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| Political Action |
Legislative Update #11, March 23, 2001SIERRA CLUB - Grand Canyon Chapter To: Conservation Friends Hi all! Thanks for all your help! As we suspected, the Senate has brought back SCR1005 trust lands proceeds and income (Bowers, Flake, et al.) for reconsideration. Senator Bee made the motion. Please call him and express your disappointment and also ask him to vote no when it comes back to the Floor on Monday. Also, please call you senator and remind him or her to oppose this measure and that this measure will hurt efforts to bring together disparate interests relative to the state trust land issue. Also, please call your senator and ask her/him to oppose SCR1004 state land exchanges; school lands (Bowers, Hamilton, Bundgaard, et al.) It refers to the ballot a measure that allows for the exchange of state trust lands and also allows them to be donated for new school sites. SCR1004 states that the exchanges must be in the best interest of the trust and must be for preserving open space, agricultural lands or military airport buffer zones. The Legislature has tried four times to amend the Constitution in this manner; the voters rejected all of these measures. SCR1004 promises more of the same. It is clear the public does not trust the government with land deals, especially without adequate checks in place. While the proponents of SCR1004 have eliminated the provisions allowing for state-private exchanges, that is pretty meaningless. All the state has to do to facilitate a private exchange is use the federal government as the "middle man." The federal government is not limited in its land exchanges. Please call senators and ask them to support SB1530 confidentiality agreements; restrictions (Bundgaard, Cummiskey, Jarret, et al.) We especially need calls to Senator Blanchard, who voted against the bill in Committee of the Whole, Senator Solomon, Senator Bee, Senator Jackson and Senator Petersen. This bill limits confidentiality in settlements when the action was for injury, wrongful death, or financial loss caused by a defective product or environmental hazard. It is definitely in the public interest to have the information related to these settlements open to the public. The most recent case of abuse in this area is the Firestone tire case where the company knew about the problems back in 1996 and settled several lawsuits, but the details were kept confidential until last year. As a result, many more people died or were injured. The problem with confidentiality relating to environmental lawsuits is that the plaintiff is required to sign a confidentiality agreement before they can even enter the discovery phase of the litigation. That means the case goes nowhere until they sign the paper. In some cases, judges have actually ordered the plaintiffs to sign the confidentiality agreement. For example, there is litigation involving an environmental hazard against TRW where there is a confidentiality agreement that the judge ordered the plaintiffs to sign. The option for them is to sign the agreement or drop the lawsuit. Who knows what companies are hiding with these agreements? What we do know is that in 1995 and 1996, TRW Safety Systems illegally disposed of more than 9.8 million pounds of sodium azide liquid (a propellant for airbags) in the Butterfield Station Landfill located in Mobile. The polluters are really trying to kill this bill, please call as soon as you can! Also, please ask senators to support SB1330 S/E ballot analysis (Mitchell). It establishes a Citizen Ballot Measure Committee to write the impartial ballot analysis for ballot measures. Lobbyists and officers and members from political committees would not qualify. This is a move in the right direction.
HB2426 environment; NPDES program (Huffman, Blendu, Graf, Landrum, et. al.), a bill which provides the foundation for ADEQ to pursue primacy for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program for discharges to surface waters, passed the House by only one vote. That means there may be some small chance to get positive changes regarding the bill in the senate. We do not believe the legislature will provide adequate funding for the program and we object to provisions that prohibit ADEQ from doing anything more stringent than the Clean Water Act. Really, what is the point if the Department cannot do this? We are also concerned about the level of enforcement -- in the bill everything is discretionary -- and about how ADEQ will address endangered species issues. We think the agency should be required to consult with U.S. Fish and Wildlife. HB2144 structural pests; integrated pest management (May) would have allowed a person buying property to request information from the Structural Pest Control Commission regarding the number of times it has been treated for termites in the previous three years and required guidelines for an integrated pest management program. Senators Bennett, Bundgaard, Bowers, and Hamilton killed it in committee. Senator Bowers was afraid too much information would scare people. God forbid that people have adequate information to protect themselves and their families. This bill was a tiny step forward and it's pathetic that they could not even do this much. Here's what's up in the legislature this week. Monday March 26th Senate Committee on Finance at 1:30 p.m. in SHR1 HB2432 NOW: delinquent property tax reduction; contamination (Landrum, Huffman, Avelar, et al.) allows a county board of supervisors to reduce the lien for delinquent taxes, interest and penalties up to the amount of the actual costs of remediation for contaminated property. Facilitating the clean up is a plus, but has anyone noticed how they have shifted the clean up costs to the public? WE SUPPORT IT. HB2622 sales tax; contractor's solar exemption (Graf, Anderson, Carruthers, et al.) clarifies the current sales tax exemption for the installation of solar devices by contractors. This was enacted last year, but apparently there is some confusion over at the Department of Commerce. WE SUPPORT IT. House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development @ 1:30 p.m. in HHR5 SB1122 sales tax exemption; pallets; containers (Hamilton) exempts the sale of reusable or returnable containers from sales tax. The reusable pallets are returned to a pooling company that rents the pallets to farmers and manufacturers. The idea is that it will help cut solid waste and reduce the use of lumber by encouraging the reuse of these pallets. WE SUPPORT THIS. Tuesday March 27th House Committee on Environment at 1:00 p.m. in HHR5 SB1455 county air quality; procedures (Guenther, Bowers, Huffman, et al.) allows the Director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality or a county's control officer to renew an order of abatement requiring compliance with air quality laws, rules or permits for an additional year upon a showing of good cause. Right now, the law requires compliance within one year. If this bill passes, it means that an entity could continue to violate our air quality laws for as long as two years. The bill contains no check on the agency's discretion to extend the time period -- no public review or comment period -- so it is wide open for private indulgences. The premise of an order of abatement is that an air-quality law, intended to protect public health, is being violated. Where else in the law do we find a provision allowing for a two-year or even a one-year continuation of a violation because the entity violating the law can't be bothered to comply? The regulated entity is already allowed to continue the violation for one year under current law -- that is hardly overly restrictive. We should not be giving them a two-year open license to pollute. WE OPPOSE IT. SB1465 underground storage tank funding; commission (Bowers, Guenther, Richardson, Allen) provides for an actuarial study to analyze the UST assurance account and requiring the ADEQ and the UST Policy Commission to evaluate the study and make recommendations for paying assurance account claims to the Legislature. We have no problem with this SB1466 service stations; underground storage program (Bowers; Allen, Guenther, Richardson) allows ADEQ to request additional information from a person making an informal appeal relating to a UST matter, prior to making a final determination or decision. It modifies the authority to recover fees and costs from the UST assurance account to allow UST owners, operators, etc. to receive attorney fees, consultant fees and costs incurred during the successful appeal of certain types of interim decisions. It appears to be okay. Thursday March 29th Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Committee @ 8:24 a.m. in SHR1 HB2364 northeastern Arizona environmental projects; appropriations (Flake, Brown, Allen, et al.) appropriates $350,000 to the state land department for distribution to a private nonprofit, the Environmental Economic Communities Organization (EECO), formed by the eastern Arizona counties for planning and implementing of "environmental programs." This is an inappropriate use of the public's dollars. They've already used tax dollars for the incorporation costs and fundraising costs of this private non-profit and for opposition to Proposition 202. Dr. Martin Moore was campaign chair of "Arizonans Against Proposition 202," and is also the director of EECO. EECO promotes anti-environmental propaganda -- surely it can find private funding for that. WE OPPOSE IT. HB2431 NOW: environment; electronic reporting; chemicals (Landrum, Weason, Avelar, et al.) requires businesses that have reporting requirements under the Uniform Fire Code and have enough hazardous chemicals on site, to file and update their data electronically. This way, if there is a fire, an accident, etc. the firefighters will have the most up-to-date information about a facility. They can better protect themselves and the community. WE SUPPORT IT. HB2432 NOW: delinquent property tax reduction; contamination (Landrum, Huffman, Avelar, et al) See above HB2449 NOW: air quality fee; diesel (Allen) establishes a tiny fee ($10) for diesel powered vehicles of more than 8500 pounds. This goes into the voluntary vehicle repair and retrofit program. I guess this is their idea of doing their part for air quality. It's the Rock Products Association alternative to CARB diesel. Hardly. Thanks for all your help! For more information on legislation go to the web page http://www.azleg.state.az.us. If you're outside the Phoenix area, you can call your legislator's office toll free at 1-800-352-8404. In the Phoenix area call (602) 542-3559 (Senate) or (602) 542-4221 (House). Correspondence goes to 1700 W. Washington, Phoenix, AZ 85007-2890. To email legislators use first initial + 7 letters of surname@azleg.state.az.us. Page updated: 03/23/01Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Chapter, 202 E. McDowell Rd, Suite 277, Phoenix, AZ 85004, (602) 253-8633 |