Local Legislators Put New Environnmental Laws On Books
Genevieve Bookwalter
Santa Cruz Sentinel
09/19/2006
Saving otters, controlling ballast water and cracking down on water polluters were just some of the environmental protections addressed in bills by local state legislators signed by the governor on Monday.
- AB 2485, co-written by Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, will increase fines for killing a sea otter, marine mammal or other fully protected mammal from $5,000 to $25,000; create an income tax check-off option to support sea otter research; and place a warning label on kitty litter sold in California to alert consumers that parasites in cat feces can affect otters if the litter is flushed down the toilet.
"Sea otters are generally in the front lines of determining how healthy the coastal life is, so it's a great thing," Laird said. Helping and researching sea otters "will lead to a much better sense of how the coast is doing or marine life in general."
- SB 497, by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, requires ships to treat ballast water before dumping it in the ocean off California. Ballast water from around the globe carries foreign critters that can become established as invasive species. Simitian's bill makes California's ballast water standards the toughest in the nation.
Ships "drop creatures and critters from all over the world and they wreak havoc on our ecosystem," Simitian said.
- SB 729, another Simitian bill, gives the state Water Resources Control board authority to crack down on polluters and offenders if the regional board isn't doing so.
"It empowers the state Water Resources Control Board to go after the bad guy," Simitian said.
- SB 329, by Simitian, allows the state to continue awarding grants to local governments that use recycled tires in asphalt.
Other environment protecting bills passed Monday include:
- AB 2773, by Assemblywoman Patty Berg, D-Eureka, creates an agreement between California, Oregon and Washington limiting crab fisheries in federal water to in-state fisherman.
- AB 2972, by Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, considers an application for oil and gas development withdrawn if it remains incomplete for a year.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/September/19/local/stories/07local.htm
