BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Byron D. Sher, Chairman
1999-2000 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 89
AUTHOR: Escutia
AMENDED: As introduced December 7, 1998
FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: April 5, 1999
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Randy Pestor
SUBJECT : ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
SUMMARY :
Existing law creates the California Environmental Protection
Agency (Cal EPA), which consists of certain entities ( i.e. ,
State Air Resources Board, Office of Environmental Health
Hazard Assessment, California Integrated Waste Management
Board, State Water Resources Control Board, each regional
water quality control board, and the departments of Pesticide
Regulation and Toxic Substances Control) that must carry out
various programs.
This bill :
1) Requires the Secretary for Environmental Protection to
convene a Working Group on Environmental Justice by April
1, 2000, comprised of representatives from each
"environmental agency" ( e.g. , Cal EPA and the Resources
Agency, and entities within those agencies; Department of
Health Services) to identify disproportionately high and
adverse human health or environmental effects on minority
populations and low-income populations, and provide
guidance to state agencies to implement, administer, and
enforce environmental laws in the state.
2) Requires each environmental agency, in cooperation with the
Working Group, to undertake certain duties ( e.g. , examine
existing data and studies on environmental justice, hold
public meetings and develop interagency model projects,
develop an agencywide environmental justice strategy,
identify an internal administrative process for developing
an environmental strategy, provide minority and low-income
populations with an opportunity to comment on the
strategies).
3) Authorizes each environmental agency to "translate public
documents, notices, and testimony at hearings relating to
human health or the environment for
limited-English-speaking populations."
4) Requires each environmental agency to conduct its programs,
policies, and activities that substantially affect human
health or the environment in a manner that ensures those
programs, policies, and activities "are administered in a
fair and consistent manner that does not have the effect of
excluding persons, including minority and low-income
populations, from any benefits derived from those programs,
policies, and activities, or subjecting those persons to
discrimination because of their race, culture, or income
level."
5) Requires the chief administrative officer of each
environmental agency to be responsible for complying with
the above provisions and to conduct internal reviews and
take measures to monitor compliance.
COMMENTS :
1) Purpose of Bill . Environmental justice refers to the fair
treatment of people of all races, cultures, and income with
respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement
of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. On
February 11, 1994, President Clinton signed Executive Order
12898 regarding "federal actions to address environmental
justice in minority populations and low-income
populations." The executive order directs federal agencies
to address human health and environmental issues in
low-income communities and minority communities, and
followed a 1992 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
report indicating that "communities of color and low-income
populations experience higher than average exposures to
selected air pollutants, hazardous waste facilities, and
other forms of environmental pollution."
SB 89 requires a working group and "environmental agencies" to
undertake certain responsibilities relating to
environmental justice (see #1 to 5 above). According to
the author, "California has yet to address the need to
remedy the unfair treatment suffered by minority and
low-income communities with respect to exposure to
environmental hazards and enforcement of environmental
laws. SB 89 is the first step to solidifying California's
commitments to establishing and maintaining environmental
justice."
2) Examples of environmental justice matters . There are a
number of factors to be considered in identifying an
environmental justice problem. Factors that could be
considered include, for example, a concentration of
environmental hazards in an affected area because of the
lack of public participation, a lack of adequate protection
under health and environmental laws, or unusual
vulnerability of a community to hazards. Examples of
environmental justice problems could include inadequate
stormwater protection in a predominately minority populated
section of a city compared to systems in other parts of the
city, siting a landfill in a community with an
overconcentration of other hazards such as Superfund sites,
placement of a highway through a low-income and minority
community, and unsafe stormwater discharges harming fish
that are part of the subsistence diet of Native Americans.
3) Previous environmental justice efforts. Previous attempts
to address environmental justice issues in California
include AB 937 (Roybal-Allard) of 1991 (vetoed), AB 3024
(Roybal-Allard) of 1992 (vetoed), and AB 2212 (Lee) of 1994
(refused passage on Senate Floor). These bills required
the submittal of "project site demographics" ( e.g.
population breakdown by race and ethnicity; percent of
persons under age 5, over age 65, and below the poverty
level) for a "potentially high-impact development project"
( e.g. , hazardous waste, solid waste), and prohibited an
application for such a facility from being accepted as
complete, deemed complete, or approved without this
information.
Four bills addressed environmental justice issues during the
1997-98 session. SB 451 (Watson) required the general plan
land use element to include policies for the equitable
distribution of solid, hazardous, and liquid waste
facilities that avoid disproportionate effects on
low-income communities and minority communities, and
feasible implementation measures to achieve these policies.
SB 906 (Lee) required a hazardous waste management plan to
include demographic information within a 10-mile radius of
each hazardous waste facility and to include procedures for
considering environmental equity issues. SB 1113 (Solis)
was similar to this year's SB 115. AB 2237 (Escutia)
required "environmental agencies" to consider new selection
criteria ( e.g. , adverse human health or environmental
effects faced by an applicant's community, as compared to
other applicants' communities; amount of funding
commensurate with those effects) for some agency grant and
loan programs. SB 451, SB 1113, and AB 2237 were vetoed.
Senator Watson canceled an Environmental Quality Committee
hearing on SB 906.
SB 115 (Solis) tracks requirements of federal environmental
justice provisions by requiring each state agency to make
environmental justice part of its mission, requiring OPR to
develop an agencywide environmental justice strategy, and
requiring changes to the CEQA guidelines so that
environmental justice matters are considered in the CEQA
process.
4) Ensuring consistency . As noted above, SB 115 tracks
federal environmental justice requirements and terms. SB
115 also applies to all state agencies because
environmental justice is an issue that affects all agencies
( e.g. , Department of Justice, Department of Real Estate,
Department of Transportation). SB 89, on the other hand,
uses terms that differ from federal law and applies only to
"environmental agencies." While SB 115 requires OPR to
develop an agencywide environmental justice strategy, SB 89
establishes a working group. Although a federal working
group was established, much has been learned from that
effort and SB 115 thereby requires OPR to utilize this
related information in developing a state agencywide
strategy.
If the committee believes that a state environmental justice
working group is needed, to ensure that SB 89 does not
conflict with SB 115, SB 89 should be limited to requiring
that a working group make recommendations applicable to all
state agencies within appropriate time periods. The terms
for the working group responsibilities should also be
consistent with SB 115.
5) Support and opposition highlights . The California Nurses
Association supports "public activities to assess and abate
hazards and to provide a safe work and home environment"
and ARCO supports "the development of a fair and equitable
environmental justice policy that will address legitimate
environmental concerns and will benefit all people." The
Planning and Conservation League supports an attempt "to
develop a statewide approach to focusing on the issue."
The California Association of Realtors (CAR) believes
"environmental justice" must be defined and that there be a
thorough investigation of the extent of the problem in
California "before requiring state agencies to make its
enforcement a priority and develop a strategy to combat
it."
SOURCE : Senator Escutia
SUPPORT : American Lung Association
ARCO
California Nurses Association
Planning and Conservation League
Sierra Club
OPPOSITION : California Association of Realtors