California Air Resources Board

Requires CARB to amend its regulations on methane emissions from a municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill to establish requirements for the monitoring of landfill gas temperature and requires the operator of an MSW landfill to monitor landfill gas temperature in accordance with CARB regulations. The bill also requires the California Department of Recycling and Resource Recovery (CalRecycle), on or before July 1, 2027, to establish minimum guidelines and coordinate with CARB to ensure consistency with CARB's methane regulation, and consider existing federal, State, and local guidance and stakeholder expertise to identify and manage subsurface elevated temperature events and minimum standards for a corrective action plan. The bill also requires tiered action if the gas temperature reaches 131 F, 146 F, or 170 F for a specified time frame. If an operator of an MSW landfill fails to provide notice of a sustained gas temperature within the specified timeframe, the bill authorizes CalRecycle or a local enforcement agency to impose a penalty of $10,000 per day and other penalties, as specified. The bill requires all penalties to be deposited into the Landfill Subsurface Fire Mitigation Account, which the bill creates, to be used upon appropriation by the Legislature to mitigate harm to a person or community adversely affected by a solid waste landfill, as specified. This bill makes an operator of an MSW landfill liable to CalRecycle and the local enforcement agency for their costs, as specified. Moved to the Senate Inactive File.

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Would have formally expanded the California Department of Recycling and Resource Recovery’s (CalRecycle’s) California Climate Investments Food Waste Prevention grant program to provide financial assistance for the recovery of edible food, as specified. The bill also would have specified that eligible infrastructure projects included the construction or expansion of facilities to help develop, implement, or expand edible food waste recovery operation and required CalRecycle to consider the increased amount of edible food recovery capacity that the project will create when awarding a grant for edible food recovery. Held on suspense in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

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Exempts an agricultural crop preparation service (ACPS) from the Department of Recycling and Resource Recovery’s (CalRecycle) regulations for the Edible Food Rescue Program for Commercial Edible Food Generators (CCR Tit.14, Div. 7, Chap. 12, Art. 10) promulgated under the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Strategy if the ACPS demonstrates to CalRecycle, in a form and manner developed by CalRecycle, that it has not disposed of organic waste in a landfill on or after January 1, 2016.

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Adds a definition for "certified reclaimed refrigerant" in California statute to clarify the previous reference to the United States Environmental Protection Agency definition of “reclaim” in Section 84.3 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Under the new definition, “certified reclaimed refrigerant” means recovered refrigerant that meets four specific criteria based on CARB's Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) regulation, which includes that it is reclaimed, has been analyzed to meet specifications, and is documented by a certified reclaimer to contain no more that 15% new refrigerant. The bill also delays the prohibition on new HFCs used exclusively for very low temperature refrigeration or cooling until 2028, as specified.

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Allows a local jurisdiction to count organic material used as a beneficial agricultural amendment towards its recovered organic waste procurement target under SB 1383 (Lara, Chapter 395, Statutes of 2016) if the material is processed at a facility authorized by the Department of Recycling and Resource Recovery using approved technologies and if the beneficial agricultural amendment is licensed for end use as an agricultural fertilizer by the Department of Food and Agriculture. Was not heard in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

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Defines pyrolysis in the Public Resources Code as the thermal decomposition of material at elevated temperatures in the absence or near absence of oxygen. Requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to include pipeline biomethane converted from organic waste as eligible for procurement credit by local jurisdictions by January 1, 2027.

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Requires CARB to amend its regulations on methane emissions from a municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill to establish requirements for the monitoring of landfill gas temperature and requires the operator of an MSW landfill to monitor landfill gas temperature in accordance with CARB regulations. The bill also requires the California Department of Recycling and Resource Recovery (CalRecycle), on or before July 1, 2027, to establish minimum guidelines and coordinate with CARB to ensure consistency with CARB's methane regulation, and consider existing federal, State, and local guidance and stakeholder expertise to identify and manage subsurface elevated temperature events and minimum standards for a corrective action plan. The bill also requires tiered action if the gas temperature reaches 131 F, 146 F, or 170 F for a specified time frame. If an operator of an MSW landfill fails to provide notice of a sustained gas temperature within the specified timeframe, the bill authorizes CalRecycle or a local enforcement agency to impose a penalty of $10,000 per day and other penalties, as specified. The bill requires all penalties to be deposited into the Landfill Subsurface Fire Mitigation Account, which the bill creates, to be used upon appropriation by the Legislature to mitigate harm to a person or community adversely affected by a solid waste landfill, as specified. This bill makes an operator of an MSW landfill liable to CalRecycle and the local enforcement agency for their costs, as specified. Moved to the Senate Inactive File.

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Allows CARB to adopt and enforce rules and regulations for indirect sources of emissions. Within 120 days of statewide indirect source rule (ISR) adoption, air districts would determine if the district or CARB will implement and enforce the regulations within air the district. If the air district elects to implement and enforce a statewide ISR, it must propose regulations enacting those measures no later than six months following CARB's ISR adoption. The air district could, at any time, adopt and enforce more stringent indirect source regulations than the regulations adopted by CARB. The bill allows CARB to establish a schedule of fees on facilities and mobile sources to cover the reasonable costs of implementing and enforcing the regulations and requires the fees to be deposited in the Air Pollution Control Fund and made available to CARB upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill also requires CARB to prepare an annual presentation on the impacts and effects of any ISRs that it adopts. Was not heard on the Assembly Floor.

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Extends the rural jurisdiction exemption until 2037 for organic waste collection under California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery regulations pursuant to SB 1383’s (Lara, Chapter 395, Statutes of 2016) Short-lived Climate Pollutant Strategy and changes how population is calculated for organic waste procurement targets, among several other provisions that reduce the stringency of organic waste regulations.

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Would have eliminated the requirement for CARB to credit dairy methane projects for a minimum of 10 years and prohibited CARB from guaranteeing those credits if they would not otherwise generate credits in the program. The bill also would have required CARB to include new specific emissions when calculating a carbon intensity value for dairy methane projects, limited credit generation to historical herd size, and required public disclosure of specified information in fuel pathway applications from dairy methane projects. Held on suspense in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

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