2002 Annual Report: Permitting and Enforcement

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• Enforcement Assistance Grants
• Local Enforcement Agency Training and Assistance
• LEA Evaluations
• Financial Assurance
• Rulemaking Activity

Enforcement Assistance Grants
In 2002 the Board provided $1.4 million in enforcement assistance grants to help local enforcement agencies (LEA) implement enforcement programs. This annual allocation helps LEAs procure the needed training, tools, and resources to fulfill their certified enforcement responsibilities to the Board.

Local Enforcement Agency Training and Assistance
More than 200 participants attended the 6th Annual LEA/CIWMB Partnership Conference in August 2002. Discussion focused on a variety of topics, including conversion technologies, biological terrorism, post-closure land development, and cooperative State/local enforcement. The Board also provided LEA training on load checking; Cal/OSHA requirements; waste classification; landfill gas screening; field inspections; and closed, illegal, and abandoned sites. More than 800 attended the classes, which offered continuing education credits for certified LEA personnel.

In 2003 the Board will coordinate a variety of LEA training activities regarding alternative daily cover, illegal dumping on tribal lands, universal waste, compostable materials regulations, and other pertinent topics.

Outreach efforts by the Board to benefit LEAs continued in 2002. Board staff is working with sister Cal/EPA agencies, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and university contacts on various issues, including examining potential bioaerosols in composting, sudden oak death, and avian and animal product composting. With a new round of training planned for local enforcement agencies and compost operators, the Board continued its leadership role on organics regulatory issues. Topics will include revised compostable materials handling operations, facilities regulatory requirements, and operations and odor management. These training sessions are scheduled for winter and spring of 2003.

LEA Evaluations
The Board completed the remaining LEA evaluations in 2002 for the City of San Jose and the counties of Los Angeles, Amador, San Diego, Tehama, Monterey, Kern, Humboldt, Fresno, Yolo, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas/Sierra, Colusa, Mono/Alpine, Inyo, and El Dorado. In addition, the Board evaluated its own enforcement assistance section, which serves as the enforcement agency for Stanislaus and Santa Cruz counties, as well as the cities of Stockton, Berkeley, and Paso Robles. The Board monitored LEA compliance with work plans that addressed performance issues identified in evaluations of the following jurisdictions: Amador, Imperial, Fresno, Kern, Lassen, Mono/Alpine, Monterey, and Tulare counties and the City of San Jose.

Financial Assurance
In 2002 the Board updated financial assurance mechanisms for 181 solid waste landfills and major waste tire facilities based on the existing inflation factor. Staff took enforcement action and assessed penalties against a major waste tire facility operator who failed to provide adequate environmental liability insurance. Staff issued four notices of violation and one notice and order against solid waste landfills. The Office of Administrative Law approved and filed changes to the financial assurances regulations, imposing strict conditions on captive insurance used as a financial mechanism for landfill closure and postclosure maintenance in California. Staff approved the release of millions of dollars to operators of solid waste landfills for closure activities in 2002.

Rulemaking Activity
The Board completed rulemaking actions on each of the following in 2002:

• Putrescible wastes transfer/processing (September).
• Local enforcement agency grants (August).
• Process for local enforcement agency designation withdrawal, and Board designation approval withdrawal and decertification (July).
• Insurance as a Financial Assurance Demonstration (May).
• Nonhazardous, Nonputrescible, Industrial Waste (May).
• Rigid Plastic Packaging Container Recycling Rates (April).

Other rulemaking activities are underway in various phases of development. More information about specific projects is available on the proposed regulations Web site.

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