BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE FOOD and AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE
Senator Dean Florez, Chairman
BILL NO: AB 219 HEARING: 7/7/09
AUTHOR: Ruskin FISCAL: No
VERSION: 2/4/09 CONSULTANT: John Chandler
Pest control: plant quarantine inspection stations.
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
Current law requires that all motor vehicles entering the state
with a shipment of any agricultural commodity shall have the
vehicle and the shipment inspected and obtain a certificate of
inspection. Failure to obtain an inspection certificate would
result in a civil penalty of $1,000 per violation. Statute
directs the courts, in determining the severity of the penalty,
to consider any prior violations of the same nature within the
preceding 24-month period, the commodity being transported, and
evidence of deviation of routes to avoid inspection.
California's Border Protection Stations (BPS) are the first line
of defense in our pest exclusion efforts. At these stations,
vehicles are inspected for commodities infested with invasive
species. California established its first agricultural
inspection stations in the early 1920s. Today, there are 16 of
these facilities located on the major highways entering the
state.
In 2008, more than 22.1 million private vehicles and 7.3 million
commercial vehicles were inspected at the BPS. From these
vehicles, inspectors rejected over 43,000 lots of plant material
(fruits, vegetables, plants, etc.) because they were in
violation of California or federal plant quarantine laws.
From these interceptions, inspectors found and submitted 9,314
specimens such as insects, diseases, weeds, mollusks, and
vertebrate animals to CDFA's Plant Pest Diagnostics Lab for
identification. Over 2,500 of submitted specimens were found to
be exotic invasive species capable of causing serious damage.
Among these were gypsy moth, Asian citrus psyllid, quagga
mussel, imported fire ant, cherry fruit fly, Japanese beetle,
spotted knapweed, cedar-apple rust, and glassy-winged
sharpshooter.
Since the establishment of the border stations around the state,
the budget woes of California have taken their toll on this
program. Of the 16 stations, seven were shifted to part-time
during the budget crisis of 1990, and during the 2002 budget
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debates, private-vehicle inspection at all stations was
discontinued. However, in 2008, seeing the increased exposure
to potentially harmful pests and diseases, all the inspection
stations resumed private-vehicle inspection and returned all
stations to full-time operation.
PROPOSED LAW
AB 219 will increase civil penalties from $1000 to $2500 for
failure to obtain a certificate of inspection for every motor
vehicle entering the state with a shipment of any agricultural
commodity.
COMMENTS
1.According to the author, AB 219 makes changes to penalties for
failure to obey agricultural inspection station requirements.
These penalties have not been adjusted since 1987 when the
regulations were first adopted. The border stations are an
important tool helping to reduce California's exposure to
harmful, invasive pests and diseases. It is estimated that
every 60 days a new invasive species enters California. Each
year, California loses an estimated $3 billion in lost
economic revenue due to the damages and impacts from invasive
species. The increase in border inspection station penalties
is an important deterrent that helps control new invasive
species introduction.
PRIOR ACTIONS
Assembly Floor 74-0
Assembly Agriculture 8-0
SUPPORT
Regional Council of Rural Counties
OPPOSITION
None received
AB 219 - Page 3