Bill Text: CA AB249 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended
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-Amended.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-Amended.html
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CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 249
| Introduced by Assembly Member Holden (Principal 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 test a potable water system outlet that replaces an outlet that is found to
have excess levels of lead. 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.
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) 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) 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) Before a community water system enters a schoolsite to conduct lead sampling, the community water system shall request access to the schoolsite from the local educational agency or school pursuant to this subparagraph. The community water system shall provide a written notice to the local educational agency or school at least 30 days in advance of the date on which the community water system intends to enter the schoolsite. If the local
educational agency or school fails to respond to the notice within 30 days, the community water system shall provide a second written notice to the local educational agency or school.
(C) If the local educational agency or school refuses to allow the community water system access to the schoolsite or fails to respond to the second written notice described in subparagraph (B) within 30 days, the community water system shall notify the state board that the local educational agency or school is not in compliance with the requirements of this section.
(D) If a community water system provides the notices described in subparagraph (B) but is not permitted to access the
schoolsite, the community water system shall be deemed to have complied with the requirements of this section with respect to that schoolsite.
(b) For purposes of the lead sampling required pursuant to subdivision (a), the tester shall do all of the following:
(1) Use 250 milliliter bottles.
(2) Conduct a first draw after the water has been left stagnant in the plumbing for a minimum of 8 hours and a maximum of 18 hours.
(3) Following the first draw, conduct a flush draw where the water is allowed to run for a minimum of 30 seconds and a maximum of 60 seconds before the sample is collected.
(b)
(c) (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)
(d) 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)
(e) If the lead level exceeds five parts per billion, the applicable local educational agency or school shall do all of the following:
(1) (A) Notify the parents and guardians of the pupils who attend the schoolsite or preschool where the elevated lead levels are found.
(B) The local educational agency or school may include a description of a remediation plan as part of the notice provided pursuant to this paragraph.
(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 alternative sources of potable water.
(f) A local educational agency or school shall not attempt to remediate excess levels of lead by flushing the water in a potable water system outlet.
(g) If a potable water system outlet is replaced because of excess levels of lead found as a result of the lead sampling conducted pursuant to subdivision (a), the community water system shall test the replacement potable water system outlet.
(e)
(h) 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.
website, including, but not limited to, periodic updates on sampling results and associated data descriptions and disclaimers.
(f)
(i) 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 receives funding pursuant to Title I of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.) and 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.
