AB 1642

Bill Text  - AB-1642 Wildfires: contamination standards.
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                      |  Add To My Favorites   |  Track Bill   |   Version:  	 08/28/26 - Amended Senate
	 07/02/26 - Amended Senate
	 06/22/26 - Amended Senate
	 05/22/26 - Amended Assembly
	 05/18/26 - Amended Assembly
	 03/02/26 - Amended Assembly
	 01/27/26 - Introduced
                     AB-1642 Wildfires: contamination standards. (2025-2026)
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               Date Published: 08/28/2026 07:07 PM
AB1642:v93#DOCUMENT
       Bill Start
                Amended
               IN 
                Senate
                 August 28, 2026
                Amended
               IN 
                Senate
                 July 02, 2026
                Amended
               IN 
                Senate
                 June 22, 2026
                Amended
               IN 
                Assembly
                 May 22, 2026
                Amended
               IN 
                Assembly
                 May 18, 2026
                Amended
               IN 
                Assembly
                 March 02, 2026
                    CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
                    2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION
                Assembly Bill
                    No. 1642  Introduced by Assembly Member Harabedian (Principal coauthor: Senator Allen) (Coauthors: Assembly Members Irwin and Patel) (Coauthor: Senator Pérez)       January 27, 2026  An act to add   Part 3 (commencing with Section 13980) to Division 12     Chapter 6.9.2 (commencing with Section 25402.1) to Division 20   of the Health and Safety Code, relating to wildfires.      LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST     AB 1642, as amended, Harabedian.
                          Wildfires: contamination standards.       Existing law establishes the Department of Toxic Substances Control, which regulates the handling and management of hazardous waste and hazardous materials, and establishes the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and the State Air Resources Board. Existing federal law sets action levels for lead in dust and emission standards for asbestos, and existing state law sets workplace standards for asbestos. Existing law authorizes local health officers to take specified actions to protect public health and establishes procedures for the remediation of certain contaminated properties.      This bill would require the Department of Toxic Substances Control,
			 in consultation with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and other relevant coordinating agencies, on or before December 31, 2028, to develop and adopt regulations pertaining to lead and asbestos testing, remediation, and restoration after a wildfire and, on or before December 31, 2029, to develop and publish guidance pertaining to specified other contaminants, as provided. The bill would require the State Air Resources Board, on or before December 31, 2028, to develop and publish guidance on indoor air contaminants following residential smoke damage from a wildfire, as provided. The bill would provide that, until the adoption of the regulations and guidance, specified lead and asbestos standards shall apply for wildfire-caused lead and asbestos remediation, as provided. The bill would require the department, in collaboration with the State Department of Education and other relevant state agencies, no later than July 1, 2028, to develop advisory, nonregulatory guidance for schools after a
			 wildfire, as provided. The bill would exempt the regulations and guidance from the Administrative Procedure Act.  The bill would become operative only if AB 1795 of the 2025–26 Regular Session is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2027.       Existing law establishes the Office of the State Fire Marshal in the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and establishes the Deputy Director of Community Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation within the office. Existing law makes the deputy director responsible for fire preparedness and mitigation missions of the department, as provided. The Department of Toxic Substances Control regulates the handling and management of hazardous waste and hazardous materials.      This bill would establish a nonrebuttable presumption that a home, school, workplace, or other structure is safe for human occupancy after a wildfire only if the level of lead on an indoor surface meets specified conditions, as provided. The bill would require the Department of Toxic Substances Control to adopt, no later than July 1, 2027, emergency regulations specifying the
			 science-informed, health-based standards for investigation, environmental testing, and clearance, to guide the removal of lead and asbestos inside and outside of homes, schools, workplaces, and other structures in residential areas after a wildfire, as provided. The bill would also require the department, in consultation with the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, to adopt regulations by July 1, 2028, specifying science-informed, health-based standards for hazardous chemicals following a wildfire, and would require those standards to be established at chemical levels to ensure safe reoccupancy and reduce cancer and noncancer health risks attributable to such fires, as provided. The bill would define terms for purposes of these provisions, including “downward ash zone” and would require the department to determine the downwind ash zone for each WUI fire using methodologies and data sources from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as provided.  Digest Key
      Vote:
       MAJORITY   
      Appropriation:
       NO   
      Fiscal Committee:
       YES   
      Local Program:
       NO        Bill Text     The people of the State of California do enact as follows:       SECTION 1.  This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the Wildfire Environmental Safety and Testing Act.       SEC. 2.  The Legislature finds and declares   both of   the following:  (a) Wildfires are increasingly frequent and severe, exposing Californians to hazardous smoke, ash, debris, and toxic contamination that pose serious short- and long-term health risks.  (b) Following wildfires, residents, workers, students, and vulnerable populations are often compelled to return to homes, schools, and workplaces without adequate environmental testing, remediation, or health-based   clearance
				standards.     (c) Existing law does not provide a uniform statewide framework to
				address postwildfire habitability and reoccupancy based on public health exposure.  SEC. 3.  Part 3 (commencing with Section 13980) is added to Division 12 of the  Health and Safety Code , to read:      3.   Wildfires Contamination      13980.     For purposes of this part, the following definitions shall apply:      (a) “Clearance” means a formal determination that a home, school, workplace, or other structure has been cleared of WUI debris and that any remaining hazardous chemicals meet the standards established pursuant to this part.      (b) “Contamination” means property polluted by WUI debris.      (c) “Department” means the Department of Toxic Substances Control.      (d) “Downwind ash zone” means the geographic area downwind from the wildfire’s burn perimeter
						  that the department determines pursuant to Section 13985 is reasonably likely to have received ash, soot, or char, or other WUI debris carried by wind. “Downwind ash zone” includes the structures within that geographic area.      (e) “Hazardous chemical” means a chemical that is determined by the department to be toxic, carcinogenic, explosive, corrosive, or flammable.      (f) “Office” means the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.      (g) “TEM-identified asbestos” means Transmission Electron Microscopy-identified asbestos.      (h) “WUI” means the term used by the United States Fire Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to mean the
						  wildland urban interface, or the zone of transition between unoccupied land and human development. “WUI” includes the line, area, or zone where structures and other human development meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland or vegetative fuels.      (i) “WUI debris” includes, but is not limited to, ash, soot, or char, combustion byproducts, TEM-identified asbestos, CAM 17 heavy metals, cyanide, lithium, manganese, dioxins, furans, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and volatile organic compounds in indoor air.      (j) “WUI fire” or “wildfire” means a fire in the WUI that may result in the release and deposit of WUI debris.      (k) “WUI impact zone” means the area within the fire perimeter as determined and
						  mapped by the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the adjacent downwind ash zone, as defined by the department pursuant to Section 13985.  13981.     (a) There is a nonrebuttable presumption that a home, school, workplace, or other structure is safe for human occupancy after a wildfire only if the level of lead is less than, or equal to, 5 micrograms per square foot on floors, and less than, or equal to, 40 micrograms per square foot on window sills.      (b) The department may adopt nonemergency regulations pursuant to Section 13984
						  for science-informed, health-based standards for lead that are stricter than those specified in subdivision (a). Upon adoption of those nonemergency regulations, this section shall become inoperative.  13982.     (a) The department, in consultation with relevant coordinating agencies, shall, no later than July 1, 2027, adopt emergency regulations specifying the science-informed, health-based standards for investigation, environmental testing, and clearance, to guide the adequate removal of lead and TEM-identified asbestos inside and outside of homes, schools, workplaces, and other structures in residential areas after a wildfire.      (b) The adoption and readoption of regulations consistent with this section shall be deemed to be an emergency and necessary for the immediate preservation of the public
						  peace, health and safety, or general welfare for purposes of Sections 11346.1 and 11349.6 of the Government Code, and the department is hereby exempted from the requirement that it describe facts showing the need for immediate action.  13983.     Emergency regulations adopted by the department pursuant to Section 13982, in order to protect the public health of residents of standing homes, schools, workplaces, or other structures after a WUI fire and to reduce cancer and noncancer health risks attributable to a WUI fire, shall include all of the following:      (a) A rebuttable presumption that if WUI debris is present in a surviving home, school, workplace, or other structure after a WUI fire, any identified hazardous contamination in the WUI impact zone is the result of that WUI fire.      (b) (1) Requirements for testing for lead and TEM-identified asbestos
						  in a surviving home, school, workplace, or other structure that include, at a minimum, testing of all of the following locations:      (A) Indoor floors, window sills, and interior horizontal hard surfaces.      (B) Garage floors and garage horizontal hard surfaces.      (C) Attics, and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems.      (2) Testing standards shall also include conditions in which testing behind drywall is required.      (c) (1) Requirements for preremediation testing to understand where contaminants are present to guide appropriately licensed cleanup efforts and ensure worker
						  safety.      (2) Requirements for postremediation testing after debris cleanup to confirm that lead and TEM-identified asbestos have been removed from the home, school, workplace, or other structure and that clearance has been achieved, or to determine that further remediation efforts are required.      (3) Requirements for postremediation testing after debris cleanup to confirm whether remediation reduced the levels of chemicals identified in subparagraphs (C) to (F), inclusive, of paragraph (4).      (4) Preremediation and postremediation testing guidelines that shall establish specific protocols and methodologies used to evaluate known WUI fire hazards, which include, but are not limited to, all of the following:      (A) Lead.      (B) TEM-identified asbestos.      (C) Combustion byproducts.      (D) CAM 17 heavy metals.      (E) Cyanide, lithium, manganese, dioxins, furans, and PAHs.      (F) Volatile organic compounds in indoor air.       (d) The standards set forth in the department’s Residential Soil Evaluation Guidance for the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires, including the standards for soil sampling based on property damage levels.      (e) Guidance on the use of
						  other restoration strategies, including, but not limited to, the repair or replacement of damaged structures if remediation cannot achieve clearance.      (f) Guidance on methods and routines to reduce indoor exposure to the contamination of hazardous chemicals, or any residual contamination following remediation, resulting from a WUI fire.  13984.     (a) The department shall, no later than July 1, 2028, adopt regulations specifying science-informed, health-based standards for hazardous chemicals, including levels for these chemicals that are required to achieve clearance for a home, school, workplace, or other structure, as well as standards for investigation, environmental testing, and to guide the removal of hazardous chemicals inside and outside of a home, school, workplace, or other structure in a residential area after a wildfire. The adopted science-informed, health-based standards for hazardous chemicals shall be established at levels intended to ensure that residents can safely reoccupy their homes, schools, workplaces, and other structures and to reduce cancer
						  and noncancer health risks attributable to a WUI fire. The department shall develop these standards in consultation with the office.      (b) Regulations adopted by the department pursuant to this section, in order to protect the public health of residents of standing homes, schools, workplaces, or other structures after a WUI fire, shall include all of the following:      (1) Adoption of nonemergency regulations from regulations adopted pursuant to Sections 13982 and 13983, and standards for levels of lead on an indoor surface pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 13981, if applicable and appropriate.      (2) A rebuttable presumption that if WUI debris is present in a surviving home, school, workplace, or other structure after
						  a WUI fire, any identified hazardous contamination in the WUI impact zone is the result of that WUI fire.      (3) (A) Requirements for testing in a surviving home, school, workplace, or other structure that include, at a minimum, testing of all of the following locations:      (i) Indoor floors, window sills, and interior horizontal hard surfaces.      (ii) Garage floors and garage horizontal hard surfaces.      (iii) Attics and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems.      (B) Testing standards shall also include conditions in which testing behind drywall is required.      (4) (A) Requirements for preremediation testing to understand what hazardous chemicals are present to guide appropriately licensed cleanup efforts and ensure worker safety.      (B) Requirements for postremediation testing after debris cleanup to confirm that WUI debris and contamination have been removed from the home, school, workplace, or other structure, or to determine that further remediation efforts are required.      (C) Preremediation and postremediation testing standards shall include testing and health-based thresholds for known WUI fire hazards, including, but not limited to, all of the following:      (i) TEM-identified asbestos.      (ii) Combustion byproducts.      (iii) CAM 17 heavy metals.      (iv) Cyanide, lithium, manganese, dioxins, furans, and PAHs.      (v) Volatile organic compounds in indoor air.      (5) Standards to ensure that individuals can inhabit a home, school, workplace, or other structure safely. The standards shall include steps to ensure that a home, school, workplace, or other structure is habitable to prefire conditions and that the home, school, workplace, or other structure has reached clearance before a resident is required to move back into the resident’s home or return to a
						  structure.  13985.     The department shall determine the downwind ash zone for each WUI fire using methodologies and data sources, including maps, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, within 45 days of the wildfire reaching 100 percent containment.  SEC. 3.      Chapter 6.9.2 (commencing with Section 25402.1) is added to Division 20 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:
                CHAPTER
               6.9.2. Wildfire Contamination       25402.1.  For purposes of this chapter, the following definitions apply:  (a) “Department” means the Department of Toxic Substances Control.  (b) “OEHHA” means the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.  (c) “Screening level” means the threshold concentration of a chemical that serves as a comparison value for exposures to soil, air, and tap or drinking water and below which further site assessment for that single chemical alone is often not warranted.  (d) “State board” means the State Air Resources Board.  (e) “Wildfire” means a wildland-urban interface fire, an urban conflagration, or a forest fire as defined in Section 4103 of the Public Resources Code.       25402.3.  Until the adoption of the regulations required pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 25402.4 and the issuance of the guidance described in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 25402.4 and in Section 25402.5, the following standards shall apply for the purposes of determining clearance for human occupancy for residential properties located within a wildfire impact zone, as defined in Section 2060.1 of the Insurance Code, relative to wildfire-caused lead and asbestos remediation only:  (a) The detected chemical concentration of lead dust in the property’s interior shall not exceed the action levels for lead in dust set forth in Section 745.227(e)(8)(viii) of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, or any more stringent applicable
						  standard, including a standard developed pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 25402.4.  (b) The property shall be evaluated for asbestos and remediated and restored in compliance with applicable standards in the California asbestos standard set forth in Section 1529 of Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations and the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for asbestos set forth in Subpart M (commencing with Section 61.140) of Part 61 Subchapter C of Chapter I of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations or any more stringent applicable standard, including a standard developed pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 25402.4.       25402.4.  (a) The department, in consultation with the OEHHA and other relevant coordinating agencies, shall do both of the following:  (1) On or before December 31, 2028, and after hosting a public workshop, develop and adopt regulations pertaining to lead and asbestos testing, and remediation and restoration for unrestricted use, including for residential properties, and for other locations as appropriate, after a wildfire. The regulations shall include all of the following, to the extent there is, in the department’s discretion, sufficient supporting scientific evidence:  (A) Background and educational information on all of the following:  (i) Key entities involved in postwildfire remediation and restoration.  (ii) Risk and data interpretation to help understand indoor and outdoor sampling results after a wildfire.  (iii) Common scenarios that warrant consultation with an environmental professional.  (B) Strategies to reduce contaminant exposure indoors and outdoors in the aftermath of a wildfire.  (C) Tables containing any updated or tiered screening levels for lead and asbestos for soil, air, and wipe samples.  (D) Procedures, as determined by the department, for sampling contents and indoor floors, windowsills, and other hard surfaces.  (E) Procedures, as determined by the department, for sampling outdoor soils.  (F) Information on remediation and restoration techniques recommended by professionals.  (G) Standards for chemical concentrations of lead dust in residential property interiors that are clear for human occupancy.  (2) On or before December 31, 2029, and after hosting a public workshop, develop and publish on its internet website guidance pertaining to contaminants listed pursuant to subparagraph (B) for testing and remediation and restoration for unrestricted use, including for residential properties, and for other locations as appropriate, after a wildfire. The guidance shall include all of the following, to the extent there is, in the department’s discretion, sufficient
						  supporting scientific evidence:  (A) Any additional educational information the department determines is necessary to supplement the regulations adopted under paragraph (1).  (B) Tables containing tiered screening levels for each of the following contaminants for soil, air, and wipe samples:  (i) CAM 17 heavy metals.  (ii) Cyanide.  (iii) Lithium.  (iv) Manganese.  (v) Dioxins and furans.  (vi) Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.  (C) Procedures, as determined by the department, for sampling indoor floors, windowsills, contents, and other hard surfaces.  (D) Procedures, as determined by the department, for sampling outdoor soils.  (E) Information on remediation and restoration techniques recommended by professionals.  (F) Standards for postremediation testing.  (b) In the department’s discretion, based on scientific changes or need, the department may do both of the following:  (1) Make technical determinations to add or remove contaminants from the guidance documents and information developed pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) based on the relevance and priority of those contaminants for
						  postwildfire remediation and restoration.  (2) Update the guidance documents developed pursuant to this section every five years from completion of the guidance due on or before December 31, 2029, to incorporate the latest data and science on postwildfire remediation and restoration.  (c) Standards for testing and remediation and restoration adopted pursuant to this section shall be no less stringent than those in other applicable state or federal law.  (d) The regulations and guidance developed pursuant to this section shall be exempt from the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code) and from the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources
						  Code).  (e) The department shall post recordings of the public workshops and public comments pursuant to subdivision (a) on the department’s internet website.       25402.5.  (a) Based on the best available existing science, on or before December 31, 2028, and after hosting a public workshop, the state board shall develop and publish on its internet website guidance on levels for indoor air contaminants following residential smoke damage from a wildfire, implications for health or health outcomes, and possible protective measures to reduce health impacts.  (b) The state board may release interim guidance prior to December 31, 2028.  (c) The state board may revise and update the guidance as new research and data become available.  (d) The guidance developed pursuant to this section
						  shall be exempt from the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code) and from the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources Code).  (e) The department shall post recordings of the public workshops and public comments pursuant to subdivision (a) on the department’s internet website.       25402.6.  (a) The department, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, and other relevant state agencies, no later than July 1, 2028, shall develop advisory, nonregulatory guidance for schools to support local educational agencies after a wildfire. This guidance shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:  (1) Information on the balance between the protection of the public health of pupils, school staff, and community members, and the reopening of schools as expeditiously as possible to promote pupil and school community stability.  (2) Suggested best practices for preremediation and postremediation testing and remediation and restoration of known
						  wildfire hazards, including how to find, evaluate, and select appropriately licensed personnel.  (3) Information regarding wildfire hazards, including, but not limited to, their human health implications, how to interpret wildfire hazard results to inform school closure and reopening decisions, and how to reduce human exposure to wildfire hazards and recontamination.  (4) Information about federal, state, and local entities that can provide information and expertise on wildfire recovery, including information on available state or federal emergency funds, to local educational agencies in the aftermath of a wildfire.  (b) The adoption of guidance pursuant to subdivision (a) is exempt from Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code.  (c) For purposes of this section, “local educational agency” means a school, school district, charter school, or county office of education.       25402.7.  Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to supersede or limit any other authority or remedy of any regulatory agency to protect public health and the environment.  SEC. 4.    This act shall become operative only if Assembly Bill 1795 of the 2025–26 Regular Session is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2027.