SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares the following:(a) In September 2001, the Rice Straw Burning Reduction Act restricted rice straw burning to burning for disease control purposes only and limited rice straw burning to 25 percent of individual planted acres, subject to a maximum annual allocation of 125,000 acres.
(b) The reduction in rice straw burning mandated by the Connelly-Areias-Chandler Rice Straw Burning Reduction Act of 1991, Section 41865 of the Health and Safety Code, should bear a reasonable relationship to the increase in rice straw uses.
(c) Notwithstanding the statutory requirement that the state produce an implementation plan and a schedule to achieve diversion of not less than 50 percent of rice straw produced toward off-field uses by the year 2000, as of June 2001, only 2 percent of the available rice straw was used off-field.
(d) In 2000, there were approximately 521,000 acres of rice planted in the Sacramento Valley, which could have yielded a potential of 1.17 million tons of rice straw.
(e) Products made from rice straw may be economically viable alternatives to substitute products.
(f) Recycling and reusing rice straw leading to sustainable economic development is a very desirable alternative to the current methods for disposing of rice straw.
(g) Rice fields flooded during the winter provide habitat that is an integral part of efforts to restore historic waterfowl and shore bird populations.
(h) The California Rice Commission has noted that over 141 species of birds, 28 species of mammals, and 24 species of amphibians and reptiles, many of which are categorized by state and federal agencies as endangered or threatened, consider California rice fields home.
(i) Existing means of building soundwalls are costly to the State of California.
(j) It is estimated that the construction costs for all soundwalls range from $1 million to $2.4 million per mile. The statewide average cost is approximately $1.5 million per mile, however, costs are somewhat higher in Los Angeles and other metropolitan areas.
(k) Currently, most soundwalls are constructed with masonry blocks. Recycled plastic materials have been used in several sound wall projects and other projects have used “living wall” construction that involves placing rocks and earth in wire-mesh cages.