Significant environmental legislation enacted includes: SB 71 (Senate Budget Committee) making various changes necessary to enact the resources portion of the Budget, including funding for the Salton Sea, BKK landfill financial liability, surface mining and reclamation, and creating a new Oil Trust Fund to fund abandonment of tideland oil fields in the City of Long Beach; SB 264 (Machado) extending the sunsets from July 1, 2006, to July 1, 2008, on the Delta Flood Protection Fund and the current form of the Delta Levee Maintenance Program; SB 365 (Ducheny) enhancing the authority of the State Lands Commission to approve exchanges of land subject to public trust; SB 467 (Lowenthal) providing an incentive program for companies to voluntarily turn in their old, high-polluting, non-road industrial equipment and replacing it with zero-emission electrical equipment; SB 536 (Bowen) requiring the Department of Toxic Substances Control to develop a health-based target remediation standard for methamphetamine and other precursor byproducts; SB 648 (Margett) establishing time frames for public and state agency review of draft environmental impact reports, and other documents prepared under the California Environmental Quality Act; AB 752 (Karnette) indefinitely allowing the oil spill response administrator to set financial responsibility at a lower limit for specified non-tank vessels, as specified; SB 771 (Simitian) extending the restrictions on discharges that currently apply to cruise ships to include oceangoing ships in state marine water sanctuaries; SB 772 (Ducheny) requiring the California Integrated Waste Management Board’s waste tire five-year plan to incorporate information on border region activities on waste tires; SB 857 (Kuehl) requiring Caltrans to prepare a report describing its efforts at addressing migrating fish passage problems under its jurisdiction; SB 922 (Ducheny) exempting from public disclosure, under the Public Records Act, information about Native American sacred sites in possession of the Native American Heritage Commission or any state or local agency; SB 975 (Ashburn) allowing the use of biodiesel fuel in retrofitted vehicles and off-road diesel engines; SB 1028 (Bowen) outlawing the killing of animals over the Internet as well as businesses that offer the shooting of live animals via computer; SB 1084 (Kehoe) requiring a warning label on equipment that may pose a hazard in fire-prone areas and making changes to definitions related to fire prevention in wetland areas; AB 7 (Cogdill) providing funding for fish hatcheries and the Heritage and Wild Trout Program; AB 383 (Montanez) increasing eligibility criteria for participation in the smog check repair assistance program; AB 403 (La Malfa) exempting businesses that use propane for heating purposes only from having to pay hazardous materials fees when these fees are already paid by the provider of the tank and propane; AB 466 (Matthews) providing funding for environmental studies, conservation planning, and permitting on various areas of the state; AB 574 (Wolk) establishing a mechanism for encouraging the use of recycled concrete as an alternative to virgin concrete; AB 721 (Nunez) providing a loan guarantee program for chrome plating facilities; AB 820 (Strickland) enhancing the laws governing the possession and handling of exotic wild animals; AB 841 (Arambula) requiring that one or more airborne monitors be sited in low-income and underserved areas in western Fresno County; AB 856 (Bass) making the Baldwin Hills Conservancy subject to the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act; AB 1007 (Pavley) requiring the Air Resources Board (ARB) with other agencies to develop and adopt a state plan to increase the use of alternative fuels by June 30, 2007; AB 1078 (Keene) enacting the Methamphetamine Contaminated Property Cleanup Act of 2005; AB 1086 (Lieber) establishing penalties for violation of state and federal regulations prohibiting the entry of motor vehicles into designated wildlife areas; AB 1125 (Pavley) enacting the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Act of 2006, and requiring retailers of rechargeable batteries, by July 1, 2006, to establish a system for accepting rechargeable batteries for reuse, recycling, or proper disposal; AB 1200 (Laird) requiring the Department of Water Resources to evaluate the potential impact of levee failure; AB 1201 (Laird) clarifying the circumstances under which the Sierra Nevada Conservancy could take title to real property and correcting a boundary description toward the southern end of the Conservancy’s jurisdiction; AB 1222 (Jones) creating a Remote Sensing Pilot program to determine emissions from locomotives using wayside remote sensing devices; AB 1296 (Hancock) establishing the San Francisco Bay Area Water Trail and requiring the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, in collaboration with the State Coastal Conservancy and other public agencies and interested parties, to prepare a water trail plan by January 1, 2008; AB 1317 (Ruskin) updating and restructuring the statutory framework governing the regulatory program run by DHS used to accredit the state environmental laboratories; AB 1328 (Wolk) adding Cache Creek to the list of specified rivers included in the Wild and Scenic River system; AB 1356 (Berg) apportioning the costs of fire protection pursuant to “Amador agreements” by which local entities contract with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) to provide fire protection and other emergency services; AB 1415 (Pavley) banning the sale and distribution, in California, of specified products containing mercury; AB 1471 (McCarthy) creating an Acute Orphan Well Fund in order to address those orphan wells that pose a significant environmental risk; and AB 1764 (Assembly Natural Resources Committee) increasing the authorized payment of handling fees from $26.5 million up to $30 million for fiscal year 2004-05.
Significant environmental legislation vetoed by the Governor includes: SB 429 (Florez) requiring DHS to issue regulations about the levels of contaminants in the water and their correlation to waterborne illness; SB 455 (Escutia) requiring enforcement action for the violations of pesticide application laws which result in harm to health or the environment; SB 658 (Kuehl) establishing the Coastal Environment Motor Vehicle Mitigation Program; SB 695 (Kehoe) requiring the Secretary of the Resources Agency to establish a central public registry of all conservation easements; SB 744 (Kuehl) requiring the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection, on or before June 1, 2006, and in consultation with CDF, to adopt regulations that require timber harvesting plans to be made available on the Internet; SB 820 (Kuehl) establishing various new reporting requirements relative to water resources and requiring water meters for groundwater contractors, agricultural water supply and water districts; SB 1086 (Migden) extending by five years to January 1, 2012, the sunset provision for the Resources Trust Fund, which authorizes specified amounts of revenue generated by oil and gas leases when revenue is available; AB 399 (Montanez) establishing the Multifamily Dwelling Recycling Program Law to increase recycling in multifamily dwellings; AB 672 (Klehs) allowing certain recreational activities at public agency reservoirs if certain conditions are met; AB 771 (Saldana) setting new standards for giving ex parte communications by members of the California Coastal Commission; AB 816 (Lieber) requiring chemical manufacturers and importers to provide the Hazard Evaluation System and Information Service the names and addresses to which they sold their products; AB 1168 (Saldana) requiring DHS when reviewing an application for a water system operations permit for a ground or ocean water desalination project, to identify potential contaminants and sources of contamination; AB 1221 (Jones) increasing the ARB membership from 11 to 13; AB 1466 (Laird) establishing a tamarisk control and eradication program for the Colorado River Watershed; and AB 1524 (Laird) requiring the Coastal Conservancy to accept offers to dedicate conservation and open space easements.
