Climate Change – Sea Level Rise

AB 752 (Brownley) – Request for Comments
As Introduced February 17, 2011

AB 752, by Assembly Member Julia Brownley would require a local trustee of granted public trust lands to prepare a sea level action plan for all of its granted public trust lands by July 1, 2013. This bill is virtually the same bill as last year’s AB 2598, with one exception. AB 752 includes language that would exempt a local trustee from the requirement to prepare a sea level action plan if funds derived from its trust lands or assets funding the lands (such as those from the Ocean Protection Council) are not sufficient to pay the cost of developing the plan. This bill has been referred to the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

Solid Waste

SB 915 (Calderon) – Request for Comments
As Introduced February 18, 2011

SB 915, by Senator Ron Calderon, states the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation related to plastic bag use and recycling. The bill is currently in spot form. However, it does state intent to accomplish a number of things, including: reduce plastic bag use, establish a mandatory level of recycled content in plastic bags, increase funding for recycling education, establish incentives for consumers to return or recycle plastic bags, suspend local plastic bag ordinances, and prohibit local governments from taking certain actions regarding plastic bags. This bill has not yet been referred to a policy committee. 

SB 515 (Corbett) – Support
As Introduced February 17, 2011

SB 515, by Senator Ellen Corbett, would require battery manufacturers to create and institute product stewardship plans to deal with the end of life for their products. SB 515 would also require battery manufacturers to meet collection goals each year and report data to the Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery (Calrecycle) who will oversee the implementation of each manufacturer’s stewardship plan. This bill is virtually the same as last year’s SB 1100, also by Senator Corbett. CSAC supported that bill and continues to support efforts to further product stewardship with SB 515, which creates a program to redirect the responsibility for the end-of-life management of discarded hazardous and hard-to-manage products from local governments and retailers to product producers. This bill has been referred to the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. 

AB 789 (Chesbro) – Request for Comments
As Introduced February 17, 2011

AB 789, by Assembly Member Wes Chesbro, would authorize Cal Recycle under its current Tire Recycling program, to include a new grant category for local agencies for the funding of public works projects. Eligible public works projects include those projects that use at least 1250 tons of rubberized asphalt concrete during the life of the project and 20 pounds or more of crumb rubber per ton of rubberized asphalt concrete. Grants would be exceed $250,000. The bill would carve out at lease 16 percent of the amount of funds appropriated for market development and new technology activities for used tires and waste tires and include a sunset date of June 30, 2015. Finally, AB 789 repeals the 2010 sunset date for the Tire Recycling program and resets it at June 30, 2015. This bill has not yet been referred to a policy committee. 

SB 789 (Lowenthal) – Request for Comments
As Introduced February 17, 2011

Similar to the previous bill, SB 789, by Senator Alan Lowenthal, would repeal the sunset date for the Tire Recycling Program. This bill would also clarify statue to state that the five-year plan for the priorities of the Waste Tire program, set by the Cal Recycle, should reflect the priorities for waste reduction and recycling included in the California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989. This bill has been referred to the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. 

SB 833 (Vargas) – Request for Comments
As Introduced February 18, 2011

SB 833, by Senator Juan Vargas, would place additional restrictions on where an enforcement agency may issue a permit for a solid waste facility. Specifically, this bill would prohibit an enforcement agency from issuing a solid waste facilities permit if that permit would allow for the disposal of solid waste within 500 feet of a river that provides drinking water for more than 50,000 persons, or within 1,000 feet of a site considered to be sacred and of spiritual importance to a federally recognized Indian tribe. This bill has not yet been referred to a policy committee.

Water Quality

AB 741 (Huffman) – Request for Comments
As Introduced February 17, 2011

AB 741, by Assembly Member Jared Huffman, would expand existing law to allow property owners to voluntarily enter into agreements with local wastewater agencies to finance sewer improvements. This bill is similar to last year’s AB 2182, which was vetoed by the Governor. This year’s version allows for the financing of sewer laterals, but not through the PACE program as the pervious version did. AB 741 would instead authorize public wastewater agencies to offer voluntary liens to private property owners to finance lateral replacements and conversions from septic to sewer systems. CSAC supported the previous version of the bill because it would have helped to prevent groundwater contamination and protect water quality, the environment, public health and safety, while allowing homeowners a mechanism to finance the improvements. This bill has been referred to the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.