BILL NUMBER: SB 463 CHAPTERED 10/09/01 CHAPTER 604 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE OCTOBER 9, 2001 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR OCTOBER 7, 2001 PASSED THE SENATE SEPTEMBER 14, 2001 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 12, 2001 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 10, 2001 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 30, 2001 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 23, 2001 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 17, 2001 AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 10, 2001 AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 26, 2001 INTRODUCED BY Senator Perata (Coauthors: Assembly Members Alquist, Frommer, Goldberg, and Koretz) FEBRUARY 22, 2001 An act to add Section 116361 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to drinking water. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 463, Perata. Drinking water standards: arsenic. Existing law, commonly referred to as the California Safe Drinking Water Act, is administered by the State Department of Health Services and, among other things, requires the department to establish recommended public health levels for contaminants in drinking water. This bill would require the department to commence the process of revising the existing primary drinking water standard for arsenic and adopt a revised standard for arsenic no later than June 30, 2004. This bill would require the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to place a priority on the development of a public health goal for arsenic in drinking water, sufficient to allow it to adopt the goal no later than December 31, 2002. This bill would require the Secretary of Environmental Protection, on or before December 31, 2002, to develop language, in accordance with specified requirements, regarding the health effects associated with the ingestion of arsenic in drinking water for inclusion in consumer confidence reports, and would require this language, on and after July 1, 2003, to be included in the consumer confidence reports mailed or delivered to customers by specified water systems. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) The current federal maximum contaminant level (MCL) for arsenic in drinking water, 50 parts per billion (ppb), was established by the United States Public Health Service in 1942, before arsenic was known to cause cancer. California also has adopted a 50 ppb MCL for arsenic in drinking water. (b) In 1999, after eight years of study, a National Academy of Sciences panel unanimously concluded that the current arsenic drinking water standard does not protect public health and should be lowered as "promptly as possible." The panel also found sufficient evidence from epidemiological studies that chronic ingestion of arsenic causes lung, bladder, and skin cancer. According to the academy, the lifetime risk of dying of cancer from arsenic in tap water at the current allowable level of 50 ppb is one in 100, up to 10,000 times higher than the generally accepted excess cancer rate. (c) A recent study conducted for the Association of California Water Agencies found the average concentration of arsenic in California groundwater to be 9.8 ppb. Based on findings of the National Academy of Sciences, a 9.8 ppb concentration of arsenic in drinking water would result in an excess cancer risk of approximately one in 500, far exceeding acceptable public health levels. (d) The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has determined that cost-effective treatment strategies are available to remove at least 80 percent of arsenic from drinking water, and that for water systems that serve more than 10,000 people, the annual household cost of treatment will be from eighty-six cents ($0.86) to thirty-two dollars ($32). (e) Notwithstanding the serious and unacceptable health threat posed by the current MCL for arsenic in drinking water and the availability of cost-effective treatment technologies, the USEPA suspended adoption of its proposed 10 ppb standard for arsenic in drinking water, and violated the June 22, 2001, statutory deadline for adoption of a new standard. (f) To reestablish a reasonable assurance that Californians will be protected from excessive risk of cancer resulting from ingestion of arsenic in drinking water, it is necessary for the state to adopt an MCL for arsenic that protects public health and to ensure that water consumers are notified when levels of arsenic in drinking water exceed the public health goal established by the state. SEC. 2. Section 116361 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read: 116361. (a) The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment shall place a priority on the development of a public health goal for arsenic in drinking water, pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 116365, sufficient to allow it to adopt the goal no later than December 31, 2002. (b) Commencing January 1, 2002, the department shall commence the process for revising the existing primary drinking water standard for arsenic, and shall adopt a revised standard for arsenic not later than June 30, 2004. In considering the technological and economic feasibility of compliance with the proposed standard pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of Section 116365, the department shall consider emerging technologies that may cost-effectively reduce exposure to arsenic in drinking water. (c) On or before December 31, 2002, the Secretary for Environmental Protection shall develop language regarding the health effects associated with the ingestion of arsenic in drinking water for inclusion in consumer confidence reports pursuant to Section 116470. On and after July 1, 2003, this language shall be included in the consumer confidence reports mailed or delivered to customers by each water system that measures arsenic in finished water at levels that exceed the applicable public health goal. (d) The language developed by the Secretary for Environmental Protection for use in consumer confidence reports to describe the health effects associated with the ingestion of arsenic in drinking water shall be developed in accordance with primacy requirements described in subdivision (e) of Section 141.151 and subsections (b), (c), and (d) of Section 142.12 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations. (e) Nothing in this section affects or changes the date for implementation of a revised arsenic standard by public water systems as required in Parts 9, 141, and 142 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations.