Bill Text: CA AB249 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Water: schoolsites: lead testing.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Vetoed) 2024-02-01 - Consideration of Governor's veto stricken from file. [AB249 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB249-Introduced.html
Bill Title: Water: schoolsites: lead testing.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Vetoed) 2024-02-01 - Consideration of Governor's veto stricken from file. [AB249 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB249-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 249
| Introduced by Assembly Member Holden |
January 18, 2023 |
An act to add Sections 116270.5, 116277, 116278, and 116760.47 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to water, and making an appropriation therefor.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 249, as introduced, Holden.
Water: schoolsites: lead testing: conservation.
Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, requires the State Water Resources Control Board to administer provisions relating to the regulation of drinking water to protect public health. The act requires the state board to establish a grant program, in consultation with the State Department of Education, to award grants to local educational agencies for the purposes of improving access to, and the quality of, drinking water in public schools serving kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, and preschools and child daycare facilities located on public school property.
This bill would require a community water system that serves a schoolsite with a building constructed before January 1, 2010, to test for lead in the potable water system of the schoolsite before January 1, 2027. The bill would require the community water system
to report its findings to the applicable school or local educational agency, as specified. The bill would require the local educational agency or school, if the lead level exceeds a specified level at a schoolsite, to notify the parents and guardians of the pupils who attend the schoolsite or preschool. The bill would require the local educational agency or school to take immediate steps to make inoperable and shut down from use all fountains and faucets where the excess lead levels may exist. The bill would also require that the local educational agency or school work with the schoolsites under its jurisdiction to ensure that a potable source of drinking water is provided for pupils, as specified. The bill would require a community water system to prepare a sampling plan for each schoolsite where lead sampling is required under these provisions. By imposing additional duties on local agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
This bill would
require the State Water Resources Control Board to allocate $10,000,000 each fiscal year for the years 2024 to 2027, inclusive, from the funds the board receives from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, to the extent allowed under federal law, to pay for drinking water testing, drinking water filters, and related training for school personnel at schoolsites, as specified.
Existing law establishes the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, in which both the state and federal funds are continuously appropriated, to provide financial assistance for the design and construction of projects for public water systems that will enable those systems to meet safe drinking water standards.
This bill would require the board to allocate $5,000,000 each fiscal year for the years 2024 to 2027, inclusive, from its federal Drinking Water State Revolving Fund federal allocation, to the extent allowed under federal law, to
pay for water efficient faucet and fixture replacements at schoolsites, as specified. By making moneys in the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, a continuously appropriated fund, available for new purposes, the bill would make an appropriation.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: YES Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YESBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 116270.5 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:116270.5.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1) The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that there is no safe level of lead in children.
(2) The State Department of Public Health reports that lead exposure at very low levels can cause learning, behavioral, and attention difficulties in children, and nervous system and organ damage. Exposure to high levels of lead can be fatal.
(3) No effective treatments ameliorate the long-lasting developmental effects of lead toxicity, and it is believed that these effects are permanent.
(4) The United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that as much as 20 percent of a child’s lead exposure comes from lead in drinking water, when water lead levels are five parts per billion. Drinking water can be an even larger source of lead exposure for infants who consume mostly water-based formula.
(5) The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum contaminant level goal, the value the agency deems acceptable for health, is zero for lead in water.
(6) The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that state and local governments should take steps to ensure that water fountains in schools do not exceed water lead concentrations of one parts per billion.
(b) It is therefore the goal of the state that water served to or consumed by children while they attend school or are cared
for in licensed childcare facilities shall contain no more than zero parts per billion of lead.
SEC. 2.
Section 116277 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:116277.
(a) (1) A community water system that serves a schoolsite with a building constructed before January 1, 2010, on that schoolsite shall test for lead in each of the schoolsite’s potable water system outlets on or before January 1, 2027.(2) The community water system shall report its findings to the applicable school or local educational agency within 10 business days after the community water system receives the results from the testing laboratory or within two business days if it is found that the water lead level from any potable water system outlet on the schoolsite exceeds five parts per billion of lead.
(b) (1) A local educational
agency or school shall allow the community water system access to each schoolsite that is subject to subdivision (a) to conduct testing.
(2) If the lead level exceeds five parts per billion, the applicable local educational agency or school shall notify the parents and guardians of the pupils who attend the schoolsite or preschool where the elevated lead levels are found.
(c) (1) If the lead level exceeds five parts per billion, the applicable local educational agency or school shall take immediate steps to make inoperable and shut down from use all fountains and faucets where the excess lead levels may exist.
(2) Each local educational agency or school shall work with the schoolsites under its jurisdiction to ensure that a potable source of drinking water is provided for pupils at each potable
water system outlet that has been shut down due to elevated lead levels. Providing a potable source of drinking water may include, but is not limited to, replacing any fixtures that are contributing to the elevated lead levels, providing onsite water filtration, or providing bottled water as a short-term remedy.
(d) Each community water system, in cooperation with the appropriate corresponding local educational agency or school, shall prepare a sampling plan for each schoolsite where lead sampling is required under subdivision (a). The community water system, local educational agency, or school may request assistance from the state board or any local health agency responsible for regulating community water systems in developing the plan.
(e) This section shall not apply to a building that was constructed after January 1, 2010.
(f) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) “Local educational agency” means a school district, county office of education, or charter school located in a public facility.
(2) “Potable water system outlet” means a water fountain or faucet used for drinking or preparing food.
(3) “Schoolsite” means a public or private school that provides preschool education, transitional kindergarten, as defined by subdivision (d) of Section 48000 of the Education Code, or elementary, or secondary education, to a minimum of six children.
