CA AB 2643

Title: Cannabis cultivation: environmental remediation.
Author: Jim Wood

Summary
AB 2643, as amended, Wood. Cannabis cultivation: environmental remediation. (1) Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife to establish the watershed enforcement program to facilitate the investigation, enforcement, and prosecution of offenses relating to unlawful water diversions and other violations of the Fish and Game Code associated with cannabis cultivation. Existing law also requires the department, in coordination with specified state agencies, to establish a permanent multiagency task force to address the environmental impacts of cannabis cultivation.This bill would require the department to conduct a study to create a framework for cannabis site restoration with the goal of providing guidance for the cleanup, remediation, and restoration of environmental damage caused by cannabis cultivation, and to complete the study by January 1, 2027, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to enter into an agreement with a nongovernmental organization or educational institution for that entity to conduct the study.The bill would require the department to submit an annual report to the Legislature until January 1, 2030, on illicit cannabis cultivation on public lands, as specified.(2) Existing law imposes various civil penalties for violations of specified environmental laws in connection with the production or cultivation of a controlled substance, as specified. Existing law defines controlled substance for this purpose to include Schedule I substances, which include, among other substances, heroin, peyote, and cannabis.This bill, with regard to the above-described civil penalties, would replace the term “controlled substance” with the term “cannabis or cannabis products.” (3) Existing law, the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), an initiative measure, as additionally amended by statute, establishes the California Cannabis Tax Fund as a continuously appropriated fund consisting of specified taxes, interest, penalties, and other amounts related to commercial cannabis activity. Each fiscal year, AUMA requires the Controller to make disbursements from the fund pursuant to a specified schedule, including, among others, amounts to the Environmental Restoration and Protection Account. Of the amount deposited into the Environmental Restoration and Protection Account, AUMA requires the Controller to disburse the funds to the Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Department of Parks and Recreation for, among other things, the cleanup, remediation, and restoration of environmental damage in watersheds affected by cannabis cultivation and related activities, as specified, and to support local partnerships for this purpose. AUMA authorizes those departments to distribute a portion of the funds they receive from the Environmental Restoration and Protection Account through grants for those purposes.This bill would specify that those grants may include grants to local jurisdictions for cleanup, remediation, and restoration of sites affected by cannabis cultivation and related activities that have been abandoned and seized by that local jurisdiction.(4) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. Existing law, until January 1, 2025, exempts from CEQA projects that conserve, restore, protect, or enhance, and assist in the recovery of Calif

Status
Re-referred to Com. on W., P., & W.

Bill Documents
CA AB 2643 - 03/21/24 - Amended Assembly
03/21/24 - CA AB 2643 (03/21/24 - Amended Assembly)