BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1420
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Date of Hearing: April 28, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND TOXIC MATERIALS
Luis Alejo, Chair
AB 1420
(Salas) - As Amended April 21, 2015
SUBJECT: Oil and gas: pipelines
SUMMARY: Establishes a process for assessing the risk of leaks
in gas pipelines and for providing notification and assistance
to residents affected by a leak. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires, if the local health officer or his or her designee
is notified of a leak in a pipeline that is regulated by the
Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR), and
the local health officer determines that the leak poses a risk
to public health or safety and the response to the leak has
been inadequate to protect the public health or safety, the
local health officer to:
a. Work collaboratively with DOGGR and the owner or
operator of the pipeline;
b. Direct the responsible party to test, to the
satisfaction of the agency overseeing the testing, the
soil, air, and water in the affected area for
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contamination caused by the leak and disclose the results
of the tests to the public;
c. Make a determination, based on the result of the
tests, on whether the leak poses a serious threat to the
public health and safety of residents affected by the
leak;
d. Provide, based on the determination, assistance to
affected residents; and,
e. Direct, based on the determination, the responsible
party to notify all residents affected by the leak.
2)Requires DOGGR to prioritize the identification and testing of
all pipelines under its jurisdiction that are near sensitive
areas such as residences and schools.
3)Requires the operator of the pipeline, upon the discovery of a
leak from a pipeline under the jurisdiction of DOGGR, to
promptly notify DOGGR and the local health officer of the
jurisdiction in which the leak is located.
EXISTING LAW:
Under the California Health and Safety Code (HSC):
1) Requires each board of supervisors to appoint a health
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officer who is a county officer, and requires the local
health officer to enforce local orders and ordinances and
state statues relating to public health. (HSC § 101000, et.
seq)
2) Authorizes the local health officer to take any
preventive measure that may be necessary to protect and
preserve the public health from any public health hazard
during any "local emergency" within his or her
jurisdiction. (HSC § 101040(a))
Under the California Public Resources Code (PRC):
1) Requires the State Oil & Gas Supervisor (Supervisor) to
supervise the drilling, operation, maintenance, and
abandonment of wells and the operation, maintenance, and
removal or abandonment of tanks and facilities attendant to
oil and gas production, including pipelines, as specified,
that are within an oil and gas field, so as to prevent
damage to life, health, property, and natural resources.
(PRC § 3106. (a))
Under the California Code of Regulations (CCR):
1) Requires the operator for a facility or group of related
facilities to develop a spill contingency plan. (CCR,
Title 14, § 1722(b))
2) Requires blowouts, fires, serious accidents, and
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significant gas or water leaks resulting from or associated
with an oil or gas drilling or producing operation, or
related facility, to be promptly reported to the
appropriate DOGGR district office. (CCR, Title 14,
§1722(i))
3) Requires pipeline operators to visually inspect all
aboveground pipelines for leaks and corrosion at least once
a year (CCR, Title 14, § 1774.1. (a))
4) Authorizes the Supervisor to order such tests or
inspections deemed necessary to establish the reliability
of any pipeline system. (CCR, Title 14, § 1774.1. (b))
5) Requires a mechanical integrity test to be performed on
all active environmentally sensitive pipelines (generally
within 300 feet of a building) that are gathering lines,
and all urban pipelines over 4" in diameter, every two
years. Exempts pipelines less than 10 years old are exempt
this testing requirement. (CCR, Title 14, § 1774.1. (e))
6) Authorizes a county board of Supervisors, a city
council, or another state agency to petition the Supervisor
to include other pipelines within their jurisdiction as
environmentally sensitive. (CCR, Title 14, § 1774.1. (f))
7) Requires operators to prepare a pipeline management plan
for all pipelines and submit the plan to the Supervisor
upon request. (CCR, Title 14, § 1774.2. (a))
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FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown.
COMMENTS:
Need for the bill: According to the author, "As the [oil and
gas] industry continues to be a fixture in California, the
safety of workers, communities and the environment should remain
a top priority. Despite precautions taken, incidents occur in
which immediate action is needed to protect the health, safety,
and environment of nearby communities?
"In early 2014, a gas leak was detected beneath the community of
Arvin, California. A total of 8 families were evacuated from
their homes and unable to return for several months. Affected
residents claimed to have smelled gas, and complained of
nosebleeds, headaches, coughing and dizziness. Once the leak was
detected, affected residents were unclear where to get resources
and information. This incident demonstrated a lack of clarity in
the law regarding the role of all involved entities? AB 1420
will ensure that clear guidelines exist should another similar
incident occur."
The gas leak in Arvin: According to articles in The Bakersfield
Californian, on March 11, 2014, Southern California Gas Co.
(SCG) was performing routine checks for leaks on its natural gas
pipelines in Arvin, California, when its instruments detected a
gas leak. SCG workers realized the next day that the leak
wasn't from their own pipelines and notified the city of Arvin,
which in turn alerted DOGGR both that it was working with SCG to
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determine the source of the gas and that residents of Nelson
Court in Arvin had been reporting gas odors.
According to the Department of Conservation (DOC), under which
DOGGR operates, DOGGR staff immediately met with Petro Capitol
Resources (PCR), which operates the three oil and gas leases
about 200 feet east of the homes on Nelson Court, to review
existing lease maps of the operation. They found that the
existing maps were faulty, and that the pipelines were actually
adjacent to the homes on Nelson Court that had been reporting
the odor. PRC shut down its pipeline on March 13th, and
affected residents were evacuated. On the 17 and 18th the
actual leak was detected in a 3" gas flare pipe, and Kern County
tested for flammable gases, finding high levels of flammable
gases outside the homes and levels at half of the lower
explosive levels were inside eight homes on Nelson Court.
Further, Kern County and DOGGR found that the soil was so
saturated with natural gas that remediation required application
of a vapor extraction system. The Bakersfield Californian
reported that some residents said they had smelled the gas for
as long as two years, and complained of nosebleeds, headaches,
coughing and dizziness.
According to news articles, letters submitted to the Governor,
and communication with the author and this Committee, before and
after the leak was detected, residents were confused about where
to seek resources and information and felt the response to the
leak was inadequate. Additionally, even though PRC performed
initial toxicity testing of the houses on Nelson Court,
residents were distrustful of the results, and the County
performed another set of tests, for which it is still trying to
recoup costs. Residents remained evacuated for over 7 months
and remain concerned about the safety of living in their own
homes.
DOGGR's jurisdiction over pipelines: DOGGR oversees the
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drilling, operation, maintenance, and plugging and abandonment
of oil, natural gas, and geothermal wells. DOGGR has
jurisdiction over tanks and facilities that are "attendant to"
oil and gas production, including pipelines located within oil
and gas fields and not subject to regulation by the California
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection-Office of State Fire
Marshal. Tanks and pipelines that are located within the lease
areas of oil and gas fields, and are integrally associated with
oil and gas production, are generally "attendant to" oil and gas
production and therefore under DOGGR's jurisdiction. In the
Arvin case, according to the DOC, DOGGR is responsible for the
oversight of the pipes that leaked.
DOGGR's process for identifying and inspecting pipelines:
DOGGR's regulations require pipeline operators to visually
inspect all above ground pipelines at least once per year and
authorize the Supervisor to order tests or inspections as needed
to establish the reliability of any pipeline system.
Additionally, regulations require a mechanical integrity test to
be performed on all active environmentally sensitive pipelines
that are used to transport crude oil or natural gas from the
production site to a central collection point, and all urban
pipelines over 4" in diameter, every two years. Regulation
exempts pipelines less than 10 years old from the two year
testing requirement.
In Arvin, even though DOGGR is responsible for the oversight of
the pipeline that failed, the pipeline is not subject to the
periodic testing required of other, larger capacity (over 4" in
diameter) lines, or lines that carry hydrocarbons. DOGGR
records showed that the pipeline was last inspected on August 8,
2011. This bill requires DOGGR to prioritize the identification
and testing of all pipelines under its jurisdiction, regardless
of size or what it carries, for leaks that are near sensitive
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areas, such as residential areas and schools.
Leak reporting requirements: Statute and regulation have
various requirements for reporting leaks of hazardous substances
and the subsequent response. For example, for oil discharges to
land greater than or equal to a barrel, the facility owner or
operator must report to the Governor's Office of Emergency
Services (CalOES) (PRC § 3233); for a release or threatened
release of hazardous materials that may pose a significant
threat to human health and safety, property or the environment,
the handler must report to CalOES, the local unified program
agencies (CUPAs) and/ or 911 (HSC § 25510); for illegal
discharges or threatened discharges of hazardous waste, the
designated government employee must report to the local health
officer or local board of supervisors (HSC § 25180.7(b)); and,
significant gas or water leaks resulting from or associated with
an oil or gas drilling or producing operation, or related
facility, must be promptly reported to the appropriate DOGGR
district office (CCR, Title 14, §1722(i)).
This bill clarifies the reporting process by requiring that the
operator of a pipeline under DOGGR's jurisdiction must promptly
notify the local health officer and DOGGR when he or she detects
a leak.
Leak response requirements: The Arvin incident illustrates the
complexity of local and state response to leaks, and delegated
authority for response to leaks varies throughout the state.
While state agencies often work directly with local agencies to
respond to and remediate leaks, there is often not a requirement
for state agencies to provide resources to the local responding
agency. AB 1173 requires the local health officer or designee
to work in collaboration with DOGGR to respond to leaks, thus
bringing state resources to local efforts. Further, this bill
requires the party responsible for the leak to, under the
direction on the locale health officer, test the soil, water and
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air for contamination and, if the local health officer
determines that the threat poses a serious threat, to notify all
residents affected by the leak. These provisions require the
responsible party to pay for testing and notification in
response to a leak and serve to legitimize testing and response
by requiring the local health officer to oversee the testing
process.
Double referral: This bill was double referred to the Assembly
Natural Resources Committee, in which it is set for a hearing
April 27, 2015.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
None on file.
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by:Shannon McKinney / E.S. & T.M. / (916)
319-3965
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