BILL ANALYSIS
AB 25
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Date of Hearing: January 21, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 25 (Gilmore) - As Amended: January 13, 2010
Policy Committee: Environmental
Safety Vote: 7-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill increases the size of the population that can be
served by "publicly owned treatment works serving a small
community" and provides alternative penalties to public school
districts for their waste water discharge violations.
Specifically, this bill:
1)Changes the definition of a publicly owned treatment works
(POTW) serving a small community, for which there are
alternative water discharge violation penalty provisions, from
one that serves 10,000 persons or fewer to one that servers
20,000 persons or fewer.
2)Provides the water boards the authority to require a public
school district to apply all or part of the penalty amount for
a "serious waste discharge violations" to projects that remedy
the violation, provided the following conditions are met: the
compliance project is designed to correct the violations
within five years and is in accordance with the enforcement
policy of the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), and
the school district has prepared a financing plan to complete
the compliance project.
FISCAL EFFECT
Minor absorbable costs to SWRCB.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale. The author contends this bill better aligns water
quality control laws concerning "small communities" with
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similar statutes, as well as the rational behind those
statutes. Additionally, the author believes the bill provides
flexibility in water quality enforcement that will allow
public school districts to remedy water discharge violations
without extreme financial hardship, flexibility existing law
provides to POTWs serving small communities.
2)Background.
a) California's Water Boards. The state's nine Regional
Water Quality Control Boards (regional water boards)
develop and enforce water quality objectives and
implementation plans to protect the beneficial uses of the
state's waters. Each regional board has nine part-time
members appointed by the governor and confirmed by the
Senate. The regional water boards develop "basin plans" for
their respective hydrologic areas, issue waste discharge
permits, enforce water violations, and monitor water
quality.
The SWRCB was created by the Legislature in 1967. It
consists of five full-time members, each appointed to a
four-year term by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.
SWRCB sets statewide policy, coordinates and supports the
actions of the regional water boards, and reviews
challenges to regional water board actions. SWRCB also
allocates surface water rights.
b) Waste Discharge Requirements and Penalties. The
Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act authorizes SWRCB and
regional water boards to set waste discharge requirements.
Current law also establishes mandatory minimum penalties of
$3,000 for each serious waste discharge violation. Current
law additionally provides that a POTW serving a small or
low-income rural community may apply the amount of penalty
to completion of a compliance project that remedies the
waste discharge violation.
c) Differing Definitions of Small . Different sections of
existing law provide differing definitions of a "small
community." Water Code Section 13193.9, which concerns the
SWRCB's allocation of funds on behalf of a wastewater
collection, treatment, or disposal project, defines a
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"small disadvantaged community" as a municipality with a
population of 20,000 persons or less, or a reasonably
isolated and divisible segment of a larger municipality
encompassing 20,000 persons or less, with an annual median
household income that is less than 80 percent of the
statewide median. Public Resources Code Section 30925,
which deals with the board's awarding of grants for water
pollution control projects, defines a "small community" as
a municipality with a population of 20,000 persons or less,
a rural county, or a reasonably isolated and divisible
segment of a larger municipality where the segment of the
population is 20,000 persons or less, with a financial
hardship, as determined by the State Water Board.
Conversely, Water Code Section 13385, which this bill
attempts to modify, defines a "publicly owned treatment
works serving a small community" as one that serves 10,0000
persons or fewer or that serves a rural county with a
financial hardship, as determined by the state board.
1)Why Stop at Public School Districts ? According to the author,
public school districts are like POTWs serving small
communities, in that both can be financially devastated by
imposition of mandatory minimum penalties for waste discharge
violations, the dollar amounts of which can accrue for years
before imposition by the water board. In passing this bill,
the policy committees have accepted the parallel drawn by the
author between these two types of public entities. However,
it can be argued that community colleges and public
universities, too, can be severely harmed by waste water
discharge penalties. It is unclear why the author proposes
alternative compliance mechanisms for public school districts
but not for other public education institutions.
2)Related Legislation. AB 914 (Logue) would have expanded the
definition of a publicly owned treatment works serving a small
community, and provides an additional alternative to
imposition of mandatory minimum civil penalties for water code
violations on these treatment works. AB 914 passed the
Assembly 77-3. The governor vetoed the bill, citing the
adequacy of the water boards' existing authority to achieve
the bill's goals and a lack of clarity in the bill that may
have led to costly litigation.
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3)Support. This bill is supported by both the League of
California Cities and the California State Association of
Counties. There is no registered opposition.
Analysis Prepared by : Jay Dickenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081