Organic waste: reduction regulations: local jurisdiction compliance.

Existing law requires the State Air Resources Board to complete, approve, and implement a comprehensive strategy to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants in the state to achieve, among other things, a reduction in the statewide emissions of methane by 40%. Existing law requires the methane emissions reduction goals to include specified targets to reduce the landfill disposal of organics. Existing law requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, in consultation with the state board, to adopt regulations to achieve those targets for reducing organic waste in landfills, and authorizes those regulations to require local jurisdictions to impose requirements on generators or other relevant entities within their jurisdiction, to authorize local jurisdictions to impose penalties on generators for noncompliance, and to include penalties to be imposed by the department for noncompliance. This bill would authorize a local jurisdiction facing continuing violations that commence during the 2022 calendar year of those regulations to submit to the department no later than March 1, 2022, a notification of intent to comply, as prescribed. For violations of the regulations that are disclosed in a notification that is approved by the department, the bill would require the department to waive administrative civil penalties for the violations if the local jurisdiction implements the actions proposed in the notification to remedy the violations. The bill would authorize the department, notwithstanding those regulations, to establish any maximum compliance deadline in a corrective action plan that it determines to be necessary and appropriate under the circumstances for the correction of a violation of the regulations. The bill would authorize the department to adopt emergency regulations it determines to be necessary to implement and enforce these provisions.