Bill Text: CA AB22 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Office of Emergency Services: oil-by-rail spills: firefighters.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From Senate committee without further action. [AB22 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB22-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 22 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 14, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Rodriguez
DECEMBER 1, 2014
An act to add Section 8574.9 to the Government Code, relating to
oil-by-rail spills.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 22, as amended, Rodriguez. Office of Emergency Services:
oil-by-rail spills: firefighters.
Existing law establishes the Office of Emergency Services within
the office of the Governor and under the supervision of the Director
of Emergency Services and makes the office responsible for the state'
s emergency and disaster response services for natural,
technological, or manmade disasters and emergencies. Existing law
requires the office to serve as the central point of state government
for the emergency reporting of spills, unauthorized releases, or
other accidental releases of hazardous materials and to coordinate
the notification of the appropriate state and local administering
agencies that may be required to respond to those spills,
unauthorized releases, or other accidental releases. Existing law
also establishes the Curriculum Development Advisory Committee to
provide advice on the development of specified course curricula and
response training.
This bill would require require, upon a
specified appropriation by the Legislature, the Curriculum
Development Advisory Committee to review the curriculum and courses
of instruction offered by public and private programs that train
firefighters in response methods for oil-by-rail spills, require the
Office of Emergency Services to compile a list of those curriculum
and courses of instruction and make that list available to all fire
departments , and establish a program to reimburse fire
departments for costs incurred by those departments in sending
firefighters to trainings, as provided.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated 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) Fracking and other developing oil extraction technologies
employed in Canada and the United States have significantly increased
oil production. This source of new oil has created a problem in the
transportation and delivery of crude oil. There is currently not
enough pipeline capacity in North America to transport these
increased volumes to refineries and distribution points. As a result,
rail is becoming the primary way to move inland crude oil and
hydrocarbon gas liquids to the West Coast. California like the rest
of the nation is experiencing dramatic changes in the amount of oil
being transported by rail.
(b) As oil-by-rail shipments have dramatically increased in recent
years, there has been a resulting increase in the number of
incidents involving crude oil spills by rail.
(c) The danger from a major oil spill is exacerbated by the type
of oil that is being spilled. Oil from the Bakken Shale Formation is
high quality, light, sweet crude. It is precisely because this crude
oil is so energy dense that it is both valuable and hazardous. Its
light nature and high density under the right circumstances makes it
volatile, highly flammable, and toxic.
(d) Crude oil trains travel through some of the state's most
densely populated areas, as well as some of the most sensitive
ecological areas, since rail lines frequently operate near or over
rivers and other sensitive waterways in the state.
(e) There are wide disparities in training and equipment for
oil-by-rail spills in the following instances: between volunteer and
nonvolunteer fire departments; between rural and urban fire
departments; and between small and large fire departments. Large,
urban fire departments tend to receive more training and are better
equipped than smaller rural fire departments. Volunteer fire
departments have almost no independent ability to respond to large
scale oil-by-rail spills, relying instead upon regional mutual aid or
upon railroad personnel and assets.
(f) Many small and some medium-sized fire departments do not have
the budget to send firefighters for training even if the costs of
that training are subsidized or paid for with grants or other
assistance. When a firefighter is sent for training, another off-duty
firefighter must be called in to cover the shift and maintain
coverage for services. This requires paying the firefighter his or
her salary during his or her training and also paying an off-duty
firefighter to cover the shift. Railroads provide free training for
local first responders in California in localities that are
convenient to the fire departments, yet volunteer and small rural
fire departments frequently do not attend or participate in such
training classes.
SEC. 2. Section 8574.9 is added to the Government Code, to read:
8574.9. (a) The Curriculum Development Advisory Committee
described in Section 8588.10 shall review the curriculum and courses
of instruction offered by public and private programs that train
firefighters in response methods for oil-by-rail spills.
(b) The Office of Emergency Services shall compile a list of the
curriculum and courses of instruction specified in subdivision (a),
shall make that list available to all fire departments, including in
that list information regarding the availability and cost of the
curriculum and courses of instruction, and shall facilitate and
encourage fire departments to send firefighters for that training.
(c) (1) The Office of
Emergency Services shall establish a program to reimburse fire
departments for costs incurred by those departments in sending
firefighters to trainings identified by the Curriculum Development
Advisory Committee and the Office of Emergency Services pursuant to
this section, upon application by the fire department for
reimbursement. Volunteer fire departments may also receive a per diem
of one hundred dollars ($100) per volunteer firefighter, upon
application, to be paid to a volunteer firefighter who attends such
training.
(2) The Office of Emergency Services shall use funds received from
grants or general funds appropriated to the Office of Emergency
Services by the Legislature for this program.
(d) The duties and authorizations set forth in this section shall
only apply upon an appropriation by the Legislature of revenues
derived from fees charged for the reasonable costs to the state of
preparing to respond to oil-by-rail spills, including, but not
limited to, appropriate fees deposited into the Regional Railroad
Accident Preparedness and Immediate Response Fund, as established in
Section 8574.44.
