Governor Vetoes Bill on Pollution in Poor Areas

Legislation designed to prevent low-income communities from being used as dumping grounds for sources of pollution has been vetoed by Gov. Pete Wilson.

The veto was announced Monday, along with the signing of measures to increase penalties for elder abuse, crack down on deadbeat parents, delay regulations to reduce emissions from disinfectants and increase funding for homeless shelters and bicycle lanes.

The vetoed bill would have required the state resources secretary to develop, by Jan. 1, 2000, Environmental Quality Act guidelines to identify and mitigate disproportionately high pollution levels in minority and low-income areas.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Community Coalition for Change said the bill, by Sen. Hilda Solis (D-El Monte), was a “long overdue effort to incorporate considerations of equity and fairness in the administration of our environmental laws.”

“Hopefully, the guidelines envisioned by [the bill] will help areas already suffering disproportionate adverse health and environmental consequences from pollution and the risk of accident to become once again vibrant and safe places for people to live and play,” the two groups said.

The Environmental Quality Act provides a process for evaluating the environmental impact of a proposed project.

Wilson said the act was already colorblind and “was not designed to be used as a tool for a social movement.”

“The California Environmental Quality Act is a cumbersome process, and any changes made to it should be to streamline the current process, not add new requirements that will only negatively affect the economy and the people of this state,” he said in his veto message.

Over the last few years Wilson has vetoed several other bills on the same general subject, including a measure this year by Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles).

That proposal would have required local governments to treat low-income areas equitably when planning where to locate sources of hazardous materials.

In other action, Wilson signed into law legislation that will:

* Provide $1 million to temporarily convert the 28 California National Guard armories into homeless shelters at times of severe winter weather. The decision reversed Wilson’s earlier line-item veto of the funds.

* Require an additional three years in prison for causing great bodily injury to an elderly person or a dependent adult and an additional five years in prison if the victim dies.

* Require district attorneys to refer all child-support cases to the Franchise Tax Board for collection when payments are more than 90 days late.

* Require long-term care facilities to use a standard admissions agreement and require development of a bill of rights for patients in those type of facilities.

* Prohibit, until Dec. 1, 2003, regulations to reduce emissions from household disinfectants.

* Increase annual appropriations to the Bicycle Lane Account from $260,000 to $1 million in 1998, 1999 and 2000, to $2 million in 2001 and 2002, to $3 million in 2003 and $5 million in 2004 and thereafter.

* Prohibit state bilingual education funds from being spent on dialects, idioms or languages derived from English.

* Prohibit elected officials from accepting personal loans from their employees.