RCRC is a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 899, authored by Senator Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield). This measure seeks to require the Governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force to create a wildfire smoke health assessment, intended to provide important data that would better align public health and wildfire resilience efforts.
Specifically, SB 899 will require the Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force to work with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and the State Department of Public Health to assess the health costs and impacts of high-severity wildfire smoke using existing wildfire smoke and health data, including data from local, state, federal, and academic sources.
The report is to include an estimate of the number of emergency room visits and deaths, as well as total health care costs, from the smoke of high-severity wildfires in California since 2018. It is also to develop a model to estimate the approximate health benefits, both for monetary costs and human health impacts, of achieving the goals identified in the state’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, as well as recommendations as to how the action plan can maximize health benefits.
RCRC supports SB 899 because it will empower policy makers and stakeholders with an assessment to fully understand the value of state investments in preventing wildfires, and that is vital for continuing to address how the state’s strategies to restore resiliency to the state’s landscapes through fuels mitigation also improves the quality of life for all Californians impacted by these smoke events. RCRC has joined the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), Cal Forests, the California Farm Bureau, and The Nature Conservancy to co-sponsor SB 899.
SB 899 was introduced on January 20, and is pending committee referral in the Senate. RCRC’s most recent letter can be found HERE.
For additional information, contact RCRC Senior Policy Advocate Staci Heaton.