BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  AB 849
                                                                  Page  1

          CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
          AB 849 (Gatto)
          As Amended  August 18, 2011
          Majority vote
           
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          |ASSEMBLY:  |79-0 |(May 31, 2011)  |SENATE: |38-0 |(August 30,    |
          |           |     |                |        |     |2011)          |
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           Original Committee Reference:    H. & C.D.  

           SUMMARY  :  Repeals the authority of a city, county, or other 
          local agency to adopt building standards that prohibit entirely 
          the use of graywater systems and requires that an ordinance 
          enacted regarding graywater standards that are different than 
          statewide standards must include the local climatic, geological, 
          or topographical necessitating the difference. 

           The Senate amendments  make the following changes to the Assembly 
          version of the bill: 

          1)Require that an ordinance adopted by a city, county, or local 
            agency that is more restrictive than state graywater building 
            standards be limited to the specific area of the city, county 
            or local agency where the conditions exist. 

          2)Provide that prior to beginning to permit indoor graywater 
            systems pursuant to state requirements, a city, county or 
            local agency must consult with the local public health 
            department to ensure that local public health concerns are 
            addressed in local standards, ordinances or in issuing 
            permits. 

          3)Require the ordinance that is more restrictive of graywater 
            systems than state standards to include any health conditions 
            that necessitate the building standards.  

           AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY  , this bill:

          1)Authorized a city, county, or other local agency to adopt, 
            after a public hearing and enactment of an ordinance or 
            resolution, building standards that are different than the 
            graywater building standards adopted by the Department of 
            Housing and Community Development (HCD) and published in the 








                                                                  AB 849
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            California Building Standards Code.

          2)Required the ordinance to include the local climatic, 
            geological, or topographical conditions that necessitate 
            building standards that are different than the graywater 
            building standards adopted by HCD. 

          3)Repealed the authority of a city, county, or other local 
            agency to adopt building standards that prohibit entirely the 
            use of graywater, or building standards that are more 
            restrictive.  

          4)Included intent language. 

           FISCAL EFFECT :  None 

           COMMENTS  :  The California Building Standards Law establishes the 
          California Building Standards Commission (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.  

          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.  

          SB 1258 (Lowenthal), Chapter 72, Statutes of 2008, requires HCD 
          to adopt building standards for graywater systems for 
          residential indoor and outdoor use.  HCD conducted an extensive 








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          outreach and public participation process to develop the 
          proposed standards, and the CBSC adopted these standards on July 
          30, 2009.  SB 518 (Lowenthal), Chapter 622, Statutes of 2010, 
          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 CBSC.  
          This bill would eliminate a local government's authority to do 
          so.  A local government could adopt an ordinance that is more 
          restrictive than the statewide standards developed by HCD if 
          they make findings that such a modification or change is 
          necessary because of local climatic, geological, or 
          topographical conditions. 

          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." 


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Lisa Engel / H. & C.D. / (916) 319-2085 



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