BILL ANALYSIS
AB 301
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Date of Hearing: March 24, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND TOXIC MATERIALS
Wesley Chesbro, Chair
AB 301 (Fuentes) - As Introduced: February 17, 2009
SUBJECT : Vended water.
SUMMARY : Requires applicants for a license as a water-bottling
plant or as a private water source to provide information on the
volume and source of the water to the State Department of Public
Health (DPH) and requires DPH to annually make this information
available to the public. Specifically, this bill :
1) Requires each applicant for a license as a
water-bottling plant or a private water source to provide
DPH, upon submission of the application, the following
information:
a. The total volume of water bottled or sold
either for wholesale or retail use, including the best
estimate of this information for new applicants; and
b. Whether the source of the water bottled or
sold is a public or private water agency or an
artesian well, lake, river, spring, or well; and
c. The county in which the source of the water is
located and whether this source is privately or
publicly owned and operated.
2) Requires DPH to annually compile the above information
for each licensee and make the compiled information
available to the public.
3) Requires DPH to ensure that the compilation of
information does not include duplicative data, especially
relating to applicants applying for both a water-bottling
plant license and a private water source license.
4) Requires that water from a private water source that is
sold or delivered to a water-bottling plant is reported
separately from water sold or delivered for other uses.
EXISTING FEDERAL LAW :
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1)Authorizes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), under the
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act, to regulate bottled
water products that are in interstate commerce.
2)Authorizes the United States Environmental Protection Agency
(US EPA), under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), to set
national health-based standards for drinking water to protect
against both naturally-occurring and anthropogenic
contaminants.
3)Requires, when US EPA sets a new standard for a contaminant in
drinking water, that the FDA must establish a new standard for
the same contaminant in bottled water or find that US EPA's
new standard is not applicable to bottled water.
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EXISTING STATE LAW :
1)Authorizes DPH to licence and regulate manufacturers of
bottled water and vended water.
2)Requires all water-bottlers (regardless of whether located
in-state, out-of-state, or in a foreign country) and private
source operators to apply annually to obtain a license to
bottle, collect, treat, hold, distribute, haul, vend, or sell
water in California.
3)Requires, as a condition of licensure, water-bottling plants
to annually prepare a bottled water report, including
disclosure of the source of the bottled water, and to make the
report available to each customer.
4)Requires water bottlers whose corporate name or trademark
contains the words "spring," "well," "artesian well," or
"natural," to label each bottle with the source of the water
if the source of the water is different from the source stated
in the corporate name or trademark.
5)Requires private water sources that sell water at retail to
display the fact that the water is obtained from an approved
public water supply or licensed private water source.
FISCAL EFFECT : Likely minor costs to DPH to compile licensee
information and make it available to the public. To the extent
that revenue generated by bottled-water licenses is not adequate
to cover these costs, the costs could be covered by a General
Fund (GF) appropriation (GF or Food Safety Fund.)
COMMENTS :
AB 2275 (Fuentes, 2008). This bill is substantially similar to
AB 2275 (Fuentes) of the 2007 -2008 legislative session,
excluding minor technical code clean-up language in AB 2275. AB
2275 passed the Assembly ESTM Committee by a vote of 6 - 0 and
was vetoed by the Governor with the following message:
"The historic delay in passing the 2008-2009 State Budget
has forced me to prioritize the bills sent to my desk at
the end of the year's legislative session. Given the
delay, I am only signing bills that are the highest
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priority for California. This bill does not meet that
standard and I cannot sign it at this time."
Purpose . According to the author's office, credible and
transparent information would help both community members and
decision-makers understand the impacts of proposed and existing
bottled-water facilities in California. Licensed water-bottlers
are not currently required to report or make available to the
public the volume of water extracted or bottled, as the DPH
licensing program focuses on public health, not public
resources, issues.
What is bottled water and where does it come from? According to
DPH, bottled water and vended water begin with tap water (public
drinking water) or water from a licensed private water source
that meets all regulatory requirements. The water then
undergoes further treatment to enhance the quality (taste,
smell, clarity, etc.), usually by undergoing one or more
filtration or disinfection processes. Approximately 85% of the
bottled water sold in California is from a "private" water
source; the remaining 15% comes from "municipal" or tap water.
According to DPH (then Department of Health Services) data
compiled by the Pacific Institute, DPH licensed an estimated 181
bottling plants to sell water in California in 2006. Of these
plants, 112 are located within California. The total volume of
bottled water sold in California by licensed bottlers (excluding
vendors) is around 1.3 billion gallons per year. In-state
bottlers provide an estimated 60% of the water licensed for sale
in California.
Potential impacts of extracting water for bottling . According
to the Pacific Institute, bottling plants can deplete local
groundwater aquifers and associated surface water resources. If
the rate of groundwater extraction exceeds the rate of natural
replenishment, then groundwater levels decline, posing serious
problems for those dependent of wells for their water supply.
Continued depletion of groundwater can cause some aquifers to
collapse, resulting in permanent loss of the aquifer and land
subsidence. In addition, groundwater provides water for local
streams, particularly in the summer. As groundwater levels
decline, water in local streams can also decline or even run
dry.
Bottling plants are located in 33 counties in California, with
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most plants concentrated in Southern California. Because the
impact of groundwater extraction depends on site-specific
characteristics of the aquifer, one cannot infer which regions
are most heavily impacted. However, because plants are located
throughout the state and impacts tend to be localized; many
California residents could be impacted by the extraction of
water for bottling.
Moving water through water transfers vs. through water bottlers :
A water transfer is a reallocation of water among water users,
which provides flexibility in the allocation and use of water in
California. Water transfers undergo public scrutiny and the
involvement of federal, state and local agencies. Bottled water
does not have to go through the same public examination process.
Is extracting and bottling water for sale potentially outside
of California an appropriate use of California's scarce water
resources?
Clarifying reporting requirements: The committee suggests
amendments to clarify that, as a condition of licensure,
applicants must provide the volume of water bottled and sold in
the previous reporting year and new applicants must make their
best estimate of water they expect to bottle and sell in the
following reporting year.
Related legislation:
1) AB 2275 (Fuentes, 2008). Nearly identical legislation
to AB 301 (Fuentes, 2009), requires applicants for a
license as a water-bottling plant or as a private water
source to provide information on the volume and source of
the water to DPH and required DPH to make this information
available to the public. Vetoed by the Governor.
2) AB 2186 (Salas, 2008). Required each water-vending
machine, retail water facility, and private water source
that sells water at retail to display the identity of the
source from which the water was last obtained prior to
being bottled. Died in Assembly ESTM Committee without a
hearing.
3) AB 1521 (Salas, 2007). Required each container of
bottled water sold in this state to include on its label
the identity of the source from which the water was last
obtained prior to being bottled, in compliance with
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applicable federal regulations. Required, as a condition
of licensure, that a water-bottling plant annually prepare
and submit to DPH a consumer confidence report. Vetoed by
the Governor.
4) SB 220 (Corbett) Chapter 575, Statutes of 2007.
Enhanced the Department of Public Health's regulatory
process governing water dispensed from water vending
machines and the labeling requirements for bottled water.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Food & Water Watch (sponsor)
Alliance for Democracy
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSME)
Amigos de Los Rios
California Coastkeeper Alliance
Clean Water Action
East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD)
Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project
McCloud Watershed Council
Planning and Conservation League
San Diego Bay Council
Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment
(SCOPE)
Santa Monica Baykeeper
Southern California Watershed Alliance
Tree People
Urban Semillas
Opposition
None received.
Analysis Prepared by : Shannon McKinney / E.S. & T.M. / (916)
319-3965