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AB-1086 Organic waste: implementation strategy: report.(2021-2022)

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Date Published: 07/07/2021 09:00 PM
AB1086:v97#DOCUMENT

Amended  IN  Senate  July 07, 2021
Amended  IN  Assembly  April 05, 2021

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 1086

Introduced by Assembly Member Aguiar-Curry

February 18, 2021

An act to add and repeal Section 42649.88 of the Public Resources Code, relating to organic waste.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 1086, as amended, Aguiar-Curry. Organic waste: implementation strategy. strategy: report.
Existing law requires the California Environmental Protection Agency, in coordination with specified state agencies, to develop and implement policies to aid in diverting organic waste from landfills through certain actions, and, in developing those policies, to promote a goal of reducing at least 5,000,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year through the development and application of compost on working lands. Existing law requires the California Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Food and Agriculture, with other specified state agencies, to, among other things, develop recommendations for promoting organic waste processing and recycling infrastructure statewide and to post those recommendations on the California Environmental Protection Agency’s internet website and update them annually.
This bill would require the Natural Resources Agency, in coordination request that the California Council on Science and Technology, in consultation with its academic and research partners and specified state agencies, and in consultation with stakeholders and relevant permitting agencies, to prepare and submit to the Legislature, by January 1, 2023, undertake and, within 12 months of entering into a contract, complete a report that provides an implementation strategy to achieve the state’s organic waste, and related climate change and air quality, mandates, goals, and targets. The bill would authorize the Natural Resources Agency to, by July 1, 2022, contract with outside entities, including the California Council on Science and Technology and the University of California, to prepare the report. If the council agrees to undertake and complete the report, the bill would require the council to provide the report to the relevant state agencies after peer review in order for one or more of the relevant state agencies to conduct at least one public meeting and publish the draft implementation strategy on its internet website. The bill would also require the council, if it agrees to undertake and complete the report, to submit the report to the Legislature. The bill would require the implementation strategy to include, among other things, recommendations on policy and funding support for the beneficial reuse of organic waste.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) Each year, California generates millions of tons of organic waste, from thinned forest fuel and agricultural waste to urban food waste and landscape prunings, that are landfilled, burned in piles and wildfires, or left to rot.
(b) Organic waste is the state’s largest source of methane and black carbon emissions, which are two of the most damaging climate pollutants and also harm respiratory and cardiovascular health.
(c) Reducing wildfire, landfilling, and pile burning of organic waste is critical to meet the state’s air quality and climate goals and requirements to reduce short-lived climate pollutants.
(d) Meeting the state’s air quality and climate goals requires quickly increasing the beneficial reuse of organic waste to produce organic soil amendments, animal feed ingredients, low-carbon wood products, materials for water purification and conservation, renewable and low-carbon energy, and more.
(e) Converting organic waste for beneficial reuse will provide economic and environmental cobenefits in local communities throughout the state.
(f) Converting organic waste to beneficial uses can provide significant net benefits to the climate, public health, soil health, community resilience, local economic development, and environmental sustainability.
(g) California has adopted many goals related to organic waste, but does not have a detailed implementation strategy that identifies the specific measures needed to achieve the goals, including a science-based assessment of the benefits and impacts of different end uses, identification of regulatory conflicts or barriers that must be addressed to accelerate beneficial reuse of organic waste, potential funding sources and incentives, opportunities for regional and cross-sector coordination, and other measures needed to meet the state’s organic waste goals across all sectors.
(h) The state’s implementation strategy for organic waste goals should provide specific and actionable measures that the Legislature and state agencies should take to meet the state’s landfill diversion, short-lived climate pollutant reduction, forest carbon, natural and working lands, and other policies.

SEC. 2.

 Section 42649.88 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

42649.88.
 (a) For purposes of this section, “organic waste” includes all of the following:
(1) The materials identified in subdivision (d) of Section 42649.8.
(2) The materials identified in subdivisions (a) and (c) of Section 40106.
(3) Biosolids, as defined in paragraph (9) of subdivision (a) of Section 17852 of Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations, or any successor regulation.
(4) Livestock waste.
(b) (1) The Natural Resources Agency, in coordination with the California Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Food and Agriculture, the department, and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and in consultation with stakeholders and relevant permitting agencies, shall prepare and submit to the Legislature, by January 1, 2023, The Legislature requests that the California Council on Science and Technology, in consultation with its academic and research partners and with the California Environmental Protection Agency, the Natural Resources Agency, the Department of Food and Agriculture, the department, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the State Air Resources Board, and the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, undertake and, within 12 months of entering into a contract, complete a report that provides an implementation strategy that identifies the specific measures needed to achieve the state’s organic waste, and related climate change and air quality, mandates, goals, and targets. The Natural Resources Agency may, by July 1, 2022, contract with outside entities, including the California Council on Science and Technology and the University of California, to prepare the report.
(2) The report shall do all of the following:
(A) Include a science-based assessment of the benefits and impacts of different end uses of organic waste.
(B) Identify regulatory conflicts or barriers that need to be addressed to accelerate beneficial reuse of organic waste.
(C) Specify potential funding sources and incentives, opportunities for regional and cross-sector coordination, and other measures needed to meet the state’s organic waste goals with interagency support and coordination.
(3) To the extent feasible, the report shall reflect input from, and consider the recommendations of, the Natural Resources Agency, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the department, and the Department of Food and Agriculture.

(4)The Natural Resources Agency, or the outside entity contracted to create the report, shall do both of the following:

(4) If the California Council on Science and Technology agrees to undertake and complete the report pursuant to paragraph (1), the California Council on Science and Technology shall provide the report to the relevant state agencies after peer review in order for one or more of the relevant state agencies to do both of the following:
(A) Conduct at least one public meeting to consider public comments.
(B) Provide public notice of the public meeting, and publish the draft implementation strategy on its internet website, at least 30 days before the public meeting.
(c) The implementation strategy shall also include, but is not limited to, all of the following:
(1) Recommendations on policy and funding support for the beneficial reuse of organic waste, consistent with the following:
(A) The short-lived climate pollutant strategy implemented pursuant to Sections 39730.5 and 39730.6 of the Health and Safety Code, and Chapter 13.1 (commencing with Section 42652) and implementing regulations.
(B) The 2030 greenhouse gas emissions limit adopted pursuant to Section 38566 of the Health and Safety Code.
(C) Actions to achieve the attainment of state and federal ambient air quality standards, including, but not limited to, actions related to the control of organic waste air emissions and actions required pursuant to Chapter 136 of the Statutes of 2017.
(D) The requirements of Article 16 (commencing with Section 399.11) of Chapter 2.3 of Part 1 of Division 1 of the Public Utilities Code.
(E) The “California Forest Carbon Plan: Managing Our Forest Landscapes In A Changing Climate,” prepared by the Natural Resources Agency, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and the Department of Food and Agriculture, and issued in May 2018.
(F) The goal of reducing at least 5,000,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year through the development and application of compost on working lands established pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 42649.87.
(2) Consideration of the beneficial uses of organic waste in comparison to the alternative fate of the organic waste, including all of the following:
(A) The availability of organic waste in the forestry, agriculture, and solid waste sectors.
(B) Beneficial alternatives to the burning, leaving in place, landfilling, or other current waste disposal practices.
(C) Net impacts on all of the following:
(i) Carbon emissions, on a life-cycle basis, including the potential for net carbon negative emissions.
(ii) Air quality, including local impacts on areas designated as being in nonattainment of state and federal ambient air quality standards.
(iii) Forest health, soil health, soil carbon sequestration, and erosion control.
(iv) Stormwater infiltration and runoff reduction, groundwater recharge and quality, irrigation reduction, surface water pollution, and water supply for each alternative end use.
(v) Job creation, economic development, community-scale empowerment and economic justice, and local revenues, and where those impacts would accrue.
(vi) Community resilience, including resilience against climate change, catastrophic wildfires, power disruptions, and other impacts.
(vii) Food waste, food insecurity for humans, and the cost and availability of appropriate feed for pets, livestock, aquaculture, and other uses.
(D) Use of organic waste for renewable energy production.
(3) Identification of obstacles to the beneficial reuse of organic waste.
(4) Activities undertaken by the private and public sectors to address the obstacles identified pursuant to paragraph (3).

(d)(1)The report required pursuant to subdivision (b) shall be submitted to the Legislature in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.

(2)Pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code, this section is repealed on January 1, 2027.

(d) If the California Council on Science and Technology agrees to undertake and complete the report pursuant to subdivision (b), the California Council on Science and Technology shall, upon completion of the report, submit the report to the Legislature.
(e) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2027, and as of that date is repealed.