BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 890|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 890
Author: John A. Perez (D)
Amended: 7/1/09 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ENV. QUALITY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 7/6/09
AYES: Simitian, Runner, Ashburn, Corbett, Hancock,
Lowenthal, Pavley
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 76-1, 6/2/09 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : City of Maywood: drinking water
SOURCE : City of Maywood
DIGEST : This bill requires the public water systems
serving the City of Maywood to conduct a study on the City
of Maywoods water addressing the impacts of manganese on
water quality, requires the city to conduct a public
hearing, and requires the public water systems to respond
in writing to public comment received at the hearing. This
bill requires the study and comments to be posted on the
public water systems' Internet Web sites.
ANALYSIS : Existing law, under the California Safe
Drinking Water Act:
1.Requires every public water system to notify users when
CONTINUED
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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 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 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.
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Comments
According to the author's office, 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 states 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
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
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to clean up their water.
The author believes that this bill 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.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 7/20/09)
City of Maywood (source)
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 : (Verified 7/20/09)
The Maywood Mutual Water Systems
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to 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 the
Department of Public Health, 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 drinking water
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contaminant, manganese still renders Maywood's water
undrinkable.
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 state that those improvements will be done as
money becomes available or when opportunity presents itself
to do so. They state 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 state 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.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Adams, Ammiano, Anderson, Arambula, Beall,
Blakeslee, Blumenfield, Brownley, Buchanan, Caballero,
Charles Calderon, Carter, Chesbro, Conway, Cook, Coto,
Davis, De La Torre, De Leon, DeVore, Emmerson, Eng,
Evans, Feuer, Fletcher, Fong, Fuentes, Fuller, Furutani,
Gaines, Galgiani, Garrick, Gilmore, Hagman, Hall, Harkey,
Hayashi, Hernandez, Hill, Huber, Huffman, Jeffries,
Jones, Knight, Krekorian, Lieu, Logue, Bonnie Lowenthal,
Ma, Mendoza, Miller, Monning, Nava, Nestande, Niello,
Nielsen, John A. Perez, V. Manuel Perez, Portantino,
Price, Ruskin, Salas, Saldana, Silva, Skinner, Smyth,
Solorio, Audra Strickland, Swanson, Torlakson, Torres,
Torrico, Tran, Villines, Yamada, Bass
NOES: Tom Berryhill
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bill Berryhill, Block, Duvall
TSM:nl 7/20/09 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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