The hazardous waste control laws require the Department of Toxic Substances Control to regulate the handling and management of hazardous materials and hazardous waste. Existing law, known as the Green Chemistry program, requires the department to adopt regulations to establish a process to identify and prioritize chemicals or chemical ingredients in consumer products that may be considered as being chemicals of concern. This bill would require a government agency or an entity with which a government agency contracts to submit a plan for the application of a chemical to the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment before applying the chemical outdoors in a residential area, defined as a residential neighborhood, school, daycare center, park and recreational facility, or other location where infants and children generally spend time. The bill would require the office to conduct an independent review of any health impacts of the chemical, including reviewing any relevant scientific literature, studies, or other independently peer-reviewed information relating to the chemical's adverse health effects on infants and children. If there is any evidence in the peer-reviewed scientific literature or studies that the chemical may cause genetic damage, birth defects, cancer, or nervous or reproductive system harm, the bill would prohibit a government agency or an entity with which a government agency contracts from applying the chemical outdoors in a residential area. The bill would also prohibit a government agency or an entity with which a government agency contracts from applying a chemical outdoors in a residential area if literature or studies relating to whether there are adverse health effects of the chemical have not been completed until the literature or studies have been completed and subjected to independent scientific peer review and the office completes a review pursuant to the bill's provisions. The bill would require the office to hold at least one public meeting annually for purposes of presenting its proposed findings and accepting public testimony on chemicals for which plans have been submitted pursuant to the bill's provisions.
Sponsored bills
The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, generally regulates the disposal, management, and recycling of solid waste. The hazardous waste control laws, among other things, vest the Department of Toxic Substances Control with the authority to regulate the generation and disposal of hazardous waste. Existing law authorizes the Department of Toxic Substances Control to adopt regulations to designate end-of-life photovoltaic modules that are identified as hazardous waste as a universal waste and subject those modules to universal waste management. This bill would require, on and after January 1, 2023, a manufacturer of a solar panel sold in California to include a permanently affixed label that provides information necessary to facilitate proper disposal or recycling of the solar panel at the end of its useful life. The bill would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, in consultation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and the Public Utilities Commission, to develop regulations implementing that labeling requirement, as provided.
Existing law authorizes a social worker to take a minor into custody in various specified situations, including where there is reasonable cause for believing that the minor is a person who may come within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court on the basis of abuse or neglect. Existing law establishes the jurisdiction of the juvenile court, which may adjudge a child to be a dependent of the court under certain circumstances, including when the child suffered, or there is a substantial risk that the child will suffer, serious physical harm, or a parent fails to provide the child with adequate food, clothing, shelter, or medical treatment. Existing law establishes the grounds for removal of a dependent child from the custody of the child's parents or guardian and requires the court, when it removes a child from the custody of the child's parents or guardian, to order the care, custody, control, and conduct of the child to be under the supervision of the social worker, who may place the child in specified settings, including the approved home of a relative or nonrelative extended family member. This bill would prohibit a social worker from considering the arrest record of a person residing in a proposed placement when determining the appropriate placement for a child, except as specified.
Existing law establishes the jurisdiction of the juvenile court over minors who are between 12 and 17 years of age, inclusive. Existing law provides that the juvenile court may maintain jurisdiction over a person until the person attains 21 years of age. Existing law establishes procedures for the detention of a minor to include the circumstances under which a peace officer may place a minor in temporary custody and the locations where the detention may take place. Existing law prescribes judgements that may be ordered by the juvenile court, including probation. This bill would extend the jurisdiction of the juvenile court to those who are between 12 and 19 years of age, inclusive. This bill would provide that the juvenile court may maintain jurisdiction over a person until the person attains 24 years of age. This bill would require detention, if necessary, take place in the minor's or youth's home, unless detention in juvenile hall is necessary for specified reasons, including for the protection of others. This bill would, among other things, limit probation to only those behaviors that are necessary for public safety and specifically related to individual risk factors, and would require minors to receive individualized family-centered, strength-based case plans when adjudged probation. This bill would make additional conforming changes.
Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, at least every 2 years, to conduct assessments and forecasts of all aspects of energy industry supply, production, transportation, delivery and distribution, demand, and prices. This bill would require the commission, in consultation with the Independent System Operator, to identify and evaluate options for transforming the electrical corporations' distribution grids into more open access platforms that would allow local governments and other third parties to participate more easily in grid activities, as provided. The bill would require the commission to update the identification and evaluation at least once every 2 years. The bill would require the commission, beginning January 1, 2022, and biennially thereafter, to submit to the Legislature a report on the identification and evaluation of options.
Existing law, the State Housing Law, establishes statewide construction and occupancy standards for buildings used for human habitation. Existing law permits a city or county to adopt alternative building regulations for the complete or partial conversion of commercial or industrial buildings to joint living and work quarters. Existing law defines a joint living and work quarter as residential occupancy by a family or not more than 4 unrelated persons maintaining a common household of one or more rooms or floors in a building originally designed for industrial or commercial occupancy, as specified. This bill would redefine joint living and work quarters to mean residential occupancy by a group of persons, whether those persons are related or unrelated. Existing law, among other things, requires the Department of Housing and Community Development to propose the adoption, amendment, or repeal of building standards to the California Building Standards Commission, and to adopt, amend, and repeal other rules and regulations for the protection of the public health, safety, and general welfare of the occupant and the public, governing hotels, motels, lodging houses, apartment houses, and dwellings, and buildings and structures accessory thereto. Existing law specifies that its provisions and the building standards and rules and regulations adopted pursuant to that law apply in all parts of the state and requires specified entities within each city, county, or city and county to enforce within its jurisdiction those pertaining to the maintenance, sanitation, ventilation, use, or occupancy of apartment houses, hotels, or dwellings. This bill would authorize an enforcement agency that issues a notice to correct or abate, as defined, to an owner of an occupied substandard building or unit, as defined, a statement that the owner has the right to request a delay in enforcement of up to 7 years. The bill would authorize this delay only for an occupied substandard building or unit located in a zone where residential use is permitted, including areas zoned for residential mixed use. The bill would permit the owner of an occupied substandard building or unit that receives a notice to correct or abate to submit an application requesting delayed enforcement for up to 7 years on the basis that correcting the violation or abating the nuisance is not necessary to protect the health and safety of the public and the occupants of the building or unit. The bill would authorize an enforcement agency to grant an application for delayed enforcement upon determining that correcting the violation or abating the nuisance is not necessary to protect the health and safety of the public or occupants. The bill would also permit the enforcement agency to grant the application for a shorter period of time than requested for violations or nuisances that impact the health and safety of the public or occupants and to require those violations or nuisances to be corrected or abated earlier than 7 years.
Existing law establishes the California Emergency Solutions and Housing Program, under the administration of the Department of Housing and Community Development and requires the department to, among other things, provide rental assistance and housing relocation and stabilization services under that program to ensure housing affordability to people who are experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness. This bill would establish in the State Treasury the Keep Californians Housed Assistance Fund and require the moneys in the fund, upon appropriation, to be made available to the department for rental assistance purposes. The bill would require the department to distribute funds to cities and administrative entities in the form of grants awarded on a competitive basis, as specified.
Existing law establishes the Department of Industrial Relations for specified purposes and provides for its administration by the Director of Industrial Relations. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to that administration provision.
The Charter Schools Act of 1992 authorizes the establishment and operation of charter schools. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to the act.
Existing law creates the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program to address deferred maintenance on the state highway system and the local street and road system. Existing law requires the Department of Transportation and cities and counties receiving funds under the program, to the extent possible and cost effective, and where feasible, to use advanced technologies and material recycling techniques that reduce the cost of maintaining and rehabilitating the streets and highways and that exhibit reduced levels of greenhouse gas emissions through material choice and construction method. This bill would delete the condition in that requirement imposed on the department and those cities and counties to use advanced technologies and material recycling techniques to the extent possible. The bill would require those cities and counties to apply standard specifications that allow for the use of recycled materials at or above the level allowed in the department's most recently published standard specifications for recycled base and subbase materials, returned plastic concrete, reclaimed aggregate in minor concrete, and reclaimed asphalt pavement.