BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 380
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator Jerry Hill, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 380
AUTHOR: Dickinson
AMENDED: May 28, 2014
FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: June 4, 2014
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Karen Morrison
SUBJECT : HAZARDOUS MATERIALS: EMERGENCY RESPONSE
SUMMARY :
Existing federal law :
1) Requires that laws related to railroad safety shall be
nationally uniform "to the extent practicable" and allows a
state to adopt an additional or more stringent law under
certain conditions when not preempted by the federal act (49
U.S.C. §20101 et seq.).
2) Requires each state to have a State Emergency Response
Commission (SERC) to coordinate and supervise federal programs
related to hazardous material emergencies and ensure public
availability of appropriate chemical information (42 U.S.C.
§§11001-11050).
3) Regulates hazardous materials transportation and requires
inspection of shipments by rail under regulations developed by
the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration (PHMSA, 49 U.S.C. §5101 et seq.).
4) Defines certain information related to transportation security
in the form of rail shipments and security as Sensitive
Security Information (SSI) and places limits on the
dissemination of that information (49 C.F.R. §1520).
Existing California law :
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1) Requires the Office of Emergency Services (OES) to assist
local governments in their emergency preparedness, response,
recovery, and hazard mitigation efforts.
2) Requires that all rail operators provide a risk assessment to
the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the
Director of Homeland Security, and California Emergency
Management Agency (CEMA) that describes the locations, types,
and frequency of hazardous cargo movement through rail
facilities, and training and emergency response procedures
(PUC §7665 et seq.).
This bill :
1) Requires railroads to provide to OES, on a quarterly basis,
data for the twenty-five largest hazardous material
commodities and crude oil or oil cargo transported through
California. This data includes the type and amount of
material and the carload type as broken down by county and
track route. OES is required to disseminate relevant
information to certified unified program agencies (CUPAs) that
may be impacted by a hazardous spill.
2) Requires railroads to maintain an emergency response
communication center that can provide information on train
composure in the event of a hazardous material spill.
3) Requires railroads to provide OES a summary of the carrier's
Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Plan (HMERP). OES is
required to provide a summary of the HMERP to impacted CUPAs.
4) Stipulates that all information provided to OES and
disseminated to the CUPAs is SSI and is exempt from the Public
Records Act, unless as determined necessary by OES.
COMMENTS :
1) Purpose of Bill . According to the author, "The shipment of
crude oil by rail in tank cars into California is growing
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exponentially. [?]
"A series of derailments around the country have raised the
profile of increased crude by rail shipments among local,
state, and federal officials. Large crude oil spills have led
to devastating and deadly fires and explosions. According to
data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials and Safety
Administration, the amount of crude oil spilled from rail cars
in 2013 exceeded the cumulative spill in the previous 40
years. [?]
"State and local emergency response agencies face new challenges
when dealing with this amount of hyper-flammable crude. The
risk to life and property in the event of a crude by rail
accident has become enormous. It is essential that emergency
response agencies have critical information about crude
cargoes that may be unavailable to them now, in order to be
best able to respond to crude by rail accidents, should they
occur."
"AB 380 will ensure state and local emergency response agencies
are best prepared to respond to a rail mishap when rail cargo
consists of hazardous materials including crude oil."
2) Rail transportation in California . California's freight rail
system has become increasingly important for international,
interstate, and intrastate trade. According to the
Association of American Railroads (AAR) in 2011, freight
trains operated on 6,863 miles of rail in California. Class I
railroads - the designation for the major rail freight
carriers - are represented in California by the Burlington
Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) and the Union Pacific
Railroad (UP) and account for 5,432 miles of rail in the
state.
Rail lines frequently pass through residential areas and regions
of high population density. This is particularly true in
southern California, where high population density overlaps
with heavy rail traffic. In addition, most towns in
California have a freight railroad that runs through or near
it.
3) Historic rail accidents in California and legislative
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response . Two rail accidents in Dunsmuir and Seacliff,
California in July 1991 changed the landscape of hazardous
response following a train derailment in California. Six
bills were introduced that year in the California Legislature
to improve rail safety and emergency response, and four were
signed into law. However, one program established by this law
has since sunsetted, and several other provisions were struck
following legal challenges.
The CPUC was required to annually report to the Legislature on
the type, quantities, and locations of hazardous materials
transported by railroads; however, this requirement was later
removed from the law following a challenge from the railroads.
The CPUC continues to monitor hazardous materials that enter
California by rail, and CPUC rail safety inspectors
investigate accidents involving the actual or threatened
release of hazardous materials as reported by CEMA.
The CPUC also established General Order 161 in 1991, which
requires railroads to notify the appropriate emergency
response agency following any release or threatened release of
a hazardous material within 60 days. Railroads that transport
hazardous materials are also required to have an emergency
preparedness plan covering notification procedures, mitigation
of a release, and training procedures for railroad personnel.
The Railroad Accident Prevention and Immediate Deployment (RAPID)
Force was established (SB 48, Chapter 766, Statutes of 1991)
in order to provide immediate onsite response capability in
the event of a hazardous spill by rail. Funds were also
established in order to pay for hazardous spill response,
training, and education. This program ended following a
sunset of the law on December 31, 1995.
4) Federal preemption . Most aspects of rail transportation and
commerce are regulated by the federal government. State
governments are limited in their power to regulate rail
traffic, and can enact additional or more stringent laws that
are necessary to eliminate an essentially local hazard, are
not incompatible with a federal law, and do not unreasonably
burden interstate commerce.
Bills relating to the Public Utilities Commission, which oversees
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rail transportation in California, are under the jurisdiction
of the Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee.
Should this bill be referred to that committee, they may wish
to comment further on any federal preemption issues.
5) Hazardous waste manifests and labeling . While the United
States Department of Transportation (DOT) requires that
shippers and carriers of hazardous materials identify
transported goods as such, there is no requirement to make the
information accessible to the public. Hazardous materials
shipped by vessel and rail are manifested, but the information
is not collected in any comprehensive way.
Though railroads keep records of hazardous materials they have
shipped, this information is considered proprietary. As a
result, it is difficult to track precisely how much hazardous
material, including crude oil, is being transported at a given
time or for a specific year.
6) Crude oil transportation by rail . Crude oil by rail is
growing quickly as pipelines become saturated and do not
connect new oil boom regions (such as the Bakken in North
Dakota and the Tar Sands in Canada) to major refining
locations (such as California). According to the California
Energy Commission, in 2009, 45,491 barrels of crude oil were
imported into California by rail. By 2013, the amount of
crude oil imported by rail increased to 6,169,264 barrels of
crude oil.
At the March 19, 2014 oversight hearing on Emergency Preparedness
for Rail Accidents held by the Senate Committees on
Environmental Quality and Natural Resources and Water, OES
estimated that in the future, 25% of California's oil could
enter the state by rail. In contrast, less than 1% of all oil
imports in 2012 entered California by rail.
7) Crude oil rail accidents . Train accidents involving large
crude oil spills resulting in large fires and explosions have
made headlines in the past year. According to data from
PHMSA, the amount of crude oil spilled from rail cars in 2013
exceeded that spilled in the preceding four decades: in 2013,
1.15 million gallons of crude oil were spilled, compared with
about 800,000 gallons spilled from rail cars between 1975 and
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2012.
One of the most serious of these recent accidents was the
Lac-Mégantic derailment that occurred in the town of
Lac-Mégantic in Canada on July 6, 2013. In this accident, a
74-car freight train carrying crude oil from the Bakken
formation derailed in the downtown area, killing 47 people and
destroying more than 30 buildings when multiple tank cars
exploded and burned. In addition, the Chaudière River was
contaminated by 26,000 gallons of crude oil.
Since the Lac-Mégantic derailment, six other train derailments in
Alabama, North Dakota, New Brunswick, Pennsylvania, Virginia,
and Colorado have resulted in the release of crude oil. In
particular, the derailment in downtown Lynchburg, Virginia on
April 30, 2014 caused a large fire and spilled up to 30,000
gallons of Bakken crude oil into the James River.
8) Hazardous rail accidents . In addition to the highly
publicized derailments involving crude oil, numerous other
derailments have led to the release of other hazardous
materials into the environment.
Since 2009, there have been six rail spills involving ethanol, a
highly flammable material. In particular, derailment on
February 21, 2010 in the Tehachapi Pass of California caused
the rupture of an ethanol-containing car, resulting in a fire.
On May 28, 2013, a train carrying hazardous materials in
Baltimore County derailed and caused an explosion. The
materials included terephthalic acid and flourocyclic acid.
On August 4, 2013, a train carrying a variety of hazardous
materials derailed near Latwell, Louisiana. Following the
derailment, two railcars were found to be leaking sodium
hydroxide, a caustic chemical that can cause injury through
touch or inhalation. This spill resulted in the evacuation of
around 100 homes.
9) Railroad response and emergency training . In response to the
various rail accidents in the last year, the AAR has met with
DOT to improve track inspection, safety, and training. In
particular, railroads "will commit [?] to develop and provide
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a hazardous material transportation curriculum applicable to
petroleum crude oil transport for emergency responders and to
fund a portion of the cost of this training through the end of
2014."
In California, BNSF has invited first responders to attend a
three-day training at the Security and Emergency Response
Training Center in Colorado at no cost to the trainees.
10)California response to crude by rail . Since the Lac-Mégantic
derailment last year, California has had two committee
hearings on crude by rail: Safe Rail Transport of Crude Oil,
held by the Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications
Committee on February 24, 2014, and Emergency Response to Rail
Accidents by the Senate Environmental Quality and Natural
Resources and Water Committees on March 19, 2014.
In addition, the Brown administration has proposed a budget
trailer bill to extend OSPR responsibility from marine oil
spills to any inland oil spills that threaten state waters.
The bill would pay for the response through a fee imposed on
all refineries in California, including those that receive
crude oil by rail.
11)Federal response to crude oil rail accidents . In addition to
Federal regulations and orders concerning labeling,
flammability, and transport, DOT has also started to address
emergency response and notification.
On May 7, 2014, DOT released an Emergency Order requiring all
railroads that have trains carrying 1,000,000 gallons (roughly
33 cars) or more of Bakken crude oil to notify the SERC of
each affected state of the expected train routes, the number
of trains, and the type of oil. The railroads are also
required to provide all applicable emergency response
information.
12)Other hazardous spills . The DOT Emergency Order only
identifies emergency preparedness and response to oil spills.
However, California's rail accidents have largely been
associated with non-oil spills. The Dunsmuir metam sodium
spill in 1991 killed over one million fish and sickened
hundreds of residents and cleanup workers; the Seacliff spill
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of aqueous hydrazine resulted in the evacuation of nearby
residents for five days.
Although an emergency response plan to accidents from oil is
important, it is equally critical to consider the emergency
response to a non-oil hazardous materials spill.
13)Recommended amendments .
a) Dissemination of information . The bill requires OES to
disseminate "relevant" information to the CUPAs regarding
the movement of hazardous materials. It is unclear what
would be considered "relevant" information.
An amendment is needed to specify what is meant by "relevant."
b) Additional information to OES . The bill requires rail
carriers to provide additional information to OES, as
necessary, to assist a CUPA with its emergency response.
It is unclear what this provision would entail.
An amendment is needed to require railroads to provide
additional information to OES, related to the specified
commodity flow data, to assist a CUPA with its emergency
response planning.
14)Policy questions: Information to OES . The bill requires each
rail carrier to provide OES with a summary of their HMERP. Is
there a reason that the entirety of the plan should not be
provided? Would there be a benefit for providing the entire
plan? Or is the summary sufficient for the emergency response
planning process?
15)Related bills .
AB 151 (Chapter 763, Statutes of 1991) enacted a comprehensive
system for identifying railroad sites that were local safety
hazards through the Safe Rail Transportation Act of 1991.
SB 48 (Chapter 766, Statutes of 1991) established a procedure for
railroad safety and emergency planning and response, and
increased fines for oil and chemical spills.
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SB 1319 (Pavley) of 2014 would use a fee to pay for OSPR response
to inland oil spills. It would also recommend for information
on the shipping of crude oil by rail, truck, boat, or pipeline
to be provided to affected communities. This bill is
currently in the Assembly awaiting referral.
AB 2677 (Rodriguez) of 2014 would have reinstated RAPID by
requiring a comprehensive and coordinated oil spill
contingency plan for crude oil by rail. This bill failed in
Assembly Natural Resources Committee.
16)Double Referral to Rules . If this measure is approved by the
Senate Environmental Quality Committee, the do pass motion
must include the action to re-refer the bill to the Senate
Rules Committee.
SOURCE : Author
SUPPORT : None
OPPOSITION : None