BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 849
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 27, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Norma Torres, Chair
AB 849 (Gatto) - As Amended: March 31, 2011
SUBJECT : Water: use efficiency: graywater building standards
SUMMARY : Repeals a city's or county's authority to adopt an
ordinance that prohibits entirely the use of graywater systems
or enact building standards that are more restrictive than the
graywater building standards adopted by the Department of
Housing and Community Development (HCD). Specifically, this
bill :
1)Includes intent language.
2)Repeals a city's or county's authority to adopt an ordinance
that prohibits entirely the use of graywater systems or enact
building standards that are more restrictive than the
graywater building standards adopted by HCD.
EXISTING LAW
1)Allows a city, county or other local agency to adopt an
ordinance that prohibits entirely the use of graywater systems
or enact building standards that are more restrictive than the
graywater building standards adopted by HCD (Health & Safety
Code Section 18941.7).
2)Directs HCD to develop building standards for the
construction, installation, and alteration of graywater
systems for indoor and outdoor use (Health & Safety Code
Section 17922.12).
3)Authorizes California Building Standards Commission (CBSC) to
approve and adopt building standards. Every three years
building standards rulemaking is undertaken to revise and
update the California Building Standards Code (BSC) (Title 24
of the California Code of Regulations).
4)Allows a governing body, city or county to make modifications
to the BSC if they make express findings that such a
modification or change is necessary because of local climatic,
geological or topographical conditions (Health & Safety Code
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Section 17958.7)
5)Requires a governing body, city, or county to make a finding
in a public meeting and file a copy of those findings together
with the modifications or change with the CBSC (Health &
Safety Code Section 17958.7).
6)Defines graywater as untreated wastewater, uncontaminated by
toilet discharge or an unhealthy bodily waste, which is not a
threat from unhealthful processing, manufacturing or operating
wastes. Graywater includes wastewater from bathtubs, showers,
bathroom washbasins, clothes washers, and laundry tubs.
Graywater excludes kitchen sink or dishwasher wastewater.
FISCAL EFFECT : None.
COMMENTS :
The California Building Standards Law establishes the CBSC and
the process for adopting state building standards. Statewide
building standards are intended to provide uniformity in
building across the state. There are a few exemptions, which
allow a local governing body, city or county to modify state
building standards. A local governing body, city, or county can
adopt an ordinance or a resolution in a public meeting that
finds that a local building standard must be modified from the
state building standard because of local climatic, geological or
topographical conditions and file that ordinance with the CBSC.
The CBSC reviews the findings of the ordinance to determine if
the local governing body followed the correct procedure.
SB 1258 (Lowenthal), Chapter 72, Statutes of 2008, required HCD
to adopt building standards for graywater systems for
residential indoor and outdoor use. HCD conducted an extensive
outreach and public participation process to develop the
proposed standards, and the CBSC adopted these standards on July
30, 2009. In 2010, SB 518 (Lowenthal), Chapter 622, requires
the CBSC to adopt, as specified, non-residential building
standards for graywater systems for indoor and outdoor use.
In the case of graywater systems local governing bodies, cities
and counties can expressly deny entirely the use of a graywater
system or adopt standards that are more restrictive than the
building standards adopted by HCD and published by the BSC.
This bill would eliminate a local government's authority to do
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so. A local government could still under existing law, adopt an
ordinance that made express findings that such a modification or
change is necessary because of local climatic, geological or
topographical conditions and file that ordinance with the BSC.
Purpose of this bill:
According to the author, "despite the Legislature setting
state-wide standards to regulate graywater in California, Health
& Safety Code Section 18941.7 allows local governments to apply
stricter regulations to graywater or to ban graywater
altogether. This makes following standards difficult for both
builders and private land owners who wish to utilize graywater
as a means of water conservation in residential and commercial
developments. In some cases, locals living in areas where
graywater is banned have either resorted to using black water to
water their lawns or use home-made graywater systems that are
unregulated and do not necessarily meet state graywater
standards. Local governments should not be able to opt out of a
baseline standard for graywater as a means of water
conservation."
Graywater :
Water provided to homes and businesses meets national primary
drinking water standards. However, many of the applications for
water use in urban environments (e.g., flushing toilets,
cleaning, firefighting, irrigation, etc.) do not pose the same
types of exposure as direct ingestion of drinking water.
Recovering graywater provides an opportunity to utilize an
alternative water source for non-potable applications, thereby
preserving water resources for other applications while
decreasing the amount of energy used to treat both drinking
water and wastewater and to convey water from sources to users
and back to treatment facilities.
Staff comments:
The committee may wish to consider that there may be local
conditions such sandy soil that does not allow water to be
absorbed and shallow ground water table, where it may be
beneficial for local governing body to be able to modify the
state building standards. Rather than delete the authority to
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ban or adopt more restrictive graywater standards than the state
standards, the committee may wish to create more transparency
by, requiring a local government to include in the ordinance the
local conditions that constitute the ban or stricter standards
so that public is aware and able to challenge at the local
level.
Committee amendments:
Amendment 1:
Delete the intent language.
Amendment 2:
Delete lines 9 through 16 and insert the following:
A city, county, or other local agency may adopt, after a public
hearing and enactment of an ordinance or resolution, building
standards that prohibit entirely the use of graywater, or
building standards that are more restrictive than the graywater
building standards adopted by the Department of Housing and
Community Development under Section 17922.12 and published in
the California Building Standards Code. The ordinance must
include the local climatic, geological, topographical, or any
other conditions that require the prohibition on the use of
graywater or building standards that are more restrictive than
the graywater building standards adopted by Department of
Housing and Community Development under Section 17922.12 and
published in the California Building Standards Code.
Double referred : The Assembly Committee on Rules referred AB
849 to the Committee on Housing and Community Development and
Local Government. If AB 849 passes this committee, the bill
must be referred to the Committee on Local Government.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Building Industry Association
Planning and Conservation League
ReWater Systems, Thousand Oaks
Opposition
AB 849
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None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Lisa Engel / H. & C.D. / (916) 319-2085