Written on: October 1, 2016 by Doug Raymond
California
The Legislative session is over for 2016. Several bills could have had an effect on our industry. Assembly Bill 708 on Ingredient Disclosure failed early in the year; it would have required full ingredient disclosure for cleaning, automotive, air care and floor maintenance products. Senate Bill 1387 would have allowed the appointment of three Environmental Justice representatives to the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) Board by the Governor, Senate and Speaker of the Assembly. This bill was introduced because the SCAQMD Board removed the long time Executive Director of the Agency, Barry Wallerstein. This bill came very close to passing. Hopefully, this issue will die down before the next Legislative session.
As for the bills that passed, Senate Bill 1381 on Short-Lived Climate Pollutants requires the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to approve and implement a strategy to achieve a 40% reduction in methane, a 40% reduction in hydrofluorocarbon gases and a 50% reduction in anthropogenic black carbon from 2013 levels by 2030. The hydrofluorcarbon gases are what we need to monitor. Senate Bill 423 on Retail Hazardous Waste Group requires a work group to be formed to develop recommendations for waste reduction opportunities by June 2017.
CARB
A State Implementation Plan (SIP) meeting was held Sept. 1 in Sacramento, CA. The workshop was attended in person by more than fifty people, with more viewing the webcast. Most of the time was spent discussing Automotive on-road and off-road emission sources. The time spent on Consumer Products was very minimal and nothing new was introduced. The staff is still seeking ten tons per day of emission reductions from Consumer Products and proposing for regulations to be developed for board approval between 2019 and 2021. To review the presentation by staff visit https://www.arb.ca.gov/planning/sip/2016sip.htm.
The Consumer Products slide is Number 51.
Staff had an informational briefing on Sept. 22; the CARB Executive Board will adopt the SIP on Dec. 8–9. Both meetings allow public input.
CARB Outreach
The National Aerosol Association (NAA) and the Western Information Bureau (WAIB) continue their work with CARB. NAA and WAIB have scheduled an Aerosol 101 with the CARB Planning, Enforcement and Laboratory personnel. The 101 will include presentations on components including valves, cans, propellants and solvents. Also included are some product categories that are of interest to CARB, including Hairspray, Sunscreen, Air Fresheners and Lubricants. NAA/WAIB will detail specific characteristics to the individual product category. Members of the Personal Care Product Council (PCPC) and Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA) are likely to assist in the product category presentations. This Aerosol 101 is needed due to the changes in CARB staff over the last year. This presentation will help educate the staff on the intricacy of the aerosol form and the importance of this form to the public.
More CARB changes
Changes continue at CARB. Dave Edwards, Manager, has been promoted and is no longer working on Consumer Products. This is a significant loss to the industry. Although Edwards had only been with Consumer Products for a little over three years, in that time he had eagerly learned about Consumer Products and made changes in the program, such as finalizing the Product Determination form and process. This is the process where a marketer can submit information about a product and CARB staff will review it to provide a written categorization for the product. This is a very useful document to have for enforcement issues.
Edwards was also in charge of the Product Survey process; while the survey process is a pain in the you-know-where, the information is needed. Edwards was readily available to answer questions on the survey and was going through the survey data with his staff to correct errors. He was also in charge of processing guidance documents to aid with enforcement issues. While everyone has not agreed with his guidance documents, at least he was willing to step up and develop some guidance, which the aerosol industry has been asking to be developed for years now. Congratulations to Dave Edwards on his promotion.
