Bill Text: CA AB3211 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Toxic air contaminants.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-03-09 - Referred to Coms. on NAT. RES. and TRANS. [AB3211 Detail]
Download: California-2019-AB3211-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 3211
| Introduced by Assembly Members Bauer-Kahan and Bonta |
February 21, 2020 |
An act to amend Section 40716 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to stationary air pollution.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 3211, as introduced, Bauer-Kahan.
Toxic air contaminants.
Existing law authorizes local air pollution control districts and air quality management districts, in carrying out their responsibilities with respect to the attainment of state ambient air quality standards, to adopt and implement regulations that accomplish certain objectives.
This bill would additionally authorize the districts to adopt and implement regulations to require data regarding air pollution within the district’s jurisdiction from areawide stationary sources of air pollution, including mobile sources drawn by those stationary sources, to enable the calculation of health risks from toxic air contaminants. This bill would additionally authorize the districts to adopt and implement regulations to accomplish these objectives in carrying out their responsibilities with respect to the reduction of health risks from toxic air
contaminants.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) Existing law imposes various limitations on emissions of air contaminants for the control of air pollution from vehicular and nonvehicular sources. Existing law generally designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency with the primary responsibility for the control of vehicular air pollution, and the air pollution control districts or the air quality management districts with the primary responsibility for the control of air pollution from all sources other than vehicular sources, including stationary sources. Existing law allows air pollution control districts and air quality management districts to adopt and implement regulations to reduce or mitigate emissions
from indirect and areawide sources of air pollution to achieve attainment of state ambient air quality standards.
(b) The people of California have a right to know when industrial or commercial operations result in emission of toxic air contaminants that may pose a significant health risk to the people exposed to those emissions.
(c) Diesel-fueled trucks are responsible for 33 percent of statewide oxides of nitrogen emissions annually. These same trucks emit more particulate matter than all of the state’s powerplants.
(d) People who live near stationary sources that attract truck traffic are at high risk for exposure to these health-threatening air pollutants emitted by these medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, and communities near freeways and busy roadways have compounded health risk due to near-constant exposure to
criteria air pollutants.
(e) In 1998, the State Air Resources Board identified diesel particulate matter as a toxic air contaminant based on published evidence of a relationship between diesel exhaust exposure and lung cancer.
(f) Diesel particulate matter also contributes to noncancer health effects, such as premature death, hospitalizations, and emergency department visits for exacerbated chronic heart and lung diseases, including asthma, increased respiratory symptoms, and decreased lung function in children.
(g) Children are particularly vulnerable to the negative effect of diesel particulate matter because they have higher respiratory rates than adults and this can increase their exposure to air pollutants relative to their body weight.
(h) Increased respiratory symptoms, such as coughing, wheezing, runny nose, and doctor-diagnosed asthma, have been linked to traffic exposure.
(i) Reducing emissions of these pollutants can have an immediate beneficial impact on air quality and public health.
(j) Existing law does not provide local air pollution control districts and air quality management districts sufficient data collection and enforcement authority to reduce health risks associated with toxic air contaminants, such as diesel particulate matter. This authority would also allow air pollution control districts and air quality management districts to adopt and implement regulations requiring local and areawide stationary sources to provide data on vehicular traffic drawn by stationary sources and other operational data to better calculate local health risks created by the stationary sources.
(k) The state should therefore move swiftly to provide this authority to local air pollution control districts and air quality management districts to encourage air districts to provide incentives to stationary sources to transition to cleaner vehicle fleets, change operations, or take other actions that would reduce the health risk to residents from toxic air contaminants.
SEC. 2.
Section 40716 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:40716.
(a) In carrying out its responsibilities pursuant to this division with respect to the attainment of state ambient air quality(1) Reduce or mitigate emissions from
new and existing indirect and areawide sources of air pollution.
(2) Encourage or require the use of measures which reduce the number or length of vehicle trips.
(3) Require data regarding air pollution within the district’s jurisdiction from new and existing areawide stationary sources of air pollution, including mobile sources drawn by those stationary sources, to enable the calculation of health risks from toxic air contaminants.
(b) Nothing in this section constitutes an infringement on the existing authority of counties and cities to plan or control land use, and nothing in this section provides or transfers new authority over such land use to a
district.
