Bill Text: CA AB2781 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Supplemental environmental projects.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From Senate committee without further action. [AB2781 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB2781-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 2781 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 2, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 7, 2016
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Eduardo Garcia
( Coauthor: Senator Hueso
)
FEBRUARY 19, 2016
An act to amend Section 71118 of, and to add Section
71119 to, of the Public Resources Code, relating
to environmental justice.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2781, as amended, Eduardo Garcia. Supplemental environmental
projects.
Existing law requires each board, department, and office within
the California Environmental Protection Agency that has enforcement
authority to establish a policy on supplemental environmental
projects that benefits disadvantaged communities and that
includes, communities, as defined. Existing law
requires that policy to include among other things, allowing
the amount of a supplemental environmental project to be up to 50% of
the enforcement action.
This bill would require the policy to also include a
requirement an assurance that no less than
10% of an the enforcement action
monetary penalty be deposited in the Supplemental
Environmental Projects in the Disadvantaged Communities Fund, which
would be created by the bill. The bill would require the moneys in
the fund, upon appropriation, to be used to implement environmental
projects in disadvantaged communities, as specified.
penalties received by each board, department, and office within the
agency is allocated to supplemental environmental projects in
disadvantaged communities. The bill would require each board,
department, and office within the agency to compile and submit
specified information to the agency and would require the agency to
consolidate that information and post it on the agency's Internet Web
site.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all
of the following:
(a) Many communities across California are located in areas
disproportionately impacted from multiple sources of pollution,
including air and water pollution, leading to higher rates of
respiratory illness, hospitalizations, and premature death.
(b) These environmentally impacted communities, also known as
environmental justice communities, need resources to appropriately
address environmental health impacts and to implement community-led
solutions.
(c) One way that environmental justice communities can see direct
environmental and public health benefits in their neighborhoods is
through the implementation of supplemental environmental projects,
which allow entities in violation of environmental laws to
voluntarily undertake environmental projects as part of a settlement
of an enforcement action.
(d) Currently, pursuant to Chapter 585 of the Statutes of 2015,
boards, departments, and offices within the California Environmental
Protection Agency have been directed to develop policies on
supplemental environmental projects, and those policies authorize up
to 50 percent of an enforcement action brought under the jurisdiction
of a board, department, or office within the agency be a
supplemental environmental project.
(e) Supplemental environmental projects bring needed investments
to communities that bear the environmental damage of environmental
violations in which the damage is done.
(f) Because the individual regulatory agency is best able to
evaluate the best projects to benefit those communities in which the
damage was done, that agency should oversee supplement environmental
projects within its jurisdiction.
SECTION 1. SEC. 2. Section 71118 of
the Public Resources Code is amended to read:
71118. (a) For purposes of this section, the following terms have
the following meanings:
(1) "Agency" means the California Environmental Protection Agency.
(2) "Disadvantaged community" means a community identified
pursuant to Section 39711 of the Health and Safety Code.
(3) "Supplemental environmental project" means an environmentally
beneficial project that a person subject to an enforcement action
voluntarily agrees to undertake in settlement of the action and to
offset a portion of a civil penalty.
(b) Each board, department, and office within the agency that has
enforcement authority shall establish a policy on supplemental
environmental projects that benefits disadvantaged communities. The
policy shall include, but need not be limited to, all of the
following:
(1) A public process to solicit potential supplemental
environmental projects from disadvantaged communities.
(2) Allowing the amount of a supplemental environmental project to
be up to 50 percent of the enforcement action brought under the
jurisdiction of a board, department, or office within the
agency and requiring 10 percent of the enforcement action monetary
penalty be deposited in the Supplemental Environmental Projects in
the Disadvantaged Communities Fund, created pursuant to Section
71119. agency.
(3) An annual list of potential supplemental environmental
projects that may be selected to settle a portion of an enforcement
action under the jurisdiction of a board, department, or office
within the agency.
(4) A consideration of the relationship between the location of
the violation and the location of the proposed supplemental
environmental project.
(c) Each board, department, and office within the agency that has
enforcement authority shall ensure that no less than 10 percent of
the enforcement action penalties received from actions brought
pursuant to the jurisdiction of the board, department, or office
within the agency is allocated to supplemental environmental projects
in disadvantaged communities.
(d) (1) Each board, department, and office within the agency that
has enforcement authority shall compile and submit to the agency the
information required pursuant to subdivision (b).
(c)
(2) The Secretary for Environmental Protection shall
consolidate the projects compiled pursuant to paragraph (3)
of subdivision (b) information received pursuant to
paragraph (1) into one list and post that list on the agency's
Internet Web site.
SEC. 2. Section 71119 is added to the Public
Resources Code, to read:
71119. The Supplemental Environmental Projects in the
Disadvantaged Communities Fund is hereby created. All moneys
deposited in the fund shall be available, upon appropriation by the
Legislature, to implement environmental projects in disadvantaged
communities, as identified pursuant to Section 39711 of the Health
and Safety Code. Priority shall be given to projects on the list
compiled pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 71118.
