BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1190
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator Jerry Hill, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 1190
AUTHOR: Bloom
AMENDED: July 1, 2013
FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: June 18, 2014
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Rachel Machi
Wagoner
SUBJECT : HAZARDOUS WASTE: TRANSPORTATION
SUMMARY :
Existing law :
1)Authorizes the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC)
to regulate hazardous waste generation, transportation,
treatment, storage, and disposal pursuant to both the
federal Resources Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) rules
and additional state requirements.
2)Requires shipments of hazardous waste to be accompanied by a
hazardous waste manifest and transported by a hazardous
waste hauler registered by DTSC.
3)Exempts shipments of hazardous waste from the manifest and
registered hauler requirements if the waste is transported
from a "remote site" to a "consolidation site," as defined,
operated by the generator; the transport of the waste is not
federally regulated; and, the generator meets specified
requirements relating to personnel, training, transport
vehicles, liability, shipping papers, and packaging.
4)Provides an exemption for that public utility, local
publicly owned utilities and municipal utility districts
that may transport up to 1,600 gallons of hazardous
wastewater pumped from utility vaults and up to 500 gallons
of other liquid hazardous wastes.
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This bill :
1)Exempts up to 5,000 gallons of wastewater transported by
public utilities in a single shipment from a remote site to
a consolidation site from hazardous waste transport
requirements in specified emergency situations.
2)Requires that an exempted shipment pursuant to the above
exemption not be consolidated with any other waste and be
transported directly to a consolidation site.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of Bill . According to the author, this bill,
"adjusts the capacity requirements for non-RCRA hazardous
waste transportation by public utilities and local publicly
owned utilities to reflect the existing transport capacity.
Currently, the utility fleets travel with partial loads due
to requirements in statute. This results in unnecessary
trips to clear right-of-ways, vaults, or to perform regular
maintenance, increasing not just the amount of time that
these trucks spend on the road but also increasing road
congestion, diesel emissions and fuel consumption. It also
slows down the process of restoring service to ratepayers."
2)Hazardous Waste Transportation . According to DTSC, a
hazardous waste manifest must accompany most hazardous waste
that is shipped off site. The Uniform Hazardous Waste
Manifest is the shipping document that travels with
hazardous waste from the point of generation, through
transportation, to the final treatment, storage, and
disposal facility. Each party in the chain of shipping,
including the generator, signs and keeps one of the manifest
copies, creating a "cradle-to-grave" tracking of the
hazardous waste. Hazardous waste that is transported
off-site on public highways must be moved to an authorized
treatment, storage, or disposal facility by a registered
hazardous waste transporter in an inspected and certified
vehicle, using a Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifest.
When the remote site hazardous waste manifest and transport
exemption was originally enacted, it was intended to
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facilitate the safe collection and transportation of small
amounts of hazardous waste generated in remote locations to
a consolidation site.
3)Background: Classifying and Regulating Hazardous Wastes .
California has broader and more specific definitions for
waste than the federal requirements. In addition to the
listed and characteristic wastes under the federal rules and
California's non-RCRA hazardous wastes, the state also adds
extremely hazardous wastes and special wastes. California
has not adopted all of the federal waste and hazardous waste
exclusions, which makes its waste determination rules
stricter than the federal requirements. Wastes can be
considered hazardous if they are either listed or if they
are a mixture of a listed hazardous waste and other wastes.
Despite California's stricter regulation of hazardous waste,
there remain potentially significant gaps in regulation,
primarily due to the fact that so little is known about
toxicity of so many waste streams. Moreover, since the
determination of toxicity is left to vague criteria (e.g.,
the hazardous waste "exhibits" a characteristic of
toxicity), the state is operating within a context of
considerable uncertainty.
While AB 1190 does nothing to alter the existing
architecture to regulate hazardous waste, the integrity of
public health and environmental protections afforded by
these waste laws may be compromised by allowing utilities to
transport larger quantities of hazardous wastewater without
characterization and without manifest.
The sponsors cite that this expansion of the current
allowance would allow for quicker response time in
emergencies after storm events. In an emergency there is
not time to do the necessary testing of the waste in order
to classify and manifest the waste. The sponsor asserts
that this allowance will allow quicker response in emergency
situations.
While this may be laudable, allowing 5,000 gallon trucks of
unclassified unmanifested hazardous waste on California
highways poses a risk to public health and safety of
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exposure to 5,000 gallons of hazardous waste in an
accidental spill.
4)Senate Environmental Quality Committee Hearing . AB 1190 was
heard by the Senate Environmental Quality Committee on June
26, 2013. The committee discussed whether the benefit of
moving large quantities of waste in an emergency outweighed
the risk of a potential spill of a large quantity of an
unknown substance. The bill failed on a vote (2-4) with
reconsideration granted.
5)Arguments in support . According to the California Fire
Chiefs Association, "An increase in the allowable volume of
contaminated water from underground substructures from 1,600
to 5,000 gallons per load would benefit the public in the
following ways: Shorten restoration times for emergency
utility operations; prevent further contamination or
potential release of contaminants in flooded vaults during a
storm event; decrease fuel consumption, reduce vehicle miles
traveled and diesel emissions from hauling multiple loads
with smaller rank trucks or partial loads; and decrease
response time to evacuate water from vaults reducing lane
closure times and decrease street traffic during routine
work and emergencies."
6)Recent related legislation . AB 868 (Davis, 2011) would have
revised the condition for exempting manifest and transporter
requirements pertaining to hazardous waste to an increased
maximum weight of 10,000 pounds (an increase from the
currently allowable 2,500 pounds or 275 gallons) and
increased the maximum 1,600 gallon hazardous wastewater
exception for utility generators to a maximum of 5,000
gallons. This bill was held in the Assembly Environmental
Safety and Toxic Materials Committee.
SB 466 (Oropeza, 2010) would have revised the condition for
exempting manifest and transporter requirements pertaining
to hazardous waste to an increased maximum weight of 10,000
pounds and increase the maximum 1,600 gallon hazardous
wastewater exemption for certain generators to a maximum of
5,000 gallons. This bill was held in the Senate
Environmental Quality Committee.
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SOURCE : California Council for Environmental and
Economic Balance (CCEEB)
SUPPORT : California Fire Chiefs Association
California Municipal Utilities Association
OPPOSITION : None on file