Solid waste: compostable materials.

Senator McNerney's composting operations bill aims to expand California's excluded tier for small-scale composting activities by increasing the maximum allowable onsite material from 100 to 500 cubic yards. The legislation also creates a new exclusion for agricultural facilities managing large-scale biomass removal events, such as orchard or vineyard clearing, allowing these operations to proceed without solid waste facility permits for up to 24 months once per decade.

The bill raises the annual limit on compost distribution from 1,000 to 5,000 cubic yards for operations in the excluded tier and certain agricultural composting facilities. For large-scale biomass management events, the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery may further increase this distribution cap through regulation. Agricultural facilities utilizing the new biomass event exclusion must maintain five years of records documenting the origin of any additional agricultural materials or manure incorporated into their composting process.

While expanding permit exemptions, the legislation preserves requirements for operations to obtain other necessary authorizations from local health departments and land use authorities. These changes modify existing regulatory tiers established by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery that currently require permits for most composting activities above the 100 cubic yard threshold.