California Eliminates Registered Environmental Assessor Program

The following is an excerpt of the message sent to REAs on June 30th:

“As part of the Budget, passed on June 27, 2012 the Governor also signed SB 1018 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, Chapter 39, Statutes of 2012).  Among a number of other things, SB 1018 has repealed the Department of Toxic Substances Control’s (DTSC) authority for the Registered Environmental Assessors (REA) Program. As of July 1, 2012, the REA Program will no longer exist.

DTSC proposed the elimination of the REA Program in this year’s budget considerations, primarily because DTSC believes that the program is unnecessary and unenforceable, and more importantly, it is largely duplicative of and inconsistent with federal environmental professional standards that have been adopted since the creation of the REA Program.  DTSC believes the elimination of the REA Program will standardize requirements for environmental professionals conducting environmental assessments under other statutory programs, and make them consistent with federal requirements.

Please note that the online registry will no longer be available after  July 1, 2012.”