BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1787
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB
1787 (Gomez)
As Introduced February 4, 2016
Majority vote
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|Committee |Votes|Ayes |Noes |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Natural |7-0 |Williams, Jones, | |
|Resources | |Gomez, Harper, | |
| | |McCarty, Mark Stone, | |
| | |Wood | |
| | | | |
|----------------+-----+----------------------+--------------------|
|Appropriations |17-0 |Gonzalez, Bigelow, | |
| | |Bloom, Bonilla, | |
| | |Bonta, Calderon, | |
| | |Chang, Daly, | |
| | |Gallagher, Eduardo | |
| | |Garcia, | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | |Roger Hernández, | |
| | |Holden, Jones, Quirk, | |
| | |Santiago, Wagner, | |
| | |Weber | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
AB 1787
Page 2
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SUMMARY: Requires the California Environmental Protection
Agency's (CalEPA) cross-media enforcement unit to prioritize the
state's most disadvantaged communities. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Requires the cross-media enforcement unit to prioritize the
state's most disadvantaged communities when exercising its
authority.
2)Defines "state's most disadvantaged communities" as
communities identified by the California Communities
Environmental Health Screening Tool (CalEnviroScreen) as the
disadvantaged communities most disproportionately burdened and
vulnerable to multiple sources of pollution.
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, this bill has no additional state costs.
COMMENTS: According to the Office of Environmental Health
Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), approximately 8 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%), but
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. Air Resources Board (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.
Additionally, enforcement of environmental laws tends to be more
rigorous in white and more affluent communities; whereas, lower
AB 1787
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income communities and communities of color tend to correlate
with fewer inspections and enforcement actions.
In 2000, legislation [SB 89 (Escutia), Chapter 728] required
CalEPA to convene the Environmental Justice Working Group and
develop an agency-wide environmental justice strategy. In 2001,
follow up legislation [SB 828 (Alarcon), Chapter 765]
established a timeline for these requirements and required
CalEPA to update its report to the Legislature every three
years. In October of 2004, CalEPA released its Environmental
Justice Action Plan; however, the agency has never completed the
required updates.
In 2012, SB 535 (De León), Chapter 830, required CalEPA to
identify disadvantaged communities for investment opportunities
using the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Pursuant to this
requirement, OEHHA has developed CalEnviroScreen that uses
existing environmental, health, and socioeconomic data to
determine the extent to which communities across the state are
burdened by and vulnerable to pollution. OEHHA states that the
results generated by CalEnviroScreen are not intended to assign
responsibility for any issues identified. The intent is to
provide information that enables the state to focus time,
resources, and programs on areas that are in the greatest need
of assistance.
In 2013, CalEPA established an Environmental Justice Compliance
and Enforcement Working Group (working group) to improve
multi-media enforcement and environmental justice efforts. The
working group includes representatives from the CalEPA boards,
departments, and offices, as well as local agencies that have
enforcement authority. According to CalEPA, the primary
objective of the working group is to coordinate compliance
assistance and enforcement activities in the state's most
disadvantaged communities, where multiple sources of pollution
exist and residents are disproportionately vulnerable. The
AB 1787
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working group's first initiative was conducted in 2013 and 2014
in Fresno. It included community consultation, compliance
assistance for regulated entities, and coordinated, multi-agency
compliance sweeps. The initiative overall resulted in 46
citations for violations of air pollution regulations and three
enforcement actions relating to improper management of hazardous
waste. The working group is in the process of selecting the
next community for an initiative.
This bill directs CalEPA's cross-media enforcement unit to focus
its activities on the communities that are most in need of
assistance.
Analysis Prepared by: Elizabeth
MacMillan / NAT. RES. / (916) 319-2092 FN:
0002715