[CPEO-MEF] California bill to preserve oversight

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Environmental groups in California are calling upon Governor Gray Davis
to sign Assembly Bill 1700, designed to retain regulatory positions -
that is, staff at the Regional Water Boards and the Department of Toxic
Substances Control - for oversight of cleanup at current and former
military bases within the state. As part of statewide belt-tightening
efforts, many of those positions are being cut, even though they are
funded by the Defense Department through a cooperative agreement in
support of the Defense State Memorandum of Agreement.

It doesn't make any sense for the state to deal with its budget problems
by rejecting needed federal funds. Defense personnel have told me that
these regulatory cutbacks are slowing cleanup progress at a number of
sites, including some in the Monterey area. That probably explains why
John Laird, the Democratic Assemblyman from that area, sponsored the bill.

Here is the official digest of AB 1700:

"This bill prohibits the State Controller and the Department of Finance
from eliminating positions or expenditure authority, or imposing a
hiring freeze or other personal services limitations, as specified, upon
any non-General Fund program that provides oversight and related support
of remediation and hazardous substance management at a military base.
Most of the bill's provisions would apply exclusively to the State Water
Resources Control Board and the Department of Toxic Substances Control."

Lenny Siegel 

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Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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