AB 1975: Nuisance: odors.

(1)Existing law prohibits, with specified exceptions, the discharge of any air contaminant or other material that causes injury, detriment, nuisance, or annoyance to or that endangers the public. Existing law exempts from that prohibition, among other things, all odors emanating from agricultural operations necessary for the growing of crops or the raising of fowl or animals; odors emanating directly from a facility or operation that produces, manufactures, or handles compost, as defined; and odors emanating from operations that compost green material or animal waste products derived from agricultural operations, as specified.

Existing law also requires an air pollution control or air quality management district that receives a complaint regarding an odor emanating from an exempt composting operation to refer the complaint to an enforcement agency with jurisdiction pursuant to the California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, and requires that agency to take appropriate enforcement action.

This bill would require the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, no later than July 1, 2019, to establish the South Bay Interagency Odor Taskforce, with a specified membership, to identify sources of odor emissions and nuisance complaints based on odor emissions received by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the City of Milpitas, the City of Fremont, the City of Santa Clara, and the City of San Jose. The bill would require the taskforce, no later than January 1, 2020, to take specified actions, including, among others, developing and implementing a protocol for joint inspections of odor complaints by the air district and the enforcement agency represented on the taskforce. identifying sources of odor emissions in the region represented by the taskforce representatives, and providing updates on inspections and enforcement actions conducted by each enforcement agency represented on the taskforce. This bill would also require each agency represented on the taskforce to develop and implement procedures to receive and investigate odor complaints in its jurisdiction. By adding to the duties of local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

This bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2022, and repeal them on January 1, 2023.

(2)This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for certain cities in the County of Santa Clara.

(3)The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.