BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2438
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Date of Hearing: April 20, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Lorena Gonzalez, Chair
AB
2438 (Waldron) - As Introduced February 19, 2016
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
No
SUMMARY:
This bill exempts, until January 1, 2020, the installation and
maintenance of existing recycled water pipelines less than eight
miles in length from the California Environmental Quality Act
(CEQA) but requires a lead agency to file a Notice of Exemption
(NOE) with the Office of Planning and Research. This bill
prohibits specified projects from qualifying for the exemption.
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Before determining if a project is eligible for exemption, this
bill requires a lead agency to hold a noticed public hearing to
consider and adopt mitigation measures for potential traffic
impacts.
FISCAL EFFECT:
No additional state costs.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, in most cases the recycled
water pipelines are going in the ground next to existing water
pipelines, which are found on streets and roadways in public
right-of-ways. However, the CEQA process requires a project
to comply with numerous potential impacts creating extensive
time delays and costs.
This bill provides a short-term, narrow CEQA exemption to help
expedite projects.
2)Background. CEQA provides a process for evaluating the
environmental effects of applicable projects undertaken or
approved by public agencies. If a project is not exempt from
CEQA, an initial study is prepared to determine whether the
project may have a significant effect on the environment.
If the initial study shows that there would not be a
significant effect on the environment, the lead agency must
prepare a negative declaration. If the initial study shows
that the project may have a significant effect on the
environment, the lead agency must prepare an environmental
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impact report (EIR).
There is currently a CEQA exemption for relatively small-scale
pipeline maintenance and installation projects less than one
mile in length. A more specific exemption is available for
projects up to eight miles in length involving maintenance and
replacement, but not expansion, of pipelines, such as
petroleum pipelines regulated under the Pipeline Safety Act.
3)Prior legislation. This bill is identical to AB 2417
(Nazarian) of 2014 which was held in the Senate Environmental
Quality Committee.
Analysis Prepared by: Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081
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