Sheila Kuehl Appointed to CIWMB
Brings Fourteen Years Experience from Legislature

Sacramento, California - December 1, 2008

State Senator Sheila Kuehl was appointed by outgoing Senate President Pro-Temps Don Perata to serve for two years as one of six members of California's Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB).  The Board was established in 1989 to oversee, manage and track the over 92 million tons of waste generated in California every year.  Under the Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989, over 450 jurisdictions were required to reduce the percentage of their total trash sent to landfills to 75% by 1995 and 50% by 2000.  The Board is the enforcement and oversite agency.

In addition, the Board maintains an extensive grant program to promote a sustainable environment for reuse and recycling, as well as promoting the use of new technologies to divert waste away from landfills and into the recycling stream.

Senator Kuehl has extensive experience with these issues.  She served on the Natural Resources and Toxics Committees in the Assembly, and chaired the Natural Resources and Water Committee in the Senate for six of her eight years there.  She served under the author of the omnibus recycling bill that started it all (AB 939), Byron Sher, when he was chair of the Resources and Energy Budget Sub-Committee in the Senate and succeeded him as chair of that budget sub-committee when he termed out, overseeing the budgets of all the agencies under the California Environmental Protection Agency, including the CIWMB.  She is the author of dozens of bills related to environmental protection, recycling and clean up, including

• SB 990, mandating cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory
• SB 1346, authorizing the CIWMB to award grants to local governments for utilizing rubberized asphalt concrete in public works projects
• SB 1374, requiring the CIWMB, local governments and industry groups to collaborate in creating model ordinances for 50-75% diversion of construction and demolition waste
• SB 2065 requiring generators and shippers of low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) to report the amounts of LLRW shipped
• SB 649, reforming the Mine Reclamation program
  and many others, related to water, air and resources protections.