Amended  IN  Assembly  March 30, 2023
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 20, 2023
Amended  IN  Assembly  March 07, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 249

Introduced by Assembly Member Holden
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Robert Rivas) coauthors: Assembly Members Arambula and Robert Rivas)

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 amended, 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, as defined, to test for lead in the potable water system outlets of the schoolsite before January 1, 2027, except for potable water system outlets in buildings that were either constructed after January 1, 2010, or modernized after January 1, 2010, and all faucets and other end point devices used for providing potable water were replaced as part of the modernization. The bill would require the community water system to report its findings to the applicable school or local educational agency and to the state board. 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, take immediate steps to make inoperable and shut down from use all fountains and faucets where the excess lead levels may exist, and 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. The bill would require the state board to make the results of schoolsite lead sampling publicly available by posting the results on its internet website. 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 state 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 state 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.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: YES   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YES  

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) As of January 2023, the United States Environmental Protection Agency estimated 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) In 2016, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that state and local governments 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 to ensure all of the following:
(1) Water served to or consumed by children while they attend school or are cared for in licensed childcare facilities contains no more than zero parts per billion of lead.
(2) State requirements for lead in drinking water in schools are at least as health protective as national standards and complement the requirements established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for the control of lead and copper imposed pursuant to Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
(3) Any future state requirements for the testing of lead in drinking water in schools will use the most protective standard possible, or no more than five 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 shall test for lead in each of the schoolsite’s potable water system outlets on or before January 1, 2027.
(2) This section does not apply to a potable water system outlet in a building on a schoolsite that satisfies either of the following criteria:
(A) The building was constructed after January 1, 2010.
(B) The building was modernized after January 1, 2010, and all faucets and other end point devices used for providing potable water were replaced as part of the modernization.
(3) A local educational agency or school shall allow the community water system access to each schoolsite where lead sampling is required pursuant to this subdivision to conduct testing.
(b) (1) 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 pursuant to subdivision (a). In developing the plan, 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.
(2) A local educational agency may perform the lead sampling required pursuant to subdivision (a) itself, in which case the community water system shall provide local educational agency employees working at the schoolsite training for purposes of this section.
(c) A community water system that serves a schoolsite where lead sampling is required pursuant to subdivision (a) shall report the water lead level findings to both of the following:
(1) 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.
(2) The state board.
(d) If the lead level exceeds five parts per billion, the applicable local educational agency or school shall do all of the following:
(1) Notify the parents and guardians of the pupils who attend the schoolsite or preschool where the elevated lead levels are found.
(2) Take immediate steps to make inoperable and shut down from use all fountains and faucets where the excess lead levels may exist.
(3) (A) 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.
(B) For purposes of subparagraph (A), 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. alternative sources of potable water.
(e) The state board shall make the results of schoolsite lead sampling conducted pursuant to subdivision (a) publicly available by posting the results on its internet website.
(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.
(2) “Potable water system outlet” means a water fountain or faucet used for drinking or preparing food.
(3) “Schoolsite” means a public school that provides 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.

SEC. 3.

 Section 116278 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

116278.
 The State Water Resources Control Board shall allocate ten million dollars ($10,000,000) each fiscal year from 2024 to 2027, inclusive, from the funds the state board receives from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Public Law 117-58), to the extent allowed under federal law, to pay for drinking water testing, drinking water filters, and related training for school personnel, at schoolsites subject to the water-testing requirement in Section 116277.

SEC. 4.

 Section 116760.47 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:

116760.47.
 The State Water Resources Control Board shall allocate five million dollars ($5,000,000) each fiscal year from 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 subject to the water-testing requirement in Section 116277.

SEC. 5.

 If the Commission on State Mandates determines that this act contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.