Democrats Push Toxics Bill to Assembly Floor

In the second clash in as many days, Democrats overrode Republicans and rammed through the Assembly Ways and Means Committee on Thursday legislation to create a new agency for cleaning up toxic wastes in California.

On a 12-6, party-line vote, the committee sent the Democratic-sponsored bill to the full Assembly where it is expected to be approved next week over the opposition of Republican Gov. George Deukmejian, who is likely to veto it.

The fate of the measure, a symbol of the distrust between Deukmejian and Assembly Democrats and object of two successive days of partisan clashes, is unclear in the Senate.

The author of the Democratic proposal, Sen. Art Torres of South Pasadena, said he has the support of Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles). But Torres said that prospects for his bill in the Senate are undecided and that both he and Roberti would like to work out a compromise with Deukmejian, who wants his own plan enacted.

Governor’s Stand

Deukmejian maintains that his reorganization plan would consolidate various agencies that now deal with toxic wastes, streamline cumbersome processes and improve efficiency. There are more than 200 hazardous sites on California’s Superfund cleanup list. Work has been completed on only five.

The governor was reported by one Administration official to be “very, very angry” over the unwillingness of Assembly Democrats to approve an earlier compromise that proposed a new department of waste management, California waste commission and three regional hazardous waste boards.

Former Republican legislator Gordon Cologne, who has represented Deukmejian on the toxics issue, said the governor might be willing to make some minor concessions, but would not accept any major changes in his own proposal.

Approval of the Torres program by the Ways and Means Committee came a day after Republicans fought a losing battle in the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxics Materials Committee to defeat it. Democrats prevailed on a 9-4 vote.

On Thursday, Republicans renewed their attack on Democrats, accusing them of playing politics on an issue of vital importance to the state in an attempt to hurt Deukmejian’s reelection chances this year.

Republicans charged that without swift approval of the Deukmejian-backed plan to create the new department, the state would be unable to clean up hazardous dump sites that threaten the health of communities and the purity of water supplies.

“You’ve got so many agencies involved in (toxics cleanup), each passing the blame on the other,” Cologne said of the existing bureaucratic structure.

‘Environmental Gridlock’

“The job is not being done because of the desire to protect one’s bureaucratic backside,” observed Republican Assemblyman Ross Johnson of La Habra. “We are rapidly approaching environmental gridlock where these situations can’t be dealt with because of the overlapping responsibilities.

“I have a situation in my district where it’s gone on for as long as I’ve been in the Legislature (since 1978),” he said. “Ten million dollars has been spent so far and that site is not cleaned up.”

Johnson referred to the festering McColl dump site in Fullerton, according to an aide.

Democrats countered that the Torres bill was a better plan than the compromise that was worked out with the governor last session. That measure failed to win Assembly passage because of a clash between Democrats and Republicans over an unrelated bill.

Another Argument

The Democrats also argued that the governor already has the authority needed to clean up toxic dumps, even without shifting state employees from various agencies to a new toxics department.

“Let’s get this reorganization (of toxic cleanup efforts) behind us so we can start cleaning up the messes that are out there,” Torres told the committee.

There are a number of differences between the Torres proposal and last session’s compromise backed by Deukmejian, although both plans would shift enforcement of most of the state’s toxic waste and water pollution laws to the new department.

The Torres bill would strengthen the powers of the head of the proposed new department, giving the director authority to levy fines and issue orders without first holding public hearings in cases involving serious toxic threats.

Deukmejian’s plan calls for a part-time, 13-member statewide commission to set policy for the new department. The commission, along with three regional boards, would hear appeals of the department director’s decisions. The Torres proposal would establish a full-time, seven-member commission and eliminate the regional boards. It also would establish tough conflict-of-interest rules, barring those who earned more than 10% of their income in the last two years from regulated industries from serving.