BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 938 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 938 (V. Manuel Pérez) As Amended August 23, 2011 Majority vote ----------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |53-26|(May 31, 2011) |SENATE: |29-8 |(August 30, | | | | | | |2011) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Original Committee Reference: E.S. & T.M. SUMMARY : Requires the written public notice of noncompliance with drinking water standards given by a public water system to include information in English, Spanish and other languages spoken by the impacted community, as specified. Makes technical changes to the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund affordability assessment requirements. The Senate amendments specify that the notice requirement provisions affect a written Tier 1 drinking water violation public notice given by a public water system. The amendments change the community to receive a specified notice to be a non-English-speaking group that speaks a language other than Spanish that exceeds 1,000 residents but is less than 10% of the persons served by the public water system. The amendments also expand the presumption of compliance provisions. AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY, this bill required a public water system's written public notice of noncompliance with drinking water standards to contain specified information in the appropriate language for each group that speaks a language other than English or Spanish and that exceeds 1,000 residents or 10% of the persons served by the public water system, whichever is less. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, enactment of this bill could result in absorbable costs to DPH for reviewing notifications and for implementation, and unknown costs to public water systems, which can be public or private entities, to provide notice as required by this bill. COMMENTS : Need for the bill . According to the author, "Before 2006, ŬDPH] AB 938 Page 2 had the regulatory authority to determine when it was appropriate for a public notice pertaining to contaminated water to be multilingual. Revisions to the regulations in 2006, however, changed the notification requirements, thereby removing important public health protections for non-English speaking residents impacted by contaminated drinking water. Specifically, the new regulations allow community water systems the option to provide the notice only in English so long as the notice also contains a telephone number or address where the non-English speaking residents may obtain a translated copy of the notice. Public notification to residents regarding contaminated drinking water is necessary to prevent illness and disease and protect public health. When a public water system sends a public notification only in English to non-English speakers, the risks to public health persist. If public notices are not provided in the language spoken by the impacted community, residents may not know that the water in their homes is unsafe and what precautions are necessary to protect the health and safety of their family." Current regulations . California Code of Regulations (22 Cal. Code Regs. Section 64465) currently requires each public notice for noncompliance provided by a water system to contain information in Spanish about the importance of the notice, or to contain contact information that Spanish speaking residents may use to obtain a translated copy of the public notice or other assistance in Spanish. For each non-English speaking group other than Spanish speaking that exceeds 1,000 residents or 10% of the residents in the community served, whichever is less, the public notice must contain information in the appropriate language(s) regarding the importance of the notice, or contain contact information that such residents may use to obtain a translated copy of the notice or assistance in the appropriate language. This bill seeks to expand upon these existing regulations. Analysis Prepared by : Shannon McKinney / E.S. & T.M. / (916) AB 938 Page 3 319-3965 FN: 0002298