Sen. Fran Pavley

This measure would designate the First Street Overcrossing of State Highway Route 118 in the City of Simi Valley as the Simi Valley Police Officer Michael Clark Memorial Overcrossing. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering the costs, to erect those signs.

Existing law requires the Department of Water Resources to investigate and survey conditions of damage to quality of underground waters that are, or may be, caused by improperly constructed, abandoned, or defective wells. Existing law requires the department to report to the appropriate California regional water quality control board its recommendations for minimum standards for well construction in any particular locality in which it deems regulation necessary to protection of quality of underground water. This bill, on or before January 1, 2019, would require the department to update well standards for water wells, monitoring wells, and cathodic protection wells based on existing knowledge and to submit these standards to the State Water Resources Control Board. Existing law requires the state board to adopt a model water well, cathodic protection well, and monitoring well drilling and abandonment ordinance implementing prescribed standards of the department. This bill would require the state board to revise the model ordinance upon the receipt of the standards from the department.

Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to determine appropriate targets for each load-serving entity to procure viable and cost-effective energy storage systems to be achieved by December 31, 2015, and December 31, 2020. Existing law requires the governing board of each local publicly owned electric utility to initiate a process to determine appropriate targets for the utility to procure viable cost-effective energy storage systems to be achieved by December 31, 2015, and December 31, 2020. Existing law requires each publicly owned electric utility to prudently plan for and procure resources, including energy storage systems adequate to meet the 2015 and 2020 targets, to provide reliable electric service to its customers. This bill would require the commission to determine appropriate targets, if any, for each load-serving entity to procure viable and cost-effective energy storage systems to be achieved by December 31, 2030, as specified. The bill would require the commission to require electrical corporations to offer time-of-use pricing or dynamic pricing to customers using energy storage at their premises. Because a violation of an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would require the governing board of each community choice aggregator and each publicly owned electric utility, by July 1, 2018, to determine appropriate targets, if any, for the community choice aggregator or electric utility, as applicable, to procure viable and cost-effective energy storage systems to be achieved by December 31, 2030. The bill would require the governing board of each local publicly owned electric utility, in planning for future procurement of resources, to consider the benefits of procuring energy storage systems and to procure energy storage systems before fossil-fuel-based generation in specified circumstances. Because this bill would impose additional requirements on the governing boards of local publicly owned electric utilities and community choice aggregators, 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 specified reasons.

Existing law, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, authorizes the State Department of Developmental Services to contract with regional centers to provide services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities. Existing law governs the habilitation services provided for adult consumers of regional centers, including work activity programs, as described, and establishes an hourly rate for supported employment services provided to consumers receiving individualized services. Existing law requires the department, contingent upon receiving federal financial participation, to conduct a 4-year demonstration project to determine whether community-based vocational development services will increase employment outcomes for consumers and reduce purchase of service costs for working age adults. This bill would require, on or before July 1, 2017, the department to establish a Work Transition Project with a process for regional centers to allow well coordinated forms of integrated services using allowable services under existing state and federal law and to assist in the state's efforts to reach compliance with the federal Home and Community-Based Services Waiver regulations. The bill would authorize the department to waive certain regulations through the use of modifications that maintain the purpose of the regulation while allowing flexibility to expand activities and choices in service program settings. The bill would set a maximum rate of $40 per hour for vendors to provide needed job readiness and support services aimed at individualized transition services for consumers currently placed in work activity programs and other similar day services related to work experience and work opportunities who choose to move towards competitive integrated employment. The bill would require the department to assess the change in the amount of time that it takes a consumer under these provisions, as compared to previous modes of service delivery, to become job ready and to transition into a competitive integrated employment setting and to report that information to the budget and appropriate policy committees of each house of the Legislature during the annual budget process.

Existing law relative to electrical restructuring, within the Public Utilities Act, establishes the Independent System Operator to ensure the efficient use and reliable operation of the electric transmission grid. The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to establish a renewables portfolio standard requiring all retail sellers, as defined, to procure a minimum quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, so that the total kilowatthours sold to their retail end-use customers achieves 25% of retail sales by December 31, 2016, 33% by December 31, 2020, 40% by December 31, 2024, 45% by December 31, 2027, and 50% by December 31, 2030. The program additionally requires each local publicly owned electric utility, as defined, to procure a minimum quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources to achieve the procurement requirements established by the program. The Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative is a statewide initiative to help identify transmission projects to accommodate the state's renewable energy goals. This bill would require the Independent System Operator, when undertaking transmission planning activities, to take into account a specified report relating to solar photovoltaic system development in the San Joaquin Valley and specified principles of transmission corridor planning developed by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) . The bill would require the Energy Commission, the PUC, and the Independent System Operator, when undertaking activities as part of the Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative, to take into account the above-specified report and principles.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including gas corporations. The Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 2011, within the Public Utilities Act, designates the commission as the state authority responsible for regulating and enforcing federal law with respect to intrastate gas pipeline transportation and pipeline facilities. Existing law requires the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to evaluate the environmental and health risks posed by various substances. This bill, if sufficient moneys are recovered by the commission and appropriated for the purpose of these provisions, would require the commission to authorize a study by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment of the long-term health impacts of the significant natural gas leak from the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility located in the County of Los Angeles that started approximately October 23, 2015, as specified. The bill would require the commission to publish and transmit the report by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and its ongoing findings to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature on a biennial basis, on or before January 1 of every even-numbered year, from 2018 until 2028. The bill would require the commission, consistent with its authority to bring enforcement actions, to order Southern California Gas Company to pay for the study. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2029.

Existing law authorizes the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to adopt, amend, and repeal occupational safety and health standards and orders. Existing regulations adopted pursuant to that authorization require natural gas that is delivered into any vessel or system, as specified, to have a distinctive odor of sufficient intensity so that the presence of the gas may be detected down to concentrations in air of not over 20% of the lower explosive limit, and require that these odorants be, among other things, harmless to humans, nontoxic, and noncorrosive to certain metals. This bill would require the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to submit a report to the Legislature, on or before January 1, 2019, that includes an assessment of any potential danger of odorants currently used in natural gas storage facilities in the state to public health and safety and the environment, and that identifies alternative odorants for possible use in natural gas storage facilities, as specified. The bill would require the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to consult with appropriate entities, as specified. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

(1) Existing law requires the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources in the Department of Conservation to regulate the drilling, operation, maintenance, and abandonment of wells and the operation, maintenance, and removal or abandonment of tanks and facilities attendant to oil and gas production. Existing law requires the State Oil and Gas Supervisor, on or before the first day of October of each year, to make public a report on specified information. This bill would require the supervisor to establish an inspection program for all activities regulated pursuant to these provisions and would require the total number of inspections and results of the inspections to be included in the above-referenced report. The bill would require the division's regulations, field rules, notices, manuals, and other requirements to be reviewed and revised, as needed, through a public process at least once every 10 years. The bill would require the division, as part of the Oil and Gas Data Management System developed pursuant to the Budget Act of 2015, to ensure that required well data and well-related submissions are retained and readily available to the public and that publicly available data are machine readable. Unless otherwise incorporated in the Oil and Gas Data Management System, the bill would require the division to post certain information that it receives on its Internet Web site. The bill would define "enhanced oil recovery" for purposes of provisions relating to the regulation of oil and gas. The bill would require the division, by July 1, 2017, to develop and implement additional safeguards, as needed, to protect groundwater where a well stimulation treatment is proposed for a shallow well or at a shallow depth in a well, as specified. (2) Existing law requires an owner or operator of a well to keep, or cause to be kept, and requires the operator to file with the district deputy at specified times, a careful and accurate log, core record, and history of the drilling of the well. Existing law requires the well history to show the location and amount of sidetracked casings, tools, or other material, the depth and quantity of cement in cement plugs, the shots of dynamite or other explosives, acid treatment data, the results of production and other tests during drilling operations, and all data on well stimulation treatments. Existing law requires the owner of any well to file with the supervisor a monthly statement that provides certain information relating to the well, including the amount of water produced from each well. Existing law provides that a person who fails to comply with specific laws relating to the regulation of oil or gas operations, including failing to furnish a report or record, is guilty of a misdemeanor. This bill would, in addition, require all operations on or in the well of any form to be systematically, completely, and accurately described and recorded in the well history. The bill would require any fluid injected or emplaced in the well to be fully characterized and reported as part of the history, as specified. The bill would require the monthly statement to the supervisor to include the full characterization of the chemical composition of water produced from each well. The bill would also require the operator of a waste disposal well to provide to the supervisor each quarter certain information regarding waste disposal injections. The bill would prohibit, commencing July 1, 2017, a chemical from being injected or emplaced in a well unless the division has in its possession specified information developed through established techniques about its physical, chemical, and biological properties in order to permit assessment of its toxicity, persistence, and mobility in the surrounding environment. The bill would require the division to post a list of chemicals and the measured parameters that meet this criteria on its Internet Web site. The bill would require the division to consult with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment in establishing the acceptable techniques and the list of measured parameters. Because a violation of these requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (3) The federal Safe Drinking Water Act regulates certain wells as Class II wells. Under existing federal law, the authority to regulate Class II wells in California is delegated to the Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources. Under existing regulations, a well operator is required to obtain approval from the supervisor or a district deputy for a subsurface injection or disposal project, including Class II wells, or any change in a project, as provided. This bill would require the division, on or before January 1, 2018, to update and revise these regulations, except as specified, according to specified criteria and would require the division to consult with independent experts and stakeholders in the development and review of the regulations. The bill would require the regulations to include certain requirements, including reporting requirements. The bill would require injection wells and well projects existing as of December 31, 2017, to be brought into compliance with these regulations on or before January 1, 2020. The bill would require these provisions to be liberally construed in order to meet specified requirements and to provide public transparency. The bill would provide that where the division shares jurisdiction over an injection well with a federal entity, the division's rules and regulations are to apply in addition to all applicable federal laws and regulations. The bill would require an injection well subject to specified emergency regulations, or any successor regulations, of the division regarding aquifer exemptions to immediately cease injection operations, other than those required for plugging and abandonment operations, if the well is not in compliance with those regulations by the applicable regulatory deadline. Because a violation of these requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (4) Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife, whenever it determines that an oil sump, as defined, is hazardous to wildlife or constitutes an immediate and grave danger to wildlife, to notify the State Oil and Gas Supervisor of the condition so that the supervisor may take action to have the condition cleaned up or abated. Under existing law, the Legislature finds and declares that it is essential in order to protect the wildlife resources of California that all hazardous exposed oil sumps in this state be either screened or eliminated. This bill would revise the definition of an oil sump and provide that, in order to protect groundwater, surface water, air quality, and wildlife resources, commencing July 1, 2017, no oil sumps shall be used for the disposal of waters or waste waters attendant to oil and gas field exploration, development, and production. (5) 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.

This measure would recognize 2016 as the 150-year anniversary of public service and protection of state parks by state park rangers and would encourage the Department of Parks and Recreation, the California State Park Rangers Association, and the California State Parks Anniversary Committee to take all appropriate action to celebrate that anniversary.

This measure would recognize the legendary career of Vincent Edward "Vin" Scully.