BILL ANALYSIS
SB 167
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Date of Hearing: July 8, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
SB 167 (Ducheny) - As Amended: April 22, 2009
Policy Committee: Natural
ResourcesVote:7-2
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill authorizes the California Integrated Waste Management
Board (CIWMB) to spend tire fee funds for waste tire-related
activities in the California-Mexico border region.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Authorizes CIWMB to use tire fee monies to fund specified
waste tire-related activities in the border region, defined as
an area 100 kilometers on either side of the U.S.-Mexico
Border.
2)Requires CIWMB to include waste tire-related developments in
Mexico and the border region in its biennially updated
five-year waste tire plan.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Negligible costs to include required information in CIWMB's
updates of its five-year waste tire plan.
2)Annual cost pressure of an unknown amount, but at least
several hundreds of thousands of dollars for administrative
and legal staff to implement the new grant program authorized
by this bill, should CIWMB choose to implement such a grant
program. (Tire Recycling Management Fund.)
COMMENTS
1)Rationale. According to the author, every winter, sewage and
trash-laden storm water carries thousands of waste tires from
Tijuana to California through the Tijuana River channel and
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open culverts in the border fence. This flow of waste tires
represents economic, environmental and public health
challenges to California's border communities. The author
contends this bill will provide information and, potentially,
funding to help address this issue.
2) Background.
a) Managing Tires by the Millions. According to CIWMB,
Californians generate about 44 million waste tires yearly.
In the past, most of California's waste tires were
deposited in landfills or dumped in illegal tire piles. To
reduce such wasteful or illegal disposal, the Legislature
enacted in 1990 the Waste Tire Recycling Management
Program. Administered by CIWMB, the program encourages the
diversion of waste tires through a number of activities,
including:
i) Conducting/funding research into new technologies
that increase the useful lifespan of tires.
ii) Conducting/funding research into waste tire product
development and applications.
iii) Assessing market demand for waste tire products.
iv) Undertaking, on its own and in conjunction with
state and local public agencies, waste tire demonstration
projects.
v) Providing marketing, grants, and technical
assistance to business and to state and local public end
users of waste-tire products.
vi) Developing waste tire engineering curriculum for use
at universities and in continuing education for
professionals.
Today, about 75% of waste tires are diverted to other
useful purposes, such as incineration in cement kilns and
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application as paving material.
The program is funded by a fee on the sale of each new
tire. Currently, the fee is $1.75 per tire, $0.75 of which
goes to the Air Pollution Control Fund for use by the Air
Resources Board for air pollution activities. The
remainder of fee revenues is used by CIWMB to administer
the waste tire recycling program.
Millions of Waste Tires Sent South of the Border.
According to CIWMB, about 2.3 million of California's waste
tires are exported to Mexico each year, where they are sold
as used tires, used for erosion control or as structural
materials, or burned in cement and brick kilns. Tens of
thousands of these tires wind up in illegal tire piles near
the border, where they pose environmental risks in both
Mexico and the United States.
3)Use of Tire Fee Monies in Mexico Raises Legal Questions. The
waste tire program is funded by a fee on the sale of new
tires. Because the program addresses health and environmental
issues that might result from the disposal of those tires,
there is a clear nexus between the fee collected and the
program that the fee funds.
This bill would authorize the program to fund certain types of
projects within 100 kilometers of the border, including
projects south of the border. The bill is drafted so that
funded projects address the movement of used tires from
California to Mexico that are eventually disposed in
California. However, many tires used in Mexico are produced
in Mexico, and California collects no fee on the sale of those
Mexican tires. According to CIWMB, it lacks data on Mexican
tire sales and tire disposal that would allow it to ensure
that the funding authorized by this bill is reasonably related
to the environmental, health and safety problems created only
by California tires in Mexico that are eventually disposed of
in California. Absent such data, the use of waste tire
program monies to fund waste tire projects in Mexico may be
open to legal challenge.
4)Support/Opposition . This bill is supported by several
environmental, local government, and industry groups. There
is no registered opposition to this bill.
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Analysis Prepared by : Jay Dickenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081