BILL ANALYSIS
AB 890
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator S. Joseph Simitian, Chairman
2009-2010 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 890
AUTHOR: John A. Perez
AMENDED: July 1, 2009
FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: July 6, 2009
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Rachel Machi
Wagoner
SUBJECT : CITY OF MAYWOOD: DRINKING WATER
SUMMARY :
Existing law , under the California Safe Drinking Water Act:
1)Requires every public water system to notify users when
certain monitoring or other requirements have not been
complied with; to notify customers when failure to comply
with a primary drinking water standard represents an
imminent danger; to notify customers that they should avoid
consumption of the water supply due to a chemical
contamination that may pose a health risk and to instead use
bottled water; to notify consumers of confirmation of
detected contaminants; and to annually deliver a copy of the
consumer confidence report to each customer.
2)Requires a person operating a public water system to notify
the governing body of the local agency in which the users of
a drinking water supply reside, within 30 days of the
closure of a well or upon discovery of a contaminant
exceeding a maximum contaminant level or an action level set
for drinking water.
3)Requires public waster systems to be permitted by the
Department of Public Health (DPH) and demonstrate that they
provide a reliable and adequate supply of water at all times
that is pure, wholesome, potable, and does not endanger the
health of consumers.
This bill :
1)States various findings and intent concerning manganese and
AB 890
Page 2
the effects of manganese on the residents of the City of
Maywood.
2)Requires the public water systems serving the City of
Maywood to conduct, publish and distribute a study on the
source of manganese in the water serving the City of Maywood
and actions that can be taken to improvement the water to a
level consistent with surrounding communities.
3)Requires the city council of Maywood to conduct a public
hearing concerning the results of the study.
4)Requires the public water systems to respond to comments
from the hearing in writing.
5)Requires the public water systems to notify the residents of
the City of Maywood regarding contaminants in their water.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of Bill . According to the author, the City of
Maywood is a lower-income community in the south-east of Los
Angeles. For years, the residents have complained about the
quality of the water they are delivered by the three mutual
water companies that service the city. Water coming
directly from the tap is discolored (ranging from light
yellow to a rusty opaque brown), foul smelling and bad
tasting, forcing residents to assume the additional
financial burden of purchasing bottled water for drinking
and cooking. The condition of the water is most likely due
to the dilapidated state of the infrastructure maintained by
the water suppliers.
The author asserts that the three mutual water companies who
deliver water to the City of Maywood have been unresponsive
to the needs of the residents. Maywood is in the unique
position of having more than 70 percent of its residents
renting, rather than owning, their home. This leaves the
residents with no formal mechanism for exercising oversight
either directly as shareholders or ratepayers of the water
companies, nor indirectly through their local elected
officials, who also lack formal oversight or jurisdiction
over the water companies. This has left the residents of
AB 890
Page 3
Maywood with no option other than to seek a legislative
correction to the unique situation in which they now find
themselves.
The mutual water companies have acknowledged in a letter to
the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials
Committee that the water they deliver may be "off-colored"
but that any discoloration was merely "an aesthetic issue"
and that the discoloration clears up after the water is
allowed to run for a few minutes. The water companies have
repeatedly advised the residents that the problem is in the
pipes within the homes; many residents who have gone through
the very expensive and inconvenient process of repiping
their entire house to find that the problem was not
corrected. The residents of Maywood have been poorly served
by water suppliers who are unresponsive to the needs of
their customers, and have turned down many past
opportunities for assistance in procuring outside funding to
clean up their water.
The author believes that AB 890 will empower the City of
Maywood to investigate whether it is being adequately served
by their water suppliers and, if not, allows the City the
opportunity to develop an alternative that will meet the
needs of Maywood's residents.
2)Arguments in Support . According supporters, Maywood is by
all measures a disadvantaged community. It is densely
populated with over 30,000 residents living within one
square mile in the industrial heart of South East Los
Angeles County. Maywood residents consistently receive
substandard water and service from the three water companies
that service the area. For over a decade, the Maywood
residents have received foul smelling, brown and black water
due to the high levels of manganese in the groundwater.
Supporters state that Maywood residents have to resort to
bottled water to meet their drinking water needs and pay two
separate water bills: one for the water out of the tap and
the second for the bottled water that they have to purchase
to drink and use. According to DPH, manganese has been
detected in two of the water systems as high as 130 ppb and
260 ppb, respectively, the secondary maximum contaminant
load is set at 50 ppb. While manganese is not a primary
AB 890
Page 4
drinking water contaminant, manganese still renders
Maywood's water undrinkable.
3)Arguments in Opposition . The three Maywood Mutual Water
Companies acknowledge that they have infrastructure needs
and are working on how to replace old and under sized water
mains. They assert that those improvements will be done as
money becomes available or when opportunity presents itself
to do so. They argue that they conduct required testing and
meet all primary water health standards of the federal and
state safe drinking water health codes and acts. The water
companies state that the rusty water is an aesthetic issue,
not a health issue and will not cause sickness of any kind.
They assert that in order to make the requested
improvements, they would need to raise rates, creating a
financial burden for the families that live in Maywood, who
should not have to pay for something that will not make a
big improvement in the quality of the water they receive.
SOURCE : City of Maywood
SUPPORT : California League of Conservation Voters
Clean Water Action
Comite Civico Del Valle
Communities for a Better Environment
East Yard Communities
Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
Planning and Conservation League
OPPOSITION : The Maywood Mutual Water Systems