California Environmental Protection Agency

Created by executive reorganization in 1991, the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) is responsible for coordinating State environmental protection programs. CalEPA ensures that its constituent boards, departments, and office consider all aspects of environmental and health risks, prioritize those risks, collaborate to reduce risks, and measure and report results. The Secretary for Environmental Protection oversees the Air Resources Board, Integrated Waste Management Board, Department of Pesticide Regulation, State Water Resources Control Board (which includes the nine Regional Water Quality Control Boards), Department of Toxic Substances Control, and Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. The Governor’s Budget includes $1.6 billion ($563.1 million General Fund) and 5,043.7 personnel years in support of these programs.

Figure EPA-1

Agencywide Activities—The Office of the Secretary administers several ongoing programs involving agencywide activities, including Children’s Health, Comprehensive Enforcement, California-Mexico Border Pollution, the Unified Hazardous Waste and Materials Management Program that consolidates six hazardous waste regulatory programs, Environmental Justice, and Emergency Response. For 2001-02, the Governor’s Budget proposes an augmentation of $125,000 for the California-Mexico Border Program pursuant to Chapter 742, Statutes of 2000, and an augmentation of $100,000 for Environmental Justice pursuant to Chapter 728, Statutes of 2000. The Budget also proposes $350,000 for preparation of an integrated agencywide plan for emergency response activities.

Urban Cleanup—Chapter 912, Statutes of 2000, established the Cleanup Loans and Environmental Assistance to Neighborhoods (CLEAN) program to provide new financial incentives to encourage local governments, developers, and private property owners to redevelop abandoned, idled, or underused property that is suspected or known to be contaminated. Those properties are commonly called "brownfields." The 2000 Budget Act appropriated $85 million on a one-time basis for the Urban Cleanup Initiative, which leverages private investment capital through strategic loans to identify and clean up polluted properties in urban core neighborhoods. For 2001-02, the Budget proposes a one-time $40 million augmentation to expand the Urban Cleanup Initiative by helping parties that clean up contaminated properties to obtain necessary insurance to reduce the risk of potential open-ended liability for existing contamination and cleanup cost overruns.

Environmental Management Systems Strategies—The Budget proposes $1.3 million to augment and continue the Innovations Initiative which was initially approved as part of the 2000 Budget Act. Through a specified number of pilot projects, the Innovations Initiative is evaluating whether environmental management systems strategies increase environmental protection results and generate better information about environmental performance and quality. The proposed augmentation includes one-time resources to participate in regional partnerships that are developing environmental sustainability plans for their communities and regions.

The Air Resources Board helps protect the public health of Californians by ensuring that federal and State health-based air quality standards are achieved and exposure to air toxics is reduced through a variety of controls for mobile and stationary sources of pollution. The Board adopts and enforces emission standards for motor vehicles, fuels, consumer products, and toxic air contaminants. The Board’s research, monitoring, and emission inventory programs are the scientific and technical foundations that support regulatory activities.

The Board oversees 35 local air pollution control districts. The districts are primarily responsible for controlling and permitting sources of industrial pollution. Each district adopts and enforces its own rules in compliance with applicable federal and State requirements. As a function of its oversight role, the Board reviews district rules for effectiveness, approves district clean air plans required under the federal and California Clean Air Acts, and audits district compliance programs. Controlling particulate matter and toxic compounds, investigating health impacts, and developing zero-emission technology are among the challenges for air quality in the state.

The Budget includes $100 million General Fund for a diesel nitrogen oxide (NOx) reduction program. The program will operate similarly to the existing Diesel Emission Reduction program. Credits for emission reductions will be used, in part, as offsets for new power plant sitings.

The Budget also provides $50 million General Fund for a zero-emission vehicle incentive program. This funding augments the $18.5 million appropriated in Chapter 1072, Statutes of 2000, for this purpose.

The Budget includes $8 million (primarily from special funds) to replace and upgrade equipment instrumentation with the latest technological advancements.

The Integrated Waste Management Board continues to address the state’s solid waste management needs in the areas of facility permitting and regulation, operational assistance to local governments, and efforts to educate all California citizens to reduce the amount of material disposed in landfills. The Board promotes the conservation tenets of "reduce, reuse, recycle, and buy recycled" by assisting in the development of markets for recycled materials.

The end of the year 2000 is an important milestone for all of the cities and counties that have been working in cooperation with the Board to achieve the 50 percent diversion mandate established by the Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989. More than 237 cities and counties have met or exceeded 25 percent diversion or have shown a good faith effort toward meeting that level of diversion. Of these, 104 jurisdictions already have met the mandate to divert 50 percent by the end of 2000. While not all of the 532 jurisdictions will achieve the diversion goal, the Board continues to work toward this milestone by ensuring that each jurisdiction effectively plans, designs, and implements diversion programs that direct materials away from landfills to beneficial uses and sustainable markets. In addition, the Board works with jurisdictions on activities related to conversion technologies that can use municipal residuals (e.g., organic materials, low-grade paper) to produce high-value products such as fuels, industrial solvents, and energy. The Budget proposes $130,000 to implement changes in various waste diversion reporting and compliance requirements.

The Department of Pesticide Regulation protects public health and the environment through the nation’s most rigorous and comprehensive program to evaluate pesticides and control pesticide use. The mission of the Department is to protect human health and the environment by regulating pesticide sales and use and fostering reduced-risk pest management. The Department’s oversight responsibilities include scientific evaluation of pesticides before they are licensed for sale; local enforcement to ensure pesticides are used safely; residue testing of fresh produce; environmental monitoring to detect, reduce, and prevent contamination; and programs to encourage the development and use of pest control practices that are environmentally sound.

The Budget proposes $380,000 to implement the Healthy Schools Act of 2000, which includes the development and maintenance of an Internet web site that describes and promotes least-hazardous practices at schools, provides a model program guidebook, and contains links with all appropriate information regarding health and environmental effects of pesticide active ingredients.

The mission of the State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board) and the nine Regional Water Quality Control Boards is to preserve and enhance the quality of California’s water resources and ensure proper allocation and efficient use of water resources for the benefit of present and future generations. Activities include regulatory oversight of the state’s surface, ground, and coastal waters; allocation of unappropriated water; control of unauthorized water diversions; and protection of water quality in watersheds and coastal waters from point source and nonpoint sources of pollution.

The Budget proposes a one-time General Fund augmentation of $100 million to implement an initiative to clean up Southern California beaches and restore recreational and other uses of our coastal resources. Of this amount, $70 million will fund local projects that will be targeted to reduce the number of closure days at the most severely affected beaches by 50 percent, $20 million will be used to identify sources of pollution, and $10 million will be used for related wetlands restorations. These moneys will complement a commitment of local funds for operations and maintenance costs.

The Budget includes an augmentation of $8.1 million to identify dischargers subject to storm water regulations who have not filed the required permit, inspect more storm water dischargers on a regular basis, and respond to complaints in a timely and effective manner.

The Budget also contains $9.6 million to permanently establish resources provided on a limited-term basis in 1999-00 and 2000-01 to augment the Water Board’s core regulatory programs.

The Budget proposes an augmentation of $206 million bond funds to continue implementation of programs authorized by the Safe Drinking Water, Clean Water, Watershed Protection and Flood Protection Act of 2000. This amount includes the Southern California Integrated Watershed program ($87.9 million), Coastal Nonpoint Source Pollution Control ($30 million), and Nonpoint Source Pollution Control ($27 million) programs.

The Budget also includes an augmentation of nearly $3 million for research and monitoring of the specific sources of nutrients and sediment and to identify methods to remove them from the Lake Tahoe basin.

The Budget includes $3.2 million to continue development under Phase II of the System for Water Information Management (SWIM) project to meet the growing demand for comprehensive water quality management information and provide convenient public access to this information.

The Department of Toxic Substances Control is responsible for the prevention and remediation of environmental damage caused by hazardous substances. The Department oversees the cleanup of contaminated sites and monitors and regulates hazardous waste transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal in California. Programs include site mitigation, hazardous waste management, pollution prevention, waste minimization, and technology development.

The Budget proposes an augmentation of $3.7 million to address numerous structural problems in the Department’s budget and the redirection of 29 positions to higher priority activities. These redirections include increased staffing in the areas of school oversight work, post closure permits at hazardous waste sites, pollution prevention, and development of guidelines for the investigation and remediation of clandestine drug labs.

The primary goal of the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment is to protect and enhance public health and the environment through objective, scientific evaluations of risks posed by hazardous substances. The Office provides other CalEPA programs and State and local agencies with scientific tools and information that serve as the basis for risk management decisions. Health risk assessments focus on exposure to chemicals in air, water, food, consumer products, hazardous and municipal waste facilities, fish and shellfish, and sediments in bay and estuarine waters.

In 2001-02, the Office will continue performing risk assessments on chemical contaminants in drinking water, resulting in the adoption of public health goals for those contaminants. In addition, the Proposition 65 program will continue to publish, update, and improve the process for listing chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity. The Office will also perform a life-cycle analysis of the health and environmental risks from the production and use of non-MTBE gasolines and assess the health effects of air pollutants for children.

While California’s environmental laws and programs have successfully reduced pollution from factories, garbage, and sewage, new strategies are required to address the increasingly complex array of sources of pollution and environmental impacts. Accordingly, CalEPA has begun initiatives to improve "crossmedia" coordination, risk assessment, risk management, information dissemination, and enforcement. The Budget proposes $300,000 for the Office to develop and adopt agencywide environmental indicators which will be used to assess performance and better manage resources.

The Budget also includes an augmentation of $1.3 million to:

• Evaluate the human health and environmental risks associated with various mixtures and components of gasoline ($834,000).
• Contract for an assessment of exposures to and risk of consumption of hexavalent chromium in drinking water derived from the San Fernando Basin aquifer, pursuant to Chapter 868, Statutes of 2000 ($100,000).
• Establish a centralized Business and Contract Services Unit ($319,000).