BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE HEALTH
COMMITTEE ANALYSIS
Senator Elaine K. Alquist, Chair
BILL NO: SB 918
S
AUTHOR: Pavley
B
AMENDED: March 17, 2010
HEARING DATE: March 24, 2010
9
CONSULTANT:
1
Orr/
8
SUBJECT
Water recycling
SUMMARY
Requires the California Department of Public Health (CDPH)
to develop and adopt uniform water recycling criteria for
indirect potable water reuse, and investigate the
feasibility of developing uniform water recycling criteria
for direct potable reuse.
CHANGES TO EXISTING LAW
Existing federal law:
Establishes the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to protect
public health by regulating the nation's public drinking
water supply. The act requires actions to protect drinking
water and its sources, including rivers, lakes,
reservoirs, springs, and ground water wells.
Establishes the Clean Water Act (CWA), which prescribes the
basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants
into the waters of the United States and regulating quality
standards for surface waters.
Existing state law:
Requires CDPH to establish uniform statewide recycling
criteria for each type of use of recycled water use, as
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STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 918 (Pavley) Page 2
specified.
Establishes the Water Recycling Act of 1991, creating a
statewide goal to recycle a total of 700,000 acre-feet of
water per year by the year 2000 and 1,000,000 acre-feet of
water per year by the year 2010. Requires each urban water
supplier to prepare, and update every five years, an urban
water management plan with specified components, including
information on recycled water and its potential for use
as a water source in the service area of the urban water
supplier.
Establishes The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act to
give authority to the State Water Resources Control Board
(state board) over state water rights and water quality
policy, and establishes nine regional water quality control
boards (regional boards) to oversee water quality on a
day-to-day basis at the local/regional level.
Finds any person who causes or permits a hazardous
substance to be discharged into waters of the state to be
strictly civilly liable for those impermissible discharges.
Finds any person civilly liable who is found in violation
of specified clean-up orders or waste discharge
requirements in waters of the state, with certain
exceptions.
Prevents a regional board from imposing civil liability in
an amount less than the minimum amount prescribed in
statute, unless certain findings are made. Requires the
Attorney General, upon request, to petition the superior
court to impose, assess and recover the sums.
Requires funds generated by these civil penalties to be
deposited into the Waste Discharge Permit Fund, to be
expended by the state board upon appropriation by the
Legislature, to assist regional boards in cleaning up or
abating the effects of waste in waters in the state.
This bill:
Requires CDPH to complete and adopt criteria for uniform
water recycling of indirect potable water reuse according
to a specified schedule.
Requires CDPH to investigate and report to the Legislature
on the feasibility of developing uniform water recycling
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 918 (Pavley) Page 3
criteria for direct potable reuse, and requires a public
review draft report. The final report shall be provided to
the Legislature by December 31, 2015 and be made public.
Requires CDPH to convene an expert panel to advise on
scientific and technical matters related to the development
of the aforementioned criteria, comprised of specified
experts. Allows CDPH to also appoint an advisory group,
task force, or other group comprised of representatives of
water and wastewater agencies, local public health
officers, and related public health and environmental
organizations.
Provides that funds generated by these civil penalties
between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2015 shall be made
available to CDPH upon appropriation by the Legislature,
for the purpose of completing these uniform water recycling
criteria requirements, and not to exceed specified amounts.
Makes findings and declarations regarding the state board's
updated water recycling policy and the goal of increasing
the use of recycled water in the state over 2002 levels by
at least 1,000,000 acre-feet per year by 2020, and by at
least 2,000,000 acre-feet per year by 2030.
Makes various non-substantive technical changes.
FISCAL IMPACT
This bill has not been analyzed by a fiscal committee.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
The state's growing demand for water, lack of new water
resources, and frequent calls for water conservation in low
and consecutive low rainfall years have resulted in efforts
to augment potable supplies with recycled water.
According to the author, California discharges nearly four
million acre feet of wastewater into the ocean each year,
much of which could be recycled. Water recycling has been
recognized as a cost-effective and drought-proof method of
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helping to meet California's needs.
Recycled water
Recycled water, sometimes called reclaimed water, is former
wastewater (sewage) that has been treated to remove solids
and certain impurities, and then allowed to recharge the
aquifer rather than being discharged to surface water. This
recharging is often done by using the treated wastewater
for irrigation. Recycled water is used for many purposes
including agricultural irrigation, landscape irrigation,
groundwater recharge, and seawater intrusion barriers.
Before recycled water can be used for these beneficial
uses, the regional water quality control boards and CDPH
require treatment to remove pollutants that could be
harmful to the beneficial use.
Federal water quality
The objective of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act,
commonly referred to as the Clean Water Act (CWA), is to
restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological
integrity of the nation's waters by preventing point and
nonpoint pollution sources, providing assistance to
publicly owned treatment works for the improvement of
wastewater treatment, and maintaining the integrity of
wetlands. It is the national policy that area wide
treatment management planning processes be developed and
implemented to assure adequate control of sources of
pollutants in each state.
The 1972 amendments to the act introduced a permit system
for regulating point sources of pollution. Point sources
include: industrial facilities (including manufacturing,
mining, oil and gas extraction, and service industries),
municipal governments and other government facilities (such
as military bases), and some agricultural facilities, such
as animal feedlots. Point sources may not discharge
pollutants to surface waters without a permit from the
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).
This system is managed by the United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) in partnership with state
environmental agencies. EPA has authorized 46 states to
issue permits directly to the discharging facilities.
Due to the sheer numbers of potential chemicals that exist,
the EPA contends that traditional wastewater treatment
processes used in public water systems for recycled water
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are not the only solution for all potable water quality
concerns, particularly since current analytical methods are
insufficient to identify all potential contaminants at
concentrations of health significance. For instance, trace
organic compounds, including pharmaceuticals, hormones,
antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and personal care
products (antibacterial soaps, sunscreen, bath gels, etc.)
can be present in municipal wastewaters. None of these
individual compounds are regulated or monitored by maximum
contaminant levels (MCLs) in the SDWA.
State water quality
The Drinking Water Program within the CDPH Division of
Drinking Water and Environmental Management (DDWEM)
regulates California's public water systems; promotes and
provides information on water conservation; oversees water
recycling projects; and certifies drinking water treatment
and distribution operators, among other things. DDWEM
allows disinfected-tertiary or advanced treated recycled
water for "indirect drinking use" such as water recharge.
Tertiary treatment includes treatment processes beyond
secondary or biological processes which further improve
effluent quality, and can include detention in lagoons and
conventional filtration via sand, among others.
State regulations
The use of recycled water for groundwater recharge by
surface or subsurface application is regulated under
several state laws designed to ensure the protection of
public health and water quality. CDPH regulates projects
under the State Water Recycling Criteria (Title 22) and
draft groundwater recharge regulations. The draft recharge
regulations, which are used as guidance in evaluating
projects, specifically address protection of public health
in terms of chemicals, microorganisms, and constituents of
emerging concern, such as personal care products,
pharmaceuticals, and compounds that impact human growth and
reproduction. In January 2007, CDPH posted a revised draft
of the Groundwater Recharge Regulations on its website and
formed an expanded Groundwater Recharge Regulations Working
Group (advisory group) to discuss and revise the draft
regulations. In August 2008, CDPH posted a revised draft of
the regulations on its website and asked for public
comments to be submitted in October 2008. Since that time,
CDPH has been reviewing the comments and preparing
responses. In 2009, CDPH submitted the draft to CDPH's
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legal services group for review. Once a final draft has
been prepared based on the legal services input, the
complete regulatory package must be prepared and the formal
regulatory process can begin.
Per the CDPH website, the main steps in the formal
regulatory process will include review of the proposed
regulation by CDPH's Office of Regulations and Hearings,
CDPH's Budget Office, the Department of Finance, the Health
& Human Services Agency and the Office of Administrative
Law (OAL), prior to publication in the California
Regulatory Notice Register. There is a 45-day public
comment period, followed by preparation of responses to
comments. The final regulations package goes for approval
by the CDPH Director's Office. Once signed, the package
goes to OAL for final review for Administrative Procedure
Act compliance, which can take up to 30 working days.
Following OAL approval, the regulation is filed with the
Secretary of State, and becomes effective 30 days later.
The timeframe for completing this process is at a minimum
two to three years, based on adoption of other CDPH
regulations.
Related bills
AB 1100 (Duvall) of 2009, would have defined potable reuse
demonstration water and allowed it to be bottled for
consumption, subject to distribution limits and labeling
requirements, for educational purposes only. Failed passage
in Senate Environmental Quality Committee.
AB 410 (De la Torre) of 2009 would have set a statewide
water recycling target to a total of 1,300,000 acre-feet of
water per year by the year 2020, and 2,000,000 acre-feet of
water per year by the year 2030. Would require the
Department of Water Resources to assess progress toward
meeting that target every five years, based on information
provided in urban water management plans. Pending in the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
Prior legislation
AB 2270 (Laird) of 2008 would have required additional
reporting on recycled water and allow local limitations on
salinity inputs. Vetoed
AB 921 (Wayne) Chapter 295, Statutes of 1998, prohibited
the department from issuing
a permit to a public water system or from amending a valid
STAFF ANALYSIS OF SENATE BILL 918 (Pavley) Page 7
existing permit for the use of a reservoir as a source of
supply that is directly augmented with recycled water, as
specified, unless specified requirements imposed on the
department are satisfied.
Arguments in support
WateReuse California contends that this bill reinforces a
science-based approach to evaluating the safety of recycled
water and will help California meet current and future
water supply demand. They note that CDPH has made
significant progress on groundwater recharge criteria using
scientific research, independent expert guidance and a
stakeholder panel. This bill provides CDPH with the
resources to finish its work on water recycling criteria
for groundwater recharge and surface water augmentation.
County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles claims it is
critical for the state to support the increased use of
recycled water in the future, since it is one of the few
sources of "new" water supply. The type of use with the
largest potential that is currently allowed involves
indirect potable reuse, either via groundwater recharge,
direct injection, or surface water augmentation.
COMMENTS
1. Double referral. This bill is double referred to
Environmental Quality Committee.
POSITIONS
Support: Planning and Conservation League (Co-sponsor)
WateReuse California (Co-sponsor)
California Association of Sanitation Agencies
California Water Association
County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County
East Bay Municipal Utility District
Sierra Club California
Oppose: None received
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