In The Media

California legislators have passed a bill that aims to close a long-standing loophole in the state’s water laws: Until now, regulators haven’t had clear authority to investigate the water rights of some of the biggest water users.

These senior water right holders, with claims dating to before 1914, use roughly a third of the water that is diverted, on average, from the state’s rivers and streams. They include cities and individual landowners, as well as agricultural irrigation districts supplying farms that produce nuts, rice and other crops.

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“It’s about giving the water board the tools

Under California’s new truth-in-labeling law, polypropylene — and all other plastics — will qualify as recyclable only if two criteria are met: 60 percent of Californians have access to a recycler that accepts and sorts the material, and 60 percent of the state’s recyclers have access to a facility that reprocesses it.

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We think this is the job for Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), who has been the Legislature’s leading champion for reducing plastic waste in recent years and is also dismayed by the “woefully underperforming” bag ban. He is the author of SB 343 and the landmark SB 54 — a law passed last year that will protect the state’s environment by phasing out most unrecyclable plastic packaging, starting in 2028.

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For instance, last summer, California lawmakers passed SB 54, which requires that by 2032, 100% of packaging in the state must be recyclable or compostable; plastic packaging must be reduced by 25%; and 65% of all single-use plastics must be recycled.

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He brought up some incremental changes that could improve it, including a bill proposed by state Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) in February that would require some stores to put the bag fees they collect toward consumer education and other costs related to providing and recycling reusable bags, instead of keeping it all as profit. Allen also introduced a bill that would bring back the requirement that stores keep records describing what happens to the plastic bags they collect for recycling.

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Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 54, which requires all packaging in the state to be recyclable or compostable and 65% of all single-use plastic packaging to be recycled by 2032. Many more legislative initiatives are on the way.

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AB 598 was co-authored by Assemblyman Richard Bloom and Senator Ben Allen, both Democrats from Santa Monica, who were trying to succeed where five previous attempts over the years had failed. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had vetoed similar bills three times - in 2004, 2006 and 2007. Two other attempts never made it out of the committee process…“Essentially it all came down to administration concerns about costs,” Allen said in a recent interview.

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As part of AB 102 Budget Act of 2023, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law on July 10, $1.15 million in appropriated funds will finance the anticipated Log Cabin renovations. A portion of those funds came at the request of Senator Ben Allen (CA Senate District 24), the California Department of Housing and Community Development approved $500,000 to support the project. At the request of Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (CA Assembly District 51), the California Department of General Services approved $650,000 for the cabin.

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California lawmakers are now debating whether to take some steps toward reform. State bills would give regulators more power to investigate the water use of senior rights holders, allow them to order those rights holders to stop using water when there’s a shortage, and to increase the fines against those who take water illegally.

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Lawmakers are considering additional bills to complement the legislation, according to SB 54 sponsor Sen. Ben Allen (D). These include extended producer responsibility for areas such as electric vehicle batteries, textiles, aerosol paint, and solar panels. Allen previously sponsored efforts regulating what kind of plastics can bear the recycling symbol. There are similar measures in the current legislative session to clarify how plastics are defined. “There’s a lot of work happening now,” Allen said. “I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made so far.”

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