BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 655
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 15, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
Henry T. Perea, Chair
AB 655
Quirk - As Amended April 6, 2015
SUBJECT: Rendering: inedible kitchen grease: additional fee.
SUMMARY: Increases a registration fee for transporters of
inedible kitchen grease (IKG), and makes technical
non-substantive changes. Specifically, this bill:
1)Places existing non-codified legislative findings and
declarations into the statute.
2)Increases the per vehicle registration fee for transporters of
IKG from $300 up to $350 per year, while keeping the cap on
total fees per registered transporter of [inedible] kitchen
grease at $3,000 per year.
3)Makes technical non-substantive changes.
EXISTING LAW requires a licensed renderer to keep records for
two years, encompassing specific information in connection to
the receipt of IKG provided by a registered transporter;
requires all records retained by a licensed renderer or
registered transporter to be maintained at the renderer and
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transporter's regular place of business; requires records to be
provided on demand by any peace officer and authorizes any peace
officer to inspect any premises maintained by a licensed
renderer or transporter at any time during normal business hours
to ensure compliance with record maintenance requirements.
Imposes various fines, as specified, on any licensed renderer or
registered transporter who fails to keep specified records, or
any renderer or transporter who refuses to exhibit any required
records upon demand by any peace officer; prohibits any person
from engaging in the transportation of IKG without being
registered with California Department of Food and Agriculture
(CDFA) and without being in possession of a valid registration
certificate issued by DMV; and, prohibits any person who is not
a registered transporter or licensed renderer of IKG to
transport that product from any location within the state to any
location outside of California. CDFA is authorizes to charge an
IKG transporter registration fee of up to $300 per vehicle.
These requirements become inoperative July 1, 2020, and are
repealed January 1, 2021, unless a later enacted statute becomes
effective prior to that date.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown. This bill is keyed fiscal by
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS: According to the author, the IKG program needs
additional funds for enforcement purposes. The hauling of IKG
takes little capital investment to enter into, making it an easy
potential operation for fly by night operators. The theft of
IKG or the unlawful dumping of IKG or interceptor grease occurs
depending on the price of the product - the higher the price the
more theft and the lower the price the more dumping. The proper
disposal of some of these products may require the operator to
incur the cost of tipping fees, so when product prices are low,
some operators improperly dispose of the product in various
illicit methods, such as, dumping into sewer lines, open fields,
water bodies or even into other commercial food holding tanks,
passing the cost onto the public or other operators.
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This increase in the registration fee is intended to assist CDFA
in increasing their enforcement actions to stop the theft or
illegal disposal of these products. This has been an ongoing
problem that the Legislature, with the industry's support and
assistance, has tried to correct through increased fines and
larger industry fees to pay for enforcement. Under this CDFA
program, some registration renewals have been denied due to the
improper pass actions by the registrant.
Lack of sufficient and effective enforcement has been a
continuing issue for preventing this illegal activity. By
increasing the registration fee, the industry and CDFA hope to
more effectively provide enforcement on IKG transporters by
providing more inspections of them and their records.
The committee may wish to ask the author if he anticipates
further amendments to this measure should it pass out of
committee.
The committee may wish to consider a technical amendment to make
the reference to IKG consistent within the section. On page 2,
line 24, inserting "inedible" in front of kitchen grease would
conform to the other product references in the section.
PREVIOUS LEGISLATION: AB 1566 (Holden), Chapter 595, Statutes
of 2014, updated the Food and Agricultural Code and Vehicle Code
definitions, enforcement, fines, regulations, and transportation
of IKG, in order to conform to each other, and extended the
sunset of effected articles to January 1, 2021.
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AB 2378 (Huber), Chapter 303, Statutes of 2012, increased the
civil and criminal fines for specified violations relating to
the transport and recordkeeping of IKG.
SB 513 (Canella), Chapter 337, Statutes of 2011, created the
Rendering Industry Advisory Board (RIAB), including membership
and duties, and made other non-related changes.
AB 1249 (Galgiani), Chapter 280, Statutes of 2009, extended the
sunset date to January 1, 2016, for the IKG administration fee
for the program.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Pacific Coast Rendering Association
California Grain and Feed Association
Opposition
AB 655
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None on file.
Analysis Prepared by:Jim Collin / AGRI. / (916) 319-2084