Bill Text: CA AB511 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Mobile telephony service: earthquake early warning.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2020-02-03 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB511 Detail]
Download: California-2019-AB511-Amended.html
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Amended
IN
Assembly
March 25, 2019 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION
| Assembly Bill | No. 511 |
| Introduced by Assembly Member Nazarian |
February 13, 2019 |
An act to amend Section 17701.14 of the Corporations Code, relating to business. add Section 2887 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to telecommunications.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 511, as amended, Nazarian.
Limited liability companies. Mobile telephony service: earthquake early warning.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law establishes various service requirements applicable to mobile telephony service providers.
This bill would require, on and after December 1, 2020, that any mobile telephony service communications device sold in California incorporate earthquake early warning technology to function as part of the wireless emergency alerts system and that this function be activated unless the purchaser expressly exercises the option to deactivate the function. The bill would require, by December 1, 2020, that every mobile
telephony service provider providing service in California incorporate earthquake early warning technology to function as part of the wireless emergency alerts system unless the subscriber expressly exercises the option to deactivate that function.
Existing law permits a limited liability or foreign limited liability company to change it designated office, its principal office, its agent for service of process, the address of its agent for service of process, and other information by delivering to the Secretary of State for filing a statement of information, as prescribed.
This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to these provisions.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: NO Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) California is home to two-thirds of our nation’s earthquake risk, and Californians are, unfortunately, all too familiar with devastating earthquakes and the damage they can cause to homes and lives.
(b) The year 2019 marks the 25th anniversary of the 1994 Northridge earthquake, when the Northridge blind thrust fault struck the Los Angeles region. The magnitude 6.7 earthquake left 60 people dead, more than 9,000 people
injured, and caused more than $40,000,000,000 in property damage in today’s dollars. In addition, 7,000 single-family homes, 5,000 mobilehomes, and about 49,000 apartments were destroyed or severely damaged, and 57,000 single-family homes suffered substantial damage from the shaking and subsequent fires.
(c) In 1971, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake originated from the Sierra Madre Fault Zone in Los Angeles, followed by a magnitude 5.8 aftershock. The earthquake and aftershock left 58 people dead, brought down parts of major freeways, including Interstate 5 and Interstate 210, caused severe damage to the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, and displaced thousands of people as 30,000 homes suffered major damage.
(d) In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake, a magnitude 6.9 temblor, killed 63 people, injured more than 3,700 people, damaged or destroyed 12,000 homes, and caused more
than $6,000,000,000 in property damage. In all, more than 3,000 people were left homeless after the Loma Prieta earthquake.
(e) In 2014, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit South Napa leaving more than 100 single-family homes uninhabitable and damaging hundreds more.
(f) These earthquakes are just a few of the damaging earthquakes that devastate parts of California on a regular basis. According to the latest Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast, the best science holds that there is a 60-percent chance that an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater will hit southern California sometime between today and 30 years from now. An earthquake of that magnitude could result in tens of billions of dollars in damage and render thousands of residences uninhabitable. The same forecast calculates a 46-percent chance of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake occurring within the same period—an
earthquake nearly three times stronger than the Northridge earthquake. Furthermore, there is a 31-percent chance of a 7.5 earthquake in the next 30 years—an earthquake nearly 16 times stronger than the Northridge earthquake.
(g) Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) systems provide advance notice that an earthquake is about to strike by detecting two different kinds of seismic waves in the earth’s surface. This allows seconds or minutes of warning for protective measures such as allowing the public to “Drop, Cover, and Hold On,” and activation of automated systems to protect equipment, electrical stations, and industrial facilities, and to open firehouse doors, among other things.
(h) When an earthquake occurs, both compressional (P) waves and transverse (S) waves radiate outward from the epicenter. The P wave, which travels fastest, trips sensors placed in the landscape, causing alert
signals to be sent ahead, giving people and automated electronic systems some time, from seconds to minutes, to take precautionary actions before damage can begin with the arrival of the slower but stronger S waves and later-arriving surface waves. Computers and mobile telephones receiving the alert message calculate the expected arrival time and intensity of shaking at your location.
(i) EEW systems are operational in several countries around the world, including Mexico, Japan, Turkey, Romania, China, Italy, and Taiwan. Each of these systems is unique, based on the local system of faults, and thus cannot readily be adapted to California. The two most prominent EEW systems are in Japan and Mexico City. Japan currently has the most sophisticated EEW system in the world, and has been issuing nationwide public warnings since 2007. The warnings were initially developed for stopping high-speed trains prior to strong shaking. In 2011, for the 2011
Tohoku earthquake, the system in Japan generated nearly 90 seconds of advanced warning for people in Tokyo, 231 miles from the epicenter. Mexico City’s EEW system has been operational since 1991 and warns of strong shaking from large earthquakes that occur off of the country’s coast. Since Mexico City is located several hundred miles from the main plate boundary, the system is able to issue warnings of up to a minute or more.
(j) The most important component of an EEW system is a dense network of stations with robust communications. In southern California, the Los Angeles-Long Beach Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), led by the Los Angeles mayor’s office, supported the development of the region’s sensor network by dedicating nearly $6,000,000 in funding for the addition of 125 stations to the southern California portion, which comprises 250 sensors in total. Because of this investment, southern California became the first region in the
United States with a density of stations that can support an EEW system. The San Francisco Bay area followed with a network of sensors over a smaller geographic area.
(k) The 2019–20 state Budget Act allocated $16,300,000 from the General Fund to finish the build-out of the California Earthquake Early Warning System, installing and upgrading a total of 463 sensors in the statewide seismic network.
(l) Since 2006, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) has been developing its ShakeAlert EEW system with a coalition of partners for the entire west coast of the United States based on this technology. The ShakeAlert demonstration system began sending test notifications to selected users in California in January 2012. The system detects earthquakes via the California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN), comprising approximately 400 ground motion sensors. CISN is a partnership between
the USGS, State of California, Caltech, and University of California at Berkeley, and is one of seven regional networks in the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS).
(m) The ShakeAlert EEW system has been tested in Los Angeles since 2012 by users including the city’s Emergency Management and Fire Departments, and the Los Angeles Unified School District. In October 2015, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti launched a pilot program bringing ShakeAlert to the science classrooms at Eagle Rock High School, making the first beta ShakeAlert warnings available to the public. This pilot provided experience with live earthquake warnings, and a platform to consider how alerts can be integrated into emergency response. In 2016, the City of Los Angeles and USGS signed a Technical Assistance Agreement on Earthquake Early Warning advancement. In 2017, the City of Los Angeles and USGS agreed on two additional ShakeAlert pilots: (1) ShakeAlert at Los Angeles City
Hall (launched October 2018), and (2) the ShakeAlertLA mobile application.
(n) On January 3, 2019, Los Angeles unveiled its long-anticipated earthquake early warning application for Android and Apple smartphones, which is now available for download. ShakeAlertLA, a mobile application created under the oversight of Mayor Eric Garcetti and the City of Los Angeles, is designed to work with the United States Geological Survey’s earthquake early warning system, which has been under development for years. The application is designed to give users seconds, and perhaps even tens of seconds, before shaking from a distant earthquake arrives at a user’s location.
(o) The Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system is a public safety system that allows customers who own certain mobile telephones and other compatible mobile devices to receive geographically targeted, text-like messages alerting
them of imminent threats to safety in their area. WEA was established in 2008, pursuant to the federal Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act and became operational in 2012. Wireless companies volunteer to participate in WEA, which is the result of a public-private partnership between the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the mobile telecommunications industry to enhance public safety. Since its launch in 2012, the WEA system has been used more than 40,000 times to warn the public about dangerous weather, missing children, and other critical situations, all through alerts on compatible cellular telephones and other mobile devices.
(p) The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services was granted a limited waiver by the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission to conduct an end-to-end test of WEA on March 27, 2019, in the City of Oakland.
(q) By December 1, 2020, every mobile telephony service provider and smartphone manufacturer doing business in California should incorporate EEW technology to function as part of the WEA system. Using WEA to deliver EEWs will enable millions of handsets currently operating in California to receive EEWs in areas currently supported by existing and future earthquake early warning systems. This requirement would replace the need for residents and visitors to download a separate EEW application, and make the benefits of EEWs immediately available to anyone in the alerted area with a WEA-capable phone.
SEC. 2.
Section 2887 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:2887.
(a) On and after December 1, 2020, any mobile telephony service communications device sold in California shall incorporate earthquake early warning technology to function as part of the wireless emergency alerts system, and that function shall be activated unless the purchaser expressly exercises the option to deactivate that function.(b) By December 1, 2020, every mobile telephony service provider providing service in California shall incorporate earthquake early warning technology to function as part of the wireless emergency alerts system, unless the subscriber expressly exercises the option to deactivate that function.
(a)A limited liability company or foreign limited liability company may change its designated office, its principal office, its agent for service of process, the address of its agent for service of process, its mailing address, or, in the case of a foreign limited liability company, its principal business office within this state by delivering to the Secretary of State for filing a statement of information as set forth in Section 17702.09.
(b)A statement of information is effective when filed by the Secretary of State.
