BILL NUMBER: AB 2157	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Mansoor

                        FEBRUARY 23, 2012

   An act to amend Section 116270 of the Health and Safety Code,
relating to drinking water.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2157, as introduced, Mansoor. Drinking water act.
   Existing law, the California Safe Drinking Water Act, provides for
the operation of public water systems, and imposes on the State
Department of Public Health various responsibilities and duties.
Existing law requires the department to conduct research, studies,
and demonstration projects relating to the provision of a dependable,
safe supply of drinking water, to adopt regulations to implement the
California Safe Drinking Water Act, and to enforce provisions of the
federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
   This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these
provisions.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 116270 of the Health and Safety Code is amended
to read:
   116270.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
   (a)  Every citizen of California has the right to pure and safe
drinking water.
   (b)  Feasible and affordable technologies are available and shall
be used to remove toxic contaminants from public water supplies.
   (c)  According to the State Department of  Health Services
  Public Health  , over 95 percent of all large
public water systems in California are in compliance with
health-based action levels established by the department for various
contaminants.
   (d)  It is the policy of the state to reduce to the lowest level
feasible all concentrations of toxic chemicals that when present in
drinking water may cause cancer, birth defects, and other chronic
diseases.
   (e)  This chapter is intended to ensure that the water delivered
by public water systems of this state shall at all times be pure,
wholesome, and potable. This chapter provides the means to accomplish
this objective.
   (f)  It is the intent of the Legislature to improve laws governing
drinking water quality, to improve upon the minimum requirements of
the federal Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996, to establish
primary drinking water standards that are at least as stringent as
those established under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, and to
establish a program under this chapter that is more protective of
public health than the minimum federal requirements.
   (g)  It is the further intent of the Legislature to establish a
drinking water regulatory program within the State Department of
 Health Services   Public Health  in order
to provide for the orderly and efficient delivery of safe drinking
water within the state and to give the establishment of drinking
water standards and public health goals greater emphasis and
visibility within the  state  department.