BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 408|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 408
Author: Wieckowski (D), et al.
Amended: 7/13/11 in Senate
Vote: 27 - Urgency
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 7/6/11
AYES: Simitian, Strickland, Blakeslee, Hancock, Kehoe,
Lowenthal, Pavley
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 5/19/11 (Consent) - See last page
for vote
SUBJECT : Hazardous substances and materials:
transportation
SOURCE : California Association of Environmental Health
Administrators
DIGEST : This bill makes changes to hazardous material
reporting, emergency response, and hazardous waste manifest
requirements.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1. Provides that those expenses of an emergency response
necessary to protect the public from a real and imminent
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threat to health and safety by a public agency to
confine, prevent, or mitigate the release, escape, or
burning of hazardous substances, as defined, are a
charge against any person whose negligence causes the
incident, if either of the following occurs:
A. Evacuation beyond the property where the incident
originates is necessary to prevent loss of life or
injury.
B. The incident results in the spread of hazardous
substances or fire posing a real and imminent threat
to public health and safety beyond the property of
origin.
2. Requires all generators, transporters and facility
operators that handle hazardous wastes to obtain an
identification number from the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) or Department
of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) depending on the
amount and types of hazardous waste they handle, and pay
an annual fee.
3. Requires generators, transporters and facility operators
to complete a manifest that tracks the shipment of
hazardous waste from generation to disposal.
4. Authorizes certain California hazardous wastes, as
defined, to be transported using a consolidated
manifest.
5. Requires businesses to have response plans for releases
of specified hazardous materials and provide an annual
inventory of hazardous materials handled to the
Certified Unified Program Agencies (CUPAs). Requires
any person who handles hazardous material to annually
submit an inventory of hazardous materials to the CUPA.
This bill:
1. Enables local government cost recovery for emergency
response to hazardous substances spills under a wider
range of circumstances.
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2. Provides that those expenses of an emergency response
necessary to protect the public from a real and imminent
threat to health and safety by a public agency to
confine, prevent, or mitigate the release, escape, or
burning of hazardous substances, as defined, are a
charge against any person whose negligence causes the
incident, if either of the following occurs:
A. Evacuation from the building, structure, property,
or public right-of-way where the incident originates
is necessary to prevent loss of life or injury; or
B. The incident results in the spread of hazardous
substances or fire posing a real and imminent threat
to public health and safety beyond the building,
structure, property, or public right-of-way where the
incident originates.
3. Expands the definition of "hazardous substance" for
purposes of local government cost recovery.
4. Allows for the consolidating manifesting procedures for
haulers of hazardous waste to be used for the receipt,
by a transporter, of one shipment of used oil from a
generator whose identification number has been
suspended, if certain requirements are met. Sunsets
this authority on January 1, 2014.
5. Allows a CUPA to exempt reporting for hazardous material
quantities less than the federal Emergency Planning and
Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) threshold levels for
low hazard materials.
Comments
Purpose of the bill . According to the author, "AB 408
provides a wide-ranging series of regulatory reforms
addressing the problems of business, local governments, and
emergency personnel in complying with California hazardous
material and hazardous waste laws. In many cases we find
conflicting standards between State and federal agencies or
the laws have failed to keep up with changing industrial
practices. This bill brings together primarily technical
elements of our statutes that need to be easier to
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understand, simpler for business and local governments to
comply with but done in a way that increases the actual
protection on the public health and the environment."
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/16/11)
California Association of Environmental Health
Administrators (source)
Independent Waste Oil Collectors and Transporters
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author's office contends that
this bill (1) allows local governments to recover the cost
of emergency response to toxic spills that originate in the
public right of way, (2) enables hazardous waste
transporters to remove potentially harmful loads of used
oil even if the generator has failed to renew his/her
identification number, and (3) resolves inconsistencies
between state and federal hazardous waste laws to reflect
changed business practices.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 78-0, 5/19/11 (Consent)
AYES: Achadjian, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Beall, Bill
Berryhill, Block, Blumenfield, Bonilla, Bradford,
Brownley, Buchanan, Butler, Charles Calderon, Campos,
Carter, Cedillo, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Davis, Dickinson,
Donnelly, Eng, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Furutani,
Beth Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gatto, Gordon, Grove,
Hagman, Halderman, Hall, Harkey, Hayashi, Roger
Hern�ndez, Hill, Huber, Hueso, Huffman, Jeffries, Jones,
Knight, Lara, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal, Ma, Mansoor,
Mendoza, Miller, Mitchell, Monning, Morrell, Nestande,
Nielsen, Norby, Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel P�rez,
Portantino, Silva, Skinner, Smyth, Solorio, Swanson,
Torres, Valadao, Wagner, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada,
John A. P�rez
NO VOTE RECORDED: Alejo, Gorell
DLW:mw 8/16/11 Senate Floor Analyses
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SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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