SECTIONS 71000-71001

71000.  This part shall be known, and may be cited, as theEnvironmental Protection Permit Reform Act of 1993.71001.  The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of thefollowing: (a) California's environmental protection programs haveestablished strict standards to reduce pollution and protect thepublic health and safety and the environment. The single purposeprograms instituted to achieve these standards have been among themost successful efforts in the world, and have produced significantgains in protecting California's environment in the face ofsubstantial population growth. (b) Continued progress to achieve the environmental standards inface of continued population growth will require greater coordinationbetween the single purpose environmental programs and more efficientoperation of these programs overall. Pollution must be prevented andcontrolled and not simply transferred to another media or anotherplace. This goal can only be achieved by maintaining the currentenvironmental protection standards and by greater integration of theexisting programs. (c) As the number of environmental laws and regulations have grownin California, so have the number of permits required of businessand government. This regulatory burden has significantly added to thecost and time needed to obtain essential operating permits inCalifornia. The increasing number of individual permits and permitauthorities has generated the continuing potential for conflict,overlap, and duplication between the various state, local, andfederal environmental permits. (d) To ensure that local needs and environmental conditionsreceive the proper attention, the issuance of environmental permitsshould continue to be made, to the extent feasible, at the regionaland local levels of the environmental programs. To establish theframework for coordination among the regional offices of theenvironmental protection programs, consistency in regional boundariesshould be achieved to the maximum extent practicable. (e) The purpose of this division is to require the Secretary forEnvironmental Protection to institute new, efficient procedures whichwill assist businesses and public agencies in complying with theenvironmental quality laws in an expedited fashion, without reducingprotection of public health and safety and the environment. (f) Those procedures need to provide a permit process thatpromotes effective dialogue and ensures ease in the transfer andclarification of technical information, while preventing duplication.It is necessary that the procedures establish a process forpreliminary and ongoing meetings between the applicant, theconsolidated permit agency, and the participating permit agencies,but do not preclude the applicant or participating permit agenciesfrom individually coordinating with each other. (g) It is necessary, to the maximum extent practicable, that theprocedures established in this division ensure that the consolidatedpermit agency process and applicable permit requirements and criteriaare integrated and run concurrently, rather than consecutively.