Existing law requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to adopt and revise regulations setting forth minimum standards for composting, in accordance with law. Existing regulations require all compostable materials handling activities to obtain a permit prior to commencing operations and to comply with specified requirements. Existing regulations specify 4 regulatory tiers for composting operations, with different requirements for each tier. The 4 tiers are excluded, enforcement agency notification, registration permit, and full solid waste facility permit. In the excluded tier, existing regulations specify the "excluded activities" that do not constitute compostable material handing operations or facilities and, therefore, are not subject to permit requirements or other regulatory requirements. One of the excluded activities is the composting of green material, agricultural material, food material, and vegetative food material, alone or in combination, if the total amount of feedstock and compost onsite at any one time does not exceed 100 cubic yards and 750 square feet. This bill would expand this excluded activity exemption for composting activities by eliminating the maximum square-foot condition and authorizing a total amount of feedstock and compost onsite at any one time of up to 200 cubic yards, or 500 cubic yards for a composting activity owned by a public agency, as defined. The bill would also authorize the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to further increase those amounts by regulation. The bill would also make the composting of agricultural materials and residues that are from a large-scale biomass management event at an agricultural facility that does not otherwise operate as a solid waste facility an excluded activity, as specified. Existing regulations prohibit a composting operation from giving away or selling more than 1,000 cubic yards of compost product annually if it is in the excluded tier or if it is an agricultural material composting operation in the enforcement agency notification tier, its feedstock is both green material and agricultural material, and the operation is located on land zoned for agricultural uses. This bill would authorize composting activities to give away or sell up to 5,000 cubic yards of compost product annually. The bill would authorize the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to increase, by regulation, that amount when the composting is of agricultural materials and residues that are from a large-scale biomass management event at an agricultural facility.
Existing law prohibits any person from manufacturing, distributing, selling, or offering for sale in the state any menstrual products that contain regulated perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, as defined. Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control to adopt regulations on or before January 1, 2029, as specified, for the purposes of implementing, interpreting, enforcing, or making specific these provisions. Existing law makes a violation of these provisions punishable by a civil and administrative penalty. Existing law creates the T.A.M.P.O.N. Act Fund in the State Treasury for the deposit of these penalties. Existing law provides that moneys in the fund are available upon appropriation by the Legislature. This bill would require, on and after December 31, 2026, a manufacturer of disposable tampons or pad products to maintain information regarding the concentrations of specified chemicals in the manufacturer's disposable tampon or pad products. The bill would authorize the department to determine, and publish on its internet website, additional concerning chemicals in disposable tampons or pad products, as provided. The bill would authorize the department to require a manufacturer of disposable tampons or pad products to maintain information regarding the concentrations of those additional chemicals in the manufacturer's disposable tampon or pad products. The bill would authorize the department to publish on its internet website a list of acceptable testing methods, frequencies for testing, and appropriate third-party laboratory accreditations, for the testing of disposable tampon or pad products for those specified and any additional concerning chemicals, as specified. The bill would require, upon request from the department, a manufacturer to provide any technical documentation, including test methods and analytical test results, to assess the concentrations of those specified and any additional chemicals in its disposable tampon or pad products, as provided. The bill would authorize the department to conduct its own tests to confirm the manufacturer's results, or contract with third-party laboratories for that testing. The bill would require the manufacturer to pay for the costs of testing the manufacturer's products before the testing is conducted. The bill would require that any charges collected by the department pursuant to these provisions be deposited into the T.A.M.P.O.N. Act Fund and made available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the department for purposes of implementing these provisions, including, but not limited to, the administration of chemical testing pursuant to, and the oversight of manufacturers' compliance with, these provisions. The bill would authorize the department to publish any analytical test results received from manufacturers or obtained through its own testing, along with any departmental analysis of these results. The bill would authorize the department to provide information regarding the potential health impacts associated with the presence of specific chemicals in disposable tampon or pad products by making the information available to the public in a searchable format on the department's internet website.
The California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, a violation of which is a crime, requires a distributor of beverage containers, as defined, to pay to the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery a monthly redemption payment for every beverage container sold or transferred, as provided. The act requires the department to deposit those amounts into the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund. The fund is continuously appropriated to, among other things, pay refund values and administrative fees to processors that receive empty beverage containers from recyclers. The act authorizes, until January 1, 2028, the department to pay a market development payment to a glass beverage container manufacturer who purchases recycled glass collected within this state for use in manufacturing new beverage containers in this state, as provided. The act requires the department to set the market development payment at an amount not to exceed $50 per ton. The act continuously appropriates $60,000,000 annually from the fund to the department to the make market development payments. This bill would authorize the department to set the market development payment at different levels, but would prohibit that payment from exceeding $150 per ton. The bill would, on and after January 1, 2028, and until January 1, 2030, authorize the department to expend $20,000,000 annually from the fund, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for glass market development payments.
Existing law prohibits a dead animal hauler or any other person from transporting a dead animal to any place, other than to certain specified facilities or destinations, unless a certain waiver is granted by the State Veterinarian, as specified. Existing law requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to adopt and revise minimum standards for solid waste handling, transfer, composting, transformation, and disposal, as prescribed. Pursuant to this authority, the department has adopted a regulation that prohibits the composting of unprocessed mammalian tissue except when received from certain sources. This bill would, notwithstanding those prohibitions, authorize any part of a livestock carcass resulting from a routine livestock mortality event or on-farm processing to be composted if certain requirements are met, including, among others, that the composting is conducted in accordance with best management practices for livestock composting adopted by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture, as specified.
(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. Existing law, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, requires, on or before July 1, 2025, the State Air Resources Board to develop and adopt regulations to require a reporting entity, defined to mean a corporation, partnership, limited liability company, or other business entity with total annual revenues in excess of $1 billion, as specified, to annually disclose to the emissions reporting organization, as defined, or the state board all of the reporting entity's scope 1 emissions, scope 2 emissions, and scope 3 emissions, as defined. Existing law requires the state board to adopt regulations that authorize it to seek administrative penalties for nonfiling, late filing, or other failure to meet the requirements of the act, as provided. This bill would exempt those regulations from CEQA. Existing law requires, on or before January 1, 2026, and biennially thereafter, a covered entity, defined to mean a corporation, partnership, limited liability company, or other business entity with total annual revenues in excess of $500,000,000, as specified, to prepare a climate-related financial risk report, as specified, and to make this report available to the public on its own internet website. Existing law requires the state board to adopt regulations that authorize it to seek administrative penalties from a covered entity that fails to make the report publicly available on its internet website or publishes an inadequate or insufficient report. This bill would exempt those regulations from CEQA. (2) This bill would appropriate from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund $1,000 to the State Air Resources Board for purposes of implementing the above-described provisions relating to climate corporate accountability and climate-related financial risk, as provided. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.
Existing law establishes the Ocean Protection Council in state government to, among other things, establish policies to coordinate the collection, evaluation, and sharing of scientific data related to coastal and ocean resources among agencies. Existing law requires the council to develop and implement a voluntary sustainable seafood promotion program for the state, to consist of specified components, including a competitive grant and loan program for eligible entities, including, but not limited to, fishery groups and associations, for the purpose of assisting California fisheries in qualifying for certification to internationally accepted standards for sustainable seafood. This bill would, subject to the availability of funding, require the council to participate, as a stakeholder and in an advisory capacity, in the Protecting Blue Whales and Blue Skies Program with air pollution control districts and air quality management districts along the coast and other stakeholders to support, in an advisory capacity, coastal air districts in their efforts to implement a statewide voluntary vessel speed reduction and sustainable shipping program for the California coast in order to reduce air pollution, the risk of fatal vessel strikes on whales, and harmful underwater acoustic impacts. The bill would authorize the expansion of the existing Protecting Blue Whales and Blue Skies Program to include specified components, including incentives to program participants based on a percentage of distance traveled by a participating vessel at a reduced speed, as provided. The bill would limit application of the program to vessels that are 300 gross tons or greater. The bill would require the participating air pollution control districts and air quality management districts, on or before December 31, 2029, to submit a report to the Legislature regarding the implementation of the program.
Existing law makes it unlawful to take a bird, mammal, fish, reptile, or amphibian, except as authorized by law. This bill would make it unlawful for a person in California to import, cause to be imported, export, cause to be exported, transport, sell, offer for sale, possess with the intent to sell, receive, acquire, or purchase any fish, wildlife, or plant that was taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any law or statute of any state or any law, treaty, or statute of the United States with regard to fish, wildlife, or plants in effect on January 19, 2025. The bill would, upon conviction or other entry of judgment, require any seized evidence be forfeited, as specified. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on December 31, 2031, and would repeal them on January 1, 2032. Under existing law, a violation of the Fish and Game Code is a crime. Because the above provision would be part of the Fish and Game Code, a violation of which would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Endangered Species Act (CESA) requires the Fish and Game Commission to establish a list of endangered species and a list of threatened species pursuant to a prescribed listing process, and generally prohibits the taking of those species. Existing law requires the commission to publish a notice in the California Regulatory Notice Register upon receipt of a petition to add or remove a species from either the list of endangered species or the list of threatened species by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. This bill would require the department to determine if there is a decrease in protections by the federal government for an endangered or threatened species, as defined, and, if so, would require the department to publish written findings in the California Regulatory Notice Register that would add the species to the commission's list of provisional candidate species, as specified. The bill would require the department to report the provisional candidacy determination at the next public meeting of the commission. The bill would prohibit criminal or civil liability for an entity operating under federal authorization for take, as specified, as long as the entities are in full compliance with their federal biological opinion. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on December 31, 2031, and would repeal them on January 1, 2032. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill would require, on and after January 1, 2027, for a project, located in a geographic area for which the Governor declared a state of emergency on or after January 1, 2023, that is to maintain, repair, restore, demolish, or replace property or facilities damaged or destroyed by wildfire, and the project is not otherwise exempt from CEQA, as specified, the lead agency to prepare the record of proceeding concurrently with the administrative process. The bill would also require an action or proceeding brought to attack, review, set aside, void, or annul the certification of an environmental impact report, or the adoption of a negative declaration or mitigated negative declaration, for the project to be resolved, to the extent feasible, within 270 calendar days of the filing of the certified record of proceedings. The bill would require an applicant to agree to pay the costs of the trial court and court of appeal in hearing and deciding any action or proceeding brought under these provisions, as provided. The bill would require the Judicial Council to adopt rules of court to implement these requirements. The bill would require the project to be consistent with the applicable zoning and land use ordinances. By requiring a lead agency to prepare the record of proceedings concurrently with the administrative process, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989 requires the Director of Transportation, upon consultation with the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, to review and modify all bid specifications relating to the purchase of paving materials, and base, subbase, and pervious backfill materials, using recycled materials. Existing law requires the specifications to be based on standards developed by the Department of Transportation for recycled paving materials and for recycled base, subbase, and pervious backfill materials. Existing law requires a local agency that has jurisdiction over a street or highway, to the extent feasible and cost effective, to apply standard specifications that allow for the use of recycled materials in streets and highways, except as provided. Existing law requires, until January 1, 2027, those standard specifications to allow recycled materials at or above the level allowed in the Department of Transportation's standard specifications that went into effect on October 22, 2018, for specified materials. This bill would indefinitely require a local agency's standard specifications to allow recycled materials at a level no less than the level allowed in the department's specifications for those specified materials. If a local agency's standard specifications do not allow for the use of recycled materials at a level that is equal to or greater than the level allowed in the department's standard specifications on the basis that the use of those recycled materials at those levels is not feasible, the bill would authorize a person bidding on a contract to supply materials subject to those specifications to request the local agency to provide the reason for that determination upon request and would require the local agency to respond to that request, as specified. By increasing the duties of local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law requires the Department of Transportation and a local agency that has jurisdiction over a street or highway, to the extent feasible and cost effective, to use advanced technologies and material recycling techniques that reduce the cost of maintaining and rehabilitating streets and highways and that exhibit reduced levels of greenhouse gas emissions through material choice and construction method. This bill would eliminate this requirement. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
(1) Existing law prohibits a conservation bank, mitigation bank, or conservation and mitigation bank from being operative, vested, or final unless the Department of Fish and Wildlife has approved the bank in writing and, if applicable, a conservation easement has been recorded on the site. Existing law requires a person interested in establishing any bank with the department to submit a bank prospectus to the department, as specified, and if the department determines the bank prospectus is acceptable, allows the person to submit a bank agreement package that, among other things, is required to contain estimates of financial assurances and proposed forms of security, as specified. This bill would authorize surety bonds to be proposed forms of security for the above purposes. (2) Existing law requires all funds derived from the sale of state duck hunting validations and state duck stamps, and related items, to be deposited into the State Duck Stamp Account in the Fish and Game Preservation Fund, as provided. Existing law requires the funds in the account to be used for projects or endowments approved by the Fish and Game Commission for the purpose of protecting, preserving, restoring, enhancing, and developing migratory waterfowl breeding and wintering habitat, evaluating habitat projects, and conducting waterfowl resource assessments and other waterfowl-related research. Existing law authorizes the Department of Fish and Wildlife to enter into contracts or grant funds for fish and wildlife habitat preservation, restoration, and enhancement with public and private entities whenever the department finds that the contract will assist in meeting the department's duty to preserve, protect, and restore fish and wildlife. This bill would require that the department be subject to the above-described provisions in making grants or entering into agreements pursuant to the State Duck Stamp Account, as provided. (3) Existing law, the Water Conservation District Law of 1931, authorizes a water conservation district to be organized and established by a county board of supervisors, with specified powers and purposes. The law permits a water conservation district to levy groundwater charges and requires a district to annually make an engineering investigation and report on groundwater conditions of the district that includes, among other things, an estimate of the annual overdraft for the current water year and for the ensuing water year. Existing law defines "water year" for purposes of these provisions to mean July 1 of one calendar year to June 30 of the following calendar year. This bill would redefine "water year" to mean the period beginning October 1 of one calendar year and ending September 30 of the following calendar year for purposes of the above-described provisions. (4) Existing law authorizes the Department of Parks and Recreation to enter into contracts with natural persons, corporations, partnerships, and associations for the construction, maintenance, and operation of concessions within units of the state park system. Existing law requires all contracts authorizing occupancy of any portion of the state park system for a period of more than 3 years to be awarded to the best responsible bidder. Existing law requires public notice to be given to bidders of all proposed contracts authorizing the occupancy of property in the state park system for a period of more than 2 years, as specified, including requiring the department to publish an advertisement for bid at least once per week for 2 consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county in which the concession is to operate and in a major daily newspaper in the closest metropolitan area. This bill would instead require public notice to bidders to be given of all proposed contracts authorizing the occupancy of property in the state park system for a period of more than 3 years, as specified. The bill would delete the requirement that the department publish an advertisement in a newspaper, as described above. Existing law requires a concession contract to contain certain provisions, including the provision that every concessionaire submit to the department all sales and use tax returns and, at the request of the department, provide an annual financial statement prepared or audited by a certified public accountant. This bill would instead require every concessionaire to submit to the department an annual financial statement prepared or audited by a certified public accountant. (5) This bill would make corresponding changes and changes to update obsolete place names and would make other nonsubstantive changes, including by repealing obsolete laws.
