BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 482 SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY Senator S. Joseph Simitian, Chairman 2011-2012 Regular Session BILL NO: SB 482 AUTHOR: Kehoe AMENDED: April 25, 2011 FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: May 2, 2011 URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Rachel Machi Wagoner SUBJECT : PUBLIC BEACH CONTAMINATION: STANDARDS: TESTING: CLOSURE SUMMARY : Existing federal law : Pursuant to the Clean Water Act, requires all municipal, industrial, and commercial facilities that discharge wastewater or stormwater directly from a point source into waters of the United States (such as a lake, river or ocean) to obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. Existing California law : 1) Requires California Department of Public Health (DPH) to adopt regulations establishing minimum standards for the sanitation of public beaches for the protection of the public's health and safety including requirements for testing, monitoring, inspection, notification, posting and beach closures. 2) Authorizes the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and the regional water quality control boards to establish waste discharge requirements for the discharge of stormwater by municipalities and industries in accordance with the federal Clean Water Act. 3) Requires local environmental health agencies to implement and enforce the beach monitoring program when funding is provided by the state and to report to SWRCB prescribed information regarding beach posting and closures. SB 482 Page 2 4) Requires SWRCB to post beach closure information on its website. This bill: 1) Transfers beach water quality monitoring and reporting requirements from the DPH to the SWRCB. 2) Allows SWRCB to determine options for modifying wastewater and stormwater discharge monitoring requirements. COMMENTS : 1) Purpose of Bill . 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 millions of beachgoers in California safe. 2) Background . 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 and strong pollution prevention measures are critical for protecting beach goers from waterborne diseases. California has the most extensive and comprehensive monitoring and regulatory program for beaches in the nation. SB 482 Page 3 Monitoring is performed by county health agencies in seventeen different coastal and San Francisco Bay Area counties, publicly owned sewage treatment plants, other dischargers along the coastal zone, environmental groups and numerous citizen-monitoring groups. The last available data from SWRCB website from 2005 shows that there were 486 days of total closures and 1,142 events where posting was required on California monitored beaches. DPH used General Fund dollars to provide funding to the counties to implement the beach monitoring program through June 30, 2008. However, Governor Schwarzenegger used his line item veto authority to strike the funding in the 2008/2009 fiscal year. Since 2008, SWRCB has provided short-term, temporary funding grants from both the Costa-Machado Water Act of 2000 (Proposition 13) and the Water Security, Clean Drinking Water, Coastal and Beach Protection Act of 2002 (Proposition 50) while long-term funding solutions are explored. By transferring the primary responsibility for the administration of the beach monitoring program to SWRCB this bill would give the board the flexibility needed to find appropriate funding for this program. SOURCE : California Association of Environmental Health Administrators SUPPORT : Alameda County, Department of Environmental Health CalCoast California Coastal Coalition California Coastkeeper Alliance Center for Oceanic Awareness Research and Education Humboldt County, Department of Public Health Los Angeles County, Department of Public Health Marin County, Department of Environmental Health Services Natural Resources Defense Council San Diego County San Luis Obispo COASTKEEPER Save Our Shores SB 482 Page 4 Sierra Club California OPPOSITION : None on file