Throughout the 2023-2024 Legislative Session, CSAC has informed you about vital legislative developments. With Governor Newsom’s final actions now complete, CSAC has been publishing articles highlighting new laws and vetoed bills in each policy area. This week, we focus on Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources, covering the impact of newly-enacted legislation on water, organic waste, emergency management, and more.

Water

AB 460 (Bauer Kahan) (Chapter 342, Statutes of 2024)

State Water Resources Control Board: water rights and usage: civil penalties. This bill increases civil penalties, and adjusts for inflation, for violation of specified orders issued by the State Water Resources Control Board such as curtailment and cease and desist orders.

AB 805 (Arambula) (Chapter 505, Statutes of 2024)

Sewer service: disadvantaged communities. Until January 2029, the bill allows the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) to require a designated sewer system to contract with an administrator if inadequate sewer services by a local agency that provides sanitary sewer service has been demonstrated.

AB 1581 (Kalra) (Chapter 681, Statues of 2024)

Conservation: Restoration Management Permit Act and California State Safe Harbor Agreement Program Act. This bill enacts the Restoration Management Permit Act, which allows state departments to develop streamlined permit applications for restoration management permits with the goal of encouraging projects that restore habitats.

AB 2501 (Alvarez) (Chapter 833, Statutes of 2024)
SUPPORTED

Water quality control plans: donations and grants. This bill authorizes the State Water Board to accept funding from public agencies in the jurisdiction of the State Water Board and on behalf of a Regional Water Quality Control Board. Specifically, AB 2501 authorizes the State Water Board, on behalf of itself or a Regional Water Quality Control Board to accept moneys from donations, grants, or contributions, or through contractual agreements, from public agencies.

AB 3090 (Maienschein) (Chapter 68, Statutes of 2024)

Drinking water standards: emergency notification plan. This bill authorizes a public water system, when updating an emergency notification plan, to provide notification to water users, by means of other communications technology such as text messages, email, or social media.

SB 1156 (Hurtado) (Chapter 458, Statutes of 2024)

Groundwater sustainability agencies: conflicts of interest: financial interest disclosures. This bill requires members of the board of directors and the executive of a groundwater sustainability agency to file statements of economic interests.

Cannabis

AB 1775 (Haney) (Chapter 1004, Statutes of 2024)

Cannabis: retail preparation, sale, and consumption of non-cannabis food and beverage products. This bill authorizes local jurisdictions to allow cannabis retailers to prepare and serve food and beverages, and to sell tickets to live musical or other performances, in the area of the premises where consumption of cannabis and cannabis goods is authorized.

SB 1064 (Laird) (Chapter 875, Statutes of 2024)
SUPPORTED

Cannabis: operator and separate premises license types: excessive concentration of licenses. This bill streamlines the licensing of commercial cannabis activities by adding a combined activities license classification, which allows for two or more commercial cannabis activities at the same premises to be authorized under a single license and streamlines the submission of owner-related information.

Wildfire

AB 2276 (Wood) (Chapter 388, Statutes of 2024)
SUPPORTED

Forestry: timber harvesting plans: exemptions. This bill extends various timber harvest exemptions, such as the Forest Resilience Extension and Oak Woodland exemption, scheduled to sunset on January 1, 2026 to January 1, 2031.

SB 504 (Dodd) (Chapter 982, Statutes of 2024)

Wildfires: defensible space: grant programs: local governments. This bill updates defensible space requirements, including grant programs aimed at decreasing risk of fire for buildings, structures and occupied dwellings in high fire risk areas of the state. When reviewing applications for the local assistance grant program for fire prevention and home hardening education activities, the bill gives priority to any local governmental entity qualified to perform defensible space assessments in very high and high Fire Hazard Severity Zones.

SB 675 (Limón) (Chapter 772, Statutes of 2024)

Prescribed grazing: local assistance grant program: Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force. This bill directs the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force to develop a strategic action plan to expand the use of prescribed grazing to support the state’s efforts to increase the pace and scale of wildfire and forest resilience activities. This bill directs the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to develop guidance for local or regional prescribed grazing plans. And, authorizes grant funding for prescribed grazing projects under the Fire Prevention Grants Program administered by CalFire.

SB 1101 (Limón) (Chapter 778, Statutes of 2024)
SUPPORTED

Fire prevention: prescribed fire: state contracts: maps. This bill requires CAL FIRE to use spatial planning tools and comprehensive mapping (“potential operational delineations”) as a tool for strategic wildfire response.

SB 946 (McGuire) (Chapter 987, Statutes of 2024)

Personal Income Tax Law: Corporation Tax Law: exclusions: wildfire mitigation payments. This bill excludes from income for Personal Income and Corporation Tax purposes any amount received by a qualified taxpayer as a California qualified wildfire loss mitigation payment through the California Wildfire Mitigation Financial Assistance Program.  The program provides funding to local administrators to provide home hardening, vegetation management, defensible space, and other fuel modification activities provide neighborhood or community-wide benefits against wildfire. This program is currently in it’s pilot phase in certain areas.

Organic & Solid Waste

AB 2346 (Lee) (Chapter 712, Statutes of 2024)

Organic waste reduction regulations: procurement of recovered organic waste products. This bill expands market development for recycled organic waste products such as compost and mulch.

AB 2902 (Wood) (Chapter 421, Statutes of 2024)
SUPPORTED

Solid waste: reduction and recycling. In relation to SB 1383, the organic waste reduction law, this bill extends the existing rural exemption for counties, which is set to expire in 2026. The exemption applies to 19 counties.

SB 1046 (Laird) (Chapter 452, Statutes of 2024)
SUPPORTED

Organic waste reduction: program environmental impact report: small and medium compostable material handling facilities or operations. This bill requires CalRecycle to develop a programmatic environmental impact report for small and medium-sized organic waste compost facilities.

SB 707 (Newman) (Chapter 864, Statutes of 2024)

Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024. This bill establishes the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024, which creates an extended producer responsibility program for stewardship of waste textiles under the oversight of CalRecycle. As part of the bill’s requirements, in consultation with CalRecycle and local jurisdictions, by March 1, 2027, the producer responsibility organization will need to submit an initial statewide needs assessment to determine steps and investment needed to meet the requirements of this bill

SB 1143 (Allen) (Chapter 989, Statutes of 2024)
SUPPORTED

Paint products: stewardship program. This bill establishes an Extended Producer Responsibility for Household Hazardous Waste.

SB 1280 (Laird) (Chapter 466, Statutes of 2024)
SUPPORTED

Waste management: propane cylinders: reusable or refillable. Beginning January 1, 2028, the bill requires 1lb propane cylinders sold in the state to be reusable or refillable.

Emergency Management

AB 2469 (Committee on Emergency Management) (Chapter 402, Statutes of 2024)
SUPPORTED

Emergency Management Assistance Compact: California Wildfire Mitigation Financial Assistance Program. This bill would extend the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) sunset by ten years. The EMAC is a national interstate mutual aid agreement that enables states to share resources during times of disaster.

SB 990 (Padilla) (Chapter 322, Statutes of 2024)

Office of Emergency Services: State Emergency Plan: LGBTQ+ individuals. This bill would require the California Office of Emergency Services, no later than January 1, 2029, and every 5 years thereafter, to update the State Emergency Plan to include proposed policies and best practices for local government and nongovernmental entities to equitably serve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, and plus (LGBTQ+) communities during an emergency or natural disaster.

Energy

AB 1359 (Papan) (Chapter 678, Statutes of 2024)

California Environmental Quality Act: geothermal exploratory projects: lead agency. This bill authorizes the Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) to delegate its lead agency responsibility to a county that has adopted a geothermal element as part of its general plan.

SB 1420 (Caballero) (Chapter 608, Statutes of 2024)

Hydrogen production facilities: certification and environmental review. This bill adds hydrogen production facilities and onsite storage and processing facilities, to the types of facilities that existing law makes eligible for centralized permitting and expedited review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Resource Extraction

AB 1866 (Hart) (Chapter 548, Statutes of 2024)

Oil and gas: idle wells. This bill increases the idle well fees and increases the amount of wells that must be eliminated under an idle well management plan.

AB 3233 (Addis) (Chapter 550, Statute of 2024)
SUPPORTED

Oil and gas: operations: restrictions: local authority.  This bill enhances local control over land use and zoning issues, specific to oil and gas operations. The bill clarifies in statute that local authority applies to the regulation of oil and gas production facilities.