BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2657
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2657 (Bloom)
As Amended May 5, 2014
Majority vote
ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY 4-2 WATER, PARKS
& WILDLIFE 9-5
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|Ayes:|Alejo, Bloom, Gomez, Ting |Ayes:|Rendon, Bocanegra, Fong, |
| | | |Frazier, Gatto, Gomez, |
| | | |Gonzalez, Rodriguez, |
| | | |Yamada |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Dahle, Donnelly |Nays:|Bigelow, Allen, Dahle, |
| | | |Beth Gaines, Patterson |
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APPROPRIATIONS 12-5
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|Ayes:|Gatto, Bocanegra, | | |
| |Bradford, | | |
| |Ian Calderon, Campos, | | |
| |Eggman, Gomez, Holden, | | |
| |Pan, Quirk, | | |
| |Ridley-Thomas, Weber | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Bigelow, Donnelly, Jones, | | |
| |Linder, Wagner | | |
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SUMMARY : Prohibits the use of anticoagulant rodenticides in
wildlife habitat areas. Specifically, this bill :
1)Prohibits the use, in a wildlife habitat area, of any
pesticide that contains one or more of the following
anticoagulants:
a) Brodifacoum;
b) Bromadiolone;
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c) Difenacoum; and,
d) Difethialone.
2)Defines a "wildlife habitat area" as any state or national
park, state or federal wildlife refuge, or state conservancy.
3)Specifies that the use prohibition does not apply to the use
of pesticides for agricultural activities.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Authorizes the state's pesticide regulatory program and
mandates the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) to,
among other things, provide for the proper, safe, and
efficient use of pesticides essential for the production of
food and fiber and for the protection of public health and
safety, and protect the environment from environmentally
harmful pesticides by prohibiting, regulating, or ensuring
proper stewardship of those pesticides.
2)Requires the director of DPR to control and otherwise regulate
the use of restricted materials.
3)Prohibits a person from using or possessing any pesticide
designated as a restricted material for any agricultural use
except under a written permit of the local agricultural
commissioner.
4)Prohibits, except as provided by regulation, the possession or
use of a restricted material by any person except a certified
private or commercial applicator, or someone under the direct
supervision of a certified private or commercial applicator.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, enactment of this bill would result in minor, if any
costs to the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) and minor, if
any reimbursable local costs.
COMMENTS :
Need for the bill: According to the author, "Last year while
authoring AB 1213, I was contacted by Santa Monica Mountain
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Conservancy, Puente Hills Habitat Preservation Authority, and
Joshua Tree National Park regarding numbers of their bobcat
populations succumbing to illness/ailments that normally they
would survive. The bobcats were dying from things like mange
that normally wouldn't kill them. The rodenticides were
identified as the possible issue as they were eating rodents who
had consumed the poison? DPR since then has begun regulatory
changes which could ban over-the-counter retail sales of the
anti-rodenticides to help curb the problem? This bill would take
these regulations a step further and ban the commercial use of
these anti-coagulants in state parks, national park, and
sensitive areas."
Second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs):
Anticoagulant rodenticides work by inhibiting a rodent's ability
to produce several key blood clotting factors, thus causing the
poisoned rodent to die from internal bleeding. Anticoagulant
rodenticide baits may take several days following ingestion of a
lethal dose to kill the rodent, so rodents may feed on the SGAR
bait multiple times before dying. As a result, rodent carcasses
may contain residues of SGARs many times over the lethal dose.
If a nontarget predator feeds on a rodent containing lethal
concentrations of a SGAR, the nontarget predator can also be
impacted by the rodenticide. Brodifacoum, bromadiolone,
difenacoum, and difethialone are active ingredients in SGARs.
Impact of SGARs on wildlife: In July 2011, DPR received a
request from DFW that DPR designate all SGARs as
California-restricted materials in order to mitigate nontarget
wildlife exposure in California. DFW contends that dozens of
non-target species are impacted by anticoagulant pesticides
including the golden eagle, great-horned owl, barn owl,
red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered hawk, black bear, fisher, red
fox, San Joaquin kit fox, mountain lion, bobcat, and kangaroo
rat.
In response to DFW's request, DPR took steps to obtain wildlife
incident and mortality data, which it analyzed together with
land use, rodenticide use, and sales data. After reviewing all
the data obtained from both urban and rural areas, DPR found
that SGAR exposure and toxicity to nontarget wildlife is a
statewide problem, regardless of the setting. DPR found that
the use of SGARs presents a hazard related to persistent
residues in target animals resulting in impacts to nontarget
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wildlife.
Recent regulatory action on SGARs: While certain mitigation
efforts had previously been in effect for some SGARS, following
its findings on the impacts of SGARs on wildlife throughout the
state, on March 18, 2014, DPR designated the active ingredients
brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difenacoum, and difethialone as
California-restricted materials, making all SGAR products
restricted materials. The action included additional use
restrictions for SGARs and will be in effect on July 1, 2014.
Restricted materials are pesticides deemed to have a higher
potential to cause harm to public health, farm workers, domestic
animals, honeybees, the environment, wildlife, or other crops
compared to other pesticides. With certain exceptions,
restricted materials may be purchased and used only by or under
the supervision of a certified commercial or private applicator
under a permit issued by the County Agricultural Commissioner.
In the March action, DPR further restricted the use of SGARs by
prohibiting the placement of aboveground baits containing the
specified SGAR ingredients more than 50 feet from a man-made
structure, unless there is a feature associated with the site
that is harboring or attracting pests. SGARs target commensal
rodents, such as the house mouse, Norway rat, and roof rat,
which generally live in close association with humans and are
dependent upon human habits for food, water, and shelter. DPR
contends that restricting the use of all SGARs to only certified
applicators and limiting its use to near structures will
significantly reduce unintended exposures to nontarget wildlife.
The goal of this bill is to augment the recent restricted-use
designation of SGARs by additionally prohibiting the use of
those pesticides in designated areas of public value known to
harbor wildlife.
Analysis Prepared by : Shannon McKinney / E.S. & T.M. / (916)
319-3965
FN: 0003461
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