BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 119
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator Jerry Hill, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: AB 119
AUTHOR: Asm. Comm. On Environmental Safety and Toxic
Materials
AMENDED: April 16, 2013
FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: June 12, 2013
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Rachel Machi
Wagoner
SUBJECT : WATER TREATMENT DEVICES
SUMMARY :
Existing law ,
1) Under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA),
requires the federal Environmental Protection Agency (US
EPA) to set standards for drinking water quality and oversee
the states, localities, and water suppliers who implement
those standards. California has authority over drinking
water, delegated by US EPA.
2) Establishes the Drinking Water Program within the
Department of Public Health (DPH) to regulate public
drinking water systems.
3)Requires a water treatment device manufacturer who claims that
a drinking water treatment device will reduce contaminants or
makes other health related performance claims, to be certified
by DPH as to the efficacy of the device.
4)Requires water treatment device manufacturers to pay a fee to
DPH for each treatment device application for certification.
This bill modifies the current approval process by DPH for
in-home water treatment devices. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires DPH to approve for sale water treatment devices that
make health claims, provided that the manufacturer of the
device submits specified information to the department.
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2)Requires submittal of the following information to DPH along
with an annual fee:
a) Manufacturer's name, contact information and website;
b) Name and model of each water treatment device;
c) The specific contaminant to be removed or reduced by the
device; and
d) The name of the accredited third party testing
organization that tested the device, including information
regarding the protocol and standards used in the testing of
the device, test results, and any retest information.
3)Allows DPH to charge an annual fee up to $4,000 per water
treatment device manufactured to be used to maintain the
information about water treatment devices on its Internet Web
site and to provide funding to environmental health officers to
enforce this Chapter.
4)Authorizes DPH to set and adjust the fee on the treatment
device manufacturer by publishing the fee announcement on its
Internet Web site. The fee modification would not be subject
to the rulemaking procedure of the Administrative Procedure
Act.
5)Provides that the fees collected by DPH may be used to maintain
an Internet Web site of water treatment devices and for the
enforcement of the approval requirements by state or local
health officials.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of Bill . According to the author, "This bill is
intended to streamline DPH's existing water treatment device
certification program, as the current certification program
provides no additional value to California consumers and has
prevented many residents, particularly those living in areas
where centralized water treatment plants are cost-prohibitive,
from being able to purchase state-of-the-art at-home water
treatment devices."
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According to Clean Water Action, a proponent of the bill, "The
current program requires CDPH to independently certify each
point-of-use water treatment device before it can be sold in
retail outlets in the state. While the purpose of this program
was laudable, in fact the certification program provides no
added value, as it simply duplicates testing already performed
by third party accrediting entities and serves to delay the
availability of new devices in the state. The list of
certified devices maintained by CDPH on its Internet Web site
is of value, but is out of date almost as soon as it is
posted."
2)Point of Use (POU)/ Point of Entry Treatment (POE) . A POU
treatment device is any unit installed on a single water faucet
or bubbler that changes the water quality. POE treatment device
is any unit installed that changes the water quality of all
potable water entering a building. POE and POU treatment
devices such as carbon filters are sometimes installed to
enhance the aesthetic quality (taste and odor) of potable water
supplied by a local water system. In other cases, POE and POU
treatment devices have been authorized to be installed to meet
drinking water standards in place of centralized treatment.
3)California household water treatment devices . According to the
DPH, there are currently hundreds of California-certified
drinking water treatment devices. Certified devices include
"point of use" and "point of entry" systems, which range from
pour-through pitchers and faucet-mount, carbon-filter systems
to reverse osmosis, ultraviolet disinfection and household
water softeners.
Contaminants removed by certified devices include organic
chemicals such as MTBE, pesticides, herbicides and solvents;
inorganics such as lead, mercury, and perchlorate; and
waterborne pathogens, such as bacteria, virus and protozoan
cysts, such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium.
4)Limitations of POU/POE treatment . While POU/POE treatment has
advanced in recent years it does not provide equivalent
treatment to centralized treatment.
a) Multiple contaminants . POU/POE treatment technologies
can provide sufficient treatment for one specific
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contaminant. However, they are not designed to treat the
complex myriad of contaminants that may be in drinking
water. So while it may address a primary contaminant of
concern, other contaminants may not be sufficiently
removed. Additionally, contaminants in water affect the
water quality individually and cumulatively. POU/POE
treatment systems are not designed to address the
cumulative impacts to water quality.
b) Adjustment for quality . Water quality levels are not
static. Centralized treatment systems are regularly
monitored and the treatment is adjusted as changes in the
water quality and levels of the range of contaminants
change. POU/POE treatment systems cannot be adjusted as
the water quality changes, so their efficacy may vary.
c) POU does not treat all water . Because POU treatment
systems attach to the faucet, their treatment is limited to
water that comes through that faucet. Showers, washing
machines and other faucets, such as those in bathrooms,
will not be treated. POU treatment devices are not
appropriate in households where the treated contaminant
presents health risks when inhaled, such as volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) or hexavalent chromium, that may
be released into the air and inhaled, especially in warm
water like a shower because in those households only the
drinking water would be treated. With many contaminants
that could pose an additional risk, especially in homes
with children, these systems are meant as a very temporary
stopgap measure until centralized water treatment can be
provided.
d) Lack of accountability and monitoring . Centralized
treatment facilities are regularly inspected and monitored
to ensure sufficient maintenance by either DPH or the
county environmental health jurisdictions. There is no
built in inspection, monitoring or maintenance when water
systems use POU/POE treatment. Ensuring proper working
order to POU/POE systems is crucial. If filters are not
changed when needed, some systems can build up contaminants
in the system and release them into the water in high
concentrations.
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5) Amendments needed .
a) Consumer information . As noted above, POE and POU
devices have limitations to the amount and types of
contamination treated as well as varying levels of
sophistication. These limitations are further complicated
by insufficient maintenance, improper use or the failure of
the device. Such cases could lead to concentrated exposure
to contamination, exacerbating potential risks that the
device is meant to treat. While manufacturers of POE and
POU devices are currently required to provide consumers
detailed information about the health and safety claims of
the device, when consumers are shopping for a filtration
system it is important for them to have information about
the contamination the device is meant to treat, the risks
associated with a device that does not work and the DPH
Internet Web site information to find more information.
An amendment is needed to require that the filters or screens
and devices have a label on the outside of the package that
provides this information to consumers prior to purchase.
b) Hard Water and Water Softeners . "Hard" water is water
that contains a lot of calcium, magnesium or other minerals.
Groundwater acquires these metals by dissolving them from
surrounding soil and rock. Hard water causes two problems:
a) Dissolved calcium and magnesium precipitate out
of hard water as scale, which builds up on the insides
of pipes, water heaters, tea kettles, coffee makers and
industrial machinery. Scale reduces flow through pipes
and is a poor conductor of heat. Eventually, pipes can
become completely clogged.
b) Hard water reduces soap's ability to lather,
whether in the shower, sink, dishwasher or washing
machine, and reacts with soap to form a sticky scum.
Hard water is treated by filtering it by distillation or
reverse osmosis or by running it through a water softener.
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Water softeners break down salt into sodium ions and chloride and
then release the polluted water into septic systems or sewers.
Sewers transport it to treatment plants, which deal with the
water and discharge it into groundwater or surface water.
There, chloride may harm freshwater organisms and plants,
including altering reproduction rates, increasing species
mortality and altering local ecosystems.
In February 2009, SWRCB adopted a statewide policy to encourage
greater use of recycled water. SWRCB's policy includes
requirements for regional salt management plans, as increased
salt loads in the source water makes recycling more difficult.
In areas with hard water, one source of salt is generated from
a certain type of water softener - referred to as a
self-regenerating softener. Salt released from this type of
softener can contribute on average one pound per day of salts.
Depending on the other salt sources and the number of softeners
in a region- this can present a significant salt problem.
California and local jurisdiction have statute and regulations
that regulate the certification and use of water softener
systems.
An amendment is needed to clarify that this Chapter is meant to
apply to POU/POE devices, (i.e. that remove contamination) not
to water softener devices that are adding contamination.
c) Is the Fee Sufficient? The bill contains a provision
requiring a $4,000 fee annually per manufacturer of covered
devises. DPH asserts that this fee is sufficient to
continue to fund the current level of staffing to provide
for the provisions of this bill requiring annual review and
update of the Internet Web site and enforcement following a
complaint. Stakeholders would like to see the Internet Web
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site up dated on a quarterly basis. Additionally, as the
state will be doing less oversight than is required under
current statute, the fee should provide for additional
enforcement as necessary.
An amendment is needed to either increase the fee or change the
fee structure to a per device fee to ensure that this program
is comprehensive and protective.
6) Double Referral to Senate Health Committee . If this measure
is approved by this committee, the do pass motion must include
the action to re-refer the bill to the Senate Health
Committee.
SOURCE : Clean Water Action
Culligan
SUPPORT : Association of California Water Agencies
Barrier North America, LLC
Brondell
Dow Chemical Company
Ecowater Systems
OKO H2O Div. -Worldway Industrial Corp.
Pacific Water Quality Association
Pentair
Pionetics
The Clorox Company
TST Water, LLC - Temecula
Water Quality Association
3M Purification, Inc.
OPPOSITION : None on file