The California Natural Resources Committee in
the Assembly passed 7 bills to protect the coast of California. These bills are in response to
the oil spilled from a South Korea-bound container ship when it struck a tower
supporting the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in dense fog in November 2007.
Scientists say that wildlife will be threatened for years to
come. After the accident dozens of dead and injured seabirds were found coated
in the bunker fuel being transported.
“This is the first step in a long process to protect our coast
from dangerous tankers,” said Dan Jacobson, Legislative Director for
Environment California. “Now we need the rest of the Assembly to follow the
leadership of our coastal advocates.”
The bills will now go to various committees in the legislature
and will have to move through the powerful appropriations committee. From there
they will go to the floor of the Assembly and then they will receive similar
hearings in the Senate. In order for the bills to become law they will need to
survive this process and be signed by the Governor this year.
Here is synopsis of the bills:
AB 2031 (Hancock)
The Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act generally
requires the administrator for oil spill response, acting at the direction of
the Governor, to implement activities relating to oil spill response, including
emergency drills and preparedness, and oil spill containment and cleanup, and
to represent the state in any coordinated response efforts with the federal
government. This bill would require the administrator, upon request, to provide
a program for training and certification of a local emergency responder
designated as a local spill response manager by a local government with
jurisdiction over or directly adjacent to marine waters. The bill would require
the administrator as part of the training and certification program, to
authorize a local spill response manager to train and certify volunteers to
work under his or her direction. This bill contains other related provisions
and other existing laws.
AB 2032 (Hancock)
The Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act generally
requires the administrator for oil spill response, acting at the direction of
the Governor, to implement activities relating to oil spill response. The act
defines "nontank vessel" as a vessel of 300 gross tons or greater
that carries oil, but does not carry that oil as cargo. The act defines
"tank ship" as any self-propelled vessel that is constructed or
adapted for the carriage of oil in bulk or in commercial quantities as cargo.
This bill would, for purposes of the act, revise the definition of
"nontank vessel" to exclude a vessel that carries oil in a single
tank with a capacity greater than 50,000 gallons, and revise the definition of
"tank ship" to include a vessel that carries oil in a single tank
with a capacity greater than 50,000 gallons. This bill contains other related provisions
and other existing laws.
AB 2441 (Lieber)
The Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act requires the
administrator for oil spill response to adopt regulations governing tugboat
escorts for tank ships and tank barges entering, leaving, or navigating in the
harbors of the state, as prescribed. This bill would additionally require the
administrator to adopt regulations governing tugboat escorts for vessels
carrying hazardous materials that are entering, leaving, or navigating in the
harbors of the state.
AB 2547 (Leno)
This bill would require the administrator for oil spill response to require
rated oil spill response organizations (OSROs) to satisfactorily complete one
unannounced drill prior to modifying, renewing, or reinstating a rating and to
require that OSROs demonstrate response resource deployment capability. AB 2547
would also require the administrator to award and administer competitive grants
for the development of improved processes and technologies for oil spill
prevention, containment, and cleanup, and require the administrator to expend
Oil Spill Response Trust Fund monies to cover the uncompensated response and
cleanup costs resulting from providing resources through the use of a universal
mutual aid agreement and to pay for technology grants. This bill would also
require the administrator to adopt and implement regulations for the mandated
minimum containment response required for oil spills that occur during low
visibility conditions and for marine groundings and collisions.
AB 2911 (Wolk)
This bill would expand the focus of the oiled wildlife care network to include
proactive oiled wildlife search and rescue in addition to rehabilitative care.
It would also improve the state's ability to prevent and treat oiled wildlife
by providing for the recruitment and training of a larger field team of
specialists and volunteers, developing an emergency equipment deployment plan,
and including inland areas in the rescue network.
AB 2912 (Wolk)
The Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act, among other
things, governs the prevention of and response to oil spills into marine
waters, as defined. Existing law defines various terms for purposes of the act.
A "spill" or "discharge" is defined to mean any
unauthorized release of at least one barrel (42 gallons) of oil into marine
waters. This bill would define a "spill" or "discharge"
instead to mean any release of oil into marine waters or into waters, of the
state other than marine waters without specifying a minimum amount of oil. The
bill would make related changes. The bill would define the term "waters of
the state" for purposes of the act, and for purposes of spills or
discharges of oil into nonmarine waters of the state, the bill would limit the
definition of the term "person" under the act to specified owners and
operators. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.
AB 2935 (Huffman)
The Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act generally
requires the administrator for oil spill response, acting at the direction of
the Governor, to implement activities relating to oil spill response, including
emergency drills and preparedness, and oil spill containment and cleanup, and
to represent the state in any coordinated response efforts with the federal
government. Existing law provides that the administrator may use volunteer
workers in response, containment, restoration, wildlife rehabilitation, and
cleanup efforts for oil spills, and may offer training to these volunteers.
This bill would require the administrator to develop a hazardous materials
training program, no more than 4 hours in length, for those volunteers. The
bill would require the administrator to solicit the cooperation, and maintain a
list, of local agencies responsible for emergency response and management of
public lands that may be impacted by oil spills. These local agencies would be
required to have available at least one trainer capable of presenting the
hazardous materials training program to the volunteers and facilities for the
training. The administrator would be required to update each oil spill
contingency plan to provide for this training. This bill contains other related
provisions and other existing laws.
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