Sacramento CA: WHAT Will SB 1249 DO?

News Release - Office of Senator Jerry Hill – August 28, 2014

Senator Jerry Hill’s Bill to Require State Regulation of Auto Shredding Facilities Heads to the Governor

If signed, Senate Bill 1249 Would Require Department of Toxic Substances Control to Adopt Regulations

SACRAMENTO –The California Senate today sent to the governor legislation by Senator Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo/Santa Clara Counties, to require the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to regulate shredded automobile and metal appliance waste.

Roughly 700,000 tons of this waste – also called fluff – is disposed of in the state’s landfills each year. But state toxics regulators have failed to revoke an exemption granted decades ago to the metal shredding industry regarding this type of waste, despite warnings from top scientists that this waste could become hazardous during the shredding process. A 2001 legal opinion by DTSC attorneys called the exemption “outdated and legally incorrect.”

Seven fires have broken out at metal recycling facilities in the Bay Area since 2007. Smoke from the fires prompted the counties of San Mateo, Alameda and Santa Clara to issue health advisories, and school districts were forced to keep students indoors because of the poor air quality caused by the fires.

After fires in November and December, Redwood City leaders called on regulators to do more to help protect residents from future incidents.

Hill’s legislation, SB 1249, would rescind exemptions for facilities that deal with vehicle shredder waste and require DTSC to develop regulations to ensure that treatment, transport and disposal are conducted in a manner that protects public health and the environment. The legislation would also provide for better DTSC oversight of the industry to prevent contamination, explosions or other risks to California communities.

“This bill allows California’s toxics regulators to do their job and protect public health,” Hill said.

In 1988, the state created an exemption for automobile waste recyclers from hazardous waste handling and disposal laws, which has resulted in little to no regulatory oversight of this waste stream. At the time, the assertion was that the waste, once treated, does not release contaminants into the environment.

But in 2002, DTSC conducted an auto shredder initiative that found both treated and untreated shredder waste exceeded state regulatory thresholds for lead, zinc and cadmium. In the report produced as a result of the initiative, a DTSC scientist recommended that DTSC “rescind all previously issued nonhazardous waste classifications for treated shredder waste.” The DTSC scientist studied fluff and found that at least two facilities exceeded the state’s threshold for zinc and cadmium and that varying levels of PCBs were found in all the samples he tested. Yet no action was taken by DTSC.

Six years later, the department’s director in 2008, Maureen Gorsen, sent a letter to the shredder industry stating the exemption needs to be repealed and automobile waste needs to be managed “to ensure the safety of public health and the environment from harmful exposures of toxins.” But the industry successfully fought the proposed changes and again, no action was taken.

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Nate Solov

Office of Senator Jerry Hill

916-651-4013

www.senate.ca.gov/hill CONTACT: Aurelio Rojas, 916-747-3199 cell; Leslie Guevarra, 415-298-3404 cell

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Photo Credit: Robert Riechel - San Bruno Patch Archive

Source Credit: California State Senator Jerry Hill

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