Environment

SAN FRANCISCO -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced a $1.2 million settlement with TravelCenters, a leading truck stop operator, over environmental violations at a truck stop and fuel tank system in Riverside County.

“Environmental regulations safeguard the public health,” Attorney General Harris said. “As Attorney General, I will defend those regulations and crack down on those who violate them.”

In March 2009, the Attorney General’s office joined a lawsuit filed by the Riverside District Attorney regarding serious and numerous violations at a truck stop in Coachella. TravelCenters operates 10 service area truck stops in California.

The Riverside County Department of Environmental Health, Hazardous Materials Division discovered numerous violations at a truck stop in Coachella – the most significant of which involved the tampering or disabling of sensors on the fuel tank monitoring system. These sensors are designed to detect the release of hazardous material at the earliest possible opportunity and activate warning alarms.

Other violations at the facility included failure to test and certify the underground storage tanks, failure to properly label and cover hazardous wastes and failure to train employees in a timely manner on safety procedures.

The $1.2 million settlement requires TravelCenters to pay $950,000 in cash for penalties, costs and expenses. TravelCenters receives a $250,000 credit for environmentally protective equipment installed at the Coachella facility that is more than currently required by state law.

A copy of the settlement is attached to the online version of this release at www.oag.ca.gov.

SAN FRANCISCO --- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced that she filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit seeking to require the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) Regional Transportation Plan to take a harder look at the region’s long-term transportation development options.

The lawsuit contends that the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) prepared for the plan does not adequately address air pollution and climate concerns and prioritizes expanding freeways while delaying public transit projects.

“The 3.2 million residents of the San Diego region already suffer from the seventh worst ozone pollution in the country,” said Attorney General Harris. “Spending our transit dollars in the right way today will improve the economy, create sustainable jobs and ensure that future generations do not continue to suffer from heavily polluted air.”

Attorney General Harris will file in San Diego Superior Court papers seeking to intervene in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) action filed by the Cleveland National Forest Foundation and the Center for Biological Diversity. In September 2011, she sent a letter to SANDAG stating that the draft EIR on the Regional Transit Plan was inadequate under CEQA. The final EIR was not substantially different.

The AG’s motion contends that the EIR on the transit plan did not adequately analyze the public health impacts of the increased air pollution. The San Diego region already has a very high cancer risk from particulate matter emitted by diesel engines and vehicles and there is no analysis as to whether this risk will increase.

In addition, the EIR did not analyze the impact of air pollution on communities in San Diego that are already burdened by significant air pollution.

While greenhouse gases initially decrease in the plan, the EIR shows that after 2020, driving miles will increase and overall greenhouse gas emissions from driving will continue to increase at least until 2050.

The transit plan also prioritizes expanding or extending freeways and highways in its early years, largely deferring investment in public transit projects, such as transit, bicycle and foot paths, when funds may not be available.

Related documents are attached to the online version of this press release at http://oag.ca.gov/.

Additional information about the California Environmental Quality Act can be found at http://ag.ca.gov/globalwarming/ceqa.php

LOS ANGELES -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today filed a first-of-its-kind “greenwashing” lawsuit against three companies that allegedly made false and misleading claims by marketing plastic water bottles as “100 percent biodegradable and recyclable.”

Under California law, it is illegal to label a plastic food or beverage container as biodegradable. Plastic takes thousands of years to biodegrade and may never do so in a landfill. Today’s lawsuit is the first government action to enforce the state’s landmark environmental marketing law.

“These companies’ actions violate state law and mislead consumers,” Attorney General Harris said. “Californians are committed to recycling and protecting the environment, but these efforts are undermined by the false and misleading claims these companies make when they wrongly advertise their products as 'biodegradable.'”

Balance and AquaMantra sell their products in plastic water bottles marketed by ENSO Plastics LLC; according to the label, ENSO claims that a microbial additive created the “first truly biodegradable and recyclable” plastic bottle. The bottles’ labeling states that the bottles will break down in less than five years in a typical landfill or compost environment, but that claim is false because the additive does not speed up the centuries-long process required to break down plastic.

The claim of recycling is also deceptive. The microbial additive put into the bottle is considered by the Association of Post Consumer Plastic Recyclers to be a “destructive contaminant” that can compromise the strength of the products they make.

Consumers may buy these defendants’ bottles and either dispose of them incorrectly, on the assumption that they will biodegrade quickly, when in fact they will simply take up space in landfills, or they will try to recycle them, creating problems and costs for recyclers.

A recent Gallup poll found that 76 percent of Americans buy products specifically because of their perception the product is better for the environment.

In 2008, the California Legislature banned the use of words like “biodegradable,” “degradable,” or “decomposable” in the labeling of plastic food or beverage containers. Senate Bill 567, signed into law by the Governor this year, will expand that law to all plastic products beginning in 2013.

Deputy Attorney General Raissa S. Lerner and Deputy Attorney General Laura J. Zuckerman are handling the case for Attorney General Harris’ Environment section. A copy of the complaint filed today in the Orange County Superior Court is attached to the online version of this release at www.oag.ca.gov. Also attached are photos of the bottles in question.

SAN FRANCISCO --- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris joined federal, state, and Bay Area officials to announce a comprehensive civil settlement with the owners and operators of the M/V Cosco Busan, resolving all natural resource damages, penalties, and response costs that resulted from the ship striking the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 2007, and the subsequent oil spill in the San Francisco Bay. The event killed thousands of birds, impacted a significant portion of the Bay’s 2008 herring spawn, spoiled miles of shoreline habitat and closed the Bay and area beaches to recreation and fishing.

“This Bay is the jewel of the San Francisco region and the Cosco Busan oil spill left a lasting scar across our water, natural habitats and wildlife,” Attorney General Harris said. “This settlement will allow all of these precious resources to be restored to their original health and beauty.”

The U.S. Department of Justice, the State of California, the City and County of San Francisco, and the City of Richmond signed and lodged a consent decree that requires Regal Stone Limited and Fleet Management Ltd., the owners and operators of the M/V Cosco Busan to pay $44.4 million for natural resource damages and penalties and to reimburse the governmental entities for response costs incurred as a result of the 53,000 gallon oil spill that occurred when the vessel struck the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Nov. 7, 2007.

The full U.S. Department of Justice press release and consent decree is available for viewing at www.justice.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html.

LOS ANGELES -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced her intention to join a lawsuit challenging Riverside County’s approval of an industrial project next to Mira Loma Village, a community already disproportionately affected by diesel exhaust and noise pollution.

The proposed project, the Mira Loma Commerce Center, would consist of a million square feet of warehouses and industrial buildings, resulting in approximately 1,500 additional diesel truck trips a day traveling next to the low-income, primarily Hispanic residential community of Mira Loma Village.

“The proposed Mira Loma complex carries significant health risks to a community that is already suffering the impacts of what are among the worst particulate pollution levels in the nation,” Attorney General Harris said. “All California residents could be put at risk if developments like this are pushed through by officials without appropriate, and legally-mandated, consideration of the environmental effects on health and welfare.”

Attorney General Harris filed in court Wednesday a motion to join the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) action filed by the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ) to set aside the county’s approvals for the project. The judge has set a September 16th hearing on that motion.

The suit outlines the county’s failure to adequately analyze and mitigate the project’s impacts in light of the already serious health and environmental risks suffered by the community. The Environmental Impact Report (EIR) did not sufficiently disclose that the county’s land use decisions result in the burdens of the project being primarily borne by the residents of Mira Loma.

Since the 1990s, Riverside County has approved a series of warehouse projects in the Mira Loma area. There are now approximately 90 mega-warehouse complexes in Mira Loma. Thousands of trucks travel to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to distribution centers and warehouses in Riverside County each day. Over 15,000 truck trips a day already flow onto the main roads in Mira Loma.

The residents of Mira Loma have been burdened by the harmful impacts of industrial development for decades. A recent study by the University of Southern California found that the area’s extremely high rate of particulate-matter pollution is linked to stunted lung development and other serious illnesses in Mira Loma children. Mira Loma’s levels of particulate matter and ozone pollutants are significantly higher than both California and federal air quality standards.

“We have battled for more than 10 years trying to protect our families’ health and quality of life. This project is the final straw,” said Penny Newman, executive director of CCAEJ. “We are so grateful to have the Attorney General join us in what us truly a fight for their lives.”

Diesel exhaust is listed as a known carcinogen under Proposition 65. The California Air Resources Board had recommended a buffer zone between a diesel source and residential neighborhoods, schools and parks to reduce the risk of health impact from diesel particulate emissions. While the EIR acknowledged increased pollutants, the county failed to adopt all feasible mitigation measures to reduce air quality impacts. The county rejected the recommended buffer zone as infeasible, but did not explore the possibility of a more limited buffer zone or other comparable mitigation, such as a trees or shrubs, which can reduce particulate pollution by as much as 30 percent.

A copy of the proposed complaint is attached to the press release.

SACRAMENTO --- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced the filing of a proposed $24.5 million settlement with Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and Chevron Stations Inc. The proposed settlement will resolve law enforcement allegations that the companies violated state laws governing hazardous materials and hazardous waste by failing to properly inspect and maintain underground tanks used to store gasoline for retail sale.

"There must be accountability and consequences when the environment is compromised and innocent people are potentially exposed to hazardous materials that could endanger their health,' Attorney General Harris said. 'This settlement accomplishes both, and will protect Californians by mandating a compliance program for Chevron's underground storage tanks.'

The Attorney General's office was joined in this enforcement action by Humboldt County District Attorney Paul V. Gallegos, Merced County District Attorney Larry D. Morse II, Nevada County District Attorney Clifford Newall, and Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully.

The complaint, filed last Friday, alleges that - since 1998 - Chevron has violated anti-pollution laws with respect to underground storage tanks by tampering with or disabling leak detection devices, and failing to test secondary containment systems, conduct monthly inspections, train employees in proper protocol, and maintain operational alarm systems, among other violations.

A statewide investigation found violations of hazardous materials and hazardous waste laws and regulations at gas stations in 32 counties across the state.

The parties have agreed to resolve the matter, and today submitted to Alameda County Superior Court a proposed final judgment that would impose a permanent injunction on the defendants. The hearing on the motion for judicial approval of the settlement is scheduled for September 29 at 2pm in Department 20.

If approved by the Court, the settlement would require Chevron to maintain a statewide compliance program, which includes a training program for employees and a database to track how underground storage tanks are monitored, among other requirements.

Deputy Attorney General Brett J. Morris handled the case for Attorney General Harris' Environment Section.

A copy of the complaint is attached to the online version of this release at oag.ca.gov.

LOS ANGELES -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced a settlement with cargo terminals at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles over diesel emissions from exhaust that requires the terminals to complete projects to reduce their diesel emissions and better notify the public of emissions.

Attorney General Harris filed suit in June alleging the terminals violated Proposition 65, by exposing thousands of neighboring residents to high levels of diesel exhaust without giving the required warning.

“This settlement will speed the requirements for port terminals to reduce diesel emissions,” said Attorney General Harris. “This is vitally important because expanding port traffic leads nearby residents to be exposed to polluted air, and increased risk of cancer and other diseases.”

Approved today in Los Angeles Superior Court, the settlement requires the terminals to: implement an innovative warning program using newspaper ads, bus shelter signs and the Internet to inform the community about the diesel exposures; undertake projects valued at $1 million per terminal to reduce diesel emissions from their respective operations; and pay monies to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles for projects to lower diesel emissions from the trucks, tractors and trains that operate at the port.

The $1 million projects to be undertaken at the seven terminals include pilot projects to test solar electric panels that withstand the salt water environment and a crane mounted system to capture exhaust from idling vessels. The terminals will also pay $756,000 to the Port of Los Angeles for grants to allow small trucking firms to buy new, low-emission trucks; $324,000 to the Port of Long Beach for projects for clean running trucks and locomotives; and $540,000 in civil penalties.

In addition, the terminal operators will have to warn the public that they are being exposed to diesel exhaust, as required by Proposition 65. The settlement requires the terminal operators to keep giving the warnings – at bus stops, in newspapers and on the Internet – until diesel emissions no longer pose a significant risk to the community.

The seven terminals at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles that cause the largest diesel exposures to the surrounding neighborhoods are: APM Terminals Pacific, Ltd.; Eagle Marine Services, Ltd.; International Transportation Service, Inc.; SSA Terminal (Long Beach) LLC; SSA Terminals, LLC, Pacific Maritime Services, L.L.C.; Trapac, Inc.; West Basin Container Terminal LLC; Yusen Terminals, Inc.

In February, Attorney General Harris filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case in support of efforts by the Port of Los Angeles to reduce air pollution through its Clean Trucks program (http://oag.ca.gov/news/press_release?id=2039&).

LOS ANGELES -- Attorney General Kamala D. Harris said today that the draft Environmental Impact Report for the Santa Clarita Valley Area Plan violates state law because it proposes inadequate remedies for increased air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and other environmental degradation.

In a letter to the Los Angeles County planning office, Attorney General Harris said the plan “neither provides complete information about all significant environmental impacts, nor does it adequately describe feasible mitigation to lessen the harm to the environment” caused by the plan, dubbed One Valley, One Vision.

Because of its shortcomings, Attorney General Harris said, the report fails to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act.

The Santa Clarita Valley is an area of 250,000 people just above the San Fernando Valley in northern Los Angeles County astride I-5 near the Angeles National Forest. The One Valley, One Vision plan would allow a population of more than 450,000 by 2035.

The Attorney General’s letter points out that the construction allowed by the One Valley plan would roughly double the car and truck emissions of nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, which combine in the atmosphere to produce ozone. The increase would exacerbate “a severe, health-threatening air pollution problem” that already exists in the Santa Clarita Valley.

In 2008, ozone levels in the valley exceeded California standards on 81 days, especially troubling because children who are chronically exposed to ozone may suffer lifelong lung damage, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The EIR also concludes that land-use decisions proposed in the One Valley plan would double the amount of particulate matter, or soot, in the air, putting children at increased risk of lung problems and the elderly at increased risk of death from heart and lung disease.

Instead of proposing land-use changes to reduce the need to drive, the Attorney General’s letter points out, the One Valley plan will result in a 120 percent increase in driving trips – a million more trips than were made in 2004.

State law requires that when an EIR makes a finding of significant environmental harm, as it does with the One Valley plan, the local agency implementing the plan must take all feasible measures to reduce that harm or adopt alternatives that do less damage. But, the Attorney General’s letter said, the Santa Clarita EIR falls far short, citing only potential mitigation measures that are “unenforceable and vague” and merely suggest, rather than require, that the county reduce driving.

The Attorney General’s letter also criticizes the EIR for failing to fully disclose all the environmental harm the One Valley plan new housing and suburban sprawl would cause.

The letter is co-signed by Deputy Attorney General Susan L. Durbin.

SAN FRANCISCO – Attorney General Kamala D. Harris hosted a Smart on Crime Policy Summit today with a veteran, bi-partisan group of leaders from across the state. Ten work groups – focusing on topics ranging from policing to victims’ rights – prepared briefing papers for Attorney General Harris. The papers, dealing with critical issues facing California, were the focus of the summit at U.C. Hastings College of the Law.

The 10 groups drew insights from best practices of other attorneys general, law enforcement leaders, universities, foundations, think tanks and others at the forefront of research, ideas and innovation. More information about the work groups, and the briefing papers, can be found at: www.smartoncrimepolicy.org.

The honorary co-chairs are William Bratton, former Los Angeles Chief of Police; Warren Christopher, former U.S. Secretary of State; Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers; State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco); Constance L. Rice, co-director of The Advancement Project; George Shultz, former U.S. Secretary of State; and Kathleen Sullivan, professor and former dean of Stanford Law School.

The following is a list of topic areas and chairs of the 10 work groups:

Civil Rights Enforcement
Bill Lann Lee, Shareholder, Lewis, Feinberg, Lee, Renaker & Jackson, P.C.

Education & Truancy
Carlos Garcia, Superintendent, San Francisco Unified School District
Laurene Powell, Co-founder & President of the Board, College Track

Environmental Enforcement
Rick Frank, Director, California Environmental Law & Policy Center, U.C. Davis School of Law
John Poyner, District Attorney, Colusa County

Organized Crime, Gangs and Gun Crime
Lee Baca, Sheriff, Los Angeles County
Charlie Beck, Chief of Police, Los Angeles Police Department
Rev. Jeff Carr, Chief of Staff, Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, City of Los Angeles
Gilbert Otero, District Attorney, Imperial County
Mike Ramos, District Attorney, San Bernardino County
Jack Weiss, Managing Director & Head of Los Angeles Office, Kroll

Health
Paul Gallegos, District Attorney, Humboldt County
Jane Garcia, CEO, La Clincia de La Raza
Dr. Mitch Katz, Director, Los Angeles Public Health Department
Dr. Bob Ross, President & CEO, The California Endowment

Mortgage Fraud and Consumer Protection
Kelly Dermody, Partner, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein
Dan Grunfeld, Co-Chair, Litigation Department, Kaye Scholer
Greg Totten, District Attorney, Ventura Country

Policing
Tony Batts, Chief of Police, Oakland Police Department
Ron Davis, Chief of Police, East Palo Alto Police Department
George Gascon, District Attorney, San Francisco
Bill Landsdowne, Chief of Police, San Diego Police Department

Reentry & Recidivism Reduction
Lee Baca, Sheriff, Los Angeles County
Bonnie Dumanis, District Attorney, San Diego County
Larry Morse, District Attorney, Merced County
Tim Silard, President, Rosenberg Foundation
Mimi Silbert, President & CEO, Delancey Street Foundation

Technology
Ed Berberian, District Attorney, Marin County
Jack Christin, Jr., Associate General Counsel, eBay/PayPal
David Drummond, Senior Vice President & Chief Legal Officer, Google
Fred Humphries, Managing Director, Microsoft
Bruce Ives, Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Hewlett-Packard
Scott Forstall, Senior Vice President, iPhone Software, Apple
Mitchell Kapor, Founder, Lotus Development Corporation
Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook

Victims' Rights
Gary Lieberstein, District Attorney, Napa County
Nancy O’Malley, District Attorney, Alameda County
Esta Soler, Founder & President, Family Violence Prevention Fund

For additional information, please call the Attorney General’s press office at 510.622.4500.

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LOS ANGELES – Seeking environmental justice for all Californians, Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case in support of efforts by the Port of Los Angeles to reduce air pollution through its Clean Trucks program.

The Port of Los Angeles, together with the Port of Long Beach, constitutes the fifth-largest port in the world. Every year, some 169 million tons of cargo flow through the Port of Los Angeles. Most of this cargo is transported on land by means of a fleet of 16,000 diesel trucks, which are prolific emitters of air polluting exhaust.

These diesel emissions posed a major safety hazard to the neighborhoods surrounding the Port, where residents were exposed to cancer risks estimated to be 60% higher than the overall cancer risks of individuals living in the entire South Coast air basin.

In 2008, in an effort to reduce air pollution caused by a fleet of largely decades-old, high-emission diesel trucks, the Port established its Clean Trucks program, which requires that trucks transporting cargo in and out of the Port must meet higher diesel emission standards. The program is a contract system that only allows port access to trucks that are clean, well-maintained, meet higher emissions standards and are driven by employees of the contracting companies. The Port also invested $56 million to purchase or subsidize the purchase of cleaner trucks.

In July 2008, the American Trucking Association and a group of independent owner-operators sued the Port of Los Angeles over the Clean Trucks program. In August 2010, a federal judge ruled in favor of the Port – thereby affirming it could combat air pollution in order to remain competitive in the marketplace. The American Trucking Association appealed that decision.

The Attorney General’s amicus brief urges the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the district court’s decision and stresses that a public agency can make a business decision to go “green” when spending its own funds to contract for services.

Neighborhood and environmental groups filed numerous lawsuits against the Port. These lawsuits have delayed the Port’s plans to expand its cargo terminal facilities. The Clean Trucks program aimed to put an end to these lawsuits, protect the Port’s investment in clean and safe trucks, and establish a system of oversight to control which trucks enter and exit the terminals.

A copy of the amicus brief is attached to the online version of this release and can be found at: http://ag.ca.gov/.