BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1071
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
1071 (Atkins and Eduardo Garcia)
As Amended August 31, 2015
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |79-0 |(June 1, 2015) |SENATE: |39-1 |(September 3, |
| | | | | |2015) |
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Original Committee Reference: NAT. RES.
SUMMARY: Requires each board, department, and office within the
California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) to establish
a policy on supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) that
benefits environmental justice communities.
The Senate amendments:
1)Add legislative findings and declarations relating to
disproportionate environmental and public health impacts on
disadvantaged communities and the benefits of SEPs.
2)Replace the term "environmental justice community" with
"disadvantaged community."
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3)Specifies that the bill applies to boards, departments, and
offices that have enforcement authority.
4)Require that the SEP policy include consideration of the
relationship between the location of the violation and the
location of the proposed SEP.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, this bill has minor and absorbable costs to various
special funds to oversee SEPs and result in unknown lost
revenues, likely in the millions of dollars, to various special
funds as a result of penalty reductions as a result of SEPs.
COMMENTS: According to the Office of Environmental Health
Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), approximately eight million
Californians (21%) 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%), and they are disproportionately people of color (62%).
Throughout California, people of color face a 50% 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.
SEPs are environmentally beneficial projects that a violator
agrees to undertake as part of a settlement for an enforcement
action, but which the violator is not otherwise legally required
to perform. In 2003, CalEPA released guidelines for the use of
SEPs for its boards, departments, and offices. The guidelines
specify that an SEP must improve, protect, or reduce risks to
public health and the environment at large. The enforcing
agency must have the opportunity to help shape the scope of the
project before it is implemented and the project must not be
commenced until the enforcing agency has identified a violation.
Finally, the SEP must not be required by a federal, state, or
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local law or regulation. CalEPA's SEP guidelines suggest
limiting the SEP to 25% of the total enforcement action.
Within CalEPA, the Air Resources Board (ARB), Department of
Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), and the State Water Resources
Control Board (SWRCB) have adopted SEP policies. ARB and DTSC's
policies are consistent with CalEPA's guidelines and allow SEPs
up to 25% of the amount of the enforcement action. SWRCB,
consistent with authority granted by SB 1733 (Aanestad), Chapter
404, Statutes of 2006, allow SEPs up to 50% of the amount of the
penalty.
Under this bill, the Department of Resources Recycling and
Recovery (CalRecycle), OEHHA, and the Department of Pesticide
Regulation (DPR) to adopt SEP policies directed toward
disadvantaged communities and specify that SEPs can account for
up to 50% of an enforcement action.
CalEPA's 2012 Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Report
provides information on the use of SEPs in California. For
hazardous waste law violations, three cases totaling over $33.9
million, of which $5.5 million was used for SEPs. ARB assessed
just under $16.1 million in penalties, and $525,000 was used for
SEPs. In the report, SWRCB provided aggregated data for
"backlogged violations," which showed total penalties of over
$25 million and $2.5 million for SEPs.
Analysis Prepared by:
Elizabeth MacMillan / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092
FN: 0001952
AB 1071
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