BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2465|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2465
Author: Chesbro (D)
Amended: 8/18/14 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 : 77-0, 5/27/14 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Burning of lands: private burns
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires the Department of Forestry and
Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), develop an Internet Web site that
provides the public information regarding regulations governing
prescribed burns for forest fuel treatment and to develop a
uniform prescribed burn template.
ANALYSIS :
Existing law:
1.Prohibits a person from burning any brush, stumps, logs,
fallen timber, fallows, slash, grass-covered land,
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brush-covered land, forest-covered land, or other flammable
material, in any state responsibility area unless the person
has a written permit from CAL FIRE.
2.CAL FIRE's Private Burn Permit Program.
A. Declares that it is a public purpose for CAL FIRE to
cooperate with any person desiring to use prescribed
burning as a means of converting brush-covered lands into
forage lands, which has as its objective prevention of high
intensity wild land fires, watershed management, range
improvement, vegetation management, forest improvement,
wildlife habitat improvement, and maintenance of air
quality, or any combination thereof.
B. Requires CAL FIRE to provide advisory service to
applicants for permits as to precautions to be taken by the
applicant to prevent damage to the property of others by
reason of the prescribed burning. Requires CAL FIRE to
provide standby fire protection, to such extent as
personnel, fire crews, and firefighting equipment are
available.
C. Authorizes any landowner with brush-covered land within
a state responsibility area to apply to CAL FIRE for
permission to burn the brush from such lands. Requires the
application to be on a form prescribed by CAL FIRE and to
contain a description of the lands and such other pertinent
information as the CAL FIRE may require.
1.Creates the Smoke Management Guidelines for Agricultural and
Prescribed Burning, which addresses, among other things,
prescribed burning for forest improvement, to provide
direction to regional air districts in the regulation and
control of agricultural burning. (According to Title 17
California Code of Regulations Section 80100, these guidelines
are intended to provide for the continuation of agricultural
burning, including prescribed burning, as a resource
management tool, and provide increased opportunities for
prescribed burning and agricultural burning, while minimizing
smoke impacts on the public.)
This bill:
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1.Makes findings and declarations regarding wildfires and
prescribed burns.
2.Requires CAL FIRE, no later than July 1, 2015, to develop
both:
A. An Internet Web site that provides the public various
information regarding prescribed burns, including
information on the regulations governing prescribed burns
for forest fuel treatment; information on how to obtain the
appropriate regulatory permits for prescribed burns for
forest fuel treatment; a link to the Prescribed Fire
Information Reporting System and any other relevant
information about permissive burn days and no-burn days
that the ARB and the local air districts deem are
appropriate to provide publicly; and state contact
information, as specified.
B. A uniform prescribed burn template for forest landowners
that provides standardized procedures associated with the
planning and implementation of a prescribed burn and meets
specified objectives. CAL FIRE may contract with an
institution within the University of California with an
expertise in fire research and outreach to perform any of
the above requirements.
1.Provides that the development of the Internet Web site and the
uniform prescribed burn template be done in consultation with
the ARB, local air districts, and other relevant organizations
and individuals.
Background
This harvesting of large-diameter trees, and land conversion
over the past 150 years has changed fuel conditions over
millions of acres of forests such that recent wildfire have
tended to be larger and more severe. Conditions created by a
changing climate are expected to continue this trend, with the
impacts further exacerbated by increasing frequency of drought
conditions.
Fire experts generally recognize that the reduction of forest
fuels, such as downed wood, shrubs, and intermediate-size trees
that can carry fire into the forest canopy, reduces the
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likelihood of severe wild fires and the large costs associated
with suppressing them. These costs are substantial-last year's
Rim Fire, which burned more than 250,000 acres in the central
Sierra Nevada region, was estimated at $125.8 million as of
September 27, 2013. In 2008, the Basin Complex and Indians Fire
in Monterey County burned almost 240,000 acres and cost
approximately $120 million. These two fires are considered
among the largest and most costly in state history. This is
especially relevant in the context of a warming climate with
increased risk of catastrophic wildfires and severe drought
conditions.
A recent scientific article published in the journal Bioscience
explains that forest fuel reduction using prescribed fire, where
fire is ignited under known conditions of fuel, weather, and
topography to burn away surface and ladder fuels, used in
combination with mechanical treatment (i.e., removal of small
trees with heavy equipment and/or grinding up small trees and
shrubs) is effective at reducing future fire intensity and
improving tree health without negatively impacting understory
vegetation, soil density or erosion, wildlife, or carbon
storage.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency
(US EPA), "Prescribed fire is a cost-effective and ecologically
sound tool for forest, range, and wetland management. Its use
reduces the potential for destructive wildfires and thus
maintains long-term air quality."
Health effects from wildfire smoke . According to the Center for
Disease Control and Prevention, smoke is made up of a complex
mixture of gases and particles produced when wood and other
organic matter burn. A major health threat from smoke comes
from fine particles (also called particle pollution, particulate
matter, or PM 2.5). In addition to particle pollution, wood
smoke contains several toxic harmful air pollutants including:
benzene, formaldehyde, acrolein and methane.
According to the US EPA, particle pollution exposure can lead to
a variety of health effects.
Short-term exposures to PM 2.5 can lead to burning eyes and
runny noses, due to penetration of the particles into the eyes
and respiratory system. Short-term exposures to particles
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(hours or days) can also aggravate lung disease, causing asthma
attacks and acute bronchitis, and may also increase
susceptibility to respiratory infections.
Long-term exposures have been associated with reduced lung
function and the development of chronic bronchitis, increased
hospital admissions and emergency room visits - and even
premature death.
Some studies also suggest that long-term PM 2.5 exposures may be
linked to cancer and to harmful developmental and reproductive
effects, such as infant mortality and low birth weight.
On October 17, 2013, the specialized cancer agency of the World
Health Organization, the International Agency for Research on
Cancer, classified outdoor air pollution, and particulate matter
as a major component of outdoor air pollution, as carcinogenic
to humans.
State regulation of PM 2.5 and smoke . PM 2.5 regulation: As
described above, PM 2.5 poses a risk to human health at elevated
levels and has an associated ambient air quality standard. An
air quality standard defines the maximum amount of a criteria
air pollutant that can be present in outdoor air without harm to
the public's health. Both the ARB and the US EPA are authorized
to set ambient air quality standards. For PM 2.5, the state's
24-hour limit matches the federal standard.
Recently, the US EPA significantly strengthened the PM 2.5
standard due to scientific and epidemiological studies
documenting air pollution's substantial deleterious effects on
public health. In California, local air districts are tasked
with comprehensive air quality pollution control over stationary
sources to achieve and maintain these ambient air quality
standards.
ARB and air district regulation of prescribed burns . State
Smoke Management Guidelines, adopted by ARB through regulation,
provide direction to air pollution control and air quality
management districts (air districts) in the regulation and
control prescribed burning to assure that each air district has
a smoke management program that meets air district and regional
needs. The Guidelines are intended to ensure the use of
prescribed burning as a resource management tool while
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minimizing smoke and PM 2.5 impacts on the public for the
protection of public health. Local air districts are tasked
with implementation and enforcement of these smoke management
programs and any other additional local rules and regulations
regarding burning.
The regulations require burners to consider alternatives to
burning in planning their burn projects, and require local air
district permission prior to conducting prescribed burns.
Before obtaining air district permission, a burner must complete
the following planning steps:
1.Register their burn with the air district;
2.Obtain an air district and/or fire agency burn permit;
3.Submit a smoke management plan (SMP) to the air district,
which specifies the "smoke prescription," which is a set of
air quality, meteorological, and fuel conditions needed before
burn ignition may be allowed; and
4.Obtain air district approval of the SMP.
After the air district approves all the burn planning
requirements, including the permit and SMP, the burner must
implement requirements of permit and components of the SMP and
obtain a final air district authorization to burn no more than
24 hours in advance, with authorization subject to change
depending on meteorological conditions.
By consolidating regulatory and permit requirements, best
management practices, contact information, and other information
necessary for private landowners to appropriately conduct
prescribed burns, this bill may help reduce smoke impacts and
impacts to natural resources, while ensuring appropriate fuel
reduction in wildlands to better improve forest resiliency and
protect wildlands against severe wildfires.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
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One-time costs of $170,000 from the General Fund for CAL FIRE
to develop the information required on the Internet Web site
and the uniform prescribed burn template.
Minor and absorbable ongoing costs from the General Fund for
CAL FIRE to maintain the Internet Web site and to update its
content as necessary.
SUPPORT : (per the Senate Environmental Quality Committee
analysis of 4/21/14--Unable to reverify at time of writing)
Institute for Sustainable Forestry
Northern California Prescribed Fire Council
UC Berkeley Center for Fire and Outreach
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 77-0, 5/27/14
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Bigelow, Bloom,
Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian
Calderon, Campos, Chau, Ch�vez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley,
Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox,
Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon,
Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hern�ndez,
Holden, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal,
Maienschein, Mansoor, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Muratsuchi,
Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Perea, John A. P�rez, V.
Manuel P�rez, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas,
Rodriguez, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Wagner, Waldron,
Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Patterson, Quirk-Silva, Vacancy
RM:ek 8/17/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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