Don’t Give Polluters Any Slack

Under heavy pressure from oil companies and other industrial groups, the Legislature approved a bill last year (SB 649) that significantly weakened a 120-year-old law designed to protect the state’s waters from pollution and ensure adequate cleanup of any contamination.

The measure squeaked through the state Senate by the barest of margins on the hectic final weekend of the session. Gov. Pete Wilson, an advocate of easing regulatory burdens on business, signed the bill into law, but with a proviso that there be backstop legislation this year to make sure that willful or repeat violators do not escape liability for spills.

There is nothing wrong with simplifying state regulations, so long as the effects of good laws remain intact. That was not the case with SB 649, which made it easier for polluters to escape responsibility and lowered the threshold for cleanup standards.

The Legislature can take corrective action this year by approving a new bill, AB 11, sponsored by Assemblywoman Martha Escutia (D-Bell) with support from environmental groups and California district attorneys.

The streamlining features of the 1996 bill would be retained, but the new measure would close the worst of the loopholes created last year.

Escutia’s legislation is scheduled to face its first test on Tuesday, in the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee. The panel should support this bill and send it on toward enactment.