Bill Text: CA AB1381 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Safe Drinking Water Plan.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2020-02-03 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB1381 Detail]
Download: California-2019-AB1381-Amended.html
|
Amended
IN
Assembly
March 18, 2019 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION
| Assembly Bill | No. 1381 |
| Introduced by Assembly Member Salas |
February 22, 2019 |
An act to amend Section 116355 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to drinking water.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1381, as amended, Salas.
Safe Drinking Water Plan.
Existing law declares it to be the established policy of the state that every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes. Existing law, known as the California Safe Drinking Water Act, requires the State Water Resources Control Board to maintain a drinking water program and carry out various duties, responsibilities, and functions relating to drinking water, including submission to the Legislature, every 5 years, of a comprehensive Safe Drinking Water Plan for California. California that includes, but is not limited to, specified information including, among other things, an analysis of the overall quality of California’s
drinking water, specific recommendations to improve the quality of drinking water in California, and a detailed 5-year implementation program.
This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to the provision requiring submission of a additionally require the state board, in its Safe Drinking Water Plan. Plan, to identify, within the state, public water systems that consistently fail to deliver water that meets all applicable standards under the California Safe Drinking Water Act, specified areas in which persons have, and specified populations having, limited access to, or ability to pay for,
safe and affordable drinking water, and strategies to address the changing needs of current and future populations. The bill would also require the plan to include a publicly accessible map that identifies areas that consistently lack, or are at risk of losing, access to safe and affordable drinking water. The bill would also authorize the state board to include additional information in the plan identifying water systems in the state that are not public water systems, their adequacy and reliability, and the extent of reliance on those water systems, and would require the state board, in providing this additional information, to collaborate with other local, state, and federal agencies.
The bill would require the state board, no later than 2 years after submission of each Safe Drinking Water Plan, to submit an update on the implementation of the plan, as
provided.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee:Bill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 116355 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:116355.
(a)(1) Once every five years, a
comprehensive Safe Drinking Water Plan for California.
California that includes, at a minimum, the information specified in subdivision (b).
(2) No later than two years after submission of each Safe Drinking Water Plan, to measure progress toward achieving universal access to safe and affordable drinking water and other goals identified in the plan, an update on the implementation of the plan that includes, at a minimum, the information specified in subdivision (c).
(b) The Safe Drinking Water Plan shall include, but not be limited to, the following information:
(1) An analysis of the overall quality of California’s drinking water and the identification of specific water quality problems.
(2) Types and levels of contaminants found in public drinking water systems that have fewer than 10,000 service connections. The discussion of these water systems shall include the following:
(A) Estimated costs of requiring these systems to meet primary drinking water standards and public health goals.
(B) Recommendations for actions that could be taken by the Legislature, the department, and these systems to improve water quality.
(3) A discussion and analysis of the known and potential health risks that may be associated with drinking water contamination in California.
(4) An evaluation of how existing water quality information systems currently maintained by local or state agencies can be more effectively used to protect drinking water.
(5) An evaluation of the research needed to develop inexpensive methods and instruments to ensure better screening and detection of waterborne chemicals, and inexpensive detection methods that could be used by small utilities and consumers to detect harmful microbial agents in drinking water.
(6) An analysis of the technical and economic viability and the health benefits of various treatment techniques that can be used to reduce levels of trihalomethanes, lead, nitrates, synthetic organic chemicals, micro-organisms, and other contaminants in drinking water.
(7) A discussion of alternative methods of financing the construction, installation, and operation of new treatment technologies, including, but not limited to, user charges, state or local taxes, state planning and construction grants, loans, and loan guarantees.
(8) A discussion of sources of revenue presently available, and projected to be available, to public water systems to meet current and future expenses.
(9) An analysis of the current cost of drinking water paid by residential, business, and industrial consumers based on a statewide survey of large, medium, and small public water systems.
(10) Specific recommendations, including recommendations developed
pursuant to paragraph (6), to improve the quality of drinking water in California and a detailed five-year implementation program.
(11) A review of the use of administrators pursuant to Section 116686 in the state, including, but not limited to, the number of communities that have achieved access to safe drinking water through use of an administrator, the costs and duties of the administrator and a comparison of costs, whether rate structures for communities served by an administrator have resulted in significantly higher rates and whether those rates are affordable, and whether the administrator program should be modified to better serve communities.
(12) A review of the consolidations pursuant to Section 116682 in the state, including, but not limited to, the number of communities
that have achieved access to safe drinking water through consolidation, whether rate structures for communities are affordable following consolidation, barriers to consolidation, and whether the consolidation program should be modified to better serve communities.
(13) Identification of all of the following within the state:
(A) Public water systems that consistently fail to deliver water that meets all applicable standards under this chapter. The state board shall distinguish temporary violations from long-term problems and take into consideration the duration and frequency of a public water system’s lack of compliance within a specified time period.
(B) Communities that are or have for a period of time been reliant on bottled water as a source of drinking water or for other purposes such as cooking or sanitation.
(C) Populations that lack access to safe and affordable drinking water in nonresidential settings, including, but not limited to, schools, preschools, mobile home parks, and hospitals.
(D) Regions in which households are likely to have difficulty paying their water bill, and a methodology for identifying those regions. The state board shall use census tract data in datasets that include risk factors such as, but not limited to, cost of living, household income, and local water rates.
(E) Current and anticipated changes to climate and population size, density, and distribution, strategies to provide safe and affordable drinking water to current and future populations, and potential new sources of drinking water to serve those populations.
(14) A publicly accessible map, and the data used to create that map, omitting personal information, that identifies areas of the state, including, but not limited to, both of the following:
(A) Areas that consistently lack access to safe and affordable clean drinking water.
(B) Areas that are at risk of losing access to safe and affordable clean drinking water.
(15) (A) At the option of the state board, additional information identifying water systems in the state that are not public water systems, their adequacy and reliability, and the extent of reliance on those water systems. Water systems identified pursuant to this paragraph may include, but are not limited to, domestic wells or water systems that serve fewer than 15 service connections.
(B) The state board shall collaborate with other local, state, and federal agencies to obtain the necessary data to implement subparagraph (A).
(c) An update submitted pursuant to subdivision (a) shall include, but not be limited to, the following information:
(1) Barriers to the implementation of the specific recommendations in the Safe Drinking Water
Plan.
(2) Incorporated and unincorporated communities that remain without access to safe and affordable drinking water, or are at risk of not having access to safe and affordable drinking water.
(3) A plan to ensure the implementation of the specific recommendations described in paragraph (1).
(d) A report to be submitted pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
