Calif. law targets stockpiles.

A new California law known as AB 2159 is intended to prevent facility owners from continuing to do business while they appeal a citation, even if there is no immediate threat to public health or the environment.

It also requires local rule enforcers--most of them county officials--to track complaints against businesses with stockpiles of material and gives officials more authority to shut down facilities operating illegally.

The bill is considered a response to the substantial fire that occurred in Fresno, Calif., early in 2003. That fire at the Archie Crippen Excavation site burned for four weeks, devouring a 40-foot-tall pile of wood, concrete, green waste and construction material.

According to the Fresno Bee, the blaze spewed acrid smoke and sickened nearby residents. It reportedly cost state and local governments nearly $6 million to put out the fire and clean up the aftermath.

City officials are optimistic.

"It will allow the local enforcement agencies to have the strength they need to monitor these sites," Assembly Member Sarah Reyes, D-Fresno, who sponsored the bill, tells the Fresno Bee.

The bill, signed into law by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, will go into effect Jan. 1, 2005.