BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE HEALTH
COMMITTEE ANALYSIS
Senator Ed Hernandez, O.D., Chair
BILL NO: SB 482
S
AUTHOR: Kehoe
B
AMENDED: March 30, 2011
HEARING DATE: April 6, 2011
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REFERRAL: Environmental Quality
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CONSULTANT:
2
Orr
SUBJECT
Public beach contamination: standards: testing: closing.
SUMMARY
Transfers beach water quality monitoring and reporting
requirements from the California Department of Public
Health (CDPH) to the State Water Resources Control Board
(SWRCB). Allows SWRCB to determine options for modifying
wastewater and stormwater discharge monitoring
requirements.
CHANGES TO EXISTING LAW
Existing federal law:
Under the Water Pollution Control Act (aka Clean Water Act
or CWA) administered by the United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), requires that all municipal,
industrial, and commercial facilities that discharge
wastewater or stormwater directly from a point source into
water of the United States (such as a lake, river or ocean)
must obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (NPDES) permit.
Existing state law:
Defines public beach as any beach owned, operated or
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controlled by the state, any state agency, any local
agency, any local agency or any private person and is
located in the coastal zone or within the jurisdiction of
the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development
Commission that is used by the public for recreational use.
Requires CDPH to create regulations establishing minimum
standards for the sanitation of public beaches for the
protection of the public's health and safety. CDPH is
required to consult with local health officers and the
public on these regulations. The regulations must undergo
an external comprehensive review process.
Requires the regulations to do the following by December
31, 1998:
Require testing waters adjacent to public beaches
for microbiological contaminants, and establish
protocols for testing. CDPH may require testing of
other microbiological indicators based on the best
available scientific evidence.
Establish protective minimum standards for
microbiological indicators that the department
determines are appropriate for testing.
Establish protocols for determining monitoring site
locations and monitoring frequency of public beaches.
Establish protocols for making decisions about
public notification of health hazards, including
posting, closing and reopening public beaches.
Beginning in 1999, requires that testing be conducted on at
least a weekly basis from April 1 to October 31 if the
beach is visited by more than 50,000 people annually and
the beach is adjacent to a storm drain that flows in the
summer. This requirement may be reduced or altered if
levels of microbiological contaminants do not exceed
minimum protective standards for two years.
Defines, for the purposes of this section of law, "health
officer" to refer to the appointed local health officer or
director of environmental health of the city or county
having jurisdiction over the area where a public saltwater
beach is located.
Makes the local health officer responsible for testing and
coordinating the testing of the waters adjacent to public
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beaches within his or her jurisdiction. Allows the local
health officer to use test results from other agencies
conducting microbiological contamination testing with in
his or her jurisdiction.
Requires the health officer to:
Inspect public beaches to determine if protective
minimum standards are being met.
Close or restrict use of portions or all of public
beaches where protective minimum standards have not
been met.
Investigate complaints alleging violations of
minimum standards.
Notify the agency responsible for the operation and
maintenance of the beach within 24 hours of the
posting, closure, or restriction.
Establish a hotline to inform the public about
beach closures, postings, or other restrictions.
Report violations of the standards to the district
or city attorney.
Immediately test waters adjacent to a public beach
where an untreated sewage release occurs. If untreated
sewage reaches recreational waters adjacent to the
public beach, the officer is required to close the
public beach until minimum standards have been met.
Post conspicuous warning signs visible from primary
beach access points informing the public of the nature
of the problem and the possible risk to public health.
Perform these duties during fiscal years when the
Legislature appropriates sufficient funds.
Submit a survey to the State Water Resources
Control Board (SWRCB) containing specified information
documenting all beach postings and closures that
occurred in the preceding month.
Requires CDPH to investigate violations of minimum
standards when a local health officer's response to a
complaint is deemed insufficient by the person issuing the
complaint. Allows CDPH to close or restrict use of a
portion or all of the public beach until the standards are
met, and requires CDPH to give reasonable notice to the
owner or agency in charge of the beach.
Requires the Director of Health Services to file a written
statement annually with the Secretary of the Senate and
Chief Clerk of the Assembly stating whether sufficient
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funds have been appropriated for the purposes of these
provisions.
Allows any city or county to adopt stricter standards for
sanitation of public beaches within their jurisdiction.
Establishes SWRCB as a department under the California
Environmental Protection Agency to protect water quality by
setting statewide policy, allocating surface water rights,
coordinating and supporting the Regional Water Board
efforts, and reviewing petitions that contest Regional
Board actions. SWRCB and the California regional water
quality control boards prescribe waste discharge
requirements for the discharge of stormwater by
municipalities and industries in accordance with the
federal Clean Water Act.
Declares that California's beaches are an invaluable
economic, environmental, and recreational source, and makes
findings that contamination of beaches poses a serious
threat to the public's health.
This bill:
Transfers responsibility for the following provisions from
CDPH to SWRCB:
Determining monitoring site locations of beach
testing.
Determining monitoring site frequency based on
risks to public health.
Making decisions about public notification of
health hazards, including posting, closing and
reopening public beaches.
Require that waters adjacent to public beaches be
tested for microbiological indicators that CDPH deems
appropriate.
Additionally requires SWRCB to determine options for
modifying wastewater and stormwater discharge monitoring
requirements of local agencies.
Establishes that regulations adopted by CDPH currently in
effect shall remain in effect and be administered,
enforced, and amended as necessary by SWRCB.
Expands the definition of a public beach to include any
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beach of ocean waters and bays of the state where the
public engages in water-contact sports.
Deletes the requirement to establish regulations requiring
testing by December 31, 1998.
Requires the Public Health Officer to file a written
statement annually with the Secretary of the Senate and
Chief Clerk of the Assembly stating whether sufficient
funds have been appropriated for the performance of these
duties.
Deletes the findings and declarations.
FISCAL IMPACT
This bill has not yet been analyzed by a fiscal committee.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
The author believes that protecting the public's health is
of the utmost importance and should be prioritized by the
state of California. According to the author, recreating
in waters with increased bacteria concentrations has been
directly linked to human health impacts, ranging from
nausea and skin rashes to pinkeye, respiratory infections,
meningitis and hepatitis. The author contends that poor
beach water quality in Los Angeles and Orange Counties
alone is associated with as many as 1.5 million excess
cases of gastrointestinal illness a year, which equates to
an economic loss of $21 to $51 million per year (Pendleton
et al. 2006). California depends heavily on coastal
tourism revenue, which the author claims could be
jeopardized by a lack of routine monitoring. With between
150 million and nearly 400 million visits made to
California beaches each year, the author believes that
clean beaches are a vital source of tourism and livelihood
for the state and that beach water quality monitoring keeps
the millions of beachgoers in California safe.
Beach pollution
Ocean waters near beaches may become contaminated by both
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point and non-point sources of pollution. Point source
pollution is defined by the EPA as discrete conveyances,
such as pipes or manmade ditches that discharge pollutants
into waters of the United States. This includes not only
discharges from municipal sewage plants and industrial
facilities, but also collected storm drainage from larger
urban areas, certain animal feedlots and fish farms, some
types of ships, tank trucks, offshore oil platforms, and
collected runoff from many construction sites. Non-point
source pollution (NPS) is pollution that comes from many
diffuse sources, and is caused by rainfall or snowmelt
moving over and through the ground. As the runoff moves, it
picks up and carries away natural and manmade pollutants,
finally depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands,
coastal waters, and even underground sources of drinking
water.
Polluted runoff and untreated sewage released into
recreational waters can expose swimmers to bacteria,
viruses, and protozoans. These pathogens (disease-causing
organisms) can be present at or near the site where
polluted discharges enter the water. When certain
contaminants are present in sufficient concentrations, they
can pose a health hazard for swimming and cause
gastroenteritis, upper respiratory and ear infections, sore
throats, nausea and fevers, among other conditions.
Children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune
systems are most likely to develop illnesses or infections
after swimming in polluted water.
Not only does beach contamination pose real health risks to
beach goers, the negative publicity that comes with
postings and closures undermines the tourism industry.
According to SWRCB, California has some of the most popular
beaches in the country. Over 150 million day visits are
generated by tourists and residents who use them annually
to swim, wade, surf, and dive. Beach visitors spend over
$10 billion each year in California.
Beach water quality monitoring
Beach water quality monitoring and strong pollution
prevention measures are critical for protecting beachgoers
from water-borne diseases. Monitoring is performed by
county health agencies in 17 different coastal and San
Francisco Bay Area counties, publicly owned sewage
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treatment plants, other dischargers along the coastal zone,
environmental groups and numerous citizen-monitoring
groups. County health officers issue various types of
warnings when certain kinds of bacteria are found in the
water at levels that exceed standards set by CDPH. Types of
contaminants named in statute include total coliform, fecal
coliform, enterococci bacteria. CDPH is also authorized to
establish standards for other microbiological indicators
based on the best available scientific evidence that the
alternative indicators are as protective of the public
health.
These indicator bacteria imply the potential presence of
microscopic disease-causing organisms originating from
human and animal wastes.
Federal Clean Water Act
The 1972 amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control
Act (known as the Clean Water Act or CWA) provide the basic
structure for regulating the discharge of pollutants from
point sources to waters of the United States and the
statutory basis for the NPDES permit program. The CWA
requires anyone who wants to discharge pollutants to first
obtain an NPDES permit, or else that discharge will be
considered illegal. The CWA allowed EPA to authorize the
NPDES Permit Program to state governments, enabling states
to perform many of the permitting, administrative, and
enforcement aspects of the NPDES Program. SWRCB and the
California regional water quality control boards prescribe
waste discharge requirements for the discharge of
stormwater by municipalities and industries in accordance
with the federal Clean Water Act. The majority of
California's NPDES permits are issued by regional water
quality control boards.
California Department of Public Health
CDPH's Recreational Health Program is responsible for:
developing regulatory requirements and guidelines
for beaches, fresh water bathing areas, public
swimming pools and spas, and the operation of
organized camps,
developing and implementing initiatives to
systemically attack the underlying causes of
preventable disease and hazardous conditions
associated with our coastal and other recreational
waters, and
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allocating over $1.5 million in assistance funding
to local government through contracts to test ocean
and bay waters along public beaches to ensure that
they are safe for recreational activities.
CDPH's regulations currently establish the physical
standard for healthfulness and safety of ocean
water-contact sports areas in California as the absence of
visible sewage, sludge, grease, or other physical evidence
of sewage discharge at all times on any public beaches or
water-contact sports areas. Regulations also include
minimum protective bacteriological standards for total
coliform bacteria, fecal coliform bacteria, and
enterococcus bacteria waters adjacent to public beaches and
public water-contact sports areas.
Related bills
AB 685 (Eng) would declare that it is the established
policy of the state that every human being has the right to
clean, affordable, and accessible water for human
consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes that is
adequate for the health and well-being of the individual
and family. AB 685 would require all relevant state
agencies, including SWRCB and CDPH, to employ all
reasonable means to implement this state policy. Those
state agencies would be required to revise, adopt, or
establish policies, regulations, and grant criteria to
further this state policy, to the extent that those actions
do not affect eligibility for federal funds. Pending in the
Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife.
AB 1200 (Ma) would remove an existing exemption in the
Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, which requires
any person who causes or permits any hazardous substance or
sewage to be discharged in, or on any waters of the state,
to immediately notify the California Emergency Management
Agency of the discharge in accordance with the spill
reporting provision of the state toxic disaster contingency
plan. The Act exempts this notification requirement when a
discharge occurs in compliance with waste discharge
requirements. Pending in the Assembly Committee on
Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials.
Prior legislation
SB 771 (Simitian) Chapter 588, Statutes of 2006, extends
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restrictions on discharges that apply to cruise ships to
include oceangoing ships in state marine waters and marine
sanctuaries.
AB 411 (Wayne) Chapter 765, Statutes of 1997, requires
local health officers to test waters adjacent to public
beaches within their jurisdiction and to take related
action in the event of a known sewage release. AB 411 also
requires the local health officer to post conspicuous
warning signs and establish a telephone hotline to inform
the public about
a beach that fails to meet standards developed by the
Department of Health Services as required in the bill.
Arguments in support
The California Association of Environmental Health
Administrators is sponsoring SB 482 and believes it will
provide a stable funding source for local environmental
health programs throughout California to monitor beach
water quality and to warn beach users where the water is
not safe to swim. The Sierra Club of California, Save Our
Shores, and the Alameda County Department of Environmental
Health all claim that, consistent with the recommendations
of the Ocean Protection Council, routine monitoring of our
ocean waters helps to ensure that our coastal bathing areas
are clean and safe. In doing so, we protect the public
health, the environment, and California's coastal economy.
COMMENTS
1. Double referral. This bill has been double referred
to the Environmental Quality Committee.
POSITIONS
Support: California Association of Environmental Health
Administrators (sponsor)
Alameda County Department of Environmental Health
Marin County Environmental Health Services
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Save Our Shores
Sierra Club California
Oppose: None received.
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