
3. Change the deadline for a local state land trustee to
submit their annual report to SLC from October 1 to
December 31.
4. In provisions guiding SLC's oil spill response duties,
amend the definition of "marine waters" to include
waterways used for vessel traffic to the Ports of
Sacramento and Stockton.
5. Authorize Orange County to use public trust revenues
from its granted public trust lands at Dana Point on lands
beyond the grant boundaries, provided revenues are used for
trust purposes. Expenditures may fund the portion of the
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Dana Point Branch of the Orange County Harbor Patrol that
provides services to trust uses on state-owned tidelands.
6. In the definitions governing jurisdiction of the
SWDCSCP, redefine "solid waste disposal sites" to include
the deposition of solid wastes into the waters of the
state.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT
According to the authors, SLC asserts oil spill jurisdiction
over parts of the Sacramento Delta pursuant to the definition of
"marine facility," which includes a facility "located where a
discharge could impact marine waters." According to SLC staff,
an oil spill at a marine facility at the Port of Sacramento or
the Port of Stockton could impact marine waters outside the
Delta. Moreover, the term "marine waters" has been amended in
the Government (§8670.3(l)) and Revenue and Taxation Code
(§46018) to include waterways used for vessel traffic to the
Port of Sacramento and the Port of Stockton.
The authors add that Dana Point Harbor District requires a more
flexible approach for purchasing, leasing, or acquiring
non-adjacent lands for vessel storage during upcoming harbor
redevelopment work. The proposed use of public trust revenues
from tidelands at Dana Point is generally consistent with the
Public Trust Doctrine.
The County of Orange states that this bill would "directly
benefit the Dana Point Harbor community and allow for offsite
mitigation necessary for the Revitalization Project to continue
as mandated by the California Coastal Commission in the
certified Local Coastal Plan."
SLC states that this bill modernizes and improves granted public
trust lands and oil spill prevention programs by "aligning the
financial reporting due dates with local auditing timeframes."
SLC also asserts that provisions relating to the County of
Orange are necessary to "accommodate changing trust needs" and
that it is necessary "to update the State's cession statute by
deleting provisions that were an outgrowth of older jurisdiction
concepts and which are inconsistent with today's understanding
of jurisdiction law."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION
None received
COMMENTS
1.The changes proposed in this bill are non-controversial in
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nature, with many resulting from collaborative activities
between SLC and local government. In addition, the Assembly
Appropriations Committee projects that this bill will impose
no additional state costs.
2.If enacted, SB 1424 (Wolk) would grant specified tidelands to
the City of Martinez and, consistent with these provisions,
would require the city to submit a financial report with SLC
by October 1 of each year. SB 1424 has been amended in
anticipation of this bill changing this deadline to December
31.
SUPPORT
State Lands Commission Staff (Sponsor)
Orange County Board of Supervisors
OPPOSITION
None Received
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