BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 371|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 371
Author: Salas (D)
Amended: 8/21/14 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/18/14
AYES: Hill, Gaines, Fuller, Hancock, Jackson, Leno, Pavley
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-0, 8/14/14
AYES: De Le�n, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Walters, Gaines
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 49-6, 1/30/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Sewage sludge: Kern County
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires that the State Water Resources
Control Board (SWRCB) to require the testing of sewage sludge or
other biological solids applied on properties in Kern County.
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/21/14 limit the requirements of the
bill to entities that apply more than 10,000 tons of sewage
sludge or biological solids per year.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
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1. Under the California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989:
A. Requires each city or county source reduction and
recycling element to include an implementation schedule
that shows a city or county must divert 50% of solid
waste generated in the jurisdiction. The Department of
Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) is
responsible to ensure that by January 1, 2020, 75% of
the solid waste generated in California is source
reduced, recycled, or composted.
B. Declares that it is in the public interest for the
state to authorize and require local agencies, as
subdivisions of the state, to make adequate provisions
for solid waste handling, both within their respective
jurisdictions and in response to regional needs.
C. Authorizes a city or county to assess special fees
of a reasonable amount on the importation of waste from
outside of the county to publicly-owned or
privately-owned facilities.
2. Under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act, provides that
SWRCB and the nine California regional water quality control
boards (regional boards) are the principal state agencies
with responsibility for the coordination and control of water
quality in California.
3. Requires SWRCB or a regional board, upon receipt of an
application, to prescribe general waste discharge
requirements (WDRs) for dischargers of dewatered, treated, or
chemically fixed sewage sludge and other biological solids,
and specifies that their prescription shall be considered to
be ministerial.
4. Requires the general WDR to set minimum standards for
agronomic applications of sewage sludge and other biological
solids. WDRs require that the use of sludge and those other
solids in agriculture, forestry, and surface mining
reclamation must mitigate significant environmental impacts
or potential public health hazards.
This bill:
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1. Provides from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2016,
inclusive, provides that SWRCB shall require, for the
pathogens and endotoxins as specified, additional testing two
times per year on properties in Kern County where sewage
sludge or other biological solids are applied.
2. Authorizes the SWRCB to identify additional pathogens,
endotoxins, and other hazards for testing based on the
potential for groundwater contamination and potential to
adversely affect human health originating in sewage sludge or
other biological solids.
3. Requires the SWRCB to review the testing conducted and submit
a report after each test conducted containing the results of
the test to the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic
Materials Committee, the Senate Environmental Quality
Committee, and the Kern County Board of Supervisors.
4. Requires the SWRCB from January 1, 2015, to December 31,
2016, inclusive, to require, on property located in Kern
County where sewage sludge or other biological solids are
applied, monitoring of shallow groundwater beneath or
downgradient, or both, of a biological solids application
site for the specified pathogens and endotoxins, at least
once in the spring and once in the fall.
5. Provides that the requirements set forth in this bill do not
apply to entities with less than 10,000 tons of sewage sludge
or biological solids per year.
Background
Sewage sludge . According to the United States Environmental
Protection Agency (US EPA), "sewage sludge" refers to the solids
separated during the treatment of municipal wastewater. The
definition includes domestic sewage. "Biosolids" refers to
treated sewage sludge that meets the US EPA pollutant and
pathogen requirements for land application and surface disposal.
The most common treatment of sewage sludge in the western
region of the U.S. is by anaerobic digestion to "Class B"
pathogen reduction levels. Approximately one-third of the
biosolids receive further treatment to "Class A" pathogen
reduction levels, by means such as composting, solar air-drying,
alkali treatment, thermophilic digestion, pasteurization, or
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heat drying. Many small treatment plants use methods of
treatment other than anaerobic digestion, such as air drying,
aerobic digestion, or lime treatment. Under certain conditions,
these processes meet "Class B" pathogen reduction.
Public health and sewage sludge . According to a 2002, National
Research Council report entitled, Biosolids Applied to Land:
Advancing Standards and Practices, "Toxic chemicals, infectious
organisms, and endotoxins or cellular material may all be
present in biosolids. There are anecdotal reports attributing
adverse health effects to biosolids exposures, ranging from
relatively mild irritant and allergic reactions to severe and
chronic health outcomes. Odors are a common complaint about
biosolids, and greater consideration should be given to whether
odors from biosolids could have adverse health effects.
However, a causal association between biosolids exposures and
adverse health outcomes has not been documented. To date,
epidemiological studies have not been conducted on exposed
populations, such as biosolids appliers, farmers who use
biosolids on their fields, and communities near land application
sites."
Imported sewage sludge in Kern County . The City of Los Angeles,
Orange County Sanitation District, Los Angeles County Sanitation
District No. 2, and others have sent hundreds of thousands of
tons of sewage sludge to land applications in Kern County. The
land disposal has taken place at Green Acres Farm, which the
City of Los Angeles owns, and the privately owned Honey Bucket
Farms and Tule Ranch in Kern County. The City of Los Angles
currently applies 80,000 tons of sewage sludge annually to their
Green Acres facility.
Kern County action on sewage sludge . In 2006, the voters of
Kern County approved Measure E to ban the importation of sewage
sludge into Kern County. It is sometimes called "the
anti-sludge ordinance," since it bans the importation into Kern
County of sludge (sewage) from other counties. The ballot
question read, "Shall the ordinance prohibiting the land
application of biosolids in the unincorporated area of Kern
County be adopted?"
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
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According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, annual costs
of at least $70,000 from the Waste Discharge permit Fund
(special) in 2015 and 2016 to the SWRCB to require testing of
permitees and review results.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/22/14)
Arvin-Edison Water Storage District
Asian Pacific Environmental Network
California Farm Bureau
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Californians Against Waste
Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment
Central California Environmental Justice Network
Central Valley Air Quality Coalition
Cities of Bakersfield, Wasco, Shafter, Delano, and Arvin
Clean Water Action
Communities for a Better Environment
Community Water Center
Environmental Working Group
Kern County Board of Supervisors
Kern County Water Agency
League of Conservation Voters
Paramount Farming
People Organizing to Demand Environmental & Economic Rights
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Sierra Club - Kern-Kaweah Chapter
Western Growers
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/22/14)
California Association of Sanitation Agencies
Carpinteria Sanitary District
City of Burlingame Wastewater Treatment Facility
City of Corona
City of Los Angeles
North San Mateo County Sanitation District, Daly City
Dublin San Ramon Services District
East Bay Municipal Utility District
El Dorado Irrigation District
Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District
JSH International
Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District
Las Virgenes, Triunfo Joint Powers Authority
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Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts
North San Mateo County Sanitation District
Ojai Valley Sanitary District
Orange County Sanitation District
Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Southern California Alliance of Publicly Owned Treatment Works
Synagro Technologies, Inc.
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The Western Growers asserted that
"groundwater contamination is already an issue in Kern County
and with increasingly limited water supplies, protection of
local aquifers is of the utmost importance. Federal and state
regulations on biosolid applications have not been updated in
over 20 years?.. The reasonable amount of testing proposed in AB
371 provides assurance that sewage sludge land applications will
not exacerbate existing groundwater contamination problems."
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : According to the San Francisco
Public Utilities Commission, "AB 371 would establish unnecessary
and excessive testing of biosolids used in land applications in
Kern County. Biosolids are already tested and monitored by the
sanitation agencies which produce them? Most troubling to the
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is the
precedent this bill sets for entities that wish to land-apply
biosolids in other counties in California."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 49-6, 1/30/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Ammiano, Atkins, Bonta, Bradford,
Brown, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chesbro, Cooley, Daly,
Dickinson, Eggman, Fox, Frazier, Garcia, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez, Holden,
Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Medina, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nestande,
Pan, Perea, V. Manuel P�rez, Quirk-Silva, Rendon,
Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Stone, Ting, Weber,
Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A. P�rez
NOES: Bloom, Ch�vez, Dababneh, Beth Gaines, Gatto, Wagner
NO VOTE RECORDED: Allen, Bigelow, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Buchanan,
Conway, Dahle, Donnelly, Fong, Gomez, Hagman, Jones, Linder,
Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Mansoor, Melendez, Morrell,
Nazarian, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Skinner, Waldron
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RM:d:n 8/22/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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