Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to establish, maintain, and amend as necessary minimum standards for the sanitation of public beaches, as provided. Existing law requires the health officer, as defined, having jurisdiction over an area in which a public beach is created to do certain things, including, in the event of a known untreated sewage release, immediately test the waters adjacent to the public beach and, in the event an untreated sewage release that is known to have reached recreational waters adjacent to a public beach, immediately close those waters until it has been determined by the local health officer that the waters are in compliance with the standards.
This bill would authorize the health officer to meet the requirements described above by using test results from other parties that have conducted
microbiological contamination testing of the waters under the health officer’s jurisdiction, as provided.